Often times Search Engine Marketers (SEMs) and Search Engine Optimization Analysts (SEOs) need to group keywords as part of their day-to-day career.  Grouping keywords can feel like reinventing the wheel every time because each market is different, each client has particular needs, each product has important features and so on.  That is why it is smart to draw out a keyword grouping algorithm to determine the best way to group your keywords.

Keyword grouping algorithms are nothing more than a standardized process that consists of a set of instructions and actions that get executed in a particular order to try and output an end-result.  The question you should be asking yourself is “how can I come up with a process that I can repeat over and over again regardless of the client keyword list size?”

One thing you might want to integrate into an algorithm would be the order that the words appear within a keyword.

 The Google Adwords keyword grouper tool in Adwords Editor uses “Any Word Order” which means that the words can appear in any order within the keyword.  If the Generated Common Term was “Car Insurance”, keywords with the whole words “car” and “insurance” in any order can potentially be grouped into this adgroup.  For example: “car insurance quotes” and “insurance for my car”.

Another thing to consider when pondering a keyword grouping algorithm is how to handle stop words.  Stop words are high-frequency words within the English language that are not descriptive.  Think of the words like: and, of, for, to, the, is, a, etc.  You probably speak these words hundreds of times per day.

 These types of keywords are peppered throughout any list of keywords as well.  In my opinion, the best way to handle these would be to ignore them.  Chances are, you don’t want a group called “Car Insurance In” because that could be car insurance in [anywhere!].

For a last tip, you might want to address the best way to handle singular and plural keywords.  For example, if a keyword ends in y, the plural version could be ies.  Only you can determine if you think singular keywords and plural keywords should be grouped together or separate from each other.  That’s what makes a keyword grouping algorithm so interesting!  There’s a hundred different ways to come up with a result.  Ultimately, the results determine if your algorithm is any good or not.

Keyword grouping is a subjective, matter-of-opinion type activity.  Some marketers like small granular keyword groupings while others like only a few to make management easier.  With all the possible ways to group keywords, flexibility and robustness of a program or application is key.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.