Expanding the Keyword List
Tips to help you selectively expand your target keyword set.

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.

Tags: ,

Article Written By Jacob Stoops

I black out when I talk SEO (kind of like: “Old School” Frank-the-Tank’s debate vs. James Carville). Also, I’m a designer who never likes my own designs.

Posts to Date: 77 amazing posts!

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

Comments

1 Response to “Expanding the Keyword List”

  1. web 7x24 said:

    When you put it this way, it seems easy.

    February 16th, 2009 at 4:36 am

Leave a Response

I'd love your feedback on this topic! Here are some short guidelines for commenting.

  • Be nice & keep it clean.
  • Contribute topic-relevant thoughts & suggestions.
  • Don't ask for a link
  • Don't spam!






Comments

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

SEO 101

Learn the roots of SEO, and get an understand of basic fundamentals of Search. I detail several beginners concepts to help you get started on the path to learning SEO.

Read SEO 101

Glossary

A dictionary of relevant SEO terms and phrases. I've compiled this data from several sources around the internet, as well as added my own thoughts and conclusions.

Review SEO Dictionary

Tools

I've scoured the web to find, review, and archive the best SEO tools currently available in the industry. Tools to help analyze your campaign, track progress, and more!

Discover SEO Tools