The Right Keywords for your SEO Project
One of the most important – and very frequently glossed over – tasks you should do when researching and creating your list of keywords you want your website to rank well in the major Search Engines for.
Keyword research is not too difficult and there are several online tools that will you in this process. So what should you be doing? Here’s a summary of the basic process involved:
Brainstorm the Keywords to use.
Brainstorm and write down a list of keywords and phrases that describe your products and services. Crucially important, yet often missed by web managers, is to include the keywords you think your customers might use when searching for you or your competitors.
Another useful approach is to ask some of your customers what they might type into the Search Engines such as Google or Bing if they were searching for the products and services your business offers. We would also suggest it good practice to include brand and business names.
Include any Known Keywords Successes
To your target list of keywords and phrases add any keywords or phrases that you know or recognise which currently brings qualified traffic and business to your website. Where can you get this information? Well, ask your employees, ask your customers and, assuming you have access to web analytics such as Google Analytics (free) or other website analytics software – you should be able to identify these key phrases here.
Research the Best keywords for your Project
Now use your list of key phrases and, perhaps by using a free keyword tool, try and identify those key phrases which will work well for you. Using the likes of the Google keyword tool, you should be able to note those key phrases your potential customers really do use and type into the Search engines to locate the products and services your are looking to promote.
Online tools such as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool provides:
- Keyword data by specific countries & territories
- Search volumes and trends
- Competition levels for key phrases
There are several other keyword tools available to help you identify the right key phrases for your project and these include: Bing (free), Word tracker (free and paid), Word stream (free and paid), and Keyword Discovery (free and paid).
When you’re finished your key phrase research then you should end up with a clear and relevant list of keywords / key phrases to use together with their local monthly search volume.
Finalise your list of Keyword Targets
By now you should now have a good list of keywords you want your business to use on the web pages you want to be found for, and remember that you can set up a specific set of key phrases for each individual page in your website.
Add these key phrases to your respective pages and remember it may be, for example when creating a ‘landing page’ for an AdWords campaign, to that you need to build a new page based around a specific phrase(s).
You should note that when populating your web pages with these phrases that you should always write copy for the end user, not specifically just for the Search engines. Keyword / key phrase density refers to the number of times a phrase is included in the content on a page. Repeating the phrase too often may well be considered spam by the likes of Google and should be avoided.
Good quality, relevant and well written content – aimed at the site visitor – should be the order of the day.
Tracking your Rankings
Keep an eye on your Search engine rankings for a key phrase and help direct your strategic and tactical efforts, which should also enable you to refine and update your targeted key phrases. For example if you find that you have a selection of relatively low competition keywords ranking in positions 3–10, then the chances are that pushing some great content out that links to those pages will give those pages the boost they need to get to the top.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Internet Marketing
If you would like some assistance with any aspect of your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Internet Marketing project, call Direct Submit now on 0845 2722350 or visit the Direct Submit website for further information and guidance.
