Done correctly the calculation of value for keyword marketing has the slope of two congruent triangles, although the initial cost maybe more expensive, cost and time associated to maintaining content for organic positioning lessens over time.
The value of keyword marketing-bringing granularity to your companies value proposition
Implementing an inbound marketing inititive is both art and science. With Google™ and search, the customer is in control of where they visit and how long they stay. Educate them and they will be content, confuse them and they are off your site and onto your competitors. Technically, your content must align to their keyword search string and if you do show up in Google™ results, your site’s user experience and content must exceed client expectations in order to develop mind share early in their buying life cycle. In order to be successful your site must be physically appealing and your content must align to your visitor’s buying process.
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Great work Seamus. Most of what you’re saying is reflected in the data I’ve gathered working on client projects as well:
Up front time/energy/money configuring a system and making policies/procedures/plans.
Less time/energy/money as time goes on and content-generation becomes blended into the workload of the organization.
The amount of ongoing time/energy/money spent is usually related to how difficult the keyword is. For example, “inbound marketing budget” is magnitudes less competitive than “austin real estate” and would require more ongoing effort.
The bit about needing to be physically appealing isn’t always true, or rather, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are many plain sites (mine, for example) which do well for their owners. And there are even totally ugly sites with terrible buying experiences (godaddy.com, for example) which do very well for their owners.
What’s appealing and what works aren’t always the same thing. That’s why there’s A/B testing and on-site optimization. But that’s website optimization not SEO.
Good work! Keep it up.
Gahlord, thanks for your comment, we are in complete agreement!
My point is pick your keywords thinking like a buyer and run with it. In the case of Austin real estate; Do you you focus on Allendale, Brentwood or West End? How about on the University neighborhood, or houses within close proximity to Highland Park? Google™ “localized” everything and we need to bring our content down a level.
As an example, in my case, “inbound marketing on a budget” and “inbound marketing budget” is a very valuable keyword string to me. It works for us because it allows us to be of value to some looking for a baseline metric of costs but more important put’s us on an even playing field with an 800 pound gorilla.
My whole point is what works for us can work for anyone. Put the buyers hat on and think about what they may type in looking for solution. Then start writing and testing.
We agree enough, that’s for sure.
You’re definitely going the right direction re: “austin real estate” and drilling into long-tail terms. But there will always be client demand for ranking on competitive terms.
And there will be customer demand for broader/more competitive terms as well. In the real estate example, out-of-town buyers and those relocating may not yet know which neighborhoods are relevant and thus start with a broader term.
The “inbound” solution is the same though: make more content, make better content or both.
Gahlord, I am a big believer in long term keywords. So you understand my thought process, let’s bring a real scenario to life: I am looking for a home in Austin, I don’t know what neighborhood will suite my family best.
Let’s look at some likely searches:
Austin real estate- highly competitive
Austin TX real estate-highly competitive
Neighborhoods in Austin competitive
If I was a real estate agent who wanted to start adding value to home buyers, I would start by educating potential buyers on what neighborhoods would fit a buyers criteria. I would register “neighborhoods in Austin” and start writing.
Bringing a local scenario, “Burlington VT real estate” or “neighborhoods around Burlington” are both available keyword strings.
Yes, someone will start with “Austin real estate” but often times will dig deeper to get very specific information. My whole point is that sellers need to think like a buyer when choosing multiple keyword strings and it’s really OK to have microsites focused on each topic.