Whoever invented the term “keywords” probably worked at Yahoo! in its heyday. Today keywords drive the monstrous SEO/SEM business but are getting out of hand when it comes to bidding wars in the Google-verse.
One of the things I’ve been focusing on with search for my brand consultancy is the “key phrase.” The memeable phrase. (FYI, a unique name such as whatstheidea, is a great brand start.) As a daily blogger and original content creator (Google “Posters versus Pasters”), I know that owning key phrases on Google and pointing them to my site is a great long-term traffic builder. Yes, it may take a while. Yes, I could speed it up with a black hat cowgirl at the controls. But I much prefer the slow, steady build. It feels cleaner.
Key words are easy but lazy. Key phrases are rich, targeted and ownable. Think phrases!
Peace.