Are You Making it Easy for New Customers to Find You Online?

If you’ve ever hired someone to work on Internet marketing or a search engine optimization campaign, you probably already understand how important keywords are to the visibility of your business website. But, do you know how to find the best ones… the terms and phrases that make it easy for new customers to find you online?
Although a lot of business owners and executives don’t spend much time thinking about keywords, they can literally make or break your campaigns. When people search for information for companies on the Internet using sites like Google and Bing (or even social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn), the results are compiled and arranged by those keywords – common terms and phrases that tell people what your site is about.
But, not all keywords have the same value, and choosing the wrong ones can represent a huge waste of time and energy. With that in mind, here are five tips for finding the best ones for your business:
1. Begin with the basics. If you are new to keywords, or are building a new Internet marketing campaign from the ground up, begin with Google’s own keyword tool. Simply type in a few descriptive phrases about your business, and it will tell you how many people have been searching for that particular phrase.
2. Study web analytics from your site. How have customers been finding your site in the past? Sometimes, the best keywords can be found simply by seeing how other customers located you and then making it easier for others to do the same.
3. Examine your competitors’ websites. If you are in a very competitive industry or market, you can bet that other businesses will have already done extensive keyword research. Look at the two or three most popular competitor websites to see what kinds of search terms they seem to be emphasizing on page titles, headlines, etc.
4. Look at things from a customer’s perspective. Think of what someone might search if they wanted to find a company like yours. Then, decide which of those keywords is the best fit for your business, as opposed to someone else’s, and which ones suggest that a searcher might want to make a purchase (instead of just look for information). Be careful not to use key words that are too technical or that the layman might not search for.
5. Include local keywords. Google and the other search engines have effectively replaced the Yellow Pages and other print directories. That means customers in your area could be looking for your business, so make sure to include locations (for example, Madison and Wisconsin) in your list of keywords.
Need help putting together a better list of keywords, or integrating them into your online marketing campaign? Talk with a member of the Tingalls Graphic Design team today and let us show you how easy it is to turn your website into a profitable part of your business.

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