Pizza and Beers SEO – 700 Keyword Phrases
When anyone is considering a website or a website marketing program good research is essential. The basic idea is to explore how people express her thoughts while using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or perhaps Bing. The problem is this; Market research can become expensive very quickly especially if you hire a research firm.
The fact is that most small business lacks both the financial infrastructure and the savvy to know how to effectively buy such services. That still doesn’t diminish the need to get into the mind of internet searchers who might need, want, or desire your products. If your company only has one product or service you might have an easier task or not.
Even if you only sell one item it still might be difficult to target your buyer’s primary motivator. Let’s say that your business cleans carpets and that’s all that you provide. And your businesses market is provided in Tucson. The logical keyword phrase for you would be Carpet Cleaning Tucson. But the general searching public might also be searching for any of the following.
Dry Carpet Cleaning Tucson
Extraction Carpet Cleaning Tucson
Steam Cleaning Carpets Tucson
Natural Carpet Cleaning Tucson
Green Carpet Cleaning Tucson
Shampoo Carpet Cleaning Tucson … Just to name a few possibilities…
Unfortunately, most small to medium sized business try to make an educated guess about the searchers are thinking as it relates to their business. They need to know what are on the searchers minds when they are seeking your products. Yet, they often fail in their assumptions by falling back into the use of industry jargon. This creates a problem because the general public likely is not aware of these industry specific terms. Your website designer will likely but of little or no help here.
I ran into this problem myself when I launched my local SEO services website. The original primary focus was on Organic SEO in Tucson. I got this idea by using a keyword discovery tool. However, my target market, small local businesses, likely had never heard of SEO. For those who had, very few of them would have ever expressed their searches as Organic SEO in Tucson.
After three months, I eventually realized that only SEO professionals used the term Organic SEO. This created a situation where the website has ranking well, as in # 1, for a market that didn’t need my service. Ouch!
I had to re-evaluate my marketing focus and do it quickly or I likely would become another failed business statistic. Often doing this type of research requires the use of focus groups and that can get expensive very quickly. As I ponder what to do next I had a eureka moment. This could get real complex very quickly.
I had to find a way to efficiently conquer this marketing dilemma. There are a myriad of factors that can or could affect how someone thinks as they search the internet.
Is there searcher impaired in any way?
Are they on medication?
Are they buzzed from any source legal or otherwise?
Are they in pain?
Are they tired?
Are they hungry?
Are they stressed?
Even the time of day or financial pressures will have an impact on the searchers thoughts patterns. Thus physical, psychological, spiritual, and environmental conditions may all play roles here. These variables are not easily measured.
So you must be asking yourself, this doesn’t sound easy or like anything on the cheap. Well, what I am suggesting with Pizza and Beers SEO might not be able to control all of these factors. But it offers an easy to implement and cost effective alternative.
Here is what is required for this to work for your business to implement this project. You will need a meeting place that serves Pizza and Beers and that has a room that can accommodate around 30 people. You will likely require an assistant or two. The project will also require some survey forms, writing implements, and of course your focus group of hungry and thirsty volunteers.
Now, here is the original post which I wrote in early 2008.
Pizza and Beers SEO
Yep, one of my standard recommendations for new clients is that they practice Pizza and Beer SEO. This is how it works. When you’re building a new websites
keyword list you should start by gathering a diverse group of friends, family, and business associates for pizza and beer at a local hot spot or pub. A group
of twenty or so should work out nicely.
Once you have the group together ask them all to make a list of words that they might enter as a search query to find your businesses products or services on the web. Then sit back and enjoy your time together over pizza but hold of on the beer for now! Then after and hour or so of socializing repeat this process and again record the results.
Now you may allow your party to get started with the consumption of beer for the following hour. Now repeat the same process of asking what keywords that
they would use all over. Then record these results as well.
Now, your website keyword research kicks into high gear. You will need create a database and record all of the information that you have gathered. You
can now begin comb through your data to see what the common trends there might be and to glean the gems that you might have easily overlooked.
The food and alcohol will affect each person differently and these changes will be observable in a different set of keywords that are developed throughout
the process. Another factor that comes into play is simply the passage of time.The longer that each person has to think about it the more likely that they
will choose words that they hadn’t the first time around.
It’s actually like having three different focus groups for market research for the price of one! Not only is Pizza and Beer SEO an effective keyword development strategy, you also save the cost of surveying three separate groups. It also will cut your projects time significantly.
You have no way of knowing what peoples state of mind this when they are searching. If you searchers are hungry or well feed these will effect how they think. If someone is highly stressed or under the influence these factors will play a major role in determining what searches that they will use to find anything on the internet.
You see, all successful websites are a collaborative effort between designers, the marketing team, and the client. The client does their keyword research and I do mine. Then, together we combine this palette of words to paint a well defined and highly targeted website for both the search engine and the searchers.
You could use some keyword tool for your research. But then you would get the same results as you competitors doing the same searches that you are. It’s extremely difficult to gain any advantage using these tools. Another short coming of these tools is they always miss regional variations in language.
This could provide you a huge advantage. A person in Chicago wanting burgers might easily search for “sliders.” But that term is so regional that it likely would never appear in these keyword tool databases. But if you’re cooking and serving burgers in or around the Windy City you will want to consider sliders as a reasonable choice for a keyword to target. And an even better choice would “Chicago sliders.”
Pizza and Beers SEO is just another example of some of the free or inexpensive small business internet solutions that have appeared on the Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services Blog. These solutions are being presented to assist your business in finding resources that are either free or affordable and that are effective.
Pizza and Beers SEO can also be useful for existing websites as well. If you are struggling to find your target markets then you might want to try this concept.
Update: 11/14/2008 I, recently, presented a seminar on keyword development here in Tucson.
There I included a presentation on Pizza and Beer SEO for the first time publicly. Both Pizza and Beers SEO and presentation were very well received. That was then, but this method has worked very, very well again and again. But even after posting this update on my blog I still get people responding like this “why not just use Google’s keyword tool.” And you can as I mentioned in this article if you don’t mind getting the same information that everyone else is getting for that same keyword phrase.
Pizza and Beers is about finding those niches that may not show up using these tools. The brilliance of this method is especially relevant when your business is local, as you will be able to establish the regional lexicon in your geographic area. Imagine this, you have a restaurant and you want to optimize what web page for dinner specials. That might be a bad choice if the locals call this meal supper!
Update 02/17/210 I was checking my websites analytics and discovered that 700 keyword phrases we used to find the site over the last 30 days! So it is looks like there are lots of possibilities that can easily be overlooked.
Thanks,
Urban
I provide
Local Phoenix SEO - Website Marketing Services,
Affordable Quality Links Backlinks Building Services , and
Phoenix SEO – Niche Internet Marketing Services from affordable Tucson, Arizona.
