How to Pick Your SEO Search Terms

One of the most key elements during the sign up process is your choice of Search Terms. It’s important to get the right balance. Too broad and the competition is fierce and results very hard to achieve (but generally not impossible). Too long and the search volumes may not be high enough for it to be worthwhile. In this article we’re going to give you the information required to make the right choice and how long you will realistically have to wait to see noticeable impact.

What is your lead search term?

One of the most important elements of your digital marketing campaign

During sign up (or editing your search terms in the control panel) you will notice that the first search term you enter is called the lead search term. Although all of your search terms are important, the first term you enter is the most important which is why we call it your lead search term. This is the term that we will gear most of the home page around so it needs to be given a great deal of thought.

What is a long tail search term?

More words equals faster results

Long tail search terms are basically longer sentences. They are generally defined by 3 or more words. So, using Click Submit as an example a long trail search term might be “What is SEO” or “Reputation Management Company”. The average time to see impact on a long tail search term is roughly 3 to 9 months but must be taken on a case by case basis depending on competition.

What is a broad search term?

You must be patient but they can be extremely rewarding 

A broad search term is generally defined as either 1 or 2 words. So, again using Click Submit as the example one might be “SEO” and another “Affordable SEO”. It’s very hard to put a time frame for impact on broad terms as the competition differs greatly but on average it ranges from between 6 and 14 months.

Keep geographical where possible

Go local for faster results and more targeted traffic

Where we see the fastest results is when you’re able to make your search terms geographical. The minute you add in a geographical location you cut down the competition dramatically while at the same time creating a much more targeted campaign. Volumes are lower but far more relevant. For example Click Submit may target a search term like “Digital Marketing Agencies in Manchester”. We are normally able to achieve results within a 3 month period on a geographical search term.

How many should you enter?

Less is more

You can have up to 10 search terms but we recommend trying to keep it to around 5 initially. The rule of thumb is that generally less is more.

Short and long term goals

Get the right blend for fast and then consistently improving results

During sign up you will be able to enter up to 10 search terms. This gives you the ability to mix it up a bit. What we suggest is going with a selection of short and long term goals. So, you may go with 5 geographical search terms and then 5 broader search terms. This means you will most likely see a consistently improving campaign.

Useful tools

Some help on making your choice

Try Google?! When you have a list of potential search terms you can then search Google for each of them. Generally the total number of results gives you a good idea of the competition. For example “Digital Marketing Agencies” (https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Digital+Marketing+Agencies) has 31,300,000 results whereas “Digital Marketing Agencies in Manchester” has 726,000 results (https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Digital+Marketing+Agencies+Mancester). So this correctly suggests that adding the word Manchester cuts down on the competition dramatically and will lead to faster results.

We also have our very useful search term checker tool which you have access too during the sign up process. This will give you an indication of the timeframe to expect on each search term across all of our digital marketing services.