Posted by admin on Sat, 03/29/2008 — 15:55

Keyword Research
Understanding the search terms to pick is a tricky thing indeed. There are plenty of tools that will give us an estimated search number, but we need to understand what it is we want. Actually, we need to understand what it is they want. The searchers. The people who will be going to Google and looking for that new cell phone. Yes. Cell phone.

So I’m Joe searcher, and I need a new cell phone. I go to Google and type «cell phone.» Well poop. All those millions of searches, and I’m too overwhelmed to go through all these results. Besides, all the top results are just big cell service companies (remember I said that).

What I need is a «cell phone with internet.» That’s more like it. Now I’m checking out these different pages with information about cell phones with web browsers. This is a lot of money, I better check out a few sites (Unless I’m compulsive, or you’ve done a good job with your calls to action. We’ll get to that later).

I’ve done my research. I’m ready to buy it. I know that I want the «RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130.»

So, I looked for «cell phone,» and was so overwhlemed and unsatisfied with the results that I searched again. This time I was a little more precise in my search for «cell phone with internet.» I got to do my research, compare a few phones, and decide upon the «RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130.» And that, my new little SEOs, is the essence of the buyer’s process and the idea behind the «long tail of search.»

Long Tail
The idea is, the most competitive terms will have the most searches, but the lower conversions. The more precise the the search term, the lower the amount of searches, but much higher the chance of a purchase. You don’t search for «RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130» unless you know exactly what it is you want. Check out this handy graph:

In a perfect world, we would rank for “cell phone” and rely on the shear number of hits to your site and call it a day. That’s just not how it works here. We need to select search terms that aren’t so broad and competitive that we never see the light of day, but prevent limiting ourselves to search terms that only a few people a month will check for. Even better, we need to find the right blend of both. To get both, we need to talk site structure, so we will save it for a few more pages. For now, just remember that we will be getting a touch of both types of search terms.

Alright already. We know what «types» of search terms we need, Mr. Factor (that’s what I make my fiance call me), but how do we pick them? The same way we build a house my little Factorlets (that’s you); with tools.