Search Engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing go hand in hand and I am getting more and more requests from people in Marketing roles for advice on SEO. The skills required to optimise a website for Search Engines are all marketing related skills. Despite popular belief, very few technical skills are required, and there are certainly no "secrets" to how Google ranks pages, the formula that Google uses is obvious and published on its own help pages (I have written about this before).

SEO in the real world

OK, we are going to write some web page copy about a footwear product called "Ugg Boot", a sheepskin boot famous in New Zealand and Australia for being incredibly comfortable and unfashionable at the same time. Recently the Ugg Boot has experienced a revival as "must have" teen brands like Billabong and Roxy have added trendy Ugg Boot products to their range.

So this presents an opportunity because as demand for ugg boots increases, customers are looking for opportunities to purchase the boots below retail price. My imaginary client is a sheepskin tannery who has manufactured high quality Ugg Boots for years and wants to feature this product on their website to generate enquiries that they will forward to the customer's nearest retailer.

I have been asked to write the copy for a web page promoting Ugg Boots. This is the process I take.

SEO As You Write

The real problem with SEO is that it is time consuming, especially if your are performing the work retrospectively. If you want to save time optimising your copy, do it as you write it.

• If you are marketing a service, the process is the same just a bit more difficult. For the purpose of this article I will use the term "product" for both services & products.

You will need: A Google Adwords Account, basic knowledge of how to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, a printer, a highlighter and a pen.

Step 1. Find the real root keyword for your product

Sum up your product in one short key phrase (1 or two words). Here are some examples:

• Ugg Boots = "Ugg Boots"
• Shopping Mall = "Retail Property"
• Seafood Wholesaler = "Seafood"
• Whakatane Backpackers = "Whakatane Accommodation"

Next, test your key phrase in the Keyword Tool. What this shows you is the keyword phrases that people are actually searching for (as opposed to what you think they are searching for). "Whakatane Backpackers" is a great example. A quick check in the Keyword tool reveals that there are exactly 0 searches for the term "Whakatane Backpackers" every month, wheras 880 searches every month for "Whakatane Accommodation". So the root keyword phrase for this product is "Whakatane Accommodation".

Using this tool allows you to evaluate keywords based on pure facts, as opposed to the emotion of gut feelings or instinct. As boring as pure data analysis may be to marketing creative types like you, it really is the secret to getting results on search engines, which are clinical, emotionless robots making decisions based purely on cold hard data.

Re-run the Keyword tool now on your root key phrase.

Step 2. Get the results into a Spreadsheet

OK, you should now have a list of key phrases, ordered by Average Monthly Searches (Descending) for your chosen country. Google will divide the results up into multiple sections. Now export each section as CSV (for Excel), and combine in to one Excel spreadsheet.

Next, sort all of the keyword phrases by average monthly searches descending. Now you will have a long list of potential key phrase candidates. Save a copy of this spreadsheet as a master.

• Here is what mine looks like. (XLS, 35KB)

Step 3. Ruthlessly narrow the list down to 20 keywords.

Starting with the first key phrase, work your way through the top key phrases evaluating for relevancy to your task at hand. If not relevant, delete that row and move on to the next one. This often means deleting really popular "broad" matches, which can be painful, so be ruthless!

Example. In my list, the first keyword phrase is "shoes", which while popular, is way too broad for my product and is saturated by competitors as well. So I have deleted it. I have also deleted "boot", "boots" and "footwear".

Delete any keyword phrases that you don't actually sell. As tempting as it is to try and attract anyone looking for anything remotely related to Ugg Boots to your website, it is a waste of time as customers will just leave your site in disgust after they have discovered that you don't actually sell what you are talking about on your website, and never come back. So, as much I would love my client to satisfy the glaring hole in the market for "crochet uggs" (12,100 searches in New Zealand per month and no advertisers!), my client does not make or sell them, so it is off the list.

Next, combine the phrases that obviously should be together. For example, in my list, women's uggs (#1) is really the same term as womens uggs (#20), so I will combine them at number one.

OK, now we have a list of 20 relevant keywords to use for the task at hand, writing search engine optimised copy for Ugg Boots. Print the list and get your highlighter ready.

• Here is what mine looks like now. (XLS, 33KB)

Next week, in part 2 of this Blog we start writing!