Keyword research helps you speak your customer’s language.

Let me give you an example.  Peter (the Pilot) is an airline pilot I know.  He flies the globe safely delivering passengers from one international hub to another and is a wonder at getting first class upgrades.  A while back Peter dabbled with the idea of going in to the business of selling low cost air fares and setting up a website to do so.  It would have been a disaster.  Why?  Because nobody buys low cost air fares.  Whoa I hear you say, we buy cheap flights all the time!  And yes I agree, we do buy cheap flights all the time but cheap flights are not low cost air fares.  Can you see the difference?  Let me show you.

Look at the difference between the number of searches completed.  Whether you look at the figures for global or local I hope you will agree that the figures for cheap flights are way higher than those for low cost air fares.   The problem for Peter was that being a pilot he was well versed in the industry lingo but not so in the parlance of you and I.  When most folks want to board a plane and not pay very much for it they type  ‘cheap flights’ in to their favourite search engine.  Had Peter the Pilot stuck with his low cost air fare strategy he would have missed a trick and lost out on sales.  In short:

• Keyword research helps you find the words that customers use to buy your stuff.

(Incidentally Peter abandoned the idea of setting up a rival airline and opted instead to help his beautiful wife Rhona run her B&B.  They are doing very well and I would thoroughly recommend their luxury 4* bed & breakfast accommodation in Ayr.).  (Be warned, their website includes some audio so don’t be having a peek when you’re not supposed to).

Finding keywords that help you meet your customer’s needs

Let’s talk about Faith.  Faith can lighten your load and bring peace of mind when you need it most.  Faith is a private detective or as Faith prefers to be called, a professional private investigator from Edinburgh.  But which of these two terms best meet Faith’s customer’s needs?  I would suggest private detective.  Private detective is a term that most people are familiar with and I’m sure we all fancy ourselves as a bit of a Magnum P.I. but if you really had a problem which of the two terms above would you be most likely to search for?  If you are a business owner with a website that you want to be found, you need to find the keywords that people use in relation to the stuff that you sell.

Long tail keywords nail the sale

Think of internet searches as questions, the more specific the question the more readily a prospect will buy in to a detailed answer.  What questions are your customers asking? Are you using the right words to answer them?  As we near the end of the buying cycle our searches become more precise, we’re no longer looking for a colour printer but a colour printer Doo Daa XYZ123 with bells and whistles on.  Is your content brimming with noteworthy answers to specific questions, questions that you know your customers are asking because you’ve put in the hours doing the research to find out?

If putting in the hours is a bit a of problem Miss Morrison can help with a reasonably priced 4 hour keyword research package.  I’ll ask you all about your business and your customers then identify the keyword phrases that will help you speak your customer’s language.  You’ll tick all the search engine boxes but more importantly your website content will speak to your customers in their own words creating empathy and an understanding of your customer’s needs all on the way to more sales.