So it’s been a touch over two months since I posted my rant on the “posers” in the online marketing world.

Believe it or not I am still fired up over the “hacks” that swindle business owners out of their money for services they are less than qualified to provide. I am quite sure I’ll continue to be irritated because this type of junk will never stop.

Rather than go off on another tangent, I want to provide some value and equip you with a step-by-step process I promised to post if enough of you asked for it.

Well, I received several requests and although it’s been awhile … here you go!

Step One – Build a List of Keywords Focused on Benefits Your Visitors Want

Your customers don’t care about you, your company, or how cool your products and services are. The only thing they care about is what’s in it for them.

Does your website currently talk about the benefits they’ll receive from doing business with you? If it does, are you speaking the language they speak?

I’m not talking about English vs. Spanish when I ask if you are speaking the same language your customers speak. I am referring to the heavy use of industry jargon which we so often end up using with our clients.

I’m here to tell you they don’t understand industry jargon, so don’t use it.

Ask yourself what you would type in if you were your customer looking for a solution, and then take whatever time is necessary to think like them and compile a list of keywords as they would type them into the search box.

Step Two – Check and See How Often Your Keywords are Searched For Each Month

The beauty of the Internet is that everything is measurable, including the amount of times someone searches using the keywords you selected.

For example, we were working with an organization who was fairly proud of the high rank they were receiving for a particular keyword. We did some research and found they were indeed ranking number 3 on Google for that keyword.

We did a little more digging and found that although they ranked well …

that particular keyword was only searched for 72 times each month (on average).

We also found out they ranked 18 on Google for the plural version of that same keyword, and the plural version of the keyword was searched for over 12,000 times each month.

It’s amazing how one “s” can make such a significant difference. The great thing is you have access to the same information and it won’t cost you anything!

Just go to the Google Keyword Tool at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal .

Below is a quick screen capture video of what to do once you’ve arrived, and a quick explanation of what the data means that you’ll be looking at.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFePl6FZfAA]

Step Three – Determine Whether Your Customers Intend to Buy When Using Those Words

Just because you find your keywords are searched for frequently each month doesn’t mean they are the right words. You have the ability to determine the percentage of the time people searching with these words, intend to make a purchase.

We’ve never believed in optimizing a website simply for the sake of driving traffic. In my opinion it doesn’t matter how much traffic you receive if nobody is looking to take the next step.

Well, you also have access to this information as well … and it is completely free!

Just go to the MSN Commercial Intention Tool at: http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/ .

I planned on producing a video on how to use this but unfortunately the Ad Lab website has been down for the past couple days. It is very easy though and I am sure you won’t have any difficulty once it is back up.

Conclusion

If you take the time to think like your customers, understand how often your customers are searching for the solution you provide, recognize when your customers are looking to make a buying decision, and ultimately use this intelligence to guide your marketing direction …

You will win!

I hope you find this information useful and I encourage you to ask the next “Internet Marketing Professional” what their process is.

If their process doesn’t include all of the following …

Grab your wallet (or purse) and RUN!!!!