Getting the Right Keywords

Have you ever tried to pick out a picture for a brochure or website?  It is amazing how much thought goes into it. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, than I think I use about 3000 when eliminating images.  “These people look like they are thinking something weird” or “I wish these people were doing something instead of just standing still”.  Trying to find the image that captures your business is definitely tough.

Which then led me to keywords.  At some level if I can narrow my search to the right keywords I should find more images that are worthy of consideration and less that make me want to throw up (sorry – been at this awhile now).  What did I find?  Different people who post the pictures use keywords in different ways. Where I was looking for “business people”, the site I was using uses “business teams”.  Once I used business teams, I started finding groups of people who (in theory) were at work.  But it never would have occurred to me to use business teams because I want two people – not five. So to me, they aren’t teams.

Okay – so what?  Why should we care how people are finding images on some random picture site?  Because people are also using keywords to find you.   And those people don’t think like you – because if they did, they wouldn’t be looking for you; they would have already found you.  So how do you find the right keywords so people can find you?

First, geographic location is a no-brainer.  When people are searching for something and need to narrow their results, their first stop is to add a geographic location.  Cool.

Second, check out the keywords people are actually using in searches.  One site that is helpful is  Google Adwords Targeting .  This site is designed to help those interested in AdWords identify the right keywords for their ads.   (NOTE: Doesn’t work with Opera as your browser just in case you’re like me and don’t figure that out quickly)  By using tools like this you can figure out keywords that other people will use to find your business. Then, those keywords go in your text, in your page descriptions, and in any profiles you have on sites, etc.  Optimizing those keywords is critical to people finding you.

Third, talk to real people.  I know this sounds silly, but asking people what they would type into a search engine to find you is a great way to get more customers like them.  Different regions of the country use different phrasing and ways to say things so appeal to the right people.  Also, if there’s a way people most often mis-spell your company name, enter that in your keywords too.

At the end of the day your keywords will either get you found or leave you buried on page 15 of the results.  You need to get good keywords.  And if you find great pictures of business people who look cool but also like they are working, let me know!