The most important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) strategy is the keyword generation process. Ideally, your website will be designed and developed with the targeted keywords in mind. However, if you already have an existing website, I will select keywords that are consistent with the content of each unique web page, as well as the rest of your website.
Keyword generation will always be the first step to any SEO or PPC campaign and should not be rushed or overlooked for any reason. Selecting generic and targeted keywords that are relevant to your product, services, and content of each web page of your website is absolutely necessary as they will be used in file names, title tags and copy.
My objective as an SEO is not to optimize your website all at once, but to optimize each web page independently to maximize overall effectiveness and ranking potential. Generally I will target select tail terms when optimizing web pages with specific content and head terms for web pages with general content.
Keywords are either grouped as head terms (short keywords usually 1-2 words in length) or tail terms (longer keyword terms typically 3 or more words). While head terms are proven to generate substantially more traffic than tail terms, they do not necessarily lead to higher conversions. An effective strategy to generate high volume quality traffic will blend the two groups of keyword terms.
Selecting only keywords with low search volume or industry defining keywords can result in failure for any SEO campaign before it’s ever launched. A healthy mix of keywords will also include your competitors’ keywords. I will evaluate keywords your competitors rank for in organic search as well as the keywords they’re targeting through their pay per click campaigns.
Acquiring such data is useful in understanding the value of keywords. Your resulting optimal keyword list can then be used for both SEO and PPC advertising. Ultimately, your goal should extend beyond getting users to your website and focus on a call to action in your monetization strategy.
