Keywords are at the heart of every Search Marketing Campaign. That is why choosing the right ones can make or break your efforts.

Proper keyword selection is also one of the most difficult part of our job as SEO practitioners. This is because most clients do not understand what makes a great keyword. Because of this, I have put together a list of items to help you identify the difference between what you think is a good keyword and what really is.

Here goes.

Broad terms are for window shoppers, niche terms are for buyers.
 The more broad a term is the less likely it is going to convert into anything for you. This is because searchers who type in specific search queries know exactly what they want and are further along in the buying cycle. Here are a few examples

  • Geographic Example: If you were a dentist, your first thought would be to use the keyword "Dentist". But this won't do you any good if you are only offering services in Buffalo NY. A more niche keyword such as "Dentist Buffalo NY" would be more appropriate.

  • Non Geographic Example: Lets say that you sell wraps for photography, these are those nice canvas prints that you see hanging on walls. Being in the industry you might know that people call them "wraps". However, if you type "wraps" into Google you will find everything from sandwiches to scarves.  But lets say that you also know that they call them gallery wraps. You also know that the gallery wraps that you sell are canvas. So a solid performing niche keyword would be "Canvas Gallery wraps" or "Gallery Wraps"

  • Non Geographic Example 2: You are a company that sells bird supplies, including bird feeders. Initially you think that the term "bird feeders" is a great place to start. But if you know anything about birds, you know that there are different types of bird feeders for different types of birds. So you may be able to find some niche keywords like "Hummingbird feeders" or "Bluebird feeders" but even those are a little broad. Lets drill down even more to find our niche. Being in the industry you know that one of the biggest problems with bird feeders is that squirrels eat the seed. You just so happen to sell "Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders". Can you guess what the niche keyword is? Yes, it is "Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders". Someone who types that query into Google knows exactly what they want and your page just so happens to have it.

Search volume (The number of times a keyword is searched per month) is the last thing you should be looking at.
Most novice SEO's focus on high search volume as their lead into a customer.  Customers also get caught up in Search Volume. SEARCH VOLUME IS THE LAST THING YOU SHOULD LOOK AT WHEN DETERMINING YOUR KEYWORDS ( and yes...I am yelling at you :-) Here are the facts about search volume.

  • Search Volume numbers given by Search Engines are NOT 100% accurate. Not only are they not 100% accurate, there is no 3rd party company to even monitor whether it is even close to accurate. So who knows the real numbers.

  • Search Engines such as Google make money off of PPC (Pay Per Click). The keyword tool that they provide is a part of their PPC program called Adwords. Hence the name of the keyword research tool everyone uses (Google Adwords Keyword tool). This keyword tool often only shows broad terms and never drills down to niche keyword terms. This is because broad terms have a higher search volume, which in return generates more clicks, which equals more money for Google. I'm not bashing or blaming Google. It is what it is, Google is a business and a business needs to make money. Just know what you are looking at when using their tools.

  • So if it isn't search volume, what is it? Well...here is the hard part and the only way to learn it is practice. A perfect keyword can be easily summed up into two words...RELEVANCY & TARGET. What are the most relevant and targeted terms to use for your business? I know we make it sound so easy, but you really have to think about this.

  • Always remember you are most likely not trying to rank for these terms because you want more web traffic, it is because you want more sales or leads. Remember, broad terms are for window shoppers & niche terms are for buyers. Most broad terms have high search volume but low conversion rates. Niche terms have very low search volumes, but convert high. Niche is always the way to go when trying to get more leads or ecommerce sales.

Search volume example - A while ago we did two experiments one related to Cigars and another related to Blackberry.

  • Cigar Experiment - A company who sells cigars and cigar accessories signed on with us to perform search marketing for them. From the get go we wanted to use niche terms, however the customer insisted on broad terms because of the high search volume they were seeing on the Google Adwords Keyword Tool ---> (This is what happens when a customer has just enough knowledge to be dangerous) Anyway, we kept digging deeper into their product line until we found a niche product that we thought we could use for our experiment. To make a long story short, they wanted to use the broad term  "Premium Cigars" as one of their keywords. We wanted to use a niche term of  "Cigar Golf Clip". Premium Cigars had a really high monthly search volume, while "Cigar Golf Clip" was very low. The customer never really understood why we were focusing on this little piece of their business so much, until our little niche term out-performed their broad term every month.

  • BlackBerry Example - At one point I was doing online training classes for people who use Blackberry smart phones <--Believe it or not it was pretty lucrative :-) While performing SEO keyword research my natural inclination was to go for the term "Blackberry training". After all,  It had high monthly search volume, was very relevant and pretty targeted. After that term was up and running I wanted to focus on some niche terms as well, so I started working on the term "How to use my blackberry", which the numbers were quite the contrast of the previous. It had NO search volume, but was very relevant and targeted. Can you guess which one performed better? If you said, "how to use my blackberry" you were correct.  The point of this example is exactly what I have been saying throughout this post, SEARCH VOLUME IS THE LAST THING THAT YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT WHEN CHOOSING KEYWORDS.

Adopt the long tail philosophy
You can read more about the long tail philosophy here, but I am going to sum it up pretty quickly. The idea in short is that a niche term on it's own will produce very little conversions, but put several of them together and you will have an optimal revenue generating machine. In almost all cases several niche terms together will out perform a few broad terms.

I hope this helps you identify quality keywords. Good luck!