Unlocking the Power of SEO Keyword Research: A Guide to Finding the Right Keyword for your Website
What is Keyword Research??
Keyword research is the process of identifying relevant keywords and phrases for your website. It's also about understanding how search engine algorithms work, so that you can attract highly qualified traffic to your site.?
Keyword research is a crucial aspect of any search engine optimization campaign as it helps to identify relevant, high-traffic keywords that are less competitive from an optimization perspective. By selecting the "right" keywords, businesses can achieve quicker optimization efforts and the best organic results. However, many companies have neglected keyword research in the past, leading to optimization for keywords that could never achieve number one rankings or had no search volume. A potential client who claimed to be ranked number one was surprised to discover that the keyword he ranked for had less than 30 searches per month. Through proper keyword research, businesses can find actual keyword phrases that people in their industry use to find services and rank well for them in a short time, driving traffic and growth.?
How to develop keywords???
Why are keywords so important? Because search engine algorithms are largely based on keywords and keyword phrases—keywords on your web page, keywords in your code, keywords in the links within and pointing to your website or blog. I guess you could say that Google has keywords on the brain. Their goal is to return websites and other digital assets that most closely align with a user’s search query. This is why keywords are so important to get right.??
A keyword is any word or phrase that describes your website and/or web page content. Another way to think about it is in the form of a search term. What a user enters into the Google search box is considered a keyword or keyword phrase.??
Selection of a keyword can be greatly simplified if you follow these steps:??
One suggestion is to start with the URL search under the “Start with a website” tab. Enter the website of the three biggest competitors in your space and download all of Google’s suggested keywords.??
4. Select anywhere from ten to thirty keyword phrases to research further. Here is where the rubber meets the road. Look at your list and choose a few keyword phrases (not an individual word because, in most instances, it will be way too competitive with many sites trying to rank high for that particular keyword) that accurately represent your website. Make sure your phrases have a search volume of at least seven hundred monthly searches unless you are in a very small niche. Keep in mind that the more searches on a given keyword, the more competitive it may be. Eliminate keywords with 10,000 or more searches per month.??
?Now you might be asking, “Why NOT pick the phrase with the greatest number of searches?” It stands to reason that the greater the number of searches, the greater number of visitors to your website. However, there are other factors to consider such as how competitive it will be to rank well for the given search term.??
5. SEO Competitiveness. Your ability to rank well is not just dependent on search volume for specific keywords. In fact, it’s even more important to find keywords that drive qualified traffic to your website or blog and are not extremely competitive.??
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?When using the Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool, you’ll see a “Competition” column. What this refers to is the advertising competition for a keyword. Over the years, I have found that low competition on Adwords generally reflects less competition in organic search but not always. Remember, you’re looking for well trafficked keywords that are easy to rank for – at least easier than some of the more competitive search phrases others are trying to rank for.??
?Take your list of thirty or so keyword phrases and evaluate their SEO competitiveness either by looking at the Adwords competition or, more effectively, by using the Moz SEO keyword research tool or plugin. If you do not have access to these tools, start with a free trial or search for an online coupon. Don’t be afraid to try them. Mastering these tools gets easier by the day as they continue to develop new features. There are always new tools coming on the market to give you this type of information at a lower cost, so don’t hesitate to experiment with free tools that offer SEO competition information as well as on page insights.??
?Keywords that have high SEO competition aren’t there by happenstance. As more websites build content around certain terms, they become more competitive. This means ranking well for a particular keyword may take time, website authority, and lots of optimization to achieve. Your best bet is to choose keywords most closely aligned to your website with the least amount of SEO competition.??
6. Research the competition. Regardless of which tool you use to generate or research keyword phrases; you’ll need to size up your competition. This is the final step in keyword research and definitely one of the most important when it comes to developing a strong list of potential keywords to optimize for. Remember that Google is a voting machine. The question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you can optimize your website (both on-page and off) better than your competition and attract more votes! If you can, you’ll quickly find yourself at the top of search engine results. This step is extremely important so we’ll take a deeper dive on the most effective way to research your competition.??
Where to place the keyword??
You must focus on where and how your keywords are placed on your web page. The frequency of placement is less important than once considered as Google has gotten more sophisticated with their ability to identify what your content is about based on just a few related keyword phrases.??
Many people believe that if they fill their web pages with nothing but keywords, they can get top placement. Search engines have responded to this and actually penalize sites that over use keywords. The number of times your keyword appears on a given web page is called keyword density and you don’t need much of it.??
The concept of keyword density isn’t talked about much anymore but is important to understand as well as the location of your keywords. The number of times your keywords are used on a given page as a percentage of the total number of words is a great start but doesn’t give us everything, we need to fully optimize a given webpage. For reference, I like keyword density of 2 to 3 percent but never more than 4 percent.??
Of greater importance is the placement and treatment of your keywords. Use the following guidelines to optimize your page:??
Following these guidelines for proper keyword placement shows Google that your keywords are important to your web page and your website. It also helps you compete with other sites that are not as well optimized using these on page factors.