Developing Keywords for All Marketing Activities

The topic of developing a keyword list came up recently in a conversation with a client. Many people believe that keywords are just for search engine optimization or pay-per-click marketing campaigns. Despite its common association with these activities, having a list of relevant keywords for your business is important to all marketing activities. The key to success, however, is that once you have the list, you need to consistently work it into all Internet marketing activities all the time. Whether you are writing a press release, an article, updating web content or building your social media profile, using your keywords effectively can help you be found by those who want and need your services.

Developing the keyword list begins by clearly understanding your target market:

• What problem they are trying to solve
• How do they search for those solutions

Once you understand your target market (another piece critical to all your marketing), then you should start analyzing various types of information you should have available such as:

• Web statistics (to see how people currently find your site)
• Information from competitor and top rank sites
• Keyword analysis tools to determine the relevance and popularity of each keyword

Once you’ve come up with a list, use your judgement on the relevance the word or phrase is to your specific business and prioritize the list. When you are writing materials, you can’t use all the words so you have to know which ones are critical and which ones should be on the list for PPC campaigns or SEO. For example, a keyword phrase that could relate to my business is “marketing campaign”, but is that really a keyword I want to include in all of my marketing activities? Just because it may be related to what I do, it may not be a word you wish to optimize all your marketing around.

Now you need to effectively use them in your marketing activities. The value of having this list is that your writing is more consistent. Use your keywords in your social media profiles, writing web content, press releases and other marketing materials you plan to create. And yes, use the keywords to optimize your web site in the page titles, navigational links and other SEO critical components.

As you develop your marketing plan for the new year, be sure to start by developing this keyword list. It will help you make your marketing activities more effective throughout the year.