o2-v2.com http://www.o2-v2.com/en/blog/how-to-find-western-customers-with-english-keyword-research

How To Find Western Customers With English Keyword Research

If you're wondering how to find Western customers online, then you need to start with English keyword research!

By creating content focusing on a keyword that they are likely to be searching for, you give your company and itscontent the best chance of being found.

However, in China you will be used to searching for content in Chinese, and also using Chinese search engines like'Baidu.'

For potential Western customers, you'll find that things are very different, as they traditionally search in English, usingunfamiliar search engines like 'Google,' or 'Bing.'

Keep reading as I walk you through how to do English keyword research...

Step 1: Brainstorm Your English Keywords

Here's where you need to start using your brain and experience.

Think about your ideal Western customer.

What will they be searching for? How do they describe your business, or products? What are common problems thatthey face, that your company, or products, can help to solve?

As you are getting answers to these, write them down into a list. These brainstormed keywords give you a basis to goon and refine them into a shorter list later to find the best ones to create English content, such as blogs, with.

To help your brainstorming you could:

Expand your list with Ubersuggest

A great tool to help give you a nice big list of possible English keywords is called: Ubersuggest.

Take the keywords you have brainstormed, and put them into this tool.

It will then give you a long list of other options, starting with A - Z.

Let's imagine you produce truck tires in China. Here's an example search, where I entered the example keyword I'llbe focusing on today: 'Truck tires China. '

You can see that from just one possible keyword, I can then get manymore good ideas and options.

You can click on the words that you like, and then save them as adocument for later. Easy so far, right?

Google can also help you find useful keywords...

You can also try doing a Google search for any of the brainstormedkeywords you have thought of.

For instance, if you enter 'truck tires China' into Google, at the bottom ofthe page of results it gives you a selection of possible alternativekeywords. Some of these might be perfect!

Here's what you'll see:

Remember that your customers are searching for these keywords inGoogle, so as a truck tire manufacturer you need to consider using thesefor both your site and any English content that you want to produce,such as blogs.

Can't use Google? Yes, it is often blocked in China. However, if you'reserious about marketing overseas and learning how to find Westerncustomers, then you'll need to use a VPN to access such sites forbusiness purposes.

Read this blog about the top 5 VPN for gaining access to Western socialmedia in China to learn more about how VPNs can help you.

Step 2: Cut Down Your Long List ToThe 'Best' Keywords

Now you need to cut down your list which could be anywhere from 20 to 50 keywords long, to a much shorter list ofwhat you think are the 'best' options.

But how do you know which keywords are best?

Again, you need to use your experience and knowledge about your customers. Look at your list and think about whichkeywords there will be the ones that Western customers are most likely to be searching for.

Remember, these guys want to buy your product (hopefully!), and so the searches that they do may be quite sales-oriented. For instance, they may search for:

So if we choose 'truck tires' again, the keywords you may like for this could be:

How to deal with competition

Usually you'll find that longer keywords, that is ones with 3 or 4 words or more, will be easier to be found for.Therefore I would advise against choosing very short keywords when doing English keyword research.

Why?

Think how many sites must mention 'truck tires!'

Now only will big truck manufacturers have pages and content with this keyword, but there are any number of smallergarages doing this as well. So if you also choose to focus on this keyword, you're going to have a lot of competition.Below you can see that alsthough this keyword is popular and will give many visits to your site, it has highcompetition.

However, a longer keyword (called long-tail keywords) will be less common. Therefore it's going to take less content

and web pages using this keyword for it to race to the top of search results!

Also, traditionally, if people are searching for long-tail keywords, they have a better understanding of the subject thatthey're interested in, and are probably closer to making a purchase.

To illustrate this point, let's look at the difference between two of the keywords I've mentioned so far:

Which do you think is more likely to lead to a sale?

For me, it has to be the second option.

The customer searching for 'truck tires China' is certainly interested in learning more about the truck tire industry inChina, but there's nothing about this keyword which suggests that they might want to buy soon. Your site which has alot of general information about your industry will be a good place for this person to visit so they can learn more, soinclude this kind of keyword in your site's pages.

However, the person searching for 'how to import truck tires from China' is clearly showing that they want to importtruck tires from China, and is therefore looking to buy. In this case, it would be wise to write a blog, make a video, orcreate other detailed content explaining how o do this, using this keyword.

This is the kind of thought process that you need to develop in order to cut down your long list of keywords to a shorterlist of really 'good' options that are going to help you to know how to find Western customers.

Step 3: Check Your Chosen Keywords' Competition And Searches With Google's'Keyword Planner'

Google, the king of Western search engines, wants you to choose good keywords, and create English content that itcan show people in order to help them.

That's why your next step, now that you have a shortlist of chosen keywords (maybe around just 5), is to run throughthe Google Keyword Planner tool.

To use the keyword planner tool, you need to:

Sign up to Google Adwords for FREE > Search for new keyword and ad ideas > Enter the keyword you want to check> Choose the 'keyword ideas' section.

Now you're going to get the good stuff!

For instance, unfortunately 'truck tires China' only gives 10 visits per month if you rank #1 in Google, and it's also highin competition. So in fact, we don't want this one.

However, some interesting results are given, and any of the highlighted keywords could be good options, as they arelow competition and give plenty of monthly visits:

Look out for keywords like these, and consider creating content with them, or using them on your site's pages as longas they're relevant to your topic, industry, company, or products.

I also found the following keywords which I think would make brilliant blog or FAQ topics for a truck tire manufacturerin China:

For instance, I would write a blog titled: "How to choose the ideal radial tire for your truck ." Getting an extra 1600visits to your site per month would be great!

Step 4: Analyze and Repeat

You need to start using these keywords on your site, in blogs, and in everything else you create. After an amount oftime, you should analyze your progress and see if you are going up in rankings. You should also check where yourtraffic is coming from, and if it is from any of the content of site pages which focus on these 'new' keywords.

How you analyze your progress could vary depending on how your company works, but it's easy to search trafficsources and which pages supply them using Google Analytics.

Find out which keywords are giving you success and keep focusing on those, but the others may need to be changed,at which point you can repeat this English keyword research.

Extra Keyword Research Tips

Now that you have found some good keywords, when creating content, which could be blogs, or web pages, don'tforget to include your 'main' keyword, such as: 'Truck tires,' but also similar keywords such as 'buy truck tires,' 'trucktires china,' 'how to import truck tires,' and any other which are relevant.

Pages which include similar keywords that share the topic of your chosen keywords will tend to rank higher, so justbear that in mind when writing something and researching keywords.

If these keyword research tools don't work for you, then you could also consider these ones:

How do you do keyword research at the moment? Do you find that English keywords gives you help in howto find Western customers online? Which tools do you use? Let us know in the comments please.

Become an expert in writing English blogs that will attract Western customers to your company!

Click below to get our FREE E-book that will teach you how to set up and write an English business blog fromscratch!

Posted by Adrian Leighton on Mon 27 Oct, 2014

Adrian has been in China for 7 years! He is experienced in all things social media, blogging, and SEO.When not working he enjoys weight-training, reading, watching TV shows with his wife, and baking!

Find me on:LinkedIn

Topics: SEO • Inbound Marketing