Expanding the Keyword List

In my previous post, I explained the best practices for Keyword Brainstorming. Today, I want to discuss the best ways to expand our keyword list.

We already have a very nice list keyword list to begin our SEO campaign, but are there any keywords that we might have missed? We’ll search on and offline for additional keyword ideas to enhance our SEO keyword list.

Ask Your Co-Workers

If your co-workers weren’t involved in the keyword brainstorming session, stop by their offices or hold a meeting to get them involved. This will help your SEO plan in a couple ways:

1. They may be able to provide unique keyword ideas that maybe you didn’t consider before.
2. They’ll get excited about the SEO plan and may participate more actively in the future.

Review Your Current Website

Your website may hold the key? Take another peek at it to see what keywords phrases you are currently targeting. Keywords that are already targeted on your site are often good choices, because they are generally easier to work into your site’s content.

Check Your Competitor’s Website

Pour over the websites of your competitor’s to see what terms they are targeting. As we go further into your SEO Sniper Schooling, you’ll see just how important it will be to do reconnaissance work on your competitor’s sites.

Read Industry-Related Magazines & Websites

Read over magazines & websites related to your industry to see what keywords and terminology they are using.

Tip: Don’t make any edits or cuts to your keyword list at this point. Instead, try to add as many variations of the keywords you find here.

You can always slim the list down later, and by taking a more hollistic approach you may learn a bit more about what keywords you should target.

Check Web Analytics & Statistics

If you use a web analytics program such as Google Analytics or Omniture, then you will be able to see a running list of search terms that are currently pulling traffic to your site.

Terms that are already getting traffic will make great additons to your keyword list. In addition, you may find a few terms that may be pulling traffic that you didn’t think of.

Ask Your Clients & Customers

If you have a good relationship with your clients, try asking them how they would describe your services or how they found you. This may also be a good time to send out a survey to ask them what keywords they found your site under in the search engines.

Check “Related” Terms

Many search engines (Google most prominently) will show lists of related terms according to your search. These terms are meant to help you narrow or expand your search, and may be good resources to gather additional keyword ideas.

Hopefully, this list helps you out…next week we’ll discuss using Keyword Tools to gather data about your keyword list.