A medical company in Columbus recently found us through Google when they found our website in a search. But interestingly, they didn't find it by using one of the keyword search terms we are constantly using in our posts, which are "Columbus Ohio web design" and "web design Columbus Ohio." Keyword phrases that Google tells us are searched for hundreds of times a month.

What search term did they find us under? Both "medical website design Columbus Ohio" and "Columbus Ohio website design medical sites." Two phrases not on our radar, and ones we've never used in our website or blog posts.

However, we do have quite a few health/medical-related sites in our website. So Google pieced things together and gave us an awesome ranking (position 3 page 1) for both search terms.

Search terms are both an art and science

So what does this tell us? That Google uses its algorithms to "read" your site and put together search terms that relate to searches

This is an interesting situation we found ourselves in and it is why you have to use your best judgment when deciding.

So the questions is: should we be using that search phrase in our blog posts from now on? It's a question that, like many SEO-related questions, have no specific answer.

But the considerations are: how many people could conceivably search that phrase to find us? Well, according to Google, no one searched for that term in the past 30 days. But there's also no competition for that search term. So is there no competition for that phrase because research shows no one searches for it? Or is there no competition because it's not on anyone's radar.

While we showed up #3 on a search for the phrase "Columbus Ohio website design medical sites," the first two results were for unrelated medical products, so for all practical purposes that made  first.

Now look at what Google tells us the searches are for the term "website design Columbus Ohio." There's 260 searches.

But we're competing with lots of other web design firms, and currently show up on page two for that phrase.

So which term should we focus on for organic results?

Well, there's also the consideration that the more you use a search term in your website, specifically your blog posts (that you should be writing often), the more Google will recognize your site being associated with those words.

Also, the more search terms you use, the harder it is to be associated with any one or two of those terms. That's why we try to focus on two or three search terms  in our blog posts. So we register with Google for those terms. If we used 10 search terms in our blogs, we might be spreading ourselves too thin with search engines.

Search engines don't reveal their algorithms, so much of the observations shared in the SEO world are speculation. Though not many web design firms will admit to that.

Then there's the automated approach to keyword search for AdWords

Companies like ReachLocal (an international company, by the way, based in Irvine California) have their own automated algorithms that find hundreds of keywords for your industry.

But that approach only works for paid advertising in search engines (ie: Google AdWords). And it's not cheap.

Plus, research shows only 5% of the people using Google click on the ads, versus the organic results. Of course, the 5% of people who click on ads still nets Google something like $100 million a day for them from worldwide advertising.

But that's another post for another time.