subject: How To Test Keywords Before Search Engine Optimization [print this page] The holy grail of search engine optimization services is getting front page, organic search engine rankings. Its also a lot of work and a time-consuming process. And, most of the time, you will not succeed on making it to the front page for competitive keywords.
So, with all that possibility for failure, why not run a series of tests on your key words before getting into the down and dirty SEO strategies of building links or optimizing separate pieces of content? It is not nearly as hard as you would think, and odds are, you're already doing a version of this test as part of your business.
The perfect mechanism for such testing is already in place and you perhaps already use it: Pay Per Click advertising. The idea is to steer traffic to a landing page with a basic opt-in mailing list with paid advertising so as to test whether a particular set of keywords can be profitable.
If, for example, you run this test campaign for 1,500 visitors, and only three or four of them convert, then that particular keyword probably is not worth the hours upon hours of optimization work you had planned to do. Yes, it'll cost you money originally to run the PPC campaign, but in the long term you would be able to precisely determine which keywords to concentrate on, which will make you money in the end.
One of the main pitfall which you would have to avoid while running this test is confusing website traffic with potential earnings. If you run a targeted PPC campaign and drive lots of traffic immediately, you may think to yourself that these keywords have to be profitable because traffic has arrived so quickly.
This is not necessarily the case. Traffic is just valuable if the individuals making up that traffic (or at least a percentage of them) perform the actions necessary to make you money. If you're running a website for a hobby and just want to share content with like-minded people, then the more traffic the better. But if you are running a business, the more increase targeted traffic the better. Using PPC campaigns to test the potential profitability of keywords before launching a full-fledged search engine optimization project can be one of the most useful tools in your armory if utilised properly.
How To Test Keywords Before Search Engine Optimization
