How keywords work: market
Market words are keyword components that best represent the interests of visitors. There is a market word in all commercially valuable search terms.
Market Pathways
People traverse market subjects, and the words change. From the ‘broad and abstract’ to the ‘precise and concrete’. We call this progression of word specificity “the market pathway”.
There is a natural hierarchy and relationship to ‘the things people need help with’, which is our definition of what a market is.
The market words belong together, they tell us what conversations are about, how interested people are, and where they might go next.
The buyer’s journey travels along market pathways.
Meeting visitors where they are
What people look for is how we meet them. Their market is defined by their choice of words. The market interest is there, we can serve it, or ignore it.
It is the market which determines which way they might go.
Building content around visitor interest is the only way to develop it.
We can recognise the level of interest, and the different types of content that will make sense at that point.
Product market fit
Our most interested prospects use increasingly specific market words in search terms. The more of the market we cover, the more return on our investment.
Mapping out the market words helps us see actual product market fit with more clarity than you would expect. It is context, a way of seeing how people look at what we do.
Being market-driven will become a competitive advantage.
Pathways make buyer journeys predictable
Mapping and identifying the market word pathways is a compass. The maps show us the magnetic focus of what that group of visitors might want next, collectively.
- Anticipate their next steps
- Markets have more depth and breadth than people think
- The value of market words increases with their journey towards specificity
That whole picture of the market (the audience for the market) helps us decide what to say, and how likely we are to succeed.
Conversion is more important than the click
We must maximise the potential of every click. Unless we provide pathways for the whole market, most of our clicks will fail.
- Brand clicks,
- The late-stage: ready to buy
- The middle stage: choosing options
- Early-stage: exploration, choosing to be interested, or not
All these relate to market interest; there are pathways to be mapped out. In reality and context, we see lots of possible buyer journeys. It is not ours to take.
We gather and focus our content into market-related hubs, laying and signposting the path.
Why don’t people know?
By some quirk, market words have not been defined in general use.
It means that traditional websites are not built around market words, which explains why conversion rates are so low and bounce rates are so high.
We lack content that is organised to help meet people where they are and take them on.
This leaves all our websites shallower.
Our content needs higher definition.
With low defintition clicks, the structure of market words, their organisational capability, takes visitors from low levels of interest through to conversion. It adds a depth not catered for in traditional navigation.
It is the skeleton for a new kind of website.
There are three levels of market word interest:
- Subject, Topic and Types.
Subject, Topic and Type Examples:
- Mathematics → Algebra → Quadratic equations –
- Orthodontics → Teeth straightening → Clear braces
The levels of market interest are a mini journey towards doing something. Each level has a different objective, different decisions, and different content required. Different levels of market intent.
Visitors need to see the depth of your expertise and leadership in your field, but based on their interests. Websites are built inside out.
Lack of Completeness
Retail and e-commerce are used to managing hierarchy and categories, and the value of completeness, but the rest of us are not.
On most sites,
- many market words lack any content at all.
- Many have incomplete levels of interest.
- Most sites are not organised around markets.
Every single market-based keyword is a pathway to every other word in that market.
The least defined clicks have the most potential paths. And the paths are not there, just inserting links is not enough.
Grouping complete content around the visitor’s primary interest, in hubs, makes obvious sense, but doesn’t happen. The value of words is not recognised.
Individual keywords for individual pages is a terrible way to plan content; it is ‘covering the market interest’ that converts. Blogs are the biggest giveaway that we need to change.
Structured Navigation Makes the Most Difference
More than copy or design, if people can’t pursue their interests, it doesn’t matter what you say.
People are so impatient.
One of the reasons that people find it hard to build out their websites is a lack of structure, that feeling of talking about themselves into the void.
Paying attention to market words, mapping them out in advance, gives you structure. It gives you visibility. You can sprint the content.
Once the market word structure is right, the other two types of word come into play, the audience and the buyers journey.
The Art and Science of Being Bothered
If you are thinking this requires way more content than you might hope, correctly aligned for the right stage of the journey, you’d be right.
All successful projects have had more content than others.
That is how people have always won, the art and science of being bothered and writing more. Only before, it was easier.
Thankfully, AI is arriving at just the right time. Structure is hard, the individual pages are easy, once you know what the point is.
