Keyword Research is the Key to Success

August 10, 2010 - Keywords are, for lack of a better term, the key to increasing your Web traffic. Without them, search engines wouldn't really know how to identify your website's purpose and rank it accordingly on search result pages.

There's plenty to be said about keywords, including how changing keyword trends can affect search rankings from day to day, paid versus natural keywords, and the importance of discovering the right key phrases for your website. These all involve keyword research, which isn't as complicated as it may seem.

First, sit down and think about what kind of words and phrases your potential clients would be using to search for your law firm's website. Start a list, because you'll be going through it later. Next, look at what keywords are already being used. To get a look at the words your competitors are using, try Google's Keyword Search tool, a great free tool to see the popularity of specific terms.

It's amazing to see what the search volume is for some keywords!

One of the best places to get information about what words your clients search the most is your own website. If you have a search feature on your website, check the search report and make note of the most frequently searched terms as those are obviously the things clients seek once they make it to your page.

Once you've got a list, you need to look at these words and pick out the real winners. Your target keywords should be a mix of broad, focused, and targeted words and phrases. The broad will get you lots of traffic, but lower conversions, while the more focused words won't draw as much traffic, but the quality of clicks will increase.

An advantage that the targeted keywords have is that if they are drawing in any sort of traffic, those users are most likely very serious about their search. In retail, they're known as being further along in the "buying process" and more likely to result in a sale. In your case, these are the clients that know exactly what type of legal services they're looking for and they have a serious interest in getting the best representation for their case.

When you're comfortable with your selections, it's time to put those keywords to work! Your website content, including landing pages, blogs and articles, should all focus on keyword density to help them rank on search engine results. Once you've got keyword-rich content on your website, it's a matter of keeping tabs on which keywords are performing well for traffic and which aren't. After a few weeks of checking and balancing, you should have a clear idea of your ideal keyword plan!

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