You can also go one-step-removed to get keyword ideas.

Coachtrans are a SEQLD-wide coach service (a little like the Greyhounds in the US) that get you from A to B normally faster and much more cheaply than taking the train. Their site targets terms such as 'gold coast airport shuttle' 'brisbane airport transfers' etc.

This strategy was decided based on detailed discussions with the travel agents who have made bookings on behalf of customers, to find out what people asked for, when the booking ended up with a coach trip being the right answer. It's possible that phrases such as 'cheap brisbane to gold coast' or 'cheap way to get to gold coast airport from brisbane airport' will have actually come up in conversation, and the agents have then recommended a coach trip with Coachtrans.

Incidently, Coachtrans have an amazing service and operate from www.coachtrans.com.au

These phrases should then definitely be considered for targeting on the site.

Loitering with Intent to Research

One final example, from a conversation overheard in a garden center, between a customer (played by a middle aged female, looking lost) and the sales assistant (an underpaid college kid, looking increasingly confused):

• Customer: Hi, where could I find a mopsy?
• Assistant: I .. I'm sorry ma'am?
• Customer: You know, the thing I can screw to a wall to grow plants up?
• Assistant: Do you mean a trellis?
• Customer: Ah yes! I knew it was the name of one of my daughter's rabbits.

If I worked for an online garden supplies website, I'd have immediately made a note to write a blog post about 'How to Grow Plants up a Wall.' I also think I'd have spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around to listen to what else people were asking for by description or by describing their problem, rather than searching for an item by name.

Whatever your niche, see if there's a place you can hang out to get the opportunity for this kind of real world keyword research.

It's Search Marketing

It's been said many times that a significant part of sales and/or marketing is to solve each customer's problem. This is just another way of getting you close to that goal, and bring you new business at the same time.