The majority of web users visit Google to search on the main search page using their keyword term. More advanced users venture to the image, video, or map search functions of Google. However there are a great many more tools that Google offers which aren’t necessarily advertised on the main site, or even in their ‘more Google products’. They’re usually found in the Google Labs and one of these tools in particular can help one in the beginning phases of an SEO upgrade – and it’s called Google Trends.

Google Trends allows you to view search trends of multiple keyword terms and compare them. This allows you to see where the trends lie for your specific industry in terms of keywords and what your target market is looking for. This tool can be very powerful depending on what you use it for. It can allow you to see seasonal trends and steady traffic patterns that you otherwise may have missed.

For example, you can search for yearly events like “xmas gifts” that you think may have seasonal trends:

 

These results should have been exactly what you were expecting – that people search for “xmas gifts” around Christmas time.

It’s also possible to browse trends based on calendar dates rather than searching for them by viewing the Hot Trends. For example, by browsing the top 100 hot trends of November 4th, 2008 it’s obvious you’ll see the majority of results circle around the 44th presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain.

It is important to remember that just because a certain search term is a ‘hot trend’ does not mean that you should put into your keywords or website content if it doesn’t fit with your topic. If it isn’t already apparent to why it’s a bad idea to incorporate content that doesn’t fit your topic or audience I strongly suggest you revert back to either my post on copywriting for SEO or Jess’ post on building the right audience.

Effective search engine optimization is based on understanding your target audience - not the target audience you have, but the target audience you want.

For example, I may have a website that gets reasonable traffic, but doesn't seem to be driving my business. I try SEO to improve website traffic, but still do not get the benefit that I seek for my business. What's wrong with this picture? I am not accurately targeting the website visitors that I want with my SEO efforts.

So today, I have two simple questions for you about SEO for your business:

1. "What keywords do your current visitors search on to find your website?"
2. "What keywords do the visitors that you want search on to find the website they want?"

The contrast in these two questions will make all the difference in your SEO strategy.

Step 1 - Find out what keywords visitors use to find your website

The easiest way to do this is to add Google Analytics code to your website. Once this simple code is added, you can monitor your website traffic patterns - and learn from your visitors. You can see what search engines they are using, what keywords they searched on to find your site, how long they stayed once they arrived at your site, and even the path that they took through the content on your site. 

Critical information can be gleaned from this very simple step. For example a peripheral keyword may be driving most of your traffic, but the keyword is not central to your business goals. Thus website visitors arrive at your website, then realize they are at the wrong site, 'bounce' off to the next one.  You can view this scenario as an opportunity to refocus - either capitalize on the current patterns by shifting your business offerings, or replace your SEO efforts with keywords that your desired website visitors actually use to find websites like yours.

Step 2 - Identify the visitors that you want, figure out their goals, and most importantly, speak their language.

Essential to this exercise is that you know which website visitors you want. Once you know this, you need to figure out what goal they seek to achieve. By understanding their goals, you can view the search from their perspective, and then you are that much closer to understanding their language.

How do you learn to speak their language? Try to use words that your customers would use to describe your business. Would they call describe it by its official term, or would they use more informal casual language? Ask your current customers how they would describe your business  - you may be surprised by the answer. Also try variations on the theme to see where the competitors are grouping, and where they may be gaps and opportunities for your business.

In summary - Build the right audience

SEO is not about simply increasing rank and building website traffic, it is about increasing rank for the right keywords that will build the right kind of website traffic that will help your business.

Copywriting for the web is an exercise in balance. Too wordy, and you’ll lose the attention of your audience. Too short, and you aren’t providing enough substance to sustain repeat visits.

The conundrum gets more complex when SEO is also a goal for your website. The reason is that text-based content is the food of search engines. As a result, content that is keyword rich is sure to get you some headway when it comes to search engine optimization. However, it isn’t as simple as loading a page with keywords.

The key to copywriting for SEO is balance. There are 4 factors to consider:

Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to the quantity of keywords seeded in your content, compared to non keyword phrases. Too many keywords in your content and you will do more harm than good. We recommend no more that 5% keywords.

Readibility
SEO will only get visitors to your website, it won’t make them stay. Misplaced keywords and unnecessary content will only frustrate your readers once they get there. Good well-written content will help encourage your website visitors to stay, explore, and even return again later, rather than bounce right off to the next site.

Value
Google values content, but it also highly values in bound links to your site. Link-based popularity means that other people like your site enough to link from their site to yours. To gain this popularity, you need to create value for your website visitors, not just for search engines.

Popularity
In-bound links not only help SEO, they also help drive website visitors to your site from referring websites. This is a great endorsement, and one that harnesses the true power of the web – your website visitors spreading the message about your website simply because they like it.

“Help! I don't have much time to optimize! What can I do?”

If you’re a small business owner who also has the lovely task of managing your own website, then you may have found yourself in this situation….you know you need to do some search engine optimization but you just don’t have the time to do it all. Of course the first thing I’m going to tell you is to give us a call and we’ll handle it for you, but let’s say that’s not yet an option.

What I would tell you to do is to take a good hard look at your web page title tags!

What are title tags you ask? In laymen’s terms, title tags are the HTML tags at the top of a web page that tell the browser what the page is about. You know, look up at the very top of the browser window and at the left you’ll see some text about that page; well, that’s the title tag. It serves two main purposes 1) when displayed in the browser it helps human users identify what the page is about, and 2) it gives search engines an indication of what they can expect to find on that page as well.

Good title tags are arguably one of the most important aspects of SEO. Search Engines such as Google place a fair amount of value in these little guys! They are also one of the easiest tactics for people to both comprehend and employ. What is important is that you know which key words are important to your business, as well as which ones are relevant to that particular page. You’ll definitely want to create UNIQUE title tags for EACH page on your web site. Be sure to examine each page’s content carefully so that the title tags are reflective of the content message on the page. Whatever you do don’t put in keywords that are not relevant to the page content. This will not help you, your visitors, or the search engines! Try to include one or two keywords/phrases in each title tag. Remember to keep them fairly short as most search engines only support 50 to 70 characters.

Finally, have a good look at the content on the page and try logically insert these same keywords in to the content. You’ll want to have a nice keyword density on the page. I say 'logically' and 'nice', because you don’t want to overdo it and end up spamming your own web site with keywords. Just let it come naturally.

Of course there are dozens of more incredible things that you can do to improve your search engine optimization, such as inbound linking, page renaming and alt tags to name a few, but if you’re strapped for time and budget, you can’t go wrong with this approach! Good luck!