A Guide to SEO Strategy - Keyword Research - Part 1

Get better search Engine Results

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is considered to be one of the most cost effective promotional tools in marketing for generating a higher volume of relevant traffic and, ultimately, sales. At ICE COMMS, we use the latest Website Optimisation techniques with an aim to drive valuable targeted traffic via the natural search results of Google, Yahoo! and BING (MSN). Website Optimisation runs constantly, increasing your brand’s visibility not just to the UK but to the world, maximising relevant traffic received to your website.

It takes just a quarter of a second for Google to return a search query. It takes a well planned and executed SEO strategy to harness the benefits of what is now considered to be the most effective marketing tool in the world.

At ICE COMMS we firmly believe that empowerment is crucial for a flourishing and rewarding client relationship, so with all our SEO projects we try to pass on as much knowledge as we can, lifting the lid on what is considered to be the 'black art' of SEO.

Knowledge based SEO articles will appear here from time to time that are aimed at offering an insight into how we work. We start with the basics of Keyword Research.

Keyword research - is the foundation of search engine optimisation.

From the work we do in researching and helping to build our clients' brands and websites mean we have a good understanding of the target markets and search terms that prospective customers are likely to use to find you. Understanding which keywords and phrases will bring targeted traffic to your web site is absolutely critical.

Let's take 'Business Insurance' as an example.

Key Phrases

Think about the phrases users are likely to type into search engines when looking for this content or service.
Write down the most important phrases, grouping according to the emphasis you are going to place on them – headings could be: primary, secondary and tertiary or priority 1, 2 and 3.

Primary key-phrase(s)

Cheap business insurance, Cheaper business insurance, Cheapest business insurance.
Localised - Cheap business insurance Devon, Cheaper business insurance Devon, Cheapest business insurance Devon

Secondary key-phrase(s)

Business insurance saving, Business insurance reduction, Business insurance cost saving
Localised - Business insurance saving in Devon, Devon business insurance reduction, Business insurance cost savings in Devon

Tertiary key-phrase(s)

Reduce you business insurance, Lower your business insurance premiums, Cutting your business insurance premiums.

The phrases you select will depend on the time/money you have to create different pages and the volume of searches.
Ideally we would take a narrow scope for each page. However, for low-volume phrases, a broad scope can be more cost-effective. If we have a page with an occurrence of 3 or 4 different words such as ‘saving’, ‘reduce’ and ‘lower’ then it will be more effective than a page that doesn’t contain any such keywords.

We also need to think about synonyms. If you Google the phrases above in the narrow scope you will see they are treated as synonyms, since they are highlighted in the results.

Quick guide for using different key-phrase emphasis:

1. Primary Key-phrases
These are main key phrase theme(s) which we want to optimize the page for. They should be used within the 'title tag', headings and should be repeated a few times on the pages (2-3 times maximum) on the page with the emphasis on content towards the top of the page.
As well as using the exact phrase, you should use the words in different order. They can be worked into the copy so they are not adjacent to each other.
Synonyms, plurals, localisation and variations on the keywords should also be used.
Search engines identify whether the phrases are being repeated too often – this is known as ‘keyword stuffing’.

2. Secondary Key-phrases

These phrases are also important – their main difference from primary key phrases is that they do not feature in the title tags and are slightly less frequent. Secondary key-phrases should also feature in the main page body copy between 1-2 times without compromising content readability.
The key with SEO copywriting is that it should never be apparent to the user.

3. Tertiary Key-phrases

Are less important and so do not have to be repeated too much, maybe 1-2 times. It may not always be possible to incorporate these into meaningful phrases, e.g. ‘lower your business insurance premiums’. In this example it is still helpful to work the word 'insurance' into the page copy on its own as much as possible.

Visit icecomms.co.uk often for new SEO articles or give us a call on 01803 762217 and let's see what a well planned SEO project can do for your business.