Here is a pop quiz for all you people who are about to do a keyword research for your website or, next SEO project.
Let’s imagine for a minute that you (or, your customer) are an online hardware retailer that sells Laptops. I on the other hand, am your average zombie prospect – browsing the web rather mindlessly, searching for a Laptop. Can you tell the difference in my thought process when I type following different keywords?
1. Laptops
2. Intel Core 2 Duo Laptops
3. Latitude XT2
No – That’s not the right answer! Think again… harder… focus… Okay… I’ll give it to you.
These keywords represent where in the sales funnel they I am at the moment. I will explain –
The keywords like “Laptops” , “Dentist” , “Carper Cleaner”, “Web Designer”, “SEO Company” tells me that the people searching for these are in “Browse” mode. They don’t know specifically what you they want. As a marketer, if you focus too much time and attention on them, you will end up wasting a lot of money because they are mostly non-buyers. I would term them as ‘Suspects‘ and not ‘Prospects‘
On the other hand, keywords like “Intel Core 2 Duo Laptops”, “Photoshop Web designer”, “SEO Company London” represents a just ripe audience. The people putting these keywords in the search engine are in “Compare” mode.
They have a slightly better defined idea about what they need and this means they have given more thought to it and hence they are more serious. I would term them as ‘Prospects‘ and not ‘Buyers‘.
In most industries, you will find yourself working with these bunches of keywords and this is where you should focus your time, money and energy. Heck, I would even suggest, your website should only serve people who know what they want but are in ‘Compare‘ mode. Sell them on why you are better.
Finally, keywords like “Latitude XT2” or anything else with brand name, part numbers, price or narrow geographic location represents a “buy” audience.
They are “Buyers” because they know what they are looking for. It’s low hanging fruit and if you find yourself lucky to get keywords like “Latitude XT2 Repair East London” – by all means pounce on it. Typically, you won’t find a lot of these keywords very easily and when you do, it’s prudent to run specific PPC campaigns and build specific landing pages for each such keyword.
Take a look at your keywords now. Can you identify the “Browse”, “Compare” and “Buy” keywords?
– Mukul Gupta
