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Keyword Research
Why is it a Process and Not an Event?

Post from Search Engine Optimizician.
Even though Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the other search engines all have their own algorithms they are still dependent on the searcher. Regardless of what rank your site is under a specific search term unless the searcher enters that specific term your site won’t turn up in the results.

Just the other day I was updating my keyword research. While using my favorite keyword research suite, NicheBot, I found the search focus had changed for a couple of the phrases that were considered standard.

I am going to deal with a couple of specific examples. A few months back the most searched terms for catering in the Portland area and massage schools.

catering Google Bing Yahoo Search Engines Keywords

We will start with catering in the Portland area. Just a few months back the most searched phrase for Portland area catering was “portland catering”. My logic before I did the research was that people would search on the term catering first and if it didn’t deliver the results required they would add portland to the search “catering portland”. As you can see from the “portland catering” example I was wrong. The phrase “portland catering” was used nearly 3 times as often as “catering portland”.

As time passed the phrases the searchers used actually changed. The most popular search phrase for catering in the Portland area became “catering in portland oregon” and “catering portland“. Now you would think that this change evolved from the influx of caterers from Portland, Maine showing up in the results. I found this very interesting because using the search phrase “portland catering” actually turned up about 3 results in the top 100 on Google.

Now to examine the searchers phrases used for massage schools. As I began the keyword research I found it to be direct and straight forward “massage school” and “massage schools” were the most used phrases by the searchers. But once again as time passed the words the searchers entered into the search engine search box has also changed. Any guesses?

Well the term “therapy” has worked it’s way into searches for massage schools. Both “massage therapy schools” and “massage therapy school” are used more often than “massage schools” and “massage school”. The phrase “massage therapy schools” is used more than twice as often as “massage schools” and the phrase “massage therapy school” is used nearly twice as often.

So what does this mean to us as SEOs and SEMs? Don’t treat your keyword research as an event. It is a process and must be checked from time to time to key your site at the top of the search engine results for the phrases people are actually using TODAY!

This doesn’t mean that all your efforts in the past are now worthless. This only means that you need to continue to refine the keywords and keyword phrases you are optimizing for.

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