An effective practical exercise to help you with keyword research for your website

I have just attended a day's training on SEO with Duncan Johnson
at www.yodelay.com.

Here's a snapshot of what we learned about how to find what key words people might be using to find our websites...

Google have revealed that...
Duncan told us the stunning fact that apparently 80% of all search queries entered into Google in any six month period are completely unique.

This is despite the fact that there are billions of searches every day.

"This amazing fact revealed by Google reveals what a huge challenge it is to work out the key words people might be using to find your website.," Duncan told the delegates.

"This is a staggering admission by Google and shows how individual we all are," he added.

However, keyword research is still the cornerstone of any SEO campaign. It helps establish what is on the mind of your target audience when they are looking to fulfil a particular need.

How to: keyword research exercise
The training delegates were a mixture of small and medium businesses based in Norfolk. Everything from pest killers and commercial kitchen installers to web developers and car hire brokers.

Duncan directed us in a highly effective practical exercise to get us thinking about keywords and SEO for our websites.

We paired up randomly. One of us briefly described our business then the other fired a load of search terms they might use to find your business. We scribbled them all down for two minutes then swopped.

We then moved round the room pairing up randomly again with other businesses until we had several pages of search terms.

What was immediately obvious when we debriefed was how different each person's search terms are for the same business.

It showed how individually people use Google.

Here are some of the search terms for my journalism, content consultant, PR business that people came up with...

• Partner A (male, a web developer) : blog consultant, content consultant, print media consultant, blog advisor

• Partner B (female, a car hire broker): blog advisor, content specialist, Norfolk content, content specialist in Norwich.

• Partner C (female, a commercial kitchen supplier): small business Norwich, content writing Norfolk, blogging Norfolk, recent examples of press releases, examples blog, step by step press releases.

• Partner D: (male, contemporary card publisher): access to editorial EDP, copywriting local press, advertising Norfolk.

• Partner E: (female, office supplies): help me write my blog, website content help, PR help.

And so it went on. Every partner individual in their search terms and dramatically different from the last. It became clear that people had pet ways of searching. They might use 'step by step' or 'help me find' and they would impose this on anything they were looking for.

It was a fascinating exercise and one you could easily do with friends, family, colleagues, a random group of people.

Duncan Johnson suggested that these search terms were some of the most valuable information we would take away from the training day.

Google+

Video clips can be a powerful communications tool

Video customer testimonials are a powerful but often underused tool for websites.

I make short video clips - mostly interviewing customers or business owners in less than two-minutes and I've found my journalism training invaluable for executing these. Journalism teaches you to spot instantly what will capture attention and interest - just what you need when deciding content for a short clip.

Tory business mogul (just so you know where he's coming from) Doug Richard had a lot to say about these kind of clips when I heard him speak at one of his business seminars in Norwich.  http://www.webfuelledbusiness.com/

Indeed, he is a huge fan of using short video clips on websites. "It solves multiple problems simultaneously," he said at the seminar. They can be used at points where a customer may hesitate to respond to a call to action - such as buying, paying, signing up for something. Indeed, they can act as a call to action in themselves.

He says the most effective use of video clips is customer testimonials. "We trust word of mouth almost more than anything else we do which is why video testimonials are so powerful," he said.

Indeed, the less professional it it the more he thinks we are likely to believe it - so you don't need a high-end film company to make your clips. For example, look at the TalkTalk singing clips between the X factor filmed by real people, lower quality than an ad and seemingly all the more convincing for it. "Customer testimonials should be as naturalistic as possible," said Doug.

Doug Richard suggested that a clip inserted at those moments when a customer has to act can be incredibly powerful. Hence, a customer testimonial saying why a product is so great can be positioned right by the 'buy now' button - just in case they are hesitating at point of sale.

He likes the kind of almost amateur clips where a camera is pointed at a real customer and somebody almost shouts at them 'tell them why you bought from us?'

"These are by far the most powerful and effective sales tool," he said. "Short videos used at decision-making points and specific calls to action."

Or you could have a link that says 'click here to find out why people love us' which links through to video customer testimonials.

Since the seminar I've been keeping an eye out for the use of such video clips and they are actually few and far between. Those that use them are obviously capitalising on their rarity factor at the moment which makes them all the more believable. One of the best I've spotted is the impresive Nutmeg site - an online financial consultancy which uses them to explain why people have invested with the company.
http://www.nutmeg.com/who-its-for

Ludicrous journalism prizes...

Could this be the most ludicrous annual journalism prize awarded? Yes, it's the award for the best writing about, er, ceramic tiles. Listed below is the blurb for the 2012 award - keep an eye on the link below for the 2013 details which will be uploaded soon.

If you write about bathroom furnishings, and there can't be all that many of you, then this award could be the one for you.  Just for info in 2010 the prize was awarded to Anthony Stock for his feature Slim line tonic, or the thin edge of the wedge? published in (ahem wait for it...) Tile Today. Too much excitement for one day...

Ceramic Tiles of Italy Journalism Award 2012

Competition Rules

Ceramics of Italy are pleased to announce the sixteenth competition for the Journalism Award. This award will recognize the best published article/report on Italian Ceramic Industry  and / or Cersaie 2011, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings (Bologna, Italy: 20 - 24 September).

1) The competition is open to all journalists outside of Italy. Journalists may submit up to four articles. Only single author articles will be eligible.

2) To be eligible for the competition, articles must have been published by April 30, 2012 in magazines outside of Italy. All applicants must submit at least three copies of the magazines containing the article, a short description of the features of the magazine, as well as background biographical information by May 15, 2012 to:

http://www.journalism.co.uk/shorturl/GGHWB/

How blogging can help your SEO

Good news for disheartened journalists - your training and skills may soon be in high demand again on the web because quality content is becoming increasingly important in SEO.

For several years now, journalists have felt undervalued as it seemed like any old content, created by anybody with a keyboard, would be good enough to fill up the pages. It has seemed as if nobody really cared about the quality of the writing. Instead, it's been all about quantity. Now it seems things are radically changing.

I've just had a meeting with an SEO expert - Jim Drew at Business Revolution, in Norwich www.bizrev.co.uk I am editing the website content for my client, who runs a hockey coaching business, and he is designing and hosting their website.

I asked the inevitable: "So what can we do to make this website appear higher in the Google rankings?"
His reply was: "Start with a list of the terms people might use to search for you  - and make sure you include those in your content. Make sure your writing is good quality."

What? Did he say - "Make sure your writing is good quality". So the quality of the writing and the content actually matters at last.

As a journalist, feeling a little out of sorts at the overwhelming amount of free but poor quality content that's now on offer on the web, this was proverbial music to my ears.

"Make sure it is well-composed and not just a load of search terms. Make sure you are giving people quality content. The best advice is definitely to add good content. Every time you blog or add content, this is updating the site and Google will re-index everything," he added.

What a relief. After a few years of rubbish-content and an anybody-can-write ethos prevailing on the web - things have finally come full circle. Now SEO experts are talking about 'inbound marketing' - or offering such great content that people come and find your business rather than you searching them out.

Maybe journalism, in its new form of 'content' may survive albeit in another form as it becomes the latest weapon in the SEO battle.

Google+

Think the opposite of what you think you should think

Just picked up a copy of Whatever you think, think the opposite by Paul Arden (Penguin Books, 2006). Arden makes the point that until the Mexico Olympics of 1968 the customary way for a high jumper to cross the bar was with their body parallel to it - the Western Roll. A little-known athlete then turned his back on the bar instead of turning his body towards it. Dick Fosbury set a world record height of 7ft 4.25ins and invented the still-used Fosbury Flop. He jumped higher by thinking the opposite of everybody else. Hmmm. Easily said, harder done...but worth doing.
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River Island - don't shop there!

I am outraged by the customer service - or lack of it - at fashion shop River Island in Norwich. My teenage daughter has just had her ears pierced and I gave her some money to get her first fashion earrings for a party. She came back with some earrings from River Island. But unfortunately - and bear in mind you are not allowed to try on pierced earrings before you buy - when she put them on they were so heavy they were unwearable. They dragged the ear lobe so far down that the hole tugged and gaped and you just couldn't wear them. I've had my ears pierced for years but I couldn't wear them either. At £12.99 I considered that they weren't 'fit for purpose' and went back to the shop. 'These earrings are so heavy they are unwearable. You can't try them on before you buy to discover this. They are unfit for purpose and I would like my money back please,' I say with a smile and what I considered to be a pleasant manner. 'We don't refund pierced earrings', says a surly assistant. I repeat that I don't want to change them because I don't like them, but because they are not fit for purpose. She repeats that they don't refund pierced earrings. I ask to see the manager and she has the same surly, rude attitude. There is nothing doing. They are not listening. They are rude. They don't get they we like the earrings, but can't wear them because they are so heavy they are unwearable. 'Nobody else has complained.'I am feeling humiliated and hot. There is nothing doing. I walk out with no joy. What terrible customer service. It was their rudeness that annoyed. Even if they hadn't been able to change the product, or the law isn't on my side (I'm not sure where I stand on this) they could have been more pleasant. I spend hundreds of pounds in River Island. It's where I buy many of my daughters' clothes and would have bought many of their Xmas presents. I instantly vowed to never ever spend a single penny in their ever again. So for the sake of refunding £12.99 and having a happy customer. They have a very unhappy customer who will never shop their again and has been repeating negative comments about them to anybody who will listen. 'Never shop there' I have told my daughters, and friends, and relatives...terrible customer experience. I decided not to bother writing to the management because if the shop ethos is this rude it probably comes from the top of the company. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up in financial trouble - and I wouldn't care either. River Island  - just say 'no'...

Aggregation of marginal gains

I love the philosophy espoused by Team GB Cycling's psychiatrist Steve Peters (see pic left) and coach Dave Brailsford.

They talk a lot about what they call 'aggregation of marginal gains' - making tiny improvements wherever you can which adds to a constant total improvement. It is the most optimistic and inspiring philosophy for sport

On the Team Sky website http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,17547_5792058,00.html Dave Brailsford explains: "We've got this saying, 'performance by the aggregation of marginal gains,'" Brailsford continued. "It means taking the 1% from everything you do; finding a 1% margin for improvement in everything you do. That's what we try to do from the mechanics upwards.

"If a mechanic sticks a tyre on, and someone comes along and says it could be done better, it's not an insult - it's because we are always striving for improvement, for those 1% gains, in absolutely every single thing we do."

All these tiny gains gradually add up to a larger gain. I'm holding onto this thought in my veteran novice attempts to improve my hockey playing. I motivate myself by making sure that after each training session or match, however down I feel about my performance, that if i can take one tiny thing from it and improve the smallest amount it's moving in the right direction.

Indeed, the marvellously positive ''AMG" mantra as the team cycling coaches call it, applies well to any endeavour in life as well as sport.

Liz Hollis