During this seminar, one presenter notes that a paid search engine marketing client of his was bidding on 1 and 2-word phrases, but found that most internet users were reaching his site using 3+ word phrases.
This brings up a few good points. First, many companies focus on 1 to 2-word phrases because they don’t know any better. Bidding on 1 to 2-word phrases can be very expensive, and bidding on 3+ word phrases can be cheaper and much more effective.
So how should you do keyword research, be it for paid search or SEO? I always start with the web server statistics. Even the most basic web server statistics programs have the ability to show you keywords that internet searchers type to find your site. Compare this list against what you’re currently bidding or optimizing on and you might be surprised. Although 3+ word phrases don’t get as much traffic as 1 to 2-word phrases, the competition, clickthrough rate and conversion rate can be much higher for these terms.
The seminar presenter went on to talk about using negative matches to improve Google Adwords performance, and I would expand this to include using exact phrase matching functions.
I would add that many advertisers link their paid links to existing pages on their web sites, and this may be an acceptable strategy for some, but companies should also experiment with landing pages that a) search engines can’t index, and b) that could have a design that varies from other pages on your web site, making sure the landing page focuses on conversion (getting people to do what you want them to do, whether that means making a purchase, calling you, or signing up for a sweepstakes or newsletter).
