If you are in internet marketing as a business, you should already know that diversifying your income sources is an important role for the long term success. I’ve seen many beginners hitting the jackpot with an offer with only paid traffic sources, and didn’t know what to do when the offer was gone.

At my company, we focus on both paid and organic traffic sources, therefore SEO is an important part of our daily lives. Today, my goal was to create a simple guide for our new interns about how to write search engine friendly content, but I’ve decided to write a blog post about it, and share it with my readers also.

The tips about writing SE friendly content I’ll share will be exactly what my new staff will get as an initial guidance.

Writing Quality, Search Engine Friendly Content

We run a number of blogs, product review sites, comparison sites, quality content sites and more. So, this guide is intended to offer information about writing search engine friendly content in general. Whether you are writing a blog post or a product review, the general guidelines are the same. So, here we go;

1. Start with Market Research

Understanding your competition and the audience should be the first step. Start with a simple Google Search and see what others are doing first. You have to get a feeling of what others are saying about a topic before writing any content. Try to make this a habit and always start with a general market research. When you get more experienced, it will be a piece of cake to understand how much competition is out there for a given term, and you will start shaping your content and guesstimate what you can achieve before even writing the title.

2. Do the Keyword Research

For most writing jobs, using Google’s Keyword Tool is more than enough for general keyword research. I’m not going to get into the details of keyword research here, but you have to check both phrase match and exact match numbers, and also the number of competition on Google for the specific keywords. If the main keyword you are planning to target is too competitive, you might try to target a longer tail, and less competitive keyword phrase. After making a decision on your main keyword phrase, it’s time to plan your content.

3. Create an Outline for your Content

The success will come from choosing the right title and attention grabbing introduction. If you don’t have a catchy title, the chances are your readers won’t be interested in clicking on your link and read it. Even if they click and start reading, you have to grab their attention in your first few sentences. Outline your content, write short notes about how your introduction paragraph will start, what will be in the further details, will you use a list form, how you will conclude the article, will you be using any images or not, etc. If you don’t come up with a simple outline, it’s pretty easy to get lost while you are writing the actual piece.

4. Write your Content

I have written thousands of articles, blog posts, product reviews on hundreds of topics. Am I an expert author? Hell, no. English is not even my native language. But data shows me that quality always beats quantity in the long run. You should focus on offering value to your readers. Ask these questions to yourself; If you’ve read your own article, would it offer any value to you? Would you bookmark this site? Would you be checking related or more articles on the site? If your answer is yes, you are on the right track.

If you can combine quality with quantity, you will get more organic traffic. But don’t write long just for search engines. Write long content only if there’s value to offer in it. Longer content means higher chance of getting long tail keyword traffic.

In the old days, stuffing your keywords in title, meta tags, and in the actual content would do the work. But Google and other search engines are getting smarter every day. So, instead of keyword stuffing, focus on quality stuffing. I’m being asked the same question all the time; “What should be the keyword density in an article?” My answer is, I don’t know. I don’t remember when I’ve checked the keyword density of my content last time. Forget about keyword density. Use your target keyword, and all possible variables, even synonyms in your article when writing. When writing a product review, try to use the variations of the product name. So if the product name is “Dell Inspiron 1525″, try to use variations like “Dell Inspiron1525″, “Dell Inspiron-1525″, “Inspiron Dell 1525″, etc. in your actual content.

Writing complicated content won’t bring you the nobel prize. Keep it simple, clear and make is easy to understand for your target audience. Remember, when people search, they are not looking for academic level writing, they are looking for answers, information, easy to read content.

5. Proofread your Content

When you are done writing, if possible, have somebody else proofread your content. Other than checking the spelling and grammar errors, focus on the quality of the article. Does it sound overly complicated for the target audience? Does the introduction grab your attention?

The best way to proofread your own content is; write it, leave it for at least a few hours, and come back to proofread it before publishing it.

If you owned a similar website or blog, would you link to this content? If your honest answer is yes, you’ve done an excellent job.

These are the simple steps I personally follow when writing an article, a product review, or a blog post.

When you have quality content which brings high value to the target audience, it will be like wine. It will get more traffic while it ages. More sites will link to it, more people will use it as reference, and you will enjoy absolutely free, organic traffic for the lifetime of the content you’ve just created.

Whether you personally write content, or order it from writers, following these simple steps will help you succeed in writing quality content which will generate organic traffic in the long run.

Live blogging from Affiliate Summit East, please refresh for up to date content

This is the 3rd session I am attending today and live blogging.

Presenters at SEO Site Clinic:

• Rae Hoffman, Owner, Sugarrae, Inc.)
• Michael Gray, Owner, Atlas Web Services
• Michael Streko, Owner, Streko Media LLC
• Chris Pearson of Pearsonified

Important Notes from the SEO Clinic Session:

• Rae Hoffman of Sugarrae, Inc. is giving an example from their site TheBinocularSite
• Michael Gray is mentioning Quarkbase.com
• Chris Pearson mentioned the “The Blender Guy” example for getting free backlinks

Experts are reviewing ShopforMuseums.com (somebody’s site from the audience).

Audience is asking some kindergarden level SEO questions . I think experts are kind of disappointed.

There are some really funny examples going on, OMG. Why would people pay and come to a conference about affiliate marketing without even knowing the a,b,c’s of the industry?

Anyways, amusing session is continuing…

Link Building Tip of the Day

Be creative to get tons of quality backlinks.

Tips about Article Directory Submissions

You can submit the same article (without re-writing) to many article directories, but it’s a good idea to change the titles and the article summary. It helps a lot with article marketing. Keep in mind, best way is to have unique articles for each directory (article spinning anybody?).

3.40 pm: SEO Experts are reviewing Cooking.com.

Experts agree that the html is not clean, and they talk about the importance of clean markup. Also missing alt tags for images is a problem.

SEO Site Clinic session is over

Generate Free Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Google Local Ads

Online shoppers usually start their research on Google search. Many of them search for the product within their local area. Here’s an example:

Google shows local search results along with a Google Map above the organic search results (in most searches). And, here’s the best part; It’s totally FREE to include your retail store website to the Google local search results.

Don’t even waste another minute if you are not already listed, go to Google Local Ads Center, add your retail store website, if you don’t have one, create a 1 page site with phone number, directions, and a few store pictures. DO IT NOW.

Best Practices to Create a Google Local Ad

• Title is the most important part. Remember to include your main keywords (product, brand, etc.) to the title.
• Complete all the fields during the registration (store hours, payment types, store pictures, product tags, etc.)
• Customer reviews are important. Encourage your customers to write a review for your Google listing.
• Double check your address at Google Maps, make sure it is correct, and remember to include a store phone number.

Google Local Ads is the easiest and one of the most effective ways to increase your retail foot traffic right away without any cost.

You can also create free local search listings at Yahoo Local and MSN Live Search Maps. They work very similar to Google Local Ads.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other online marketing methods to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

SEO is the magic word, but unfortunately it is not a magic trick. More search engine optimization companies and SEO consultants are promoting their services every day. Industry is growing which is good. But SEO world has its own bad apples just like in any other industry.

So called SEO Consultants who try to show SEO as a magic trick are actually damaging the industry on purpose or not. The people in the industry can easily understand the difference between real, knowledgeable SEO’s and the bad apples. But, how about the prospective clients who don’t know anything about SEO?

If you keep hearing about the importance of SEO, and not sure about whom to hire, and how to interview an SEO consultant, here are some “red flag” tips for you.

Stay Away Warnings in SEO World

1. Guaranteed Search Results: Stay away from any, so called, SEO Consultant who guarantees organic search result rankings. There is absolutely no way to guarantee a ranking on search engines. If they promise they will make your website come up #1 or on the first page within X days, they are lying or they are talking about paid traffic sources (PPC, etc.)
2. “Too good to be true” Promises: If it is too good to be true, probably it is not true. So if they are quoting you ridiculously low on their consultant fees, it is either a short term ripoff, or many more extra charges are on the way. Quality SEO is NOT cheap. It needs long hours of hard work by smart people. Smart people will cost more. Just to keep in mind.
3. SEO is all about Organic Traffic: If you are hiring a consultant for SEO work, make sure that it is for organic search engine traffic. Many bad apples provide dirt cheap, unrelated paid traffic to show the increase in traffic. Make sure that you will be receiving pure organic search traffic.
4. Secret Recipe: There’s no secret recipe in SEO. There’s hard work, know how, and experience. Ask them anything you like. Don’t expect them to explain you every single detail about their SEO plan (it might be time consuming, and too technical), but if they start talking about a secret recipe, and proprietary techniques, it is a red flag. They should be honest and open about every technique they use to help your site improve its search engine traffic.
5. We only bring traffic: SEO is search engine optimization. It is not conversion optimization, or landing page optimization, but any good SEO is more knowledgeable than you are about conversion optimization. It might not be in the contract, but you might need help to increase your conversions. So make sure that they will help you to increase your conversions. Tell them that they will not be only working on bringing in the traffic, you will need help to increase your conversions (sales or leads).
6. $$$ Per Keyword Ranking: Some SEO Companies will quota you $$$ per keyword ranking. For the keyword “XYZ”, if your site gets ranked on the first page, you will pay us $10/month. This is a big NO in my book. Why? This strategy is not a whole in itself. Instead of working fully on a site with its SILO structure and domain authority, they will only focus on easy to rank keywords and landing pages. Even though the idea might sound right from business perspective at the beginning (pay only if you get results), this is not a long term SEO strategy.

These are only a few of the “red flags” you have to be careful about choosing the right SEO consultant for your project.

SEO is Long Term Hard Work

You did your research, you have learned the basics of SEO before hiring the right consultant for your project. What happens next?

Remember, SEO is not a magic trick. You don’t just turn on the button, and the traffic starts pouring in. From basic keyword research to advanced SEO techniques, every step needs hard work.

If you need fast, urgent traffic and ROI, you might be better with PPC Traffic. If PPC is the 100 meters track race, SEO is the cross country race, or even the marathon. SEO needs hard work, discipline, long term planning and strategy.

So, do your homework, and make sure you understand your needs and expectations before hiring an SEO Consultant. It will only help you in the long term process if you know what your expectations are.

SEO has become an industry. There are many honest, hard working, smart and great SEO companies and consultants, do not judge the whole industry if you haven’t had a great experience with a bad apple.

P.S. If this article was any interest to you, you might also read what I wrote about the Job Description of an SEO Consultant. You will find some more in depth information about hiring an SEO consultant from both sides’ perspectives.

Before I start; I have never worked as a full time SEO Consultant, but I’m very much involved with SEO both for my business and for selected consultancy projects. I’m not a self proclaimed guru in the field. But I make a great living by doing what I love to do; “Online Marketing”. This post is not intended to be an official “SEO Consultant Job Description” guide. The only reason I’m writing about this topic is due to a recent conversation with a friend about the job description of an SEO Consultant. Since it’s my personal blog, I can write anything I want right , so here are my thoughts.

Being an SEO Consultant Back in the Old Days:

During the days when I got first involved with SEO, probably most of you didn’t even know about the term “SEO”. Those were the best days, and tough days at the same time for SEO business.

Doing SEO was great, because there was almost no competition. Sometimes, even for the uber competitive “one word” keywords, it wasn’t really hard to get the #1 spot on Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

The tough part was explaining people what I was doing. I’m not talking about prospective clients, I’m talking about family and friends. It was hard to explain why I’d spend countless hours on the computer trying to get the top rankings on search engines. But at the end, I’d always feel very well rewarded both financially and mentally.

Being an SEO Consultant Today:

Yesterday I have received a spam email with the title: “#1 Google Result Guaranteed for Any Keyword for Only $9.99″. (no comment from me)

I have met many people from the SEO and online marketing industries at conferences, and meetings around the world during a number of years. I have talked to many SEO consultants! who didn’t have a clue about SEO. I even have an SEO Consultant friend who is doing this for a living, and he’s told me that sometimes he feels ashamed to tell everybody that he’s an SEO Consultant. And trust me, this guy knows about SEO, and has proven it with some fantastic results during the years.

Enough pessimism, right? Let’s look at the bright side. SEO was an experimental thing done by a certain number of geeks back in the old days, and it has become a fast growing industry now. There are many qualified, smart, highly experienced people working for SEO Companies around the world, and making a fine living. It’s the bad apples and good apples equation. But for sure, this industry needs more direction.

It’s all about supply demand, but why would I care about the bad apples? They are here to offer their expertise because there’s an obvious demand. I will get into this topic later. Let’s first talk about what an SEO Consultant really do?

SEO Consultant Job Description or Is There Really a Job Description?

If I’m hiring a secretary, it’s not hard for me to write a job description for her. Answer the phones, work on my schedule, take notes at my meetings, etc.

If I’m hiring a freelance web designer, it’s not hard for me to write a job description. Attend the planning meetings on time, come up with the required mockups on time, work on the required revisions, get the final design ready for the due date, and pass the necessary files and documentation to the programming team, etc.

With the minor changes for each company, job descriptions are not hard to write for many occupations.

But SEO is a different game, and being a successful SEO Consultant needs a different mindset.

What would be my requirements for hiring the right SEO Consultant?

If I was posting a job listing for a junior or a senior SEO Consultant and searching for the right candidate to hire for my company today, here are the fundamental things I’d be looking for:

• College Degree:

First of all, unlike many other SEO Job listings, I wouldn’t be looking at the candidate’s college degree.  As of today, there is not a certified undergrad or graduate diploma for SEO (as far as I know). *please exlude candidates with graduate degrees with specific search engine research and project experience.  I’m talking about the listings we see everyday like; ” Business Administration, Marketing, or Computer Science Degree Required” type of posts.

• “9 to 5 mindset”:

I wouldn’t hire somebody with a “9 to 5 mindset“.  If you have a 9 to 5 job, don’t get me wrong, you know what I mean by the “9 to 5 mindset”. 

Right SEO Consultant Candidate would be able to work over the clock, no matter what.

• Cheap SEO Consultant:

I wouldn’t hire anybody who’s optimizing his/her site or advertising for the keywords “Cheap SEO Consultant”.  Why? Do I need to explain?

• Guaranteed Results:

I wouldn’t hire anybody who guarantees organic search results.  With the right background and experience, you can make a very educated guess after your market research about specific keywords. 

Even before starting a new project, I can guesstimate when will some of the keywords reach top 3 or top 10 positions in organic results.  But trust me, there is absolutely NO way to guarantee certain organic search result rankings unless your name is Larry or Sergey.

• Begging for a Consultancy Project:

This is for the senior SEO consultant position.  If a candidate for a senior SEO position comes to me to ask for my business before I find him, I wouldn’t hire him/her. 

Why? If you are a successful senior level SEO Consultant, you wouldn’t have any time making cold sales calls trying to find a consultancy job.  I have never had a consultancy job where I have contacted the client first.  They need to come to me through referrals, or through research after seeing my successful work online. 

If  you are desperate for a consultancy job, and if you are a self-proclaimed SEO GURU, please spend the time to optimize your website for “SEO Consultant” keywords.

• Search Engine Algorithm Knowledge:

I wouldn’t hire an SEO Consultant who doesn’t clearly understand how search engines work.  If SEO is your job, you need to understand all the basics and fundamentals of search engines’ algorithms.

• Basic Programming & Web Design Knowledge:

I wouldn’t hire an SEO consultant if he/she doesn’t have basic programming and web design skills.  I’m not talking about writing an enterprise software. 

Even if you have a team of people working for you (web designers, programmers, content writers, etc.), you wouldn’t be a great SEO consultant if you can’t discuss the basics of the programming or web design job you need from your employees.

• Advanced Knowledge of How Websites Work:

You get a domain, you get a hosting account, upload everything to the public html folder, setup the index page, and you are done.  Now, you are a web developer, add a few backlinks, now you are an SEO. 

Unfortunately my friend, unless you have an advanced knowledge of how web sites work, and how websites should be setup, it’s very hard to create advanced SEO strategies for that website.  If I say “SILO”, and if we can’t talk about this topic for at least 30 minutes, that’s a red flag for me.

• Following the New Trends:

Many jobs require specific skills, if you have those skills, you can be great at what you are doing.  But being an SEO Consultant, you need to be following all the new trends related to SEO, SEM, online marketing, affiliate marketing, etc.  You don’t have a choice. 

Even a minor algorithm update of Google might require extra work for next day.  If you can systematically follow the new trends, it’s great, if you can’t, maybe SEO is not right for you.

For me, these are the major requirements to look for when hiring an SEO Consultant.  But is this the case in real life?  Are all the business owners or CEO’s knowledgeable about the qualifications of an SEO?

Let me give you some real life examples of SEO Consultants’ experiences (including myself) during hiring process for consultancy and full time positions:

• Who are you to interview me?

One of my friends, who is a senior SEO, was invited by a small business owner to talk about a possible consultancy project. 

When he showed up at the office of this guy in an expensive skyscraper office in New York City, he was surprised to see a 15 year old kid along with the business owner.  The business owner brought his 15 years old son to interview my friend. 

He started the meeting with saying “My son is the computer genious here, I don’t understand about internet or SEO, I only know how to check my email.  My cousin told me that I needed SEO work for my site, that’s all I know.  He will be asking you some questions today”. 

What would you do after this conversation?  Of course, he’s explained his level of expertise briefly and excused himself from the meeting.

• How much & When?

Most business owners only care about NET ROI, and numbers.  So if you tell them you charge $X/month, and start explaining the work you will put in, they won’t listen to you, they will focus on the $2X /month they should make. 

They will insist on the money they will make as a result of hiring you, and they want to know exactly when. 

They don’t understand the fundamental differences between running an online business and an offline business.  With great SEO, you can only increase the website’s traffic, you can’t promise sales numbers. 

There are so many variables in the equation (actual product or service they are offering, traffic, landing page quality, content, design, security, payment options, shipping options, demographics of prospective customers, etc. , etc.) to generate the revenue. 

So, what would an SEO do in this situation?  Try your best to explain the dynamics of online business in general, then if you don’t have a choice but to forecast some numbers, do not overpromise. 

Use your best guess with your prior experiences, and underpromise.

• Put it on the contract, or you will fix all the broken computers

 

You are the SEO expert, and if they hire you, you will not be an SEO expert, you will be their computer guy (for small businesses).  They will ask you to do everything related to computers and internet. 

Trust me, especially in small business environments, you will even be asked to fix the broken computers. 

They will want you to write their blog, design their site, program every little plugin, rewrite descriptions, and more. 

So prepare a detailed contract, and tell them exactly what you will be responsible for, before you even start.

• Can you play the corporate game?

Working with a small business has its pros and cons, just like working with/in corporate. 

I had a friend who started working for a corporate company as a full time SEO.  They had a team of 10 people for the online marketing department.  The only thing they were doing was running banner ads on all the possible CPM networks, and doing media buying agreements once a year. 

These 10 people would basically come to work 9 am every morning, have fun, chill out, write their personal blogs during the day, take long lunch breaks and once a week create report (with all the christmas wrapping) for the staff meeting. 

Since the senior management team wasn’t knowledgeable enough to understand the fundamentals of online marketing, they would be happy with the fancy, colorful chart reports.  My friend was a hardworking, smart guy, and had to resign after 3 months. 

He tried, but couldn’t fit in.  Others weren’t interested in working more, they were very happy with their lifes.  That’s fine, but they were also not happy about him working his ass off.  It wouldn’t make them look nice at the staff meetings. 

At the end, he had to quit.  Not every corporate environment is same, but corporate business comes with bureaucracy. 

If it’s your own site, and you want to try something new, you can try it right away.  If it’s a small business, you might have a manager, most likely direct permission from the boss would be sufficient to make the changes. 

But if it’s corporate, to be able to change a single word on the site, you might have to explain the reasons to your managers, create reports, make up reasons, then create more reports, and wait a response from senior management. 

If you are lucky, you might change it before it’s too late.  Most good SEO consultans I know are energetic, they work over the clock, they are smart, and if they want to get something done, it must be done now, not later. 

With a dynamic job like SEO, it might get harder to work in corporate world.  Evaluate yourself, and make your decision.  Explain the dynamics of this business clearly before you sign a contract, and require specific privileges for necessary updates. 

I don’t like the corporate environment, that’s why I’m a serial entrepreneur, you know yourself better than I do, so answer it yourself; Can you play the corporate game?

• Having a clue about SEO is sometimes WORSE than having NO IDEA about SEO

 

A small business owner, or the manager in the company, or even the HR person, most of these people are smart. 

So they will do some basic research about SEO, and especially during the hiring process, they will try to look like they know what they are talking about. 

There are very smart and reasonable people out there, you start to explain them the basics, they start to understand that you know what you’re talking about, and they will try to listen, and learn more. 

But people are not the same, some of them will try to ask you totally unrelated questions and try to prove you that they know about SEO and you cannot trick them. 

Here’s an example; On one of the small consultancy projects, all the work was detailed in the project quota documents.  The person who was going to make the decision has insisted on asking why we wouldn’t use a freelance from India who’d submit to 2000 articles for $4/hr within 2 hours, for a total cost of $8.00. 

Now, how would you start answering this question?  You have to start talking about article directories, how they work, why you’d submit articles to these directories, how the link building process works, and why it’s a big NO in your list to use an article directory submission bot to use.  Because your philosophy of SEO is all about natural, and white hat.  Start explaining him now, start with white hat  

You see, he has googled a few things about SEO, found this Indian company who does MANUAL? hand submission to 2000 article directories with a nice sales letter telling how evil US SEO people are for charging too much for this little work. 

He doesn’t even have a clue about the article directory submission process.  So, in my experience if you work with an unreasonable business owner or manager, it’s sometimes easier if they don’t have a clue about SEO unless they are very open minded about listening and learning the basics from you.

If you had the patience to read until here, you know now that I have talked about so many different topics related to SEO Consultant vs Business Owner (or manager) relationship, and the hiring process.  The idea of writing a post about job description of an SEO consultant came from the conversation with my friend.

My Conclusion about the SEO Consultant Job Description

Overall, I believe, an SEO Consultant doesn’t have a job description.  SEO Consultancy is too complicated and too much dependant on the project itself, therefore it’s hard to put every responsibility on a paper. 

Instead of a job description, both parties should agree on a custom made roadmap drawn by the consultant for the specific project before starting to work together, and sign a detailed written contract.

If you are the SEO Consultant: After your initial meeting, you will get the idea about the company (small business or corporate) and who will you working with.  You will not only be asked to do a great job, you will also be teaching people SEO every day. 

If the company environment and the people feel right, go for it, if not, there are countless options for good SEO Consultants out there.  Look for the next option where you will be more comfortable.

If you are the BOSS (Small Biz Owner or the Corporate Manager): Do your research, make sure to create a list of your needs, goals, and hopes from this job/position. 

Do not insist on asking specific promises which are impossible to be achieved.  Understand, and respect the skills of the person you are talking to.  Trust is an important factor in online marketing.  Overall if the skills offered will do the job, and if the first impression answers the trust questions in your mind, don’t make his/her job harder, and hire them.

Invest Into SEO

Long term SEO Strategy is a fundamental need for any business website (ecommerce or not).  So, consider SEO as a long term investment, not a short term one like CPA Arbitrage, and get into the online game while it’s the right time. 

The right time to invest into an online business is NOW.  Don’t wait for TOMORROW , it might be too late.

**Thumbnail and photo credits; SEO360

Online marketing takes hard work and time. One of the most important parts of online marketing is the keyword research. There are many keyword research tools on the market both paid and free, and they do a great job giving you detailed stats and recommendations about your main keywords.

Keyword research is similar to cooking a main dish in your kitchen or at a fancy restaurant. Each chef has a recipe for the same dish, maybe slightly different than the other, but it’s for the same dish. So what makes a chef more successful than the others? The answer is in the details. Maybe it’s the spice combination, maybe it’s how the food is marinated. Same rules apply for keyword research.

I will not get into the details of keyword research, nor this will be a Keyword Research 101 Guide.

I will talk about one simple criteria in keyword research that can make your online marketing campaign a big success, or a failure, and it is “Choosing the Higher Commercial Intention Keywords”.

What is “Commercial Value” or “Commercial Intention” of a Keyword?

A keyword’s “commercial value” or “commercial intention value” is used to estimate the conversion rate probability on your site or landing page. Higher the commercial value of the keyword, bigger chance the visitor will become a lead/customer.

To clear any confusion, we will go with a case study, also be very careful not to confuse conversion rate with CTR (click through rate).

Case Study: A prospective customer who’s shopping online for an LCD TV

The best online marketers are the ones that can walk in their prospective customers’ shoes. Let’s take a step back, forget about our landing page, and let’s talk about the different moods our prospective customers’ would be in before starting to search. Let’s start with categorizing these prospective customers:

1) Window Shoppers: They are likely only researching, not in the BUY mood now, maybe in the early stage buy mood.

If I was window shopping or just doing a very general research about LCD TV’s. I would use LCD TV’s, LCD TV Features, TV LCD, lifetime of an LCD TV, Plasma or LCD etc. for my keywords.

Even though these keywords have lower commercial value, creating guides about LCD tv’s, and general information landing pages would be perfect to target these keywords for my marketing campaign.

2) Prospective Customers who are in the “Middle Stage Buying Mood”.

These are the customers who probably have decided to buy an LCD TV, but not sure what to buy. They are most likely use keywords like; Compare Sony and Samsung LCD TV’s, LCD TV 1080 dpi, 120 Hz LCD TV, etc.

These keywords have higher commercial value than the first step’s keywords. To earn the visitors who are in the middle stage of buying process, we would want to send them to our LCD TV’s category pages, or keyword specific landing pages with both information and call to action.

3) Prospective Customers who are in “Ready to Buy Mood”.

These are prospective customers who are ready to buy an LCD TV. They might either use keywords like Buy LCD TV, Buy LCD TV online, Where to buy LCD TV online, Buy LCD TV free shipping, Purchase LCD TV Online, etc. or most likely more specific keywords like Samsung LN46A650 46-Inch 1080p LCD, Buy Samsung 46 Inch LCD, Compare Price Samsung 46 Inch 1080p, etc. Please visit Amazon’s Samsung LN46A650 46 Inch LCD TV page to see the keywords targeted.

These are the highest commercial value or highest commercial intent keywords, and we would like to send these visitors/prospective customers direct to the specific product and/or landing pages with clear “call to actions”.

Importance of Higher Commercial Value/Intent Keywords in PPC Marketing

You might create landing pages, category pages, and product pages and optimize all of these according to the commercial value of the targeted keywords within your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Plan. But, how about targeting these keywords within your PPC Campaigns?

You have now categorized your keywords depending on how high their commercial values are. You have started the PPC race one step ahead of your competition. With the right testing and tracking methods, you will be able to track your conversions, adjust and readjust the commercial values of your keywords, and determine your spending budget after sufficient testing period.

Or if you have a limited budget, you can skip the lower commercial value keywords after your keyword research, and only target the highest commercial intent keywords within your PPC Campaigns. This will save you big bucks, and increase your ROI from the beginning.

I hear a lot of people saying “We have great keywords, perfect ad text, high click through rate, a perfect landing page but we still lose money on PPC, What are we doing wrong?”. Even though the answer to this question depends on many variables, it might highly be the “Commercial Value of your Keywords”.

Microsoft adCenter Labs has a tool to “Detect Online Commercial Intention”

I have used the Microsoft’s Commercial Intention Tool, it’s not perfect, but it’s still in beta and it’s the only free tool out there to measure your keyword’s commercial intention value. It also works for domains.

It ranks keyword queries, and domains from 0 to 1 for their commercial intention value. Higher and closer it gets to 1, more commercial the keyword/domain is. Check it out yourself.

Happy keyword researches, and hope you will find the highest commercial value keywords for your PPC campaigns next time.