How To Find Your Keywords

Since everyone knows that search is important and Google basically rules the online world I want to delve a little deeper into the heart of John Jantsch's recent post about using AdWords to identify good keywords to target in organic efforts. If an SEO consulting firm is basing their recommendations on keywords for your site based on the most popular search terms related to your business, run away. Traffic means nothing if you don't achieve your goals, which most likely relate back to a conversion in some way. Using AdWords is a great way to test certain words, and there are plenty of tools to help you choose keywords, but they aren't very useful if you are starting from square one and are new to selecting keywords.

One place for you to start is by listening to your customers. When someone comes to your business, one of the first questions you should ask is how they found you. Listen carefully, not only to what marketing efforts are working, but also to what terminology they use to describe your business. Another place to look is your top ten best customers in terms of the relationship you have with them. Who are your customers that recommend you to everyone in their network? Ask them how they talk about your business, listen to the keywords they use. Finally, the third great place to look is the internal site search terms people enter. Armed with all that data, now you can start testing and tracking which terms perform the best. By perform, you need to look at what drive the best conversions. Traffic means nothing, so you need to have a good Web Analytics package in place to really follow and report on what is working for you. Always focus on your end goal and don't get caught up in numbers like visitors or page views that might look good but don't help your bottom line.