I know that if you’ve been reading about Internet marketing you have a grasp on the concept that it’s all about the keywords. The words that you have on your website pages will make or break the success of the marketing campaign. I mean if you set up a website page to market a phrase that not many people are using, then the reality is that you’re going to get very little (if any) traffic. How can the search engines match the words on your website page with the words people are typing in if you don’t have the words people are typing in on your website page?

What I want to tell you about today is an SEO technique that has been around for many, many, many years. It’s been called many different things, silo, hierarchy, pyramid, etc. Just know that it’s basically the idea of getting ONE main keyword phrase, creating a page for it on the website and then creating OTHER pages for the semantic phrases to support this ONE main keyword phrase. It’s sort of like creating a chapter on your website JUST for this keyword phrase. I’ll give you an example of how it evolves.

Getting the Main Keyword Phrase

Just yesterday I was consulting with an Internet copywriter who was writing an article for a podiatrist. The podiatrist wanted to market the phrase “intoeing in children”. I didn’t know what that was so I typed it into the Google Adwords keyword tool and the more common term came up, which is “pigeon toed”. Of course, there were other variations but I bet as soon as you saw “pigeon toed” you knew what I was talking about – at least more than when I wrote “intoeing…”

This is a VERY common mistake. Professionals (like the doctor here) knows what the correct terms are and he’s been using those terms for so long, he’s forgotten that the typical guy on the Internet does NOT know that term. So, for the Internet copywriter, the important factor is to market the phrase that is most popular, which in this case was “pigeon toes in toddlers”.

Getting the Semantic Keyword Phrases

So now that you have the MAIN keyword phrase, you can create a website page JUST to market that keyword phrase. But, to help that one page get up in the search engines you will need other pages supporting it. These other pages are pages marketing semantic phrases.

What are semantic phrases? These are keyword phrases that the search engines believe are similar or involved with the main keyword phrase. It’s their way of helping to identify exactly what websites to bring up for your search. The important thing to remember is that the search engines want to bring up the best possible search results for the Internet user, the webmaster’s job is to create the website in such a way so that the search engines can identify this.

Well, enough of that. Here’s how you find semantic keyword phrases:

• Go to Google (just the regular Google search page)
• Type in your main phrase (the entire phrase)
• On the left hand side you’ll see a line of text that says “Show search tools” (click on that). If you don’t see that line you might see a list of “Any time” and “All results”. You want to click on the line of text that reads “Related searches”.
• You’ll then be taken to a page that has some columns of keyword phrases on top. It can be one column, two or three columns, it just depends on how many semantic phrases there are.
• These columns of keyword phrases ARE the semantic phrases.
• Jot them down somewhere.
• Now do the same exact thing except this time with the main portion of the keyword phrase – for example: Our phrase was “pigeon toes in toddlers” – so first I typed in the entire phrase and made a note of the semantic phrases. Then I typed in “pigeon toes” and again, made a note of these semantic phrases.
• From this list of semantic phrases – you want to use as many as you possibly can to create ONE additional page on your website to support your main page which is about “pigeon toes in toddlers”.
• Of course, don’t forget to hyperlink the pages together.

So, you can see now how a website can grow and grow and grow! Now, if the search engines scan your website, what they will see is a page about “pigeon toes in toddlers” but they will also see that you have pages about “intoeing” and “pigeon toes in infants” and “pigeon toe symptoms” and “metatarsus adductus”. There will be no doubt in the “eyes” of the search engine that this website has the information that is relevant for that Internet user.

So get to it, make your website as relevant as possible!

One of the very most basic aspects of Internet marketing is to go as niche as possible with your website pages. This has always been the most difficult thing to teach website owners. After all, most business owners think about bringing in large amounts of traffic in order to convert some into sales. But the reality is, that searchers online are searching for their specific “thing” – so they are using very specific keyword phrases.

Let’s see if I can give you a real life example:

Barnestreefarm is an evergreen tree farm in upstate New York. They get most of their business for evergreen trees (Christmas is a hot season!) but we’re working with them to change some of that.

1) Of course, when I ask about what they want to market, they tell me “evergreens”. Well, that’s a pretty broad term.

2) So, I did some keyword research to find out what are Internet users typing in as far as “evergreens”. What I found is that the majority of Internet users are typing in specific evergreen tree names and also questions about these trees. Hmmm – well, that would certainly bring in more targeted traffic than just “evergreens”.

3) We began creating specific pages for some of the most popular trees being searched for.

• Norway Spruce
• White Spruce
• Blue Spruce
• Myers Spruce
• American Arborvitae
• Sugar Maple

We then added information to those pages about those specific trees and of course, we cross linked and optimized those pages.

4) Guess what happened? Well, in 30 days time, the traffic to the site increased by over 200% and the conversion almost quadrupled. Pretty fricking cool!

The concept and execution are really quite simple.

a) Find the niche keyword phrases – these are phrases that have to do with your product/service and are very specific – so phrases like questions, specific names, etc.

b) Create at least one website page (more is always better) all about that niche keyword phrase. Don’t be afraid to put as much information as you can.

c) Track what pages are working and which ones are bringing in conversions. In other words, which pages are helping to make you rich!

Internet marketing is not some magical formula or some elusive scientific formula that only rocket scientists comprehend. It’s common sense coupled with technical website knowledge. Use it, your business will be better off because of it.

I promise.

But, knowing what’s happening is just the beginning. So, let me give you an Internet marketing tip on what to do with a stat that you may find on your website.

1) If you don’t have a Google webmaster account (or if your SEO person does not) then they are really not doing SEO (search engine optimization). The data you get from Google webmaster tools is amazing and it will give you alot of information!

2) So, obviously, I’m going to give you a tip using Google webmaster tools. I do hope you like it and more important, I hope you use it!

3) One of the lists of information that you get from Google webmaster is the list of keyword search queries that people are using to find your website. You may be saying, “Well, that information is on my website analytics – I already see what keyword phrases people are typing in.”. Yes, that’s true. BUT. The additional piece of information that you get in Google webmaster is the click through rate. What this means is that the keyword phrase was typed in, your listing came up and Google webmaster will tell you how many times your listing came up as well as how many people clicked on it. I’m talking about the search results, not your website.

Let me show you an example:

One of the search queries we have for eckweb.com is… “small business seo services”. According to Google webmaster we are usually in the top 3 on the first page for that listing. This particular “listing” has come up 320 times in the last month (so that’s 320 impressions) but it was clicked on less than 10 times. (a poor click through rate).

So, what does this tell me?

Well, when I go to Google and type in “small business seo services” – I see the listing that comes up. It’s for the home page. I read the heading and I read the description under the heading. You know what? It’s not so enticing. I mean, there’s not anything there that’s encouraging me or making me curious enough to click on that particular listing.

So, now that I have this piece of information I can go into my home page and make corrections to the description tag and words on the website page to help fix this problem.

You would have not gotten this information from your website statistics program!

Anyway, go through this process with each of your website pages. When it comes to website optimization, you’re not just optimizing the website for the search engines, you have to optimize it for your target customers as well. Otherwise, all the #1 rankings in the world aren’t going to help if no one clicks through!

“As you type, Google’s algorithm predicts and displays search queries based on other users’ search activities. These searches are algorithmically determined based on a number of purely objective factors (including popularity of search terms) without human intervention. All of the predicted queries shown have been typed previously by other Google users. The autocomplete dataset is updated frequently to offer fresh and rising search queries. In addition, if you’re signed in to your Google Account and have Web History enabled, you may see search queries from relevant searches that you’ve done in the past.”

So, basically, this means that the phrases that you see popping up are popular.

So what?

Well, I’m telling you that you can use it to tap into what the general public is thinking about (as far as Google knows).  Here are some experiments…

1) Type in – I need help with

You’ll get an autocomplete results of what people are typing in to Google.  Because  it’s in real time, it’ll change, constantly and give you the most up to date information available.

Here are some other phrases you can type in:

2) I need the answer
3) When is the best time
4) Where do I
5) How can I

General phrases like this give you very broad answers, of course.

So, if you want something more specific type in either that phrase or the first letter.

Example:  Let’s say you’re a caterer, you might type in something like…

1) help with dinner party
2) catering services
3) wedding caterer

Want even more phrases then the initial list?  That’s easy – just add a single letter after the phrase.

1) help with dinner party a
2) catering services a
3) wedding caterer a
(Change from a to b to c, etc. all the way down the alphabet – you’ll get more phrases)

You see, long tail keyword phrases are usually the most profitable phrases because they are most often being typed in by Internet users who are ready to make the purchase.

Think about it. When you begin a search you begin (usually) with a general phrase and the more information you learn about what you want or need, the more specific phrases you type in. The long tail phrase is that specific phrase.

I took a look at the statistics for several websites that our SEO Firm is marketing and here are the results…

The 6 keyword phrases that converted 100% for Atlantis Plumbing were…
1) ga underground leak detection
2) plumbers in douglasville
3) plumbing leak detection marietta ga
4) polybutylene piping lawsuits
5) water main pinhole leak
6) water pipe excavation

The 5 keyword phrases that converted 100% for Certified Windows and Doors were…
1) hurricane proof sliding glass windows
2) hurricane window contractors broward county florida
3) manufactures in pompano bch fl
4) pgt approved south florida contractors
5) windows and doors miami

The 5 keyword phrases that converted 100% for Florida Divorce Law Online were…
1) divorce papers lee county fl
2) file for divorce in cape coral florida
3) florida divorce papers
4) limited representation agreement florida divorce
5) divorce lawyer online

This tells me (and it should tell you too) that the kind of people who type in long tail keyword phrases are the kind that are ready to make the purchase.   So, take a look at the keyword phrases your website is marketing.  Are they long tail phrases?