Key “Words”

In class, we recently discussed keywords and their value within research and search. Something I found really interesting is that “keywords” extend to phrases. When we did the exercise in class, I listed different phrases I searched like, “List of businesses in Grove City PA” and “Grove City Chamber of Commerce” and “Businesses near me.” I initially thought that keywords would only be “businesses,” “list,” “Grove City,” etc., however that is not the case. It extends to phrases as a whole. That makes the purpose and end result very different. It is not just trying to find a couple puzzle pieces, but rather looking for the boarder or one complete part of the picture. At the same time, it is not giving you the whole puzzle put together because the search engine does not know the purpose of your search. For example, when searching “Grove City Chamber of Commerce” the search engine may think you are looking to see how a Chamber of Commerce functions, how to join a Chamber of Commerce, who runs the Chamber of Commerce, or so many other reasons. This is where the value of doing keyword research comes in.

You have to think like the user and develop a strategy. Start broad and move to become more targeted. Professor Sweet suggests ten steps to walk through the research process. Step three recommends to “explore [a] fuller range of semantic variables.” What other similar words are your target users using? What else do the phrases (that you came up from your initial research and brainstorming) imply? This shows how to move beyond just a single word or just a single concept to figure out how else your users are trying to have their pain resolved. Search engine optimization looks for pain and looks to help the user in their pain. Once their pain is found and established, then optimization can happen to make your solution more readily available.