Selecting the right SEO Keywords to target is critical to the success of any SEO program. If you choose the wrong keywords to target there's a really good chance you will be looking at many months or more of frustration. But how do you know if you are choosing the right keyword phrases to target? You must know three things!
Here is what you need to know:
1. Will the keywords generate enough visitors?2. What does the competition look like?3. How much is it worth to ranking high for the keyword phrase?
Traffic Analysis
You must analyze how much traffic each keyword phrase will generate. More traffic equals more new customers! I recent keyword phrase we targeted got 5,400 monthly searches on www.google.com.
Google represents 72% of all online searches. Yahoo! and Bing represent approximately 10% each. For this example though we will only be looking at the traffic from Google. So for our example this keyword phrase got a total of 180 searches daily from google.
Google represents 72% of all online searches. Yahoo! and Bing represent approximately 10% each. For this example though we will only be looking at the traffic from Google. So for our example this keyword phrase got a total of 180 searches daily from google.
How much Google traffic do you think you would be able to get if you were able to get your website to the top for this keyword phrase? Let's take a look.
The 3 prime SEO spots are getting the vast majority of the traffic. The higher you rank the more traffic you obtain. Here are some rough SEO numbers you can use as a guide:
# 1 ranked site gets 42% of all web traffic# 2 ranked site gets 12% of all web traffic# 3 ranked site gets 8% of all web traffic# 4 ranked site gets 7% of all web traffic# 5 ranked site gets 6% of all web traffic# 6 ranked site gets 5% of all web traffic# 7 ranked site gets 4% of all web traffic
The remaining web traffic is shared by everyone ranking below position #7.
So once you are able to get your site ranked #1, you can expect to get somewhere in the neighorhood of 42% of the SEO traffic or 75 new web visitors each day to your site.
When you start filtering out potential keyword phrases to target, if the #1 ranked site, for any particular keyword phrase, is not getting at least 50 visitors per day, you should definitely not target the phrase.
Now your list should be getting a little shorter. This is a good thing. The next thing to consider you want to know is the level of your competition.
What strong is your competition?
SEO requires a lot of time and effort, but how much time and effort? How hard will it be to get to the top SEO spots? Before you target a keyword you need to understand the strength of your competition. Below is a simple list of what you need to know about each competitor that appears on Page 1 for any particular keywords. If you don't understand what these things are or if you don't know how to get this info quickly, find a good SEO right away.
Here is the information you must know if you want to truly understand the strength of the competition:
1. Age of the Domain2. The Page Rank of the Ranking Webpage3. The total number of Web pages of the Ranked Domain4. The total number of Referring Domains to the Ranked Domain5. The total number of Referring Domains to the Ranking Web Page6. The total number of back links to the Ranked Page7. The total number number of back links to the Ranking Domain8. The total number of edu or gov back links9. Is the Ranking Domain listed on DMOZ?10. Is the site listed in the Yahoo! Directory?11. Where does the keyword appear on the competitor's domain?
Before you start targeting any keyword phrase you better understand how difficult it is going to be to get to the top SEO Spots.
Okay, now your list ought to be even shorter now. We have just one more thing to analyze.
How much is it worth to acquire a top SEO ranking for a particular keyword phrase?
Here is a simple formula we use. To use it, you must first understand how much it costs to get the top Google Adwords Ad for your keyword phrase and how much traffic to expect once you acquire the top ranking (we showed you how to estimate this earlier).
SEO Keyword Phrase Value = the # of Web Visitors x Google Ad-words CPC for Top Ranked AD
In our example, we estimated a keyword ranked #1 delivers approximately 75 visitors daily. If the top ranked Google Ad-words Ad costs $2 for each visitor, then the SEO Keyword Phrase Value is $2 x 75 visitors. So the SEO Keyword Phrase Value for the keyword phrase in our example is $150 per day or $4,500 per month to the business that owns the top SEO Spot.
When you are considering potential keyword phrases, if the potential keyword phrase has a daily value of lower than $50 per day, don't target it.
Ensure you understand your traffic estimates, the competition, and the SEO Keyword Phrase Value of your keyword phrases and you will be on your way to more SEO success.
I hope you found this useful. If you want any more internet marketing assistance, contact your favorite SEO! :)
