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In August 2013 I had the pleasure of hosting Karen Dennison of

KeywordYourWaytoTraffic.com for a blog series I dubbed Keywords101.

● Keywords and Keyword Research – Promoting Your Crochet Business

Blog

● Understand What You Offer and Be Clear About Describing It – What

do you sell? Can you describe it?

● Keywords and Domain Names That Clearly Express What You Offer -

Choosing the Right Domain Name

● Use Your Customer’s Words NOT Your Own – Focus on Your Customer

● Be Open to Drilling Into A More Specific Aspect of Your Business – Be

in Front of those Who Want Your Product

● Do You Have One More Type of Customer? – Open Your Mind to All

People

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Keywords 101: Promoting Your Crochet Business Blog

What is it?

People type in words and word phrases into search engines. They want answers. It may be they are looking to buy something, to find out pricing or to just research.

They type in words or word phrases that:

● Express what they want to know

● Give them a good number of results

● Give them results specific to their needs

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Why do I care? Search Engines monitor keywords that appear in sites and by searches that

customers use to determine whether the search engines are providing good

service. A search engine does not consider the websites it lists as a

customer. Nor does it even consider the advertisers as customers. A search

engine is only concerned with the people who use it to type into the search

bar.

● “Good customer experience” is crucial to search engines

● Sites that provide good customer experience will be rewarded while

those that don’t, won’t be

● The rewards are better ad prices, better search positioning and better

exposure to larger audiences.

● Customers don’t want to waste their time on websites that don’t

provide the information they are searching for.

The amount of time that a customer stays on your site is monitored by the

search engines and helps to determine the “customer experience” rankings

It is becoming easier and easier for customers to express their

dissatisfaction with larger and larger audiences. Good customer

experiences should be the goal of every business, not just the search

engines.

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Good customer experiences should be the goal of every business ~ Karen

Dennison Click to Tweet

You don’t want the customer service issues involved in intentionally or

unintentionally misleading customers. The headache won’t be worth it.

How do I take advantage of good keyword research?

● Understand what your keyword and keyword phrases are.

● Use those keywords in your URLs and throughout your copy.

● Monitor what is working and what is changing in your field.

For a free guide to keyword tools used by the pros – go to

http://keywordyourwaytotraffic.com/bribe

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Keywords 101: What Do You Sell? Can You Describe It?

What do you do?

It may seem pretty obvious to you, but are others as clear? There were a

lot of posters circulating the social sites recently. They have 6 to 8 photos

with captions under them saying things like –

● What my mother thinks I do

● What society thinks I do

● What I think I do

● What I actually do

There is more truth in those posters than we like to admit. Just because I

have an idea of what I am offering, do my customers focus on the same

things?

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An example would be my quilting instructional videos.

What do I think I do?

I participate in the promulgation of a centuries old art form. I encourage

artistic self-expression by giving my students a strong foundational

knowledge of quilting. I help educate the rest of the world, teaching them

that quilting is not just something your great-grandmother did to while away

all of her extra time.

What does my student think that I do?

She thinks that I help her to not be embarrassed when her daughter-in-law

opens the baby quilt she spent so much time, money and effort on at the

baby shower.

When we talk about keywords, what will be searched for and what is Google

going to respond to?

If my perspective and my student’s perspective all revolves around quilting,

and quilting is searched for 3,350,000 times a month, why not go with that

word?

I want people who need my services to be able to find me. My keyword

phrase could be quilting evangelist, or quilting professor, or textile artist, or

quilting.

But, remember what my student thinks I do? She is searching for a baby quilt pattern.

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There are only 35,000 searches a month for that term. However, those

searching and finding me are much more likely to choose me because I am

solving their specific problem.

I am not being seen by millions of searchers using quilting in goodness

knows what context, but, I don’t want to interact with them.

When you give Google and your prospective customers a more precise and

clear idea of what you are offering, you give yourself a better chance of

being found by the right person.

You are also decreasing the chance of dissatisfaction with your goods or

services through misunderstanding.

Be clear and be very, very specific about what they think you are doing.

For a free guide to keyword tools used by the pros – go to

http://keywordyourwaytotraffic.com/bribe 

 

 

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Keywords 101: Choosing the Right Domain Name

Everyone can only guess at what Google and Bing are actually looking for in

terms of SEO, but, it seems pretty obvious that domain names and terms

thrown in the copy that match what the audience types into the search box

is close to the top of the list.

All too often, as we romanticize about what we are building online, we

develop feel-good phrases and titles that have no meaning to our audience.

A domain name like – abetterworldthroughhandmadeneedlecraft.com may

sound wonderful but you and I don’t even know what it means. Our

customers won’t have a clue.

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Something more specific is crochet.com. That domain name is for sale, by

the way, although I have no idea how much money they are asking for. Yet

it is still too broad.

Would a customer be someone who is looking to buy crochet items, looking

to learn beginning crochet, or wanting intricate patterns for crochet lace? It

doesn’t tell what is being offered.

Feel good words that don’t narrow down your audience are confusing to the

searchers. When a searcher is confused, they move on to the site that they

are sure of.

A clear description of the site in the customer’s voice reassures the audience

that you understand them.

And a clear description repels those who don’t belong on your site. The

internet offers an economical opportunity to find very small but very

targeted groups of new buyers.

To find that narrow band of people, a marketer needs to attract the right

audience and repel the wrong one. Communicating with too broad a swath

of people diffuses the message.

The better you are at speaking to those who actually want your services,

the more you will sell. ~ Karen Dennison Click to Tweet

When you are very clear and the customer understands exactly what you are

offering, that person stays on your site longer. The search engines monitor

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the length of time people spend on you site after they click from the search

results.

If large numbers leave quickly, the search engines assume that they are not

understanding your offering well. The result is that your page is not often in

the search results.

If you are clear about the words you need to include in your domain name

and copy and know that that clarity is being searched, you will find it easier

to stay on track in your marketing.

It will lead to more focused market planning. And you will waste less time

chasing squirrels and more time chasing buying customers.

And the search engines will reward you will better page rankings.

For a free guide to keyword tools used by the pros – go to

http://keywordyourwaytotraffic.com/bribe

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Keywords 101: Focus On Your Customer

 Each profession, hobby, interest has its own jargon. There are words that

the uninitiated may have heard but don’t really know the implication of.

I can talk all day of SEO and Long-tail Keywords and you may or may not

have a clear grasp of what I am talking about. Unless you have educated

yourself in that area of internet marketing, it all starts to sound like the

mom in Charlie Brown, “Whaa, Whaa, Whaa, Whaa, Whaa.”

The same thing holds true of your skill. When you write in terms of double

crochet or 5 gm weight yarn or Marina wool or Alpaca versus Egyptian

cotton, you are talking in a language that people in your skill club

understand.

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Your customers have their own jargon. Their jargon entirely depends on

who they are and what they are looking for. Unless you are selling patterns,

your customers don’t care how many stitches per inch you are offering, they

care about how good the garment looks on them.

You want to reach your customers in keywords that speak to their needs. ~

Karen Dennison Click to Tweet

In writing up the descriptions of your wares, you need to spend more time

using words that the customer is typing into the search engine and less time

on industry jargon.

That doesn’t mean that the customer is not interested in the content of the

products. It does mean that such interest only manifests after they are

convinced that your product serves their primary needs and search

parameters.

They will never get to the place in the buying process where they need to

know about the technical aspects unless they first find you using their search

terms.

In my case, do my customers really want to learn how to quilt? Not really.

They want to make a special gift for a new grandbaby or newlywed couple.

Is somebody looking for a crochet hat? No, they want something that looks

great on them that keeps them warm.

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Luckily, search engines will tell you what customers are really looking for. A

little keyword research will uncover what they are searching for and you get

to use that information to give it to them.

Search engines do want their customers happy. They consider their

customers to be the searchers. The search engines are more than willing to

help marketers supply good information to searchers.

For a free guide to keyword tools used by the pros – go to

http://keywordyourwaytotraffic.com/bribe

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Keywords 101: Dig Deep

 We all want to sell to as many people as possible. The assumption is that if

we get our products out in front of everyone, we will sell more. We have all

heard the saying that “he could sell ice to Eskimos”. With the internet, we

need to wonder why this super salesman is in Alaska and not in Phoenix.

We want to be in front of people who want our product. ~ Karen Dennison

Click to Tweet

The real goal then is not to talk to everyone. The goal is to sell to many.

Finding out who wants to buy our stuff and talking more intimately to them

will make the difference.

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Let’s say that I was the best pitching coach in the universe. I could use the

keyword “sports” in everything. After all, the term “sports” is searched for

151,000,000 times per month on Google.

The Problem with “Sports”

The problem is that people who are interested in gymnastics and tennis and

skiing are all search sports and none of them cares about a pitching coach.

The Problem with “Baseball Coach”

The keyword phrase “Baseball Coach” is searched for 74,000 times a month.

But, we have the same situation. Outfielders and catchers and 1st basemen

don’t have any interest in pitching coaches.

What’s Right with “Pitching Coach”

Pitching Coach is searched for 9,900 times a month. I would like to see a

higher search total, but I know that anybody looking for “pitching coach” is

looking for me. The strategy then should be to use that term and find

others that are closely enough related and better searched for.

Quilting vs Learn Quilting vs Quilting for Beginners

I teach quilting. Quilting is searched for 3,350,000 times a month. There

are many, many reasons to search that term that have nothing to do with

what I am offering.

Learn quilting is searched for 1,900 times a month. There are too few

searches for me to rely on this term resulting in many responses.

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But, like my suggestion for pitching coach, I can incorporate this term in my

keyword arsenal but I need to look for some keywords with better search

results. I want to sprinkle this in here or there because I am who they are

looking for and I may just pick up a couple of easy sales.

In doing quite a bit of scouring, I find that “quilting for beginners” is a

keyword phrase that is searched for 27,000 times a month.

The only reason that someone would type that into a search box is that they

are a beginner looking for instruction. It is a keyword that indicates an

interest in what I am offering. It is a keyword phrase with a decent amount

of searches.

Dig Deep to Find Your Tribe

Mostly, it is a keyword phrase that opened my eyes to a sub-niche that I

would not have considered. Be open to drilling down further into your

market and find people that can not only be customers, but that can be your

tribe and market for you. That can only happen when you are talking

specifically to their needs.

For a free guide to keyword tools used by the pros – go to

http://keywordyourwaytotraffic.com/bribe

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Keywords 101: Don’t Be Too Narrow

 I was contacted by an outward-bound type of non-profit to help them clarify

their message. They were struggling to figure out what keywords they

should be using in their copy. We talked about what they were trying to say

to whom.

It became apparent that they had two different audiences who needed two

different messages.

Customer #1

They needed a website to talk to the participants. In that site, a description

of the program and its benefits could speak to those needing to find that

help.

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Customer #2

The second message would go out to those who wanted to help fund such

programs. That message talked about a larger overview and less individual

results, but more of a wider range of goals met.

It wasn’t until we did the necessary keyword research that the difference

became glaringly obvious.

This doesn’t just pertain to non-profits. In my quilting business, I provide

video instruction to beginning quilting students. I also provide patterns.

These services may or may not be to the same audience.

But, I also provide a venue for quilting venues to reach beginning quilters.

My site allows access to beginning quilters to machine manufacturers, thread

and scissor companies and accessory providers. The keywords that speak to

them are very different than the keywords that my students use.

Multiple Keyword Categories

Consider if there are more than one type of customer that you could service.

If so, you will need more than one category of keyword. You may, like the

non-profit, need more than one site, or you may, like me, be able to

incorporate both customers into one site and provide plenty of copy using

both sets of keyword.

There are so many opportunities out there for craftspeople. More develop all

the time as fewer and fewer people are skilled in those crafts. The challenge

is to find out how to talk to those searching for our wares. Learning how to

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work with the proper keywords will ensure that you can reach those

searching for you.

For a free guide to keyword tools used by the pros – go to

http://keywordyourwaytotraffic.com/bribe

About Karen Dennison:

Quilting Professor – Offering Online Quilting Classes – SEO and Keyword

Consultant

~Wife of 1, Mom of 4, Grandma of 10, loves textile arts, and UCLA Bruins

~I love textile arts. Tatting, embroidery, cross stitch, tailoring, knitting,

crochet, I haven’t yet found a needlecraft that I don’t fall in love with.

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