Exploring Beyond Keywords Into Behavioral Research – Marketing
Exploring Beyond Keywords Into Behavioral Research
John Alexander
If you have ever studied search engine optimization, then youll know that most educators place tremendous importance on performing good keyword research. After all, its true that we need to optimize our pages for the best phrases, or we will never realize our true traffic potential. Its all about trying to attract the ideal audience of searchers to our Web site, right Is that not what most of people do They build a Web site offering their business services, then they say to themselves "How do I get traffic to my site" For many Web site owners, their source of traffic is an after-thought.
Its much wiser, to first try and discover what keyword phrases people are searching for on the major search engines and then optimize Web content for those specific phrases. However, there are still further regions to explore that go beyond keyword research. Lets call it researching the "behavior" of your target audience.
The difference between keyword research and behavioral research is that keyword research keeps us in a rather technical mode and focused on finding out what words people are entering while searching. Behavioral research has the added advantage of enlightenment and understanding that not only reveals what keyword phrases are being used, but why those keywords are being used.
Give this some careful thought. What could possibly be more important than getting inside the head of your target audience and discovering what they really want Actually nothing! Once we understand exactly what someone is looking for, we can give them exactly what they want. Think "behavior." Every day, people around the world use the Internet as a tool for a vast array of purposes. A study of behaviors can carry you much deeper into understanding the desires of your target audience and ultimately, an understanding of what kind of useful content to provide for them.
While most people are thinking about what keywords to use, try to expand your scope to focus and discover the fullest possible picture of what your customer REALLY wants, what they really are doing, by simply studying their searching behavior on the major search engines.
Why make all this fuss about behavior trends anyway What creates behavioral trends Think about it this way. If you can discover how a certain target audience is using the Internet, then chances are the rest of your target audience may be doing exactly the same thing. This is not only helpful with respect to the ideal keyword phrase selection but also may be helpful to your writing style. How you communicate to a grandmother will have a completely different spin than how you communicate with a sports enthusiast looking for sports scores or a photographer searching for a place to review several different lenses.
If you happened to learn that a grandmother is shopping online to buy a gift for her daughter
Search Engine Keywords – What Do People Search For – Domain Name
Search Engine Keywords - What Do People Search For
Bryan Brandenburg
Do you ever wonder how people search for things on the Internet What if you knew exactly what words they typed when using a search engine If youre marketing a product or service its extremely insightful to know what are the most popular search terms relating to whatever youre marketing.
The Overture Company
Overture.com is a Yahoo! company that supplies the Pay Per Click infrastructure for Yahoo! and other websites on the Internet. If you do a search on Yahoo! youll see anywhere from 1-3 paid promotions appear at the top of the search page and then others at the end. These are paid advertiser listings and they come from Overture.
The Overture Search Tool
In order to maximize the number of clicks on their network, Overture supplies a keyword tool so that their customers know which are the most popular keywords relating to their product of service. This way when an Overture customer selects keywords to advertise on, they can pick the ones that are most popular or the ones that most precisely relate to their product or service. This generates more revenue for Overture and more clicks for advertisers.
Anyone Can Use the Search Tool
Fortunately you dont have to be a customer of Overture to use the search tool. Click Here http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/ to find the search tool; its at the bottom of the page.
How to Use the Search Tool
The best way to get started is to type in a major word associated with your business. For example if youre in the marketing business, heres the top 10 search terms and their search count.
Search Count Term
1253354 direct marketing
460115 internet marketing
380450 marketing
76542 business marketing small
48494 email marketing
44160 marketing web site
43064 advertising marketing
42613 network marketing
42414 business marketing
31484 health care marketing
This search count number represents about 20% of the Internet so multiply it by 5 to get an approximate number of searches for the entire web, i.e. the total searches for email marketing are 48494*5=242470 searches across the Internet every month.
How to Use the Data
The value of this search tool goes far beyond just determining popular search terms. Heres a few ways to use the tool for market research:
Type in your state or city to find out the most popular searches
Compare the number of searches for your product compared to those of your competitors
Use the most popular search terms relating to your business for your web site domain names to increase their visibility in search engines.
Use it to brainstorm new products or services, especially if something is being searched for but is not widely available
Considering a celebrity endorsement or joint venture partner for your next Internet promotion, compare the various candidates and make an informed decision.
Use it for determining market size or segmentation information for your business plan.
Use it to drive all your web content, from web page titles to Meta Tag keywords and descriptions.
Use it to determine which categories to list your business, from Internet to Yellow Page listings.
Use it to determine important searches relative to your business in foreign cultures and countries that you are unfamiliar with.
Make Informed Decisions from Now On
The Overture Search tool takes the guesswork out of many of your marketing decisions, from choosing Pay Per Click keywords, to determining the next market your company should pursue. Take a look today and youll be amazed at the wealth of information that is available. You can try the search tool now on the Overture website at the following URL http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/.
About The Author
Bryan Brandenburg has published 5 books as well as a number of articles both in print and on the internet. He has published almost 30 software programs both for consumers and business. More information can be found at www.vmmg.net.
How To Choose Keywords Before they Skyrocket in Popularity – Marketing
How To Choose Keywords Before they Skyrocket in Popularity
John Alexander
Long before the days of researching phrases with the helpful online resources of today, the art of keyword/phrase selection was often left just to guesswork. However, guesswork by todays highly competitive standards is just not good enough. So how is it possible to select a powerful traffic-pulling phrase in this fashion without researching it in real time Better yet, is it possible to choose such a phrase and get positioned before it becomes popular
Well of course it requires some research, but in a slightly different way. Every single day, we have a world of information that happens all around us. With all of the focus on the Internet these days, we need to also consider giving our attention to other medias as well. We have television programs, we have the news and the radio which all bring us current and upcoming events. With the news itself, there are often many ideas that can help the SEO to really think and plan ahead for some truly unique optimization strategies. I am talking about the potential of developing part of your client strategy around an upcoming newsworthy event. Of course it needs to be relevant and useful to the target audience. It also needs to genuinely "relate".
If at first, it does not sound that exciting, lets think about it and give you an example.
Here is a simple example.
If I were promoting a video store online right now, one of the things that I might be doing would, would be to optimize a page for the single search phrase "Johnny Eck." Perhaps an information or a tribute page would work.
But wait....Who was Johnny Eck, you ask
A way back in 1932, there was a movie by Todd Browning called "Freaks" starring a man named Johnny Eck. The film "Freaks" was about the fictionalized lives of physically and mentally challenged people who, in them days, were exploited in what were commonly called "freak shows". Johnny Eck just so happen to be born into this world without the lower half of his body and was just one of the "main actors" exploited in this rather unusual film which marked the end of Todd Brownings career as a Director.
Although you may have never heard of Johnny Eck, in over 60 years you can count on the fact that everyone will soon know who he is. The film "Freaks" 1932 already has a tremendous cult film following around the world.
So why optimize a page for a film which is over 70 years old
What many people may not be aware of, is that a brand new movie based on the lives of Johnny Eckhardt is currently being produced. The new movie has a big budget, good script, and you can be certain that many, many people are going to plan to see this film on its release. Theres no way to predict for certain, but itll probably be quite a blockbuster.
Simple Strategy: Optimize well and relate to the audience
As part of the strategy, you could prepare this optimized page offering to sell the old movie, which is now available on video. On the same page, I would talk about the film. I would write about my remembrances of seeing it for the very first time. As strange as the film is, it makes quite a statement about the how so called "normal looking" people can be very cruel.
You could talk about the film, review it. Talk about how it made you feel. Really try to relate to the audience. In creating the content, you would write for voice, just like you were talking to an old friend. At the same time, offer some trivia or anecdotes about how the film was made. I would prepare the page and get it ranked firstly for the phrase "Johnny Eck" and perhaps secondly around the name of the old film.
The Traffic Payoff:
Usually when a new "big name" movie is released, there is always a tremendous flurry of activity on the Internet by movie goers who enjoy looking up information about it. When they start searching for info on the new film and your pages come up in the top ten, theyll also be reminded about the old film and quite possibly want to purchase it. In this type of promotion, dont take the page down after the movie comes out because you may get double waves of heavy traffic. Actually, if youre lucky the whole routine is going to happen all over again when its released on video usually six to eight months later. Might there be a third wave when it finally makes it to DVD
Fine Tune Your Thinking:
Think along these lines, now ask yourself if there may be value to optimizing a page around other big events that are definitely scheduled to happen. The use of a new movie release is only one idea, amongst hundreds of others. If you practice thinking this way, you can develop strategies for retail, professional clients or even business-to-business Web sites. Newsworthy events happen all the time.
Do you think "the Olympics" might benefit a sporting goods store which offers an overview of the various participants.
Do you think that a scheduled tour of a famous rock group might influence traffic to a music site offering a contest for free tickets
How might that upcoming childrens film influence traffic to a toy store
These are only a few quick examples but learn to think laterally about news events. Take full advantage of the media in its entirety to bring maximum benefit to your clients. Its just a matter of paying close attention to those big scheduled events and creatively examining how these might benefit a your strategy.
In the scenario I explained above, it would be ideal for a video store who is selling old classic films to if they have any films available starring Johnny Eck to take advantage of the public interest that might be generated by a new movie.
By the time the film is released, assuming it is created at all I expect there will be a flurry of interest about this actors life and any old films he may have appeared in.
About The Author
John Alexander is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops with Robin Nobles. Together, they teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive "hands on" search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. John also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and he