• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
  This tool is free and you don’t have to be setting up a paid campaign to use it. Helps you identify keyword expressions that people are actually using in the searches. Does not include metrics which determine whether you have any chance of succeeding in ranking organically (natural or unpaid in the search results) for those terms.
• SEMRush.com
  9 queries per day for free once you register; paid subscription is very powerful; gives you strong insights into the terms driving traffic to your competitors’ sites.

However, even if you use these tools, you will have to sort out which expressions will actually be achievable by YOUR site.  Once, we spent HOURS manually researching the competitive data — but now have a tool that gives us all the info — and more — that you see on the chart below. We willingly spent some significant $$ for access to this software because it saves so much time. That allows us to go much deeper into the research, explore many more aspects of a client’s market, and produce a list of SEO keyword targets ranked using Evergreen’s proprietary algorithm. We hand over the resulting list confident that it will produce measurable results for the client.

The metrics that matter are:

Are YOU confident in your keyword research? Are you finding the SEO metrics that matter? This one part of your SEO effort is perhaps the most “modular”, easily outsourced and relatively inexpensive task. Let Evergreen Consulting Group help you produce results and improve the ROI on your entire Internet Marketing effort! Call Amanda at 802-310-5310 or write to amanda@evergreendirect.com to explore what we can do for you!

However, do you really know enough about your audience to make sure you’re even targeting the right search engine or social media platform? Are you doing more than simply viewing “traffic” to your site?

“Audience insights eclipse audience measurement, providing new views into “who” and “what impact,” versus simply counting “how many.” Stephen DiMarco of Compete.com

If you’ve got Google Analytics installed and are regularly digging deep into that data, you may have some broad audience insights. You know their geographic location, perhaps even which Corporate network they were using at the time (see figure to the right). Now it’s time to combine the insights you’re getting from your Analytics data with information from some additional sources. Essentially, you’re going to triangulate audience data to create a more credible profile. Mr. DiMarco recommends four different online sites/tools/service providers to assist in this process, mentioning that “some are free“. I did some digging and took some screen caps to save you some time.

Quantcast: a tool to understand your own site’s visitor demographics in great detail.

Another free tool: Quantcast Audience Segments

Google Ad Planner: helps you identify websites your audience is likely to visit.

Google's free tool for discovering where your audience "hangs out" online.

Just as I use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool more often for researching keywords to target in my on-site optimization work, I recommend you use the Google Ad Planner for more than ad planning:

• Define audiences by demographics and interests.
• Search for websites relevant to your audience.
• Access aggregated statistics on the number of unique visitors, page views, and other data for millions of websites from over 40 countries.
• Generate aggregated website statistics.

Check these out — and if you need some help using these tools or making sense of all the data, please get in touch!

Why Yahoo appeals to the 50+ demographic:

• It’s a true, old-fashioned (in Internet years) “portal” site that is a “gateway” to all sorts of content on the web.
• As a home page, it is more “set-up” in advance for its users and doesn’t push or require customization
• People over 50 who were “leading edge” Internet users 10-15 years ago set up a Yahoo email account when Yahoo was THE dominant search engine and they still have and use that account today.
• In a 2009 study by Cowan & Co, fifty-seven percent of respondents listed Yahoo Mail as the primary reason they visit the Yahoo homepage. Yahoo’s engagement with users remains high; 64% of respondents go to Yahoo.com at least once per week. In addition, Yahoo Mail is still growing (although Gmail has a much greater share of new personal email accounts).
• People over 60 are more often using the Internet for community and entertainment — they aren’t using the web to “search” for data and information to support their career.

Google: a dominant “search” engine and online toolbox

• Google is still the dominant search engine with 67.3% market share in December 2009 across all demographics.
• Google is primarily about “search”: finding the information and data one needs, often for work or career development.
• Google has dozens of customizable features and tools (iGoogle, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Reader, etc.).
• In the same 2009 study by Cowan & Co cited above, they found that “Seventy-nine percent of 22- to 25-year-olds use Google as their primary search engine, compared to 63% of total respondents. Google usage is skewed toward younger demographics, high-income households, users with college and graduate degrees, and mobile Internet users.”

Bing: uncertain waters yet strong possibilities for the 50+ demographic

• According to the Cowan & Co study, Bing was chosen as a primary search engine by just 1% of 18- to 25-year-olds and 4% of 26- to 34-year-olds. Bing’s highest penetration rate is in the 55-and-over demographic at 10%.
• About 40% of respondents are not aware of the Bing brand. They are simply finding the tool because it is the default search engine in Internet Explorer which as of December 2009 is still the browser of choice (or default) of 50% of Internet surfers. Older users are much more likely to stick with the default browser than to seek out alternative software.
• Even after the huge media-blitz by Microsoft to promote Bing (spending perhaps as much as $100 million), its market share dropped in December 2009 to 9.9% from a high of 10.7% the previous month.

The question is, even if Yahoo and Bing have a smaller piece of the pie — if their user base matches your customer base, you’ll want to make sure you have a presence in their text and image indexes, directories, and perhaps even paid search. There are specific tactics you will need to take to accomplish this. Evergreen Consulting Group is ready to offer you the guidance and coaching you need – just get in touch!