Crafting a thorough keyword research strategy involves digging deep to uncover every keyword related to a client's suite of products
and their benefits, including variations on product names--a process Asbury equates with exploring a large tree. "Comprehensive keyword research starts at the base of the tree with broad keywords,"
Asbury says, "Then considers every single major branch of the tree and (here's the comprehensive part) every single large, medium and small branch connected to these major branches."
For example, a recent keyword research project for an e-commerce client yielded some 224 variations of the company's 500 product names--giving Asbury's firm new words to target with paid, organic and social media campaigns. It's the perfect example of new search marketing tools (i.e. social media) being built on the back of a "foundational SEO activity that has not changed very much," Asbury says.