“I’ve got 60 product categories. For each of those there is a generic keyword I’d really love to rank for in Google. Each of the keywords is highly competitive in its own right.   Where on earth do I start?”

Sound familiar?

I’m sure you understand which generics you’d like each category page to rank for. You also understand that for each of these generic keywords there will be a host of sites competing for the same keywords.

Maybe you  sell LCD TVs, Women’s Dresses, Men’s Shirts, Vacuum Cleaners, (insert your category here). Obtaining top visibility for such a diverse set of products categories & associated generic keywords is not going to be easy.

Go ahead and type in “LCD Tvs” into Google and you’ll see a variety of sites including LCD specialist shops, department stores as well as guide and review sites.

You’ve probably already setup multiple product categories on your website, each of which is optimised to the core generic keywords associated to that category. You’ve worked hard to ensure you’ve ticked all the boxes with on-site SEO.  Title Tags, ALT text, unique, fresh content and even some clever adaptations to your internal linking architecture to ensure that your most important categories are getting all the link love they need.

It’s all helped and you’ve seen noticeable jumps in position against all your generic terms. Job done? Unfortunately not – if only it were that simple!

The problem is that these jumps are not translating into high enough positions to capture the potential traffic against these generic keywords. A jump from position 200 to 10 for “LCD TVs” might sound impressive but the reality is that this position is only capturing a tiny percentage of the estimated 40-50k searches conducted every month on Google UK.

Pretty soul destroying really when you think about it. Position 10 in Google for such a high volume keyword and the most traffic you could expect is approx 100-300 searchers (even with a strong Brand in the SERPs listing to capture a user’s attention).

That’s based on a generous assumption you’d get a click thru rate of approx 0.5% from your position 10. Now let’s say your average conversion rate for this keyword (which you’ve obtained from your PPC data) is 1% and your average basket for an LCD TV is £400.

A page 1 position in Google is generating 3 sales totalling the princely sum of £1,200.

Maybe not quite what you expected.

You’ll probably already know that what separates you from the 9 sites above is very likely to be a combination of your sites’ overall link profile & specific metrics associated to your main “LCD TVs” Category URL. i.e. The number  & quality of external links to this URL and then from these links which utilise anchor/ALT text that contain the terms “LCD” “TVs”, “Televisions” etc.

There are an increasing number oftools available that allow you to carry out this detailed link analysis. We use a combination of SEOMoz  LinksScape and  Majestic to assess “keyword level” competitors and carry out GAP analysis. In terms of links how far are we away from the top 3 sites for this keyword? Is this keyword a realistic target & if so how many (and what quality) links will we need?

Keyword Level Link Analysis?! We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here.

This level of link analysis takes times and you have multiple categories to consider. Not just LCD TVs.

Before you decide upon a link development strategy & deep link targets you probably want to know (across all of your categories) which generic keywords have the best chance of generating or contributing to revenue? Once you know this you can prioritise your link development efforts to the specific product category pages which are most likely to generate you the most money!

Why do you need to prioritise your link building efforts?

If you’re asking this question you:
a.    Have total domination of every generic keyword combination associated to every product that you sell. Be honest!
b.    Have a killer link development strategy for each and every one of your product categories URLs.
c. Have limitless budget and resource.

I’m guessing that most of you don’t fall into a or b. If you’ve managed a or b – I’d like to speak to you about joining our team.

For the rest of us – it’s very likely that you have a finite amount of resource (in-house or your SEO\PR agency) dedicated to link development. Therefore getting this time focussed on obtaining links to improve your visibility against the highest revenue potential keywords is an absolute must. (that is if generic keywords are an important part of your SEO strategy!)

How to find your Highest Revenue Potential Keywords
What’s  the revenue potential of top visibility for your generic keyword targets? i.e. What would a top 3 position for “LCD TVs” be worth to you?

To work this out we’re going to have to create some assumptions about the Click Thru Rate you’re likely to achieve from a top 3 position from a non-branded keyword like “LCD TVs”. From our own research (after going through this Revenue Potential Model process for all of our clients!) we utilise a figure of approx 15%.

So let’s do a quick example…

Keyword:
LCD TVs

Google Approx Total Search Month Volume:
50,000

Potential Traffic (based on 15% CTR from a position 1-3)
7,500

Potential Revenue (1% Conversion Rate)
£30,000

So the keyword “LCD TVs” would be directly worth £30k & you’re currently getting £1,200 of this.

Now repeat this process across all of your categories and you’ll begin to build a clearer picture of where you should be prioritising your link development efforts. It’s actually a little more complex than this – but hopefully its something to get you started. If you’d like some help give us a call. We’ve been through this process with all of our clients (including some very large retailers).

Here is an outline of what you’ll need to do:

1.    Obtain accurate keyword volume data (or as best as you can get) for each of your categories. You’ll hear that paid search data (based on setting a keyword live on the first page for 24/7 is the ideal approach). Whilst I don’t disagree, this could very quickly become an expensive research project – especially when you’re looking at multiple generic (and often not cheap) keywords! Unless of course you’re bidding on these keywords already due to your massive paid search budget.

We’ve carried out extensive testing of all the keyword volume data that Google offers from within their widely used research tools. From the Google SK Tool through to the new Google AdWords keyword tool. We’ll share our feedback on which one provides the best estimates in another post. I can say with 99% confidence that the search volumes given when using Exact Match (Local Volume) data in the external tool are not much use for this type of analysis!

2.    Benchmark your site against this research data. What’s your Google visibility against each keyword, exactly how much traffic & revenue do you currently capture based on this position?

3.    Layer on specific details about each of the categories. Average Basket Value, Profit Margin etc etc.

4.    Create a “What if” scenario based on you achieving a top 3 position for that keyword.

5.    Decide upon your priority generic keywords and category URL targets.

6.    Carry out some keyword level competitor analysis. i.e. Do a reality check to how much work will be required to obtain a top 1-3 position.

7.    Create and a execute a  killer link development strategy for your target keywords

Did I mention that we have the best link development team in the UK?

By Gary Preston