They’re looking for what? Understanding keyword research, content and your audience.

Fuel pump, fuel injection pump, electric fuel pump, fuel injector pump, fuel injection system. The language of car enthusiasts and aficionados. The language of online searchers. Keywords.

It’s probably safe to say that the reason you’re creating a website is to attract an audience to information [you believe] it will find useful. It’s also likely that you know that search is the primary means by which the content on the web is discovered.

Google Adwords has a keyword selector tool that gives you keyword ideas by category.

To most, the above terms describing fuel pumps all imply the same thing. To search engines, however, they’re completely disparate. Let’s face it, before beginning any marketing campaign you need to understand your audience. This methodology undoubtedly applies online and with search. For you, or those on your team who fill the roles of blogger, information architect, copywriter, market researcher, designer, programmer – essentially anyone that is involved in online content – search should be kept at the forefront. We need to learn how people are looking for your products, services or the relevant information you have to provide.

Think of search as a form of market research. Simply put, keyword research is the practice of determining what keywords, or words or phrases that a user enters into a search engine, are appropriate for targeting. There are many free keyword research tools out there, including the Google search-based keyword tool and 5minutesite.com for local keywords, so utilize this study in linguistics to see how people look for information. If you are doing this for the first time, you’ll quickly learn that the way you speak and search are often entirely different.

Now that we know how important search is to your marketing plan, it’s important to note that there are essentially three standard types of search queries: navigational, informational and transactional.  Navigational refers to those queries that are broader in nature and unclear on intent, except for maybe finding a specific site. Think, “headlight blog.” The second type of query, informational, is more descriptive and generally more explicit, such as “how to change a car battery.” For the third type, transactional, the searcher has finished researching and is now looking to make a purchase or another lower-funnel interaction with your site. These latter queries are typically your higher-converting terms, such as “buy k&n 57 series cold air intake.”

Here are some quick tips: Go beyond adding title tags and meta descriptions (yes, they’re still important). During the initial planning phase, take a step back and ask yourself, “What do I want to rank for?” Most people actually do this backwards. Identify your targeted list of keywords before writing copy. Share them with your information architects, copywriters, designers, and developers early on in the process. Use keyword research to actually define the website from the bottom up.

Remember, you’re the subject expert. Now all you have to do is write about it and do it in a way that helps convince the search engines.

Related links:

• Google search-based keyword tool
• 5minutesite.com