The Often Forgotten Step in Keyword Research

I was working with a client yesterday on a new page for her advertising inflatables website. She needed copy that dealt with how inflatables could help bring more publicity. I received a short list of keyphrases from her, all of which looked great except one: [free PR].

That term caught my eye. I saw a note on the keyword list that said, “As in the free PR one can get by using custom inflatables at high profile events.” Problem was, I knew that wasn’t what most people who searched for this term would be looking for. Sure enough, when I did a quick search, it returned free press release (PR) distribution sites for just about the entire top 10 as I suspected.

What most people overlook is the fact that we can’t define what keyphrases mean. We aren’t there when the search engine bots come around and evaluate our pages against the others it’s ranking for a particular term. We don’t have the opportunity to explain what we meant when we added a keyword to our copy. It is what it is.

Could it be that a searcher who typed [free PR] into the query box was actually looking to gain free publicity from using a custom-made inflatable? Sure. But since Google’s mantra is relevancy, since they follow the search patterns of those who use their engine and since they placed press release distribution sites in the top spots for this term, it is highly likely that this particular phrase is more often used by those wanting no-cost media release distribution.

That’s why it’s always advisable to check each term to see what types of sites are being ranked for the phrases on your list before you decide to use them.

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