Posted by Daniel Shlifer on Wed, Jul 21, 2010
How a keyword selector tool can and should help you develop the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy.
There are many quality keyword selector tools available at no cost. There are also many that drive down deeper into the process and are fee based. Each one of these resources will help you at least gain some insight. The choice of which keyword selector tool to use will be determined by the your level of experience, expertise and the status of your inbound marketing strategic process.
Keyword selector tools available are as follow:
- Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool
- Wordtracker Free Keyword Selector Tool
- Keyword Selector Tool
- Overture/Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool
The keyword selector tool as part of your inbound marketing strategy:
The keyword selection and evaluation process is the foundation of your internet marketing or inbound marketing strategy. It is where all of your ongoing inbound marketing efforts will be launched. A good keyword analysis will isolate and define where your target market is speanding their time, what they are researching and searching for in detail and who is competing for that valuable search engine results page real estate. If you get this element wrong, you risk wasting much of your time and budget delivering the wrong message to the wrong or audience. Great keyword selection is about market focus and allowing your target market(s) to "trip" over your message.
Don't under estimate the importance of this process. Your upcoming SEO (search engine optimization), blog development and social media promotions will rely heavily on the results produced by your keyword selector tool.
The basic information that should be produced by any keyword selector tool are as follow:
- Monthly searches for each considered keyword
- Level of difficulty for each keyword
- This could be a number from 1 to 100 that indicates the level of competition for a given keyword
- It should be based on monthly searches against the number of other sites competing for this keyword.
- This process will highlight "lower hanging fruit".
- Your current ranking for this keyword.
- Variations or derivatives of a more general keyword.
- Sometimes known as a "long-tail keyword"
- The more general a keyword is, the more it lacks niche focus and in many cases is too competitive for the start of an inbound marketing strategy.
- PPC value: The relative cost if you were to utilize a pay per click approach.
Summary: Your selected keywords are the link between you and your target audience and possibly the main link between your website and productive traffic and conversion. That connection needs to be as accurate and as powerful as possible as all else will depend on your keyword selections.
Although you may be able to run a keyword selector tool internally (DIY), I strongly suggest speaking with a certified inbound marketing consultant to answer any questions or concerns. Then you'll be in a better position to know that all elements of your inbound marketing strategy are connected. This includes your design, SEO, blog, social media and conversion strategies. I see in too many cases that keyword selection, SEO, blog and social media efforts run too independently and lack the common thread of your main strategy.
Useful resources:
Posted by Daniel Shlifer on Fri, Apr 09, 2010
Blogging For Dummies... even if you're no dummy.
In my circles (inbound marketing), there has been a lot of discussion lately about the optimum frequency of a web site's blog posts. What are the best practices for blog creation and development?
Even though I consider myself an expert in the world of inbound marketing, I must admit I don't know all there is to know about blogging. I am not extremely familiar with the technological options when setting up or creating a blog that include all the bells and whistles. But, I can tell you that most of the productive inbound marketing components revolve around the creation and development of content and your blog may be the most powerful way to do so.
As I have explained in the video above, a well crafted blog accomplishes many inbound marketing (SEO) objectives all at one time. For more visual assistance, you can use this blogging for dummies equation I have created. It is a great illustration of what can happen when you post a well written blog. I realize that this is a skill that must be developed over time and a subject for another blog but understand this formula.
Blogging For Dummies Formula:
New Blog Post
= New Web Page
+ New Twitter Tweet
+ New LinkedIn Update
+ New Facebook Update
= New Keyword Ranking Opportunity
+ New Inbound Linking Opportunities
These are a significant amount of birds that can be targeted (don't care for the word killed) with only one stone.
As an inbound marketing professional, I have a task list that never ends and this kind of productivity proves to be extremely attractive. If you are managing your own site or just your own blog, this weaponry shouldn't be ignored.
I am more of an old school marketing professional and I can relate to all of you who have a difficult time starting the blogging process or can't understand the benefits or even ask yourself, "why will people care to read my blog about pluming supplies"?
Although I will detail the answer to these and other questions in more detail, I leave you with this simple fact:
Blogging works and you will find interesting subject matter for your target market and audience.