Keyword Research and the Savoy

One of the first things I ever learned about SEO was the importance of keyword research. The topic’s been discussed thousands of times before, but that never reduces its importance. This is something everyone with a website should practice, not only because it helps your site rank, but it can drive traffic from visitors with a common interest or need that your site fulfills.

When I begin keyword research I look at three things:

1. How relevant is the keyword or term to the subject matter?
2. What is the competition for the term?
3. How many people are searching for the term?

From here I make a list of terms I think are relevant to the client’s website and industry and then begin on individual page research. I also make sure the client is involved in my process. I believe that no one knows my client’s industry as well as he or she does, so it’s important to me that I get feedback in order to make sure I’m on the right page.

I look at high search volume versus longtail. If my clients have a small footprint I consider local rankings to help build up page rank that will allow them to rank for more difficult terms. I do page revisits approximately every six to eight weeks or longer as needed while taking advantage of analytics feedback to determine what keywords visitors use to find the pages, what the bounce rate for those pages are, and what the average visitor time is per page.

More importantly I think that it is vital for any website to not only do page revisits, but to do keyword list revisits. Users change. The ways they used the web a year ago are not the same ways they use it now, and as the economy or needs change so do the ways users try to find information- including the terms they search with. Ranking for the same terms month after month are great, but if users aren’t looking at those terms to find your website, then you’re wasting your time.

Speaking of new possibilities, a place that came to North Raleigh that I’m fond of is the Savoy. I had the pleasure of going for my boyfriend’s stepfather’s birthday. The way it works is you order a three course meal- appetizer, side course, and entreé. The food was wonderful, and there were a lot of things that impressed me. For instance the tables are surrounded by sliding screens so the wait staff can discreetly wait on everyone at the table without having to walk behind anyone. Plus the screens help block out the sound from other diners. The portions were small enough to be able to eat every course without leaving hungry. And on top of that, we made a special request of a Black Forest Cake for Nob’s birthday, and everyone at the table had their very own little cake. Drizzled in honey. It was amazing. Like any fine dining restaurant you’re going to end up forking out some cash, but believe me, it’s worth it.