by 
Christine Churchill – KeyRelevence.com
Following on quite usefully from the information we had been given about the Microsoft keyword research plug-in, Christine Churchill looked at a big question ‘Why do keyword research?’
She suggested that there were a number of reasons why keyword research is so vital:
1. It is fundamental in Search Marketing
2. It can correct bad keyword choices
3. It is market research
4. Keyword research can help increase conversion rates
5. Research can also help find more niche keywords
From here Christine highlighted the main stages of keyword research process of
1. Brainstorming & discovery stage
2. Keyword expansion
3. Keyword evaluation
The brainstorming stage means a wide net can be cast and the process can be inspired by a range of activities including:
· Reviewing current website copy
· Reviewing press releases
· Avoid insider jargon – as this may/ or may not be the customers choice of words
· Examine company and/or product reviews
· By checking log files and analytics
· Also look at on site search data
Christine also suggested companies could talk to customers about the terms they used via interview or survey as well as check forums for related threads and even absorb words used on competitor websites or their PPC campaigns too.
A number of tools are available to assist with Keyword research and some of those mentioned were Google’s keyword tool, Wordtracker, Trellian Discovery and more. It was advised that at least 2 different tools were used in conjunction to offset any potential discrepancies.
Using Google’s insights tool in conjunction with Google Trends was also recommended. Google Insights contains ‘rising searches’ too – so it provides data that can be useful for identifying new themes to help inspire related niche keywords.
See http://www.google.com/insights/search
Christine continued to stress that the aim was to get relevant keywords – traffic alone was not the goal!
Tor Crockatt – Microsoft
Tor addressed keywords in from a linguistic basis and sought to break down the structure of search phrases. For example:
1. Root word e.g. ‘Travel’
2. Synonyms e.g. ‘Holiday’ or ‘Break’
3. Colloquialisms e.g. ‘Trip’, ‘Getaway’, ‘Vacation’
4. Qualify with Modifiers e.g ‘Late Holiday Deals’ or ‘Cheap Holiday Australia’
Tor went deeper and explained her concept of Keyword Algebra and how people construct search phrases differently on product sites V service websites.
The key elements for a key word search on a product website was typically:
· Product adjective
· Manufacturer
· Product
· Intended Use
· Location (For travel related)
For a service website the structure was a little different and the keyword search tended to follow the trend of:
· Price adjective
· Product adjective
· Product Synonyms
· Location
Tor warned attendees about the dangers of using translation tools and suggested one way to avoid a mishap was to translate one way but then translate back as a check to see how accurate the tools are!
