When you are targeting an organic SEO campaign, placing the proper value and emphasis on keywords can mean the difference between your website being an educational resource or a commercial landing page that converts.
Targeting Buyers Not Browsers with Keywords
Each type of keyword has an individual on the other side of it looking for something, the key is to only optimize the action words that are symbolic for “I need ________ and am ready to buy”.
For seasoned marketers this step of assessing where consumers are in the sales process such as just looking (broad match), using emotionally charged synonyms (long-tail) or I need a little more information but still interested in purchasing (mid-tail keywords) allows you to segment that audience with the proper message to enhance conversions.
Not everyone converts, but targeting the wrong types of visitors and expecting them to view your landing page, read the content and magically change their mind (and buy on a whim) is a bit much to ask vs. positioning the page with keywords from people already in the purchase mentality. Read more on commercial intent and keyword selection here.
Better to find someone in the right frame of mind and then give them what they ask for rather than trying to coerce a cold prospect into action.
Regardless of what you call them “Lookie Loos, Browsers, Tire-Kickers, etc.” better to focus on “buyers or hot prospects” that WILL purchase either from you or a competitor “today”, depending on who appears or appeals to them first.
How can you identify effective keywords?
- Sift through analytics or server logs to see which keyword combinations yielded the highest conversion.
- Use emotionally charged modifiers such as “pricing, care, best, leading, solution for, for sale and other commercial hooks people use – in shopping mode”.
- Back engineer competitors (SEMRush, SPyFu, Alexa).
- Test Keywords first with PPC
- Keyword research tools (low competing pages, high PPC value or search volume).
The point is, you can’t blame the messenger for the message any more than you can blame people for acting within the parameters of their nature. You have more control than you think on how you treat the visitors that arrive, what they see (based on what you offer them on critical pages) and how they can navigate your website.
Keep conversion cues in mind while cultivating the right type of visitors to specific pages through selecting the right pages for conversion (sparse, focused and simple) vs. a 2,000 word thesis cluttered with 20 action items.
Once you have found which page pulling its own weight, then you can start playing around with split testing (Google website optimizer) or other platforms to play the odds of scoring more points with consumers by competing with yourself or “beating the control” and eliminating the weaker version of your page.
However, first things first, if you are speaking to the wrong audience, conversion is the last thing that will happen, so identify wrong consumer, wrong keyword, wrong page scenarios first, then retool them for success with a structured plan based on scientific principals such as message matching, segmentation and keeping the language on landing pages simple, straightforward and benefit rich.
If you need help, for a limited time we are offering a Free keyword & market inspection for keywords or markets you have your sights set on and need a little competitive recon on competitors. While this offer is limited, just visit the page, add your website, keyword and a few other fields and get your FREE keyword / market inspection.
Remember, there is nothing worse than targeting the wrong keyword with the wrong approach. Don’t waste time, energy and effort speaking to the wrong audience when with a but of fine-tuning and conversion optimization you can target consumers that convert and yield a tangible return on investment.
Finding buyers for your online business and not just a viewer in your site. You need to have great ideas and good strategies to have it successful. These you mentioned is a big help. Thanks a lot!
I agree keywords and correct layouts are key
Thanks for the post.Today’s post deals with a topic that many tend to overlook thereby over stressing on the browser and not the buyer. With a preset goal, strategy and keywords , there is no reason why you won’t be successful online.