,p>This article from the 10 Best Practices for Paid Search Marketing series by Alan Rimm-Kaufman and Lawrence Becker first appeared in the June 15, 2005 e-mail newsletter of Multichannel Merchant.

Test Between Two and Ten Phrases for Each Page

Search engine marketing is often correctly described as complicated. But as the saying goes “where there’s complexity there’s opportunity” and the principles that lead to successful SEM are actually quite simple. Over the next ten weeks, we’ll walk through a Top Ten list of SEM best practices. This week we’ll look at how to Grow Your Phrase List.

The heart of a successful paid search campaign is a well designed, comprehensive keyword list. How many phrases or keywords you need depends on the nature of your business and the size of your product assortment. As a rule of thumb, we recommend testing between two and ten phrases for each page on your site. So if you sell 2,000 products, we recommend testing 4,000 to 20,000 unique phrases.

Yes, that’s a lot. Here how to get there

How To Develop The Phrases

Develop phrases for each of your product pages. Don’t forget misspellings and alternate forms. Tip: Mine your site’s internal search logs, including the “not found” list.

Develop phrases for each of your product category pages. Let your website’s navigation guide you and be sure that you hit every level of the drilldown. Tip: This is also a chance to informally audit the language you use on these labels. If you encounter wording that doesn’t sound like the way a customer would describe your product, change the language. This will make your site more appealing to customers as well as natural search spiders.

If you sell branded products, develop phrases for each of your vendors’ names, and their brands. Develop phrases for your item numbers, and your vendor item numbers, if these SKUs are in common use.

Think about the possible problems solved by each of your products or services, and develop related phrases. This is a good way to meet the prospect for whom you are a great match but is unaware of your name or your vendor brands.

Before you launch your list, make sure you have appropriate rights to use any trademarks, registered marks, or copyrighted terms.