Here is a quick keyword development strategy you can do yourself:

1. Know What Your Keywords Are! Brainstorm Your List:

Keywords are the words that internet users are using in order to find you on a search engine. It is important to get together with your team and brainstorm as large a list as possible for these.

Then vote on the top 20 or so. If there are 5 obvious ones, like your specific product category “industrial coatings” etc. You will want to identify these.

2. Use Tools to Expand Your List:

It sounds like an obvious place to start, but over half of the time we see an SEO strategy that is based on assumptions and after doing some research, we can find that the entire strategy is flawed. There are plenty of tools to help you do your keyword research and identify what keywords are actually the most commonly requested. Use your list as a starter and start using free keyword tools tools like Google AdWords Keyword Generator, Keyword Spy, WordTracker.

3. Predict Traffic Volume for Each Keyword:

Use Google AdWords Traffic Estimator to estimate search volume for each of your keywords:

Step 1: Input keywords:

Step 2: Currencies & Budget:

*(you can leave it blank for now and Google will choose maximum)

Step 3: Choose Languages & Geographic Regions:

After pressing “Continue,” Google will provide this graph showing cost per click, and forecast traffic volumes:

4. Local Versus Global

If you’re local, climbing the rankings for terms like “Business Card Printing, Milwakee” is a lot easier than trying to compete globally. Also, if you’re a small to mid-sized company that has a global strategy, but still gets the lions share of your business from one key market, consider running a  a micr0-site or sub-directory for that region and focus significant efforts in that market.

Lesson: if there’s enough in your backyard, dominate that market first, your dollars will go much further!

5. Learn From Your Stats & Get to Know your Long Tail

Chris Anderson coined the term “Long Tail” in his book about the phenomenon of the internet providing ever increasing level of targeted result for online info seekers, consumer and B2B buyers. It is important if you want to win the search engine game to really understand what niche market you’re targeting.

6. Use Google AdWords First!

Many people are poorly informed that Google AdWords is a) expensive and b) somehow cheating. The reality is that you really don’t know what keywords are the best ones to develop as your core strategy until you see some results. The best way to generate some results without over-investing in the wrong SEO strategy is to simply buy keyword placements with Google AdWords:

1. Start with broad terms that you know reflect your target market
2. Watch AdWords every day and adjust campaign budgets to ensure you don’t blow your budget in a day
3. Narrow your terms down to phrase matched specific terms that are generating the highest click-through rates
4. Track specific keywords all the way through your sales cycle to see which ones generate the most revenue

Aaron’s site, seobook.com is a great resource.

In Summary:

1. Start by Looking at Analytics

Look at your site analytics and Google Analytics. It’s easier to rank for keywords that you are already getting some traction on than entirely new keywords.

2. Scout Your Major Competitors for Long Tail Terms

Scout out long-tail terms that matter. Look at how your competitor’s menus are structured. What are the key product or service sub-categories?

If this is a very competitive market, product menus can give a lot of ideas about long-tail keywords.

3. Get Serious About Long Tail Terms

It’s been proven that long tail terms are easier to rank for and rankings can be achieved much more quickly by younger sites.

4. Use Keyword Tools

There are lots of them, here are the three free keyword tools we like the most

Thanks Aaron!

A 404 page is that useless page that turns up when you..

• click on a page link that has been moved
• click on a link in an old email where the page is no longer there
• or any other number of possible reasons!

Most of the default 404 pages are unintelligible for the non-geek. First of all, the page has the word “Error” preceded by a meaningless number. For most people over the age of 40 this, immediately gets them a little nervous, reminding them of blue screens of death and DOS commands gone wrong..

Aside from the internet explorer / IIS error, you will likely see this generated by default from an Apache web server:

When non-sophisticated browsers hit it, they often report thinking:

• this site is broken completely
• my computer is no longer connected to the net
• this site might be a bad site, might give me a virus
• it must be an old site
• etc.. etc..

Even sophisticated browsers will tell you they do not bother hitting the back button and re-starting their search:

• these guys don’t know how to maintain a site
• obviously they don’t have what I want
• I’ll just go to Google and start my search over

5 Things Your Custom 404 Page Should Have:

1. A clear, friendly un-alarming description

“Sorry, the page your looking for was moved.”

Also, because a 404 error can harm your brand, you may want to inject some creativity into it. Some fun & creative examples can be found at smashmagazine.com’s 404 revisited article.

2. A Clear Call to Action

“Please search here or use the sitemap to find what you’re looking for”

3. A Prominent Search Bar with a clear purpose:

4. Prominent Sitemap

Zappos.com is the world’s largest online retailer of shoes. When someone hits their 404 page, the first call to action is a summarized product catagory list that gets the buyer right back into searching products:

* What we can learn from Zappos is that displaying your entire sitemap probably isnt as effective as displaying the top  3-5 places that people go on your site / or the top 3-5 places you want them to go!

5. Prominent Homepage Link

The word “HOME PAGE” will suffice

2 Things to Drop: the words “404″ and “Error” both are fairly irrelevant to your average visitor.

My Top 5 404 Pages:

Additional 404 Resources:

Some Creative 404 Pages

1. Regular & Plentiful Content

Not that volume alone will make you a star, but it’s a good start. Chances are, as long as you’re sure what business you are in, you will be climbing the right rankings wall.

Most marketers simply don’t post enough content with enough frequency!

2. Relevant & Useful Content:

Even if google can’t figure out with its spiders that your content stinks, you won’t generate many inbound links from others if it is not useful to them and their readers.

As a marketer, and a consumer I love little tidbits that I can consume in some meaningful way.. like the old standby – “10 Tips..” “5 Rules of..” etc..

3. Link to people that are ranking well, often they will reciprocate

Link to other recognized authorities in your industry, wikipedia articles, etc.. and don’t forget to use trackback urls!! These tell others that you have linked to them so they can (and most will) reciprocate.

4. Narrow your focus on your keywords

Make sure your headers, titles and copy have your keywords. Remember, google is smart, so don’t “spam the search engines” it will backfire and get you de-listed for up to 6 months.

5. Get Guerrilla!! Pick a Narrow enough term that you can own it..

Narrow even more!! It’s a jungle out there, get picky .. that’s why I’ve chosen to work only with software marketers.. not because we haven’t done more.

Once you’re on a roll, make sure that you’re not biting off more than you can chew; for example, unless you’re Seth Godin, don’t try to dominate “New Marketing, or Web 2.0″ it won’t work!!

Link / Reference

PART 2 – Coming Next Week! Register / RSS

1. Seth Godin

Where to start with Seth.. while there doesn’t seem to be any debate amongst the internet marketing community, he’s one of the best. He’s not an analytics whiz or a an SEO champ per se, he simply covers the basics.. principles that we can’t fight in marketing – knowing our audience, picking our niches, looking for long tails.

His site with key publications, all worth reading – www.sethgodin.com/

Seth’s Blog – sethgodin.typepad.com

2. SEO Book

SEO book is written by a guy named Aaron Wall. Admittedly, when I joined the board of the International Internet Marketing Association, I’d never heard of the guy.. man that got some funny looks! He’s since become one of my top resources for the nitty gritty of search marketing.

www.seobook.com

3. John Hossak, VKI Studios

A friend and colleague, every time I talk with this guy, I respect him more; he’s the almanac of internet marketing and analytics. They are an Omniture certified shop and have been in the game for a while now. John Hossack has filled rooms at a few conferences accross North America, and he never dissapoints.

John’s Blog

4. Web Analytics Association

www.webanalyticsassociation.org

5. Google Analytics Blog

analytics.blogspot.co

6. Marketing Sherpa

Definitely some of the best money I’ve ever spent!! Great articles and case studies.

www.marketingsherpa.com