Keyword research is probably one of the biggest areas that people struggle with first when they’re setting up their first website. They may have their niche but now it’s time to pick the keywords that they’re going to build that niche around, and this is where confusion sets in. After all, everyone you ask has a different opinion on how keyword research should be done so who’s actually right?

The reality is that nobody really has a keyword research method that is all encompassing – you’ll learn a little bit from a lot of people and most likely formulate your very own way of finding keywords. What I want to share with you here is some tips to get you started so at least you have some research momentum going on and you can learn as you go.

Search Counts

Having a reasonable search count for your keywords is very important. Why? Because if people aren’t searching for that keyword often enough per month then you simply won’t have enough visitors to convert into sales at the end of the day.

In some niches you can convert a very small number of searches into sales but generally speaking you’ll need a search volume of more than 1,000 searches per month (or 30+ searches per day) to make your online efforts worthwhile for your broad keyword terms for your site. When it comes to searches more is simply better – but you’ll need to mix in long tail keywords too.

Competition

Now you’ve found some keywords that have 1,000 searches or more per month for your niche but your next step is calculating the competition for those keywords in your niche. There are two quick methods I’d suggest here. The first is to put your potential keyword in quotes “” and search Google for it.

Now look at the number of results displayed – if it’s any more than say 100,000 then pick another keyword. Also pay attention the types of sites listed in Google for that search term – if you have large authority sites like Wikipedia or Microsoft listed then the competition may be too much for you.

Buyer Keywords

If there’s anything people get wrong most often it’s choosing keywords that aren’t buyer keywords. Buyer keywords are when your visitor has done their due diligence and are 90% of the way to their buying decision.

Let’s look at an example. If you’re interested in buying a new LCD television are you going to search for just “LCD TV”? Nope. You’re going to look for something more like “Samsung LCD TV” at first and then as you’re refining your decision even more you’ll search for “Samsung LN40D630 LCD TV” and then just as you’re about to buy you’ll probably search by using a keyword phrase like “Samsung LN40D630 LCD reviews”. The more focused your search terms are on the buyer decision the better your sales conversions will be.

Look At The Tail

Several years ago now the term long tail keywords entered the language of search engine fans all over the world. In a way long tail is very similar to finding buyer keywords but it delves a little deeper than that and long tail keywords are basically phrases that have average or below average search counts but that have very little (sometimes almost zero) competition. So if we look at acne for example. The keyword “acne treatments” might have 550,000 searches per month but you’ll also find it probably has millions of competing web pages. That’s a no go for a keyword beginner.

But then if you look at a keyword like “best acne treatment for adults” you’ll find that it has only 500 searches per month but only 1,000 competing web pages – now you have a winner.

Even if a long tail keyword like “best acne treatment for adults” had only 50 searches per month that’s fine because you can take 10 or 20 phrases with similar counts and suddenly you’re adding another 500 – 1,000 unique visitors per month to your website. It’s not unusual for long tail keywords to be the most searched for keywords on your site.

Check Your Web Stats

This is one of my personal favourite ways of finding niche keywords once I’ve set up a website. After your site is 30 – 60 days old you need to start digging into your Google Analytics, AW Stats or whatever statistics package your site or web host is using. The reason is that your site is being found for keywords you’d never have thought of and that keyword tools simply don’t generate. You can then take these keywords and create an entire new page of content around them and hey presto you’ve just added a whole new traffic stream to your site.

If you’re looking for a keyword tool to get you started that allows you to work with this article then the Free Google Keyword tool is available to anyone who has a Google Adwords account. If you don’t have an Adwords account you can sign up for one for free and start grabbing all those valuable keywords that are just waiting for you out there.

Lior Levine is a marketing consultant for various online companies including an online personal task management company and a psd to html conversion company.

Finally, small business owners everywhere realize they need an online presence if they are going to compete in today’s world. Small business owners who just a year ago adamantly argued that their customers aren’t using the web are now jumping on board and admitting – yes, indeed they are.

But slapping up a website just for the sake of having a website can defeat the purpose – and can even harm your image if it isn’t done right.

If you’re thinking about creating a website – or even if you already have one – follow these 6 rules to make it the effective and powerful marketing tool it should be:

1. The website is not about you. A prospect is not looking for information about you; they are searching for a solution to their unique problem or need. THAT should be the focus of your home page. Use words and phrases they would use to describe their pain and then outline the solution you have to solve it.
2. Have an offer. Get the most out of your website by using it as a lead generation tool. If someone spends time on your site, don’t just let them click away without engaging them further. Offer a newsletter, a free report, or even a free consultation. Do something to get them to act so you can find out who they are and market to them further.
3. Be Unique. Beware of canned website services; you know – the ones that offer websites for CPAs or Chiropractors or Attorneys. They all the look the same, they all have the same content, and they make it really hard to differentiate you from your competition. Invest a little bit more in a site that allows you to stand apart from the crowd.
4. Your website is your online storefront. Your website is very often going to be the first impression people get of your small business. Make it visually appealing. Make it interesting, informative and engaging. Make it different – add some fun elements, or news stories or free tips that your target market would be interested in. Make sure it’s professional- and PLEASE check your grammar and spelling!
5. Use testimonials and case studies. Yes, your home page should be about the prospect and their problem – but once you’ve engaged them and gotten their attention, they will want proof that you can deliver as promised. Having a page of testimonials and case studies is a great way to demonstrate that you can deliver as promised.
6. Make it easy for a prospect to contact you. Have a contact page that is easy to find, with your email address, and/or phone number. Put your phone number on the home page (some experts recommend having it on every page of your website). Finding a way to contact you should not be a game of “Where’s Elmo?” If it takes more than a second or two – you risk losing them – and they could mean a lost sale.

Want to know a secret to success?

Make sure your website works.

Honestly!

The impression a customer or client gets when they realize links are broken or words are misspelled is less than great. And all those problems can say things about your business you might not want.  And what it’s saying isn’t good.

Quality assurance is a must for any website. Small, medium or large. Service or product. Even if it’s a personal blog.

For instance, I was on a blog earlier this week and worked for a long time to craft an answer to the thoughtful piece I’d just read, only to find this:

Enter the code below. Code? What code? There’s just a lot of dots. There’s not even a refresh button to allow me to get a new code. Or… any code at all!

It’s things like this that bring a customer to a bad experience with your website and with your company.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that since you’ve checked everything over once, it’s fine. Constantly check for broken or changed sections. If you’ve made an update, even if it’s a small adjustment, make sure you’ve covered the site to check for new errors.

In the long run, it will be worth the time you spend.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager – Palo Alto Software

I loved Pamela Slim’s excellent advice on her Escape From Cubicle Nation blog yesterday. It’s got a great title: You are officially granted permission to create a non-perfect first website. And she drives home a great point. It reminds me of the common advice about not waiting until all the lights are green before you leave the garage.

Pam points out that as you start out, you try to have a good sense of strategy with market niche, value proposition and strategic focus. But you’re guessing in the beginning. You shouldn’t expect it to be perfect. But you do have to get going.

Here’s what she calls the metaphor:

Your first website can be like a bland, basic, boring house. It is functional. It meets your needs. It is agreeable to many, but exciting to few.

But as you grow and develop your business, and clarify your brand, you can add rooms to your house, and paint the walls, and plant beautiful flowers out front and fill it with music.

The foundation and basic structure will be the same. But it will look and feel quite different.

And here’s what she calls the permission:

It is OK to put up a website that is not perfect. You will not lose branding karma points or be laughed out of your web neighborhood.

Most importantly, you will stop obsessing about clarifying your perfect brand before you have had the experience necessary to define it properly.

The important thing is that you get a web presence established so that you can move on to more important things like getting clients.

I think that advice is exactly on target, even if your first website isn’t. This is the real world. As Adam Osborne said, “adequate is good enough.”

The caveat, by the way? Pam adds it at the end, and you should read it. Read also her advice on WordPress, and trust that if you work it, your brand will emerge.

Somebody I know sent me the address of a new website along with the question of whether  I thought it was a good idea and did I think there was a need.

I clicked and visited the site. I found a very nice-looking site. I’m not sure I’d use it, but I am sure that the look and feel were all positive. I wasn’t sure I’d pay the subscription price, but that’s not the point.

The point is a reminder that a good idea and a market need; necessary but not sufficient conditions for a new business. You can’t make it without that. But having that doesn’t mean you are going to make it. Lots of good ideas with market needs fail.

Of course there’s nothing in any business plan that guarantees success; but the idea alone means nothing without the management team, marketing strategy, financial plan and product/market focus.

Lots of great products, services and website businesses have failed for reasons beyond the basic need or idea.

Are My Sites Up? is a relatively new free web-based service that helps you keep track of up time for your websites.

The service will send you a SMS alert if your website goes down to help you respond faster and get your business back on line as soon as possible. Vital if you depend on online sales. Every minute your online business is down is money lost.

After being featured on Lifehacker and Webware, Are My SitesUp? have temporarily closed down new signups, but with a service as useful as this, they should be on your “watch” list. You can subscribe to their blog which will alert everyone when the service is open for signups again.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

How many questions do you have during the typical day? I get lots of them. Sometimes I get so many in a day I have to hide in one of the conference rooms just to get a little work done. Let me give you a few I got yesterday.

Do you know of a good place to stay in NYC for not too much money?
How do you spell Wachovia? Is it a bank or credit union?
What’s coming to the (local concert venue’s) next month?
Where should we go for lunch, is there anything new in town?
Do you know the address of that insurance company we’re going to?

To each of these questions, I can answer each with two little words. “Google it”.

Google is now (officially?) a verb. To use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Web. Information you, as a business, put there. Rich with SEO keywords, good clean copy writing, easily navigated website. People are using Google at a rate that makes the head boggle. According to ComScore, people used Google search 11,748,000,000 times in the month of August. That’s a lot of people looking for a lot of things.

If you were one of the lucky ones, a few of those search destinations were to your website. If they didn’t… why not?

Today, more than ever, it’s important that you understand what good SEO can do for your search traffic. It’s important to educate yourself in what you can do to bump up your visibility on the internet and search engines.

Don’t know where to start in the big confusing world of SEO information?

Try starting here.  www.websitegrader.com
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

Here’s hoping a large fraction of the next 11 billion search hits will soon be landing on your virtual doorstep.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

So many startups assume Internet business as part, or all, of their revenue stream, sadly, without really figuring out how that’s going to make money. Put up the website and wait for the money to flow in. Now say “yeah, right!” and maybe roll your eyes.

Step back for a minute and realize it’s not possible to do everything at once. Once you’ve built your website, the first thing you should do is make your sales process watertight.

There’s no point spending a ton of cash on pay-per-click ads to drive targeted traffic to your site if none of those visitors buys anything.

Yes, I’ll second that; well put and right to the point. That’s Derek Gehl on e-business at Entrepreneur.com, in 3 Secrets to a Site that Sells. His secrets make a lot of sense. They certainly match what I’ve seen from my company selling on the Web since 1998.

1. Get your sales copy in top shape. You’ve got less than five seconds to persuade people to stay on your website, so your headline has to grab them and compel them to read on. But don’t let your readers slip through your fingers once you’ve grabbed their attention with a hot headline. Good sales copy funnels your readers through a tight sales process and doesn’t give them a reason to click away. Take a look at your own and see if all the elements are in place, and if not, give it more of the attention it deserves.
2. Collect testimonials. Testimonials prove that your product really works–that it does exactly what you promise. And if you run a small business and haven’t built your reputation, testimonials are indispensable.
3. Make it easy to buy. According to market research from the Gartner Group, more than 50 percent of Web sales are lost because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for. Don’t make that mistake.

Good stuff. All of which should be obvious, but isn’t.