Learn the keyword research process

1. Keyword
Research for SEO
& PPC
By: Pieter S Verasdonck+
twitter.com/psverasdonck
linkedin.com/in/psverasdonck
slideshare.net/psverasdonck

2. 10+ years of experience in the
digital marketing landscape
2004: ecommerce shop on eBay.
2007: Started my SEO career in the poker and
sports betting sector.
2010: Started SEO service offering in one of
Australia's largest media agency group.
2013: Started a Inbound Marketing service
offering in a digital agency start-up.
What does this all mean?
I’m a old man 

3. Keyword Research is the
Backbone of Search
• Its Important to be thorough
• Invest adequate time (we spend more than 40
hours on research per project)
• The time and effort you put in the start will
give you back in tenfold of $$

4. Keyword Research
Flowchart

5. http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

6. Brainstorming Keywords
• Webmaster Tools
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/guide-5-ways-use-google-webmaster-tools-maximize-seo-
campaign/88457/

7. Brainstorming Keywords
• Google Analytics
http://www.notprovidedcount.com/

8. Brainstorming Keywords
• Check your websites “Internal Search”
keywords
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/01/17/set-up-internal-site-search-analytics/

9. Keyword ideas
http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

10. Keyword ideas
• Competitors: SEMRush (Organic & PPC)

11. Keyword ideas
• HTML Code: <meta keywords>
• YouTube: Video Tags

12. Keyword ideas
• Niche Topic Forums: Sub-Categorisation
• Google Search:
• "visitors found this page by searching for“ -seo
• site:com.au “Your Keyword” forum -seo
• “Incoming search terms” “Your Keyword” -seo

13. Keyword Brainstorm
• “Table of Contents” (Google Books,
Amazon)

14. Keyword Brainstorm
• Keyword Ideas:
• Google Trends:
• Related Searches:
http://www.google.com.au/trends/explore#cmpt=q

15. Keyword Brainstorm
• Ubersuggest, keywordtool.io, Scrapebox

16. Keyword Brainstorm
• Google Keyword Tool: Wikipedia
• SEOquake Toolbar: Wikipedia
http://searchengineland.com/how-to-use-the-keyword-planner-the-new-keyword-tool-from-google-
adwords-157123

17. Keyword ideas
Pro Tip:
• Start small: one main topic or product category section
• mergewords.com

18. OK, I got 10,000
KWs …Now What?

19. Relevant Keywords
http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

20. Keyword Data Sources

21. User Intent Strategy
• Use social media to help provide context for user intent
• Use a keyword research brief to clarify customers intent
& search sophistication/position in the conversion
funnel
www.symetri.com/training/materials/Keyword%20Research%20Brief.docx

22. Keywords
• If your website is commercial (offering products or
services), go with keywords that seem to have the most
commercial intent based on the currently ranking
websites. If your website is informational (blogs come
to mind), go with keywords that have the most
informational intent.
• Look for a “sweet spot” of high search volume in
conjunction with low difficulty / competition.
• Look at keywords with high search volume with top
competitors that have lower domain authority and
backlinks.

23. OK, Now I got 1,000
KWs…What’s Next?

24. High Potential Keywords
http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

25. • Keywords performance can be seen from historic PPC results.
• Close integration between SEO and PPC ensures a consistent and
complimentary approach to search engine marketing, taking
advantage of the main benefits of both techniques.
• Conversion data from paid
search combined with
natural search techniques
can result in reduced PPC
costs as rankings and traffic
improve. Good ad copy can
also be used as title tag and
meta descriptions.
• Assess PPC data in order to
build a cost effective and
impactful link building
strategy.
PPC
- Tactical
- Media costs
SEO
- Longevity
- Implementation costs
Keywords
targets
SEO & PPC

26. SEO & PPC Keyword Data
• Discover additional keywords. Use the report to discover
potential keywords to add to your AdWords accounts by looking
for queries where you only appear in organic search with no
associated ads.
• Optimize presence on high value queries. Use the report to
improve your presence in paid results and monitor your high
value queries for organic results.
• Measure changes holistically. As you test website
improvements or AdWords changes to bids, budgets, or
keywords, you can more easily report the impact across paid,
organic, and combined traffic.
http://moz.com/ugc/harmonising-seo-ppc-a-practical-guide

27. Conversion Funnel
• Branding or Conversion Focused Strategy:
• Conversion: This strategy is what most of us are after. We
want our keywords to draw traffic to our website or landing
page, and then we want that traffic to convert by making a
purchase or otherwise doing something specific like filling
out a contact form, picking up the phone, or downloading
something. In this case, long-tail or more specific
keywords will likely work best for you.
• Branding: The branding strategy is just that. You value
impressions over new leads or conversions. Whether or
not people come to our website isn't as important as being
seen as a player for that keyword. In this case, broad
search terms are likely going to work best for you.
• Hybrid: You can of course bring both of these strategies
together and have 90 percent of your keywords dedicated
to a conversion strategy. Then the other 10 percent are
dedicated to branding and impressions. You would want to
segment your keywords accordingly for each campaign.

28. Strategy
• Choose keywords based on more than just high search
traffic:
• Business/landing page relevance
• Competition
• Specificity
• Intent (informational, navigational, transactional)
• Search volume

29. Next Keywords
http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart

30. Biggest Keyword Mistakes
• Selecting Keywords That Don't Reflect How People Actually
Search
• Failing to Perform Competitive Keyword Analysis
• Not Focusing on Profitable Terms
• Having an Uneven Distribution of Keyword Difficulty
• Not Knowing Your Geography or Local Search
• Not Monitoring Search Trends
• Failing to Maintain and Adjust Over Time