Choosing and Researching Keywords - More Specific Suggestions
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Think about the goods and services you offer. You may say you're already thinking about that, but if you run an electronics store and the only keywords and phrases you're coming up with are "electronics," "computer," and "DVD players," you can be doing a lot better. Are you trying to market your systems to gamers? Try the phrase "gaming computers." Do you buy and sell used computers? Maybe "refurbished PCs" will work for you.
Depending on your business, you might want to consider adding keywords that represent a particular geographical location. The most obvious example of this is real estate; no real estate company worth its salt would forget to mention prominently the location it serves! But it is certainly not the only one. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals typically service clients in a particular region. Well-known restaurants may claim a clientele from all over the world, but most of them cater to the locals. Hotels, as part of the tourist trade, would do well to use the city in which they are located as part of a keyword phrase.
Even if you don't think it makes sense to use a keyword for a specific region, geographical location might affect your choice of keywords in a different way. Different parts of the world, even if they speak the same language, use different terms for the same object or idea. For example, the enclosed box that carries passengers up and down a shaft in a building is called an "elevator" in the United States, but a "lift" in the United Kingdom -- and while there are "lifts" in the United States that serve a similar purpose, they are very different from "elevators." Even within a country -- especially one as large and diverse as the United States -- regional differences prevail. Is that carbonated beverage called "soda," "pop," "tonic," or what?
You might find it helpful to see what terms your competitors are using. You can do this easily enough by visiting one of their web pages and clicking View --> Source. If you can read HTML (or know someone who can), you will be able to see what terms they used in places such as the title, description, and keyword tags. You don't necessarily want to copy them; certainly not exactly, and certainly not if those terms are trademarked! But they can help you generate ideas for other terms that might work for you, and maybe even get you thinking about what will get you ahead of them in the SERPs.
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