Ottawa Web

Ottawa Web

Also known as “Why You’re Missing 80% of the Traffic.” With 1 Billion searches per day, Google is used more than any other search engine in the solar system. Beyond the Milky Way, well we don’t have enough information to form a proper graph. As you can imagine, there are searches for everything from Aardvarks through to Zymology, the study of fermentation, which is great if you’re a beer-drinking zoologist. Meanwhile, back at the Internet, the search goes on. And on. So, everyday Google receives billions of words that are keyed in by millions of people. In all of that information, patterns begin to emerge. If you are looking for bedbug related products then you would write bedbug. Or, would you write as two words, bed bug? Or, perhaps you would write it as plural, bedbugs? Or, would you write it as two words plural, like bed bugs? Unbelievably, one of the bedbug terms gets 80% of the traffic, and if you are not using it, then you are missing 8 out of 10 online inquiries.

With a billion searches per day, Google has the information of which terms are used most often. If you know where people are looking, then it is easier to use the most popular terms and place your information right in the middle of traffic, thereby exponentially increasing your odds of online marketing success. Then there are misspellings, geographical locations because if you are looking for a painter, then you want one on your side of the continent. There is so much information that it is mind blowing and that is where most people shut down.

Keyword research is a highly technical skill that requires the use of software, an analytical mind and the smarts to cross check your findings in several key spots online. If you own a business and you are using words that you read on your competition’s website, then you may be using the wrong keywords as well and you are both fishing in the dead sea. 80% of nothing is still nothing. The good news is that your competition doesn’t know what keywords are either. When I conduct research for my clients, I look behind their competition’s websites and I can tell you that very few online businesses know what the high traffic, high return keywords are. Stop guessing and start knowing. Then you will really have something to build on and you will begin to see some real, long term results. I’m dean emerick at Ottawasocialmediamarketing.com.