How to Choose a Main Keyword Phrase

A main keyword phrase (kp) is the most important part of your SEO campaign. This is the phrase you would like potential customers to use to find your website in the search engines. It is used as an anchor text to link back to your website. It must also appear "as is" without any variations, at least 3-5 times on your homepage.

A main kp normally consists of 3-4 words. Any more or less will dilute the effect your SEO campaign. A main kp can take two main forms:

1. Geo-target Line of Business e.g. Dallas car insurance
2. Line of Business in Geo-target e.g. Car insurance in Dallas

The geo-target can be a city, county or state. It can be the city your main offices are in, a place that you would like to attract a larger customer base from or a new area that you would like to break through to. If you cover multiple cities then the county that encompasses all of them or even your state will be beneficial.

Some things to consider when choosing a geo-target:

• A city is what most potential customers search by. If it is a common name, it may be necessary to add a qualifier, eg. the "TX" in Dallas TX Car Insurance.
• Consider the number of search results in your decision. Do a search in Google for the different geo-targets with the line of business, and see how many other companies/entities you are competing with. The larger the area, the more entities you are competing against e.g. State vs. City. If the results run in the millions then it may not make sense to pursue that keyword. Consider adding a qualifier or changing the geo-target altogether to reduce the number of results.
• Choosing a lesser known or smaller city will get you to the top of search engines faster as there are not many entities you are competing with. However, that may also mean that less people will consider using a smaller city to search by.
• Not many people search for insurance by county, however if you feel it most accurately describes your geo-target then go for it.
• Choosing a state as a geo-target will have the largest pool of competitors. You should think seriously about choosing a state, as this will take longer to show favorable results.

Some things to consider when choosing a line of business:

• Choose a line of business that you want to attract the most new customers with.
• Choose a line of business that you can guarantee will get most the new customers and then entice them with another line of business once you have them.
• Consider the number and kind of competitors for that line of business; if you have numerous competitors in your area who concentrate on auto insurance, then it may be viable to focus on something else like home insurance which may get you to the top of search engines faster.

Bear in mind that the main kp you choose is not the be all and end all of your SEO campaign. With this type of “natural” SEO, it can take up to a month or two to see favorable results. However if you find after two or three months, this main kp is not working for you, then change it to another geo-target or line of business.

You can also create secondary and tertiary kps. These are normally in the form of the same geo-target but with different lines of business. You can add these to the page keywords or anywhere else it is necessary.

As with all SEO, no guarantees can be made with regards to results. Consult your SEO Coordinator to determine what is best for your agency.

Read more about how and when to use your main kp for On-site Optimization and Off-site Optimization.

How to Write an Optimized Blog Post

Keyword phrases (kp) are the most important elements of SEO. IWB customers can log in to the Administration Console to blog on their website.

• Title - The title of your blog post must have some keywords in it. For example, Dallas Auto Insurance, New rate cuts for Dallas Auto Insurance, Fresh focus on Home Insurance in Dallas etc. Google loves fresh content, and if that content has your keywords in it Google will pick up on it and associate it with your website. Also, IWB websites automatically converts the title of your post to a URL, which once again helps the search engines find your website easier.

• Body - The body of your blog post must not be too long, ideally 1-2 paragraphs, maximum of 3 paragraphs. People do not want to spend too much time reading, so the shorter and more concise your post the better.  Always include links back to your website. Make sure those links include anchor text or the actual keyword phrases. Do not link “Click here”, “Visit us”, “www.agencyname.net.” The more links that go back to your website the better. The links do not necessarily have to link to the homepage. If you have something interesting to say about health insurance, link back to the health insurance page or even the quote forms. Just make sure you have at least one backlink in your post.

• Pictures -  Add pictures to your entries. These help to make your posts more interesting and break up the content. Make sure you have permission to add them.

• Content - Writing your own content is highly recommended – it’s unique to you and therefore more valuable. However if you don’t have the time to write something yourself, you can re-post news articles, community news, industry news on your blog. Just make sure you cite the source, with the original web address. If you are copying insurance articles on to your blog, make sure to delete links to other insurance agents websites. You can still link something within that article back to your website. It’s important to blog at least once a week or as often as you can. If you cannot do it yourself, perhaps get another agent or secretary to do it, as long as you have fresh content. Ask questions in your blog posts. This gets your readers thinking, and they can now post their comments in IWB's new blog commenting section.

• Tags - Also known as keyword or blog tags. Tags help you to categorize your posts, which makes it easier for people as well as search engines to find your blog entries. Make sure to use the same tag whenever you can, rather than variations of that tag, e.g. use blog instead of blogging, blog entries or blog posting. This helps us find entries easier and especially with the way IWB websites use them, and makes the search engines find them easier too. IWB websites handily displays all tags used to the right of every blog you post.

Additional Resources:

• To Blog or Not to Blog
• How to Choose a Main Keyword Phrase
• Top Blogging Tips by the Best Bloggers  

(Photo courtesy of BlogTrepreneur.com)