5 To-dos for Strategic Keyword Development

We live in a digital era, one in which surfing the net trumps scanning the yellow pages, visiting the local library or perusing through an art gallery. This type of hard-copy research led to “findings-by-association,” “one-idea-leads-to-another” and “sparks-of-interest” based on an undefined want of product or service. We found things we didn’t know we were looking for due to the collections of related material.

How do you do that online when your search bar asks for specific, defined queries? More specifically, as an organization, how do you get noticed amongst all the others if the user doesn’t know they are looking for you? The answer – strategic keyword development and search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO should be an integral part of your businesses strategy. It ensures that you stand out against all of the online clutter and get found when your client base is searching for you (even if they don’t know they are). Keyword development is the first step and essential to the “finding-by-association” process referenced above. If you don’t think like your audience and create a strategy around a collection of specific and related words, you could be left to drown in the ever growing pool of the online database.

Make sure the following five items are on your check list when you start building your keyword list:

1. Look to see what your competitors are doing

Understanding what your competition is doing might spark a new idea or give you a perspective you had not considered before. Plus, if they are coming up in search rankings above you, they’re doing something better.

2. Brainstorm relevant words/synonyms/ideas with multiple people

We all think very differently and individual experiences influence our thought processes. By brainstorming with multiple people you are giving yourself (and your business) many more opportunities to come up with a diverse, expanded keyword list that is more likely to link you to more search results.

3. Use the ~ symbol (tilde) within Google searches to automatically search for related terms

This is a great tool to use while developing your keywords in the early stages. This will also help you stay out of the search categories that may seem like a good idea, but in reality, are way off.

4. Search the words you come up with in Google, Bing and Yahoo to see what comes up

A list of plenty is good, but related keywords still need to be in the ballpark. By searching the words you are thinking of capitalizing on, you can get a better understanding of the search category you would be placed within. You’ll want to make sure it makes sense and see if any of your competition is there with you

5. Ask around to see what others would search for as it relates to your business.

Sometimes it is extremely helpful to get the opinion of someone who is removed from your business. Since you are in your industry on a daily basis (and probably an expert in it), you might lose sight of how non-experts would search for you – and that’s okay – just be sure to ask around.

Keyword development takes time but will pay off in the end if you can hone in on the keywords that will help you stand out. To learn more about free keyword development tools, check out our Slideshare (Strategic Keyword Development). In the end you’ll have a comprehensive list of impactful, relevant keywords with low competition with data to back it up.

Our list of five to-dos will help develop a well-rounded keyword list but we know there are others. What to-dos are on your check list? We’d love to add them to the list – tell us about them in the comments.