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Keyphrase analysis

The starting point to successful search engine marketing is target the right keyphrases. Notice 

that I say ‘

keyphrase

’ (short for ‘keyword phrase’) rather than ‘keyword’ since search engines 

such as Google attribute more relevance when there is a phrase match between the keywords 

that the user types and a phrase on a page. Companies should complete a ‘gap analysis’ which 

will identify keyphrases to target by showing, for each phrase, the number of visitors they could 

potentially attract compared to the actual positions or number of visitors they are receiving.

Key sources for identifying the keyphrases customers are likely to type when searching for 

products include your market knowledge, competitors’ sites, keyphrases from visitors who 

arrive at the site (from web analytics), the internal site search tool and the Google Keyword 

analysis tool. It is also useful to understand customer searching behaviour (Box 9.2).