Editors Note: I originally posted this on my friend Joel Gaslin’s blog, ConnectedRep and I am reposting it here.
One of my first experiences with a client who was attempting to sell more products via increased visibility in search results was with a company that manufactures and erects metal buildings. I attended meetings with their marketing staff, including their VP of marketing, who were all convinced that they needed to be on top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for the term “pre-manufactured post frame buildings.” I learned through further exploration that their biggest market was the agriculture industry, farmers specifically. In fact, their buildings dot the landscape of most of the Midwest.
This is where keyword research comes in. You do not want to focus on “inside-baseball” type terms. You are not trying to impress your competitors, or satisfy the VP of marketing, or the CEO, with your high rankings in the SERPs for esoteric keywords that only industry insiders use. That might be great for the corporate ego, and bragging rights at trade shows, but not so good if you actually want to sell something. You need to find out how your customers search for your products, not what you call them.
At a follow up meeting with the metal buildings company, I came back and announced to them that they needed to get on page one of Google and the other search engines for the term “pole barns.” After the color returned to their faces, they proceeded to tell me that they didn’t sell pole barns and that the term was archaic. Their buildings they said, were much more sophisticated than pole barns. I told them that irregardless of what they thought they were selling, when their customers wanted to buy, they searched the internet for “pole barns.”
I am happy to report that even though I no longer work for the company that manages their web site, they are still on page one of Google for the term “pole barns” and they even have a page dedicated precisely to that term.
So, how do you find out what your potential clients are searching for? Easy. The most commonly used free tool to do this kind of research is the Google Keyword Tool. Just enter a couple of generic terms related to your product and the tool will spit out literally hundreds of related terms that users actually search for. Not only that, it will tell you how competitive those terms are and give you an estimate of how many users search for those terms every month, both globally and locally (local meaning in the US). By familiarizing yourself with this type of information you will be much more able to speak your customer’s language and not hope that they know how to speak yours.