Everyone is keyword crazy, it seems. And every small business owner is expected to be an expert. It sounds so easy - choose the words that will help your customers find your company's products and services online, right? Wrong.
A little over a decade ago, keyword analysis would have hardly influenced the marketing budgets of the large corporations, let alone small businesses. The internet marketing industry was being born, thanks to Google's radical ideas on monetising search on the world wide web. Keywords have become the buzzword of our generation; everyone is expected to understand what they are, what they do, how to use them and hone the ability to exploit them to foster profitability.
It's a disarmingly transparent, yet sophisticated, system: choose relevant words or terms, optimise website pages and content, watch the traffic reroute itself from your competitors and into your profits. We all know that judicious use of keywords can make a business website visible and successful. What happens, though, if your competitors are using the same ones as you?
Words and terms comprise part of the framework used by search engines like Google and Bing to decide whether or not to rank a web page in its results. Often businesses can't work out why they are not achieving high search engine results page (serp) rankings and attracting more customers: it may be because they are too keyword-focused to appreciate the wider framework, or - to continue a metaphor - greet the other delegates at the table.
A company's keywords - used in its page headers, content, advertising and social media - will only work at their best if they are integrated into a wider plan of action. As lunch is served at our metaphorical board table, for example, bread tastes far better with butter, chicken and salad to complement it, and leaves you fuller for longer.
While your company might use some of the same searchable terms as its industry competitors, there are potentially others that can be used to drive traffic your way rather than theirs. Though each industry has dedicated keywords, each company can be made competitive in its products and services by using the marketing mix: analysis and diagnostics, pay-per-click, social media, blog posts, news releases, articles, link building.
Keywords inform these activities and the success of these activities informs their development in return. It's symbiotic; it's a successful business meeting. Moreover, because it is not a static process, it adjusts to the tough commercial environment of the internet, rises to the challenges set by changes in search engine algorithms and best practice, and therefore makes the best use of your marketing budget.
Return on investment (ROI) is what enthuses people about internet marketing. Agencies always talk about the ROI with the idea that even a small budget, wisely used, can drive traffic and make a profit. It's true: agencies and their clients are not indulging in a phantom feast but are experiencing genuine, sustainable success.
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