Taking Your Content To The Next Level By Christine Churchill

#SMX #11D @ChrisChurchill
Taking Your Content To The Next Level
Keyword
Research &
Copywriting For
Search Success

•  President
&
CEO
of
KeyRelevance,
LLC

•  Member
of
Founding
Board
of
Directors
of
Search
Engine
Marketing

Professional
Organization
(SEMPO)

•  Member
of
the
Founding
Board
of
Directors
of
the
Dallas/Fort
Worth

Search
Engine
Marketing
Organization
(DFWSEM)

•  Author
at
Search
Engine
Land
&
Web
Marketing
Today

•  Longtime
Speaker
&
Instructor
at
Search
Marketing
Expo
(SMX),

Search
Engine
Strategies,
PubCon,
and
other
conferences

•  Masters
degree
and
over
17
years
online
marketing
experience

Speaker: Christine Churchill

§ 

Keyword
Research
–
What
is
it?
Why
do
it?

§ 

How
to
do
KW
Research
in
2016

§ 

Developments
That
Changed
Keyword
Research

(Knowledge
Graph,
Hummingbird
Algorithm)

§ 

Keyword
Tools

§ 

How
to
use
Keywords
to
Optimize
Content

§ 

Online
Copywriting
Tips

What We’ll Cover

Keyword Research
Fundamental
step
to
all
online
marketing

Keyword
Research
is
the
process
of

researching
to
identify
the
keyword
terms

customers
use
to
ﬁnd
your
products
and

services

Keyword
Research
helps
you
get
inside
the

mind
of
customers

Keyword
Research
gives
content
marketing

a
good
start

People
use
search
engines
to
ﬁnd
you
on
the
web

Engines
use
text
to
categorize
pages

Research
unveils
terms
people
actually
use

KW
Research
improves
performance
of
online
marketing

Why Do Keyword Research?

#SMX #11D @ChrisChurchill6
How to Do
Keyword Research

Keyword Research is an Iterative Process
Brainstorming

&

Discovery

Keyword

Expansion

Keyword

Evaluation


Keyword Brainstorming and
Discovery Phase
8

Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources

Brainstorming
session
–
no
judging
words
at
this
stage.

Goal
is
to
cast
your
net

widely
and
generate
broad
list.

Keyword
lists
from
within
company

§  Review
company
web
site
and
print
collateral

§  Press
Releases

§  Often
too
much
insider
jargon

§  May
or
may
not
be
customer’s
lingo

9

Learn the Lingo of the Customer

§  Customer
interviews

§  Customer
Surveys
and
Focus

Groups

§  Talk
to
support
or
sales
personnel

who
talk
directly
to
customers

§  Review
discussion
forums,
user

generated
content,
blogs,
social

media

The
best
keywords
come
straight
from
the
customer’s
mouth.

Speak the Language of Customer
Increase
conversion
by
speaking
the

customer’s
language

Correct
bad
keyword
choices

Missing
traﬃc

Missing
sales

Discover
new
keyword
opportunities

-‐

Find
overlooked
or
new
keywords

-‐

Take
advantage
of
longer
tail
phrases

“Duplicate
a
CD”

vs

“Burn
a

CD”

11

The Long Tail
Finding New Opportunities
Based
on
frequency
graph

Chris
Anderson
wrote
book
about
it

§  Describes
it
as
new
economic
model

§  Unlimited
selection
–
Amazon
books,
iTunes

§  Idea
is
that
non-‐hits
can
make
money
based
on
sheer

volume

Popular
phrases
on
left
–
highly
competitive
and

expensive.

Less
popular
on
right
–
lower
volume

“20
to
25%
of
the
queries
that
Google
sees
today
have
never
been

seen
before.”
–
Udi
Manber,
Google
VP
of
Engineering

12

Create Keyword List Using Diverse Sources
•  Online
Blogs
and

Magazines

•  Company
and
Product
Reviews

•  Online
Thesaurus

•  Search
in
Google
with
tilde
~
for
synonyms

13

Review Competitors

§  Look
at
words
they
are
buying
in
PPC
&

targeting
in
SEO

§  Review
their
web
site

and
collateral
for
keywords
&
related
terms

§  Get
competitive
insights
and
ideas
on

overlooked
terms

14

Use Site Search Data
Site
Search
Box

•  Reveals
keywords
and
expressions
that
visitors
are

actually
using
/
wanting

•  Acts
as
a
direct
feed
from
the
visitors
brain

•  Make
sure
you
collect
site
search
data
–
can
tie
it
to

your
analytics
for
easy
viewing

Downside
is
data
is
limited
and
site
search
is
usually
a
fall
back
when

users
can’t
ﬁnd
what
they
are
looking
for
on
your
site.

15

Developments That Changed Keyword
Research
Google
Knowledge
Graph

Hummingbird
Algorithm

Not
Provided
Keywords

Other
Recent
Algorithm
Changes

16

Knowledge
Graph

“The
Knowledge
Graph
enables
you
to

search
for
things,
people
or
places

that
Google
knows
about—landmarks,

celebrities,
cities,
sports
teams,

buildings,
geographical
features,

movies,
celestial
objects,
works
of
art

and
more—and
instantly
get

information
that’s
relevant
to
your

query.
“

Source:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/introducing-‐
knowledge-‐graph-‐things-‐not.html

How the Knowledge Graph Changed Search
Critical
first
step
towards
building
the
next

generation
of
search

• 
Taps
into
the
collective
intelligence
of

the
web
and
understands
the
world
a

bit
more
like
people
do

• 
A
step
toward
artificial
intelligence

Google
now
has
a
database
on
entities
and

understands
relationships
between

different
entities

18

What is Hummingbird Algorithm?
According
to
Google
the
algorithm

(announced
Sept
2013)
delivers
better

results
that
are
"precise
and
fast"
-‐
like
a

hummingbird.

It’s
Google
trying
to
ﬁgure
out
user
intent

and
improve
conversational
search.

Google
wants
to
match
the
meaning,

rather
than
pages
matching
just
a
few

words.

Do We Still Need to Worry About Keywords?
Hummingbird
is
an
overhaul
of
Google’s

algorithm,
but
many
of
the
old
parts
are
still
used.

Google’s
semantic
analysis
considers
the

language
in
your
content

-‐
so
you
still
need
to
use
keywords
and

related
phrases
on
the
page
to
communicate
to

users
and
Google
what
the
page
is
about

-‐
means
on-‐page
optimization
is
still

beneﬁcial

Tips on Surviving After Hummingbird
& the Knowledge Graph

Create
high
quality
longer
content
that

establishes
your
site
as
the
place
to
go
for
answers

Develop
ways
to
increase
the
authority
of
the
site

Become
a
leader
in
your
vertical

Show
leadership
thru
social
media,
links,
user

metrics,
online
relationships

Google
has
made
it
harder
for
“fake”
authority
to
win.

Going
forward
you
have
to

earn
your
position.

The New Approach To Keyword Research

Focus
on
the
user
intent
behind
the
search
term

-‐
Try
to
develop
content
that
delivers
answers
to
what

the
searcher
wants

Stop
focusing
on
exact
match
phrases

-‐
Look
more
to
long
tail
and
related
phrases

-‐
Build
a
vocabulary
of
terms
that
are
related
to
the

phrase

When
doing
KW
research
now,
research
core
phrases
plus

related,
synonyms,
and
words
that
frequently
occur
with

your
main
terms
(co-‐occurrence)

Google’s
move
toward
Latent
Semantic
Indexing
(LSI)
and
recent
Google
Patents
dealing
with
re-‐ranking

of
results
suggest
that
using
synonyms
and
co-‐occurrence
terms
has
beneﬁts

Keyword
Research Tools
23

Benefits of Keyword Tools
•  Saves
money
and
time

•  Provides
insight
outside
of
your
site

•  Identiﬁes
keyword
opportunities
you

might
miss

•  Oﬀers
popularity
numbers
you

can’t
get
from
your
own
analytics

•  Moves
you
beyond
keyword

assumptions

•  Allows
you
to
compare
phrases

2424

Free

•  Google
Keyword
Planner
Tool

•  Google
Webmaster
Tools

•  Google
Trends

•  Google
Display
Planner

•  Google
Instant

•  Google
Related
Searches

•  Bing
Keyword
Tool

•  Bing
Intelligence
Tool

•  Bing
Webmaster
Tools

•  AnswerThePublic

•  Amazon
Suggests

•  MetaGlossary

Keyword Research Tools
Fee
Based

•  WordTracker

•  Searchmetrics

•  Hitwise

•  WordStream

•  SEMRush

•  ComScore

•  SpyFu

•  Long
Tail
Pro

Google Keyword Planner

Oriented
for
Paid
Search

Must
be
Logged
Into
AdWords
to
Use

Provides
keyword
ideas
&
monthly
search

volumes

Google Trends
Google
Trends
provides
trends
from

web
searches,
images,
news,

shopping
and
YouTube

Shows
seasonality
of
phrases

Can
compare
popularity
of
phrases

27

Google Search Console (aka Webmaster Tools)
shows
actual
search
queries

Shows
up
to
2000
top

queries
for
the
last
90

days

Not
aﬀected
by
the
Not

Provided
–
this
is
limited

but
actual
keyword
data

Provides
Impression,

Clicks,
and
CTR,
but
no

conversion
data

Google Display Planner

Free
Adwords
tool

Built
for
display
advertising
in

paid
search
but
can
give
insights

on
keywords

Suggests
related
keywords

Gives
demographic
information

on
keywords

Adwords Search Term Report
Great
for
keyword
discovery,
but
have
to
be
running
PPC

Query
People
Actually
Typed

Shows
you
how
customers
are
ﬁnding
your
ad.
With
the
Search
terms
report,
you
can
see
the
actual

searches
people
entered
on
Google
Search
and
other
Search
Network
sites
that
triggered
your
ad
and
led
to
a

click.

Identiﬁes
new
search
terms
with
high
potential
so
you
can
add
them
to
your
keyword
list.
Allows
you
to
look

for
search
terms
that
aren't
as
relevant
to
your
business,
so
you
can
add
them
as
negative
keywords.

Google Related Searches

Bing Keyword Tool
-‐
Shows
actual
queries

numbers
(not

rounded)

-‐ 
Has
6
months
of

data

-‐ 
Drill
down
by

Country

WordTracker.com

Data
pulled
from
meta

search
engines

Eliminates
most
skewing

issues
caused
by
robots

Diﬀerentiates
between

singular
&
plural

Oﬀer
Free
Tool
for
trial

33

Wordstream

http://www.wordstream.com/keywords

Useful
for

developing
your

vocabulary
of

related
terms
for

Hummingbird

Google Instant
Shows

suggestions
as

you
type

Google Instant – Shopping Search
Diﬀerent
set
of

keywords
on
Shopping

search
from
regular

web
search

Soovle.com
Gives
suggestions
from
diﬀerent
perspectives

Provides
suggestions
from

Google

Wikipedia

Answers

YouTube

Bing

Yahoo

Amazon

Plus
option
for15
other
sites

37

Ubersuggest
http://ubersuggest.org/

YouTube Keyword Auto Suggestions
Shows
popular
video
search
queries

39

Amazon Suggests

MetaGlossary
Provides
a
deﬁnition

and
related
terms

AnswerThePublic.com Fun
keyword
tool
that
gives
you

lists
of
questions
and
phrases

Excellent
for
giving
content
ideas

or
thoughts
to
ﬂesh
out
an
article

Tag Clouds
helps
identify
related
terms

A couple of things to remember…
No
one
tool
has
all
the
answers

Don’t
just
extract
keywords
from
a
tool
and
run

with
them…review
them
for
relevancy

You
need
several
tools
in
your
toolbox

Combining
the
tools
synergistically
works
well.

Some
tools
are
better
for
certain
functions.

For

instance,
Google
Instant
is
used
for
discovering
new

keyword
phrases
and
Google
Trends
is
good
for

comparing
or
identifying
cycles

Keyword Expansion
Phase
45

Target Variations of Your Keywords
Comparison
(best,
compare,
reviews)

Price
(cheap,
discount)

Product
Description
(green,
plus
size,
unique)

Intended
use
(gift
for
mother,
baptism
gown)

Product
(gift
basket,
mortgage,
flight)

Location

Action
(apply,
book,
find,
buy)

Season
(holiday,
Christmas,
Halloween)

Abbreviations

Brand
/
vendor
/
manufacturer

Modifiers
are
great
at

helping
you
expand

your
keyword
list,
but

remember
to
keep

“user
intent”
in
mind

when
you
combine

the
modifier
to
the

core
term!

46

Keyword Permutations
Mix
and
match
terms
to
create
new
keyword

phrases

Many
tools
that
do
this
for
you

Can
use
concatenate
function
in
Excel
or
speciﬁc

tool

47

Using Excel to Expand KW List
48

Group
related
keywords
into
lists
of
related

terms

Remember
to
identify
terms
that
frequently

occur
with
your
main
terms

Do
a
series
of
keyword
research
projects
on
a

site,
not
just
one

Develop
a
keyword
matrix

Keyword “Buckets”
49

Evaluating
Keywords
50

KW Selection Considerations
•  Relevancy
to
Site

•  Keyword
Popularity

•  User
Intent

•  Competition

•  Performance

Always
test
your
keywords.

Keywords
can
sounds
like
a
good

idea,
but
upon
testing,
they
can

fail
miserably.

Relevancy Considerations
Relevancy
means
choosing
the
keywords
that
best
describes
what
the
site
offers

Traffic
alone
isn’t
the
goal,
you
want
targeted
traffic
that
is
searching
for
what
you

sell

Best
bet:

Find
words
that
resonate
with
your
target
audience

and
are
descriptive
of
your
site

Popularity Considerations
Popularity
gives
insight
on
traﬃc

potential

Popular
phrases

Less
relevant

More
competitive

Being
popular
Is
overrated

Less
Popular

More
Focused

Less
Traﬃc

Consider
seasonality
and
cyclical

popularity
of
phrases

53

Consider User Intent
Getting
inside
the
searcher’s
head

Understand
the
“why”
behind
the
motivation
for
the
search
and
you
can

better
target
how
to
respond

§  Research
vs
Purchase

§  Stage
in
buying
process

§  Audience
Demographic

Buying vs Browsing
“car reviews”
“fast auto financing”
“80%
of
all
searches
on
the
Web
are
non-‐commercial” -‐
Jim
Lanzone
of
Ask.com

54

Evaluating by the Stage in Buying Process
Keywords
indicate
where
consumer
is
in
the
Buying
Process

Match
your
content
to
satisfy
the
user’s
intent
when
using
the
keyword

Problem

Recognition

Information

Search

Evaluation

of

Alternatives

Purchase

Decision

Adapted
From:
Marketing
Management
by
Philip
Kotler

Select

Alternatives

55

Searcher Behavior
Three
types
of
searches:

• 
Navigational

-‐
I
just
want
to
be
at
your
web
site.

• 
Informational

-‐ Do
hybrid
cars
require
special
maintenance?

• Transactional

-‐Interactive,
purchase,
subscribe,
download

-‐I
want
ﬁnancing
to
buy
a
hybrid
car.

Adapted
From:
A
Taxonomy
of
Web
Search
by
Andrei
Broder

56

Results Pages Give Insight into What Google
Thinks the Searcher Wants
Type
the
proposed
query
into
a
Search
Engine

Look
at
the
kinds
of
sites
and
ﬁles
returned

-‐ 
PDFs,
white
papers,
in-‐depth
articles
–
likely
informational
query

-‐ 
Ecommerce
sites
–
transactional

-‐ 
Brand
site
–
navigational

-‐ 

Are
Knowledge
Graph
Answer
boxes
returned?

-‐ 

Are
local
results
or
shopping
ads
returned?

Looking
at
the
results
can
help
you
interpret
what
Google
thinks
the
user
wants

Do
this
on
both
desktop
and
mobile

57

Evaluating KW By Competition
Who
Are
Your
Competitors?

Who is ranking for your main
keyword terms?
Who has PPC ads?
How well optimized are
competitors sites?
Are they active on social media
and review sites?
What is their link profile?

58

Competitive Intelligence Tools
Hitwise

ComScore
Marketer

Trellian’s
Competitive
Intelligence

Keyword
Diﬃculty
Tool

SpyFu

SearchMetrics

KeyCompete

Compete

SemRush

KeywordSpy

AdGooRoo

Keyword
Analyzer

SEMRush
Provides:

• 
Top
Keywords

• 
Rankings

• 
PPC
Terms

• 
PPC
Bids

• 
Traﬃc
Trends

Searchmetrics
Can
Identify
Co-‐Occurrence
Terms,
Competitors
Terms,
etc

61

SEOMOZ Keyword Difficulty
Relative

yardstick

of

diﬃculty

SPYFu

Test KW Performance
Use
PPC
to
test
candidate
KWs

Do
keywords
bring
the
amount
of
traﬃc

you
want?

Does
the
traﬃc
convert?

PPC
gives
quick
quantitative
feedback
on

the
KW
performance
while
controlling

costs.

If
works
well
in
PPC,
expand
kw

use
in
SEO,
social
and
content
marketing

Downside:

Terms
that
work
well
in
PPC
are
often
transactional.

You
may
have
to

expand
your
list
to
include
informational
terms

Content
Optimization
Putting
the
Pieces
Together

65

Everything Is Better with Chocolate Keywords
•  Web
sites

•  Paid
search

•  Articles

•  White
Papers

•  FAQ
pages

•  Product
Feeds

•  News

•  Blog
Posts

•  Press
Releases

•  Images

•  Videos

•  Podcasts

•  Schema

•  Social
Media

•  Content
Marketing

Optimize
all

digital
assets

Good Online Copywriting Is a Balancing Act
You
have
to
write
to
engage
the
human
reader

You
have
to
write
so
search
engines
understand

relevancy
of
content

It
is
this
talent
for
doing
both
that
separates
high

quality
SEO
content
from
spam

67

On-Page SEO Guidelines
Has
to
be
NATURAL

Elegantly
work
keywords
into
visible

content
on
web
pages

-‐
Don’t
stuﬀ
keywords

-‐
Do
the
“Read
Aloud”
test
to
gauge

natural
tone

SEO
helps
good
content
get
found

68

On-Page SEO Guidelines (cont)

Think
keyword
phrase
NOT
single

keyword

Create
a
matrix
chart
to
assign
diﬀerent

main
phrases
to
diﬀerent
pages

Use
synonyms
and
related
words
on

page
to
reinforce
main
topic

69

Where
to
Use
Keywords
On
Site

Title
Tags

Meta
Description

H
Tags

Visible
text
on
the
page

Alt
Attribute

Links
and
anchor
text

File
names

URL

Schema
code

Bold,
strong,
emphasized
tags

Breadcrumb
Navigation

70

Title Tags
<title>Interesting
Relevant
Keyword
Rich
Blurb</title>

Most
important
“on-‐page”
tag

Title
contents
appears
in
ﬁrst
line
of
listing
on
SERP
so
spend
extra
time
to
create

compelling
titles
that
grab
attention

Include
keyword
phrase
early
in
title

Should
be
unique…don’t
use
same
title
on
multiple
pages

Title
should
be
accurate
and
reﬂect
content
of
page

71

Meta Description Tag
<meta
name="Description"
content=“Compelling
marketing
message
that
reads

well
and
contains
targeted
keywords">

Should
provide
a
summary
of
the
page
and
should
be
unique
to
the
page

Frequently
used
as
snippet
on
results
page

Should
contain
keywords
relevant
to
the
page.
Include
synonyms
and
related

words
–
don’t
just
repeat
core
terms

72

Feed the Knowledge Graph
Explicit
method

-‐
Schema

-‐
Tables

Implicit
method

-‐
On-‐page
Text

Adds
conﬁdence
in
data
for
Google

Schema
is
helpful
as
a
template
to
build
out

quality
content

73

Golden Rules for Writing Copy
Talk
about
beneﬁts,
not
features

-‐Tell
them
why
they
should
care

Appeal
to
emotions
and
senses

-‐
most
buying
decisions
are
emotionally

based

Solve
problems
and
answer
questions
in
your

content

Don’t
forget
to
include
a
“Call
to
Action”

74

Develop Shareable Content

Start
with
relevant
interesting
content

Include
social
media
sharing
and
keywords
in

editorial
calendar
planning

Place
sharing
social
share
icons
in
susceptible

moments
–
Make
it
easy
to
share

The
Title
can
make
or
break
your
content
so
take

extra
time
to
create
a
compelling
headline

Use
a
subheading
to
further
entice
reader

75

Good User Experience
Increases
Share-‐ability

Include
visually
stimulating
graphics

-‐
Good
graphic
draws
reader
in

-‐
Faces
&
bright
colors
attract
the
eyes

“Chunk
up”
the
content
layout
to
be
more
scan
friendly

-‐
Use
headers,
subheadings
&
bullet
lists
to
add

hierarchy

-‐
White
space
is
your
friend

-‐
Keep
paragraphs
short

Avoid
“noise”
and
distracting
items
on
page

Don’t
forget
Google
tracks
user
behavior

76

Getting Your Great Content Found Online

Mix
in
synonyms,
long
tail
terms
and
variations

Replace
duplicate
content
with
original
writing
and

use
canonicals

Clean
up
the
site
-‐
Remove
low
quality
pages,
write

longer
deeper
content

Link
to
related
useful
content

Be
professional
-‐
run
link
checkers,
spell
checkers

and
avoid
foul
words

77

Points to Take Home
1.  Keyword
research
Isn’t
dead
–
helps
identify
user
intent

2.  Exact
match
keyword
targeting
is
dead

3.  Use
keyword
phrases,
synonyms
and
related
terms
on
the
page,
in

schema
code
and
in
all
digital
assets

4.  Use
tools
to
increase
productivity
&
provide
insights

5.  Test
keywords
for
true
worth.

View
popularity
as
traﬃc
potential
and

consider
seasonality
and
trends

6.  Write
to
enhance
the
user
experience
-‐
Compose
quality
content
that

satisﬁes
user
intent
and
answers
questions

7.  Make
content
easy
to
read
&
share

78

Thank You!
Christine Churchill
www.keyrelevance.com
info@keyrelevance.com
@KeyRelevance
@ChrisChurchill
Questions?

SEE YOU AT THE NEXT #SMX
THANK YOU!

Taking Your Content To The Next Level By Christine Churchill

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