How to Find the Best Keywords for Your Brand

An important factor to success for any online retailer is which keywords to find and add to your search marketing efforts. Most retailers keep a lid on their most successful keywords, but the process for finding them isn't exactly a secret. Kate Goodman, vice president of e-commerce at women's apparel retailer Talbots, and Courtney Wegner, client services manager at iProspect, a search marketing firm, shared best practices to finding your brand's keywords in a session titled, How I Found My Best Keywords, at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in San Diego yesterday. 

In order to find the best keywords, you must think both like a marketer and a consumer. When thinking like a marketer, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who are we as a brand?
• What products do we want to be known for?
• What are our goals?

Goodman suggested that the best place to start your keyword campaign is with brand coverage. When it comes to covering your brand, it's important to own all of your brand terms because you want to be able to control your messaging. This will increase ad interaction and conversion rates. Brand terms yield the highest return on investment, brand interactions with consumers and the lowest cost per click. Goodman advised not to ignore your brand terms. "If you're not found in the search engines for these terms, your competitors will be."

Another goal of keyword campaigns is to increase brand awareness. This aspect focuses on new customer acquisition and encourages layering in keywords to your campaign. This is where you must begin to think like a consumer, rather than a marketer.

For example, outdoor apparel and products retailer Timberland is most popular for its hiking boots. Timberland may call its boots "footwear," whereas a consumer may call them "kicks" or "sneakers." Consumers may even refer to the Timberland brand itself as "Tims" or "Timbos." All of these differences must be reflected in your keyword campaign.

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