How to Find Effective Keyword Phrases for B2B Products and Services

Keyword phrases are the gold of SEO content writing. Select the right keyword phrases, write useful information around those key phrases, and watch the traffic come to your website. If your SEO content writer has been using the same keyword phrases for six months or even a year, it’s a good idea to head back to Google Adwords for a checkup. Go to the Google keyword tool and see how things have changed. Are new related keywords popping up? Has the competitiveness of certain keywords changed? What are the trends?

Everyone wants to rank for the broad keywords, but competition is keen. B2B content marketers need to look beyond the obvious. A simple spreadsheet can help you organize keywords into stacks or groups of related keywords for more effective SEO content writing. Here are five ways to develop and organize keywords for B2B products and services.

1. Keywords related to problems

What problems do your products or services solve? Searchers in this group don’t know what the answer might be yet, they just know they have a problem.

For example, a restaurant owner is throwing away too much food at the end of the day. He types in “how to reduce food spoilage.” For a company that sells food storage solutions, this might be a keyword phrase.

2. Keywords related to solutions

People in this category have some idea of how to solve their problem. For example the same restaurant owner might type in “Food Storage Solutions” or “best inventory management for restaurants.”

3. Product or brand keywords

People who already know the solution for their problem might type in a specific product category or brand name. For example they might type in “Rubbermaid Commercial Food Storage” or “Commercial Restaurant Storage.”

4. Service keywords

A service-related search would include service terms rather than specific products. A restaurant operator might type in”menu planning“, “foodservice purchasing“, or “foodservice consulting.”

5. Keywords related to cost

Searchers who are checking out costs are definitely in buying mode. Is your website optimized to capture traffic from these potential buyers?

6. Keywords based on your own site analytics

Check your analytics to see what terms drive people to your site. You may find some golden keywords you didn’t even know existed.

The important part of effective keyword research is to put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer at various stages of the buying process. Then, use keyword research tools to prioritize your keywords based on the number of searches and competition. But remember keywords are a moving target. Continue to monitor regularly to avoid missing a an opportunity.

Who does your keyword research? While clients may give us a few keywords, at Content for Biz we always do our own keyword research. We believe this is an important factor in the success of any SEO writing project.

It’s the start of a new year. What better time to find some new keyword phrases that can help you drive business in 2012.

A Good Content Writer Takes the Extra Steps

Do you have time for the extra steps it takes be a good content writer?

I think writing for the web requires more discipline than writing for print. First of all, website visitors don’t read, they scan, and you have only seconds to capture their interest. You need to make your point quickly. At the same time search engines aren’t all that forgiving. If you don’t include the right keywords, or use the right code, your content may as well be invisible. Being a good content writer means you take that all into account. You take the extra steps to ensure high quality content that will drive online results.

Step 1. Research

Effective content writing requires putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. A content writer shouldn’t guess at topic areas to cover, they should research them. They should interview sales and service people to find out what questions people ask. A good content writer checks Google adwords and asks to review website analytics to see what problems your customers and prospects are trying to solve.

Step 2: Originality

The Internet has made it incredibly easy to see what your competitor’s are writing about. But if you want to stand out online your B2B brand needs its own voice. Seek originality in both content and content delivery. A good content writer asks, ‘What hasn’t been done before?’ and ‘What’s the best way to deliver the information? ‘

Step 3. Editing

On a small computer screen or phone, even the shortest of paragraphs can seem long. Rather than read it, your customers and prospects will move on. A good content writer is diligent in keeping sentences and paragraphs short. They weed out unnecessary words and break up long lists with bullet points. A good content writer reads copy aloud to identify awkward text that doesn’t flow.

Step 4. Keyword and Word Selection

A good content writer understands the importance of keywords and using the language of the audience. They start with a specific keyword and then write copy to support it. To do otherwise is to invite awkwardness. Words are chosen carefully. Industry jargon is avoided to satisfy the needs of both humans and search engines.

Step 5. Proofreading

A typo or misspelling is embarrassing. It is easy to see the mistakes of others, but more difficult to spot your own. Good content writers have a system for proofreading their work to catch grammatical errors, omissions and misspellings.

These extra steps inspire and ensure quality content. It’s one more interview, one more read through the copy, one more ounce of effort that separates a good content writer from a mediocre one. It takes time that you might not have.

How do you find the best writers?

Save Time and Make Blogging Easier

time stressed writer — What can I write about?

Most companies understand the benefits of a B-2-B blog. But when it comes to writing blog posts week after week, they falter. While a lack of ideas, enthusiasm, and ability may be the problem, more often, it is a lack of time that sabotages their efforts. Writing is time consuming. Here are some ways to streamline the blogging process.

Decide on a topic. This often involves research. After you have read what is written on a topic, you need time to figure out how you can create your unique viewpoint. Finally, there is the actual writing and editing time, which can vary considerably, depending on the degree to which your efforts are interrupted by other responsibilities. If time constraints are keeping you from producing a better blog, consider how hiring a professional writer can help you.

1) A professional writer can help you organize your B-2-B blog content using an editorial calendar.

Take a cue from B-2-B editors who find they deliver better content when they follow an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar includes a brief description of what you will publish and when. Instead of letting things fall to chance, you might decide to feature a case study on Wednesdays and a Q&A with a company expert on Fridays. You may have six key topic areas to plan around. Stop scrambling to find a topic the day the blog post is due.

2) A professional writer can research a blog topic for you.

Much of a professional writer’s job involves finding credible sources of information—weeding through a multitude of sources and conversations on the Internet. While your company experts are likely to be the No. 1 source of information for your blog, following other experts in the field, competitors, keywords, relevant research and news can be extremely valuable. Consider hiring a professional writer to research a topic or customize and organize market intelligence for you. With everything at your fingertips the writing process becomes more efficient.

3) A professional writer can edit your blog posts.

If you or your team have great ideas but don’t have the time to give your writing professional polish, you can hire a writer to review and edit your work. With an editor’s thorough review process you will avoid embarrassing misspellings and grammatical errors. A good editor will help you communicate clearly and concisely, without losing your “voice.” A writer knowledgeable in search engine optimization can also edit your blog copy to integrate important keywords that will drive traffic to your site.

4) A professional writer can develop and write blog posts for you.

People often wonder how someone can write about an industry or topic they are not familiar with. However, professional writers successfully do this every day by thoroughly researching topics and formulating the right questions to ask company experts and industry insiders. In contrast, those who are so close to a topic often overlook the obvious questions that potential customers might have.

If time is keeping you from fully realizing the benefits of a blog, consider hiring a content writer to handle a portion or all of your writing-related tasks. Content for Biz offers all of these writing, editing and content development services. Check out the “Work with Us” tab to learn more or give us a call.

How to Improve Your Search Rankings with Keyword Research

You know that using the right keywords is critical to your online marketing success, but who is generating your keywords and how are they doing it? Keyword research is one of the most important steps in improving your search engine rankings. It takes more than hunches and common sense to identify the right keywords. It takes research. A number of free and paid research tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Wordtracker can help.

Here’s an example of how following your gut instincts can lead you down the wrong path. A client recently suggested that we use the term “commercial real estate brokerage,” to describe his business. A quick search using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool revealed that this term was associated with only 1300 local monthly searches, while there were 14,800 searches for “commercial real estate brokers” and 9,900 searches for “commercial real estate companies.” Had I not researched this, the site would clearly not generate all the traffic it should.

Time and again, I am surprised by what these search tools reveal. Who would have guessed that “JCB Backhoes” generates six times the number of searches as “JCB backhoe loader?” Research ultimately saves you time, because you are able to write website copy with a purpose and avoid costly mistakes.

When deciding on keywords, consider not just single words, but also relevant phrases. While there will be fewer searches for longer phrases, these phrases generally lead to more conversions because the searcher knows exactly what he or she is looking for. This is especially true for phrases that indicate a buying intention. For example, someone searching to “Get a quote on business insurance” would generate more conversions than someone just searching for “insurance agent.”

Once your keywords and phrases are identified, do a quick search on Google to identify competitors – those firms that show up on the first page for the keywords you deem important. Identify their competitive keywords and phrases using Alexa or simply viewing the metatag data on their site. (right click on their home page and click “View Source”). This is valuable information you don’t want to miss.

Your own website statistics will also reveal the terms visitors are using to search for you. View your statistics regularly and identify popular search terms you can ultimately use in your website content.

Once your keywords are known, you are ready to take the next step: creating a fully optimized website.

Ask us how we can help.