Defining Your Keyword Markets

What are keyword markets?

The web is made up of many thousands of keyword markets.  It is a collection of related keywords in which customers use within their search queries in order to browse, research, compare and buy products and services on the Internet and offline.

For example, the online industry “travel” is made up of many vertical keyword markets.  Some keyword markets that make up part of the online travel industry are “holiday ideas”, “travel destinations”, “accommodation”, “car rental”, “flights” and “boat cruises”.  Plus there are many more.

For your industry there could be one or many keyword markets that relate to it depending on how narrow or broad it is.  If you have a broad industry online, you need to decide how many keyword markets that you wish target.

The more keyword markets that you target and the depth in which you explore targeted keywords, more time, effort and possibly budget are required to build traffic from those segments.

Within each of these keyword markets are relevant words and phrases that customers search upon.  Following are a sample of keywords that are relevant to their respective keyword markets.

The Search Buying Cycle is connected to keyword markets.

Most people have a purpose behind each of their search queries within search engines.  Their words signal the intent in which their search is based upon.  This keyword intent is determined by each part of the Search Buying Cycle the searcher is in.

The Search Buying Cycle is made up of 5 parts including:

• Need – customers identify what they are interested in.  Search terms are quite broad and very generic.  These types of words usually have a low conversion rate, however there are large volume of searches.
  E.g. “romantic holiday ideas” or “cars”

• Browse – upon conducting an initial search, the user may click on one or more links within the result pages to browse through a range of pages to gather ideas.  Additional searches within this stage are still generic and broad.
  E.g. “romantic weekends”.  They mentally gather a range of terms to search upon next.

• Research – upon successful browsing and gathering of ideas, the potential customer conducts further searches to research their initial concept further.  Keyword terms are becoming more specific.
  E.g. “romantic getaways Mauritius”, “Mauritius holiday”, “things to do Mauritius”, “accommodation Mauritius”, “ocean villas Mauritius with pool” or “resorts Mauritius”.

• Compare – in the comparison stage, the user evaluates all of their options.  They may conduct another search to gather more information.  Keywords are longtail in nature and may include brand names.
  E.g.  “hotel reviews Mauritius”, “hotel saint geran Mauritius”, “club med resorts Mauritius” or “sugar beach resort Mauritius”

• Decide / Buy – the customer is now ready to make a decision.  They are armed with enough information to make a purchase or make an inquiry for example.  They may leave and come back later to conduct another search when they are ready to make the transaction.  Words used are very specific and have high conversion rates.
  E.g. “La Plantation d’Albion Club Med”

• Post-Purchase – the customer had a great time at “La Plantation d’Albion Club Med” and now that they are home, they are searching for an online photo album in which to upload their holiday photos to.
  E.g. “flickr photo sharing” or “create online photo album”

Should You Only Target One Part of the Search Buying Cycle?

Some people think that if they target only keywords that relate to the end part of the search buying cycle (e.g. decide / buy), that they will increase their conversions and reduce overall effort and budget to reach those customers.

The Decide/Buy terms are important for your brand to gain visibility in search engines and to increase conversions, however, to be found during the earlier part of the search buying cycle enables you to introduce and increase your brand awareness.

Gaining rankings for “buy” type terms for those companies who have invested heavily in their brand offline and online usually will see a higher conversion rate than smaller businesses that do not have the same level of marketing budget.

To participate in earlier parts of the search buying cycle is a low-cost form of brand marketing online and in the mid-to-long term maximises conversions at the end of the cycle.