Search Engine Optimization: Keyword Selection

Know the question before someone asks. Any successful search engine optimization campaign starts with keywords. Know the keywords people search for, and you know the questions they’re asking.

Our advanced keyword data mining formula builds a solid foundation for your search marketing efforts.

It’s like a crystal ball. Portent’s keyword optimization process plays by the numbers, so that your SEO campaign is based on informed decisions, not guesswork.

In a nutshell, we go from a few, to many, to a few select phrases. Want the specifics? Read on:

Search engine optimization is fueled by keywords and phrases. Achieve a high rank for the right terms or phrases, and you have an opportunity to drive interested visitors to the exact information they need. And that means customers.

The trick, though, is finding the right terms and phrases. Use the wrong ones, and you can spend a lot of time and money pursuing the wrong market, or no market at all. At Portent, we’ve built a comprehensive process that chooses keywords by balancing search frequency, competition, and relevance. We also leave no stone unturned:

1. Start with the basics. First, we get a list of the terms under which you want a high rank. Usually, we start with 25-50 terms.
2. Expand the list. Next, we use text and data mining to expand your list to 20,000 or more semantically similar terms and phrases. The expanded list includes synonyms, common misspellings (such as ‘email’, versus ‘e-mail’) and terms that belong to the same overall topic area.
3. Run the Numbers. Next, we use several separate search databases to determine which terms really do draw interest. We then calculate the RPI and CTP for each term. That yields our final keyword listing, and our CTP graph:
   
   

   
   

4. Measure your site’s potential. Now that we know what we’re after, we review your site for keyword density and potential duplicate pages (duplicates can sabotage SEO results).
5. Formulate a plan. With a complete map of the terms that will drive traffic to your site, and solid information as to your site’s strengths and weaknesses, we can plan how we will improve your site’s search engine rank.

With these steps, we insure that your search engine optimization campaign is based on empirical data, not guesswork.

On a budget? Portent now offers one-time search engine optimization review packages. If you’re looking for economical search engine optimization, click here to learn more.