Our eighth Analytics class focused on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which determines how prominent (or where) your website site will be listed in unpaid/organic/natural search results via Google or other online search tools.
A key part of attaining optimal SEO for your site is understanding your target audience’s search behaviours.
We learned that people usually access websites to solve one of the following types of queries:
- Navigational – to find a specific URL
- Informational – to find any information from an address to an in-depth research study.
- Transactional – to complete a task, usually a purchase
A key part of mastering SEO seems to be identifying the keywords people use to find your site. Two main types for keywords are: one word to short terms (2 – 5 words) called Popular/Lead keywords; and longer, detailed phrases, called Long-tail keywords. You need both for success.
As expected, transactional searches are the highest value because they usually generate revenue but I found it interesting that these are also the more detailed, long-tail words or phrases.
There are also other psuedo keywords, such as ‘Trophy Term-Keywords,’ which may drive traffic to your website but this traffic doesn’t convert or behave how you want it to, likely because it’s not a good fit between your audience and your site. For example, a term like ‘call to arms’ might drive military oriented people to a site but they will quickly leave if it’s about prosthetic limbs.
Sofia provided a great list of links and tips for maximizing SEO. Even pointers like setting URLs in the country of your target audience and putting keywords in JPG titles helps.
To compile a list for my senior project, I used Google’s keyword generator tool for my site, then searched my competitors’ sites and ran the generator for their sites. I found many popular terms, like: senior care, help for caregivers and help for elderly. I also found the following particularly useful long-tail options:
- practical tips from real caregivers
- outside resources
- here to share advice from the community
- online community for family & professional #caregivers
- Where Caregivers Survive & Thrive
- Caregiver’s Survival Network
- family caregivers taking care of a loved one
As my project progresses and the content is clearer, I will re-do and refine my searches to find more.
Interactive4Good 