It takes a lot of careful thinking, planning, and strategizing to find the right keywords to move your SEO forward. Not only will this effort pay off, but it will also give you a deeper understanding of your audience.
Each keyword has an intent and purpose. It is your job to find which ones best represent your website and audience. Choosing the wrong keywords will not move you ahead, but will slow your progress.
Before researching keywords, think about the topics and purpose of your website’s content. This will help you to begin finding the keywords that matter to your business and audience.
Know Your Audience and Their Intent
Every business has a different goal and sales objective in mind. Finding the right audience for your service or product is essential for success. First, you need to ask who your target audience is, and what are they coming to your site to accomplish (intent).
Keywords serve four predefined intents:
- Informational: this coincides with brand awareness and are keywords with informational intent. In other words, the user may have a question or problem they are looking to have answered.
- Navigational: These keywords are intentional and gain the attention of people looking for very specific information or very specific pages.
- Commercial: your audience does research and is now in the stage where they are seeking products or services.
- Transactional: searchers in this phase have made a decision and are ready to move forward with purchasing or completing the conversion.
What are Keywords and How to Find them
A good SEO keyword has three main functions. It can generate traffic, convert users, and align with what users are searching. The keywords you choose, however, are only as valuable as the content you create around them.
The first step in keyword research is knowing your audience, and the goal for each page on your website. It is easiest to begin a list when conducting your research. List each potential keyword for further analysis.
Seed Keywords vs. Long-Tailed Keywords
Not every keyword is the same and knowing the differences will help you understand which keywords may perform better.
A seed keyword is typically one or two words in length and is a broad keyword match. These are harder to rank for because the competition for these words is high.
Long-tailed keywords are 4 or more words in length and are much niched down to the topic. Since these keywords are more niche, you typically see less traffic, but more conversions. This is because you are targeting the “right” traffic to your website.
Perform Topic Research
When you begin your research, start by including topics around what your business does. Topic research better helps you understand what is important to your audience.
First, make a list of any relevant topics in your industry. Next, begin a Google search by typing in the beginning of your research and allow Google to auto-populate suggestions. These are terms users may already be seeking. Make a note of all the suggestions that coincide with your business.
Another valuable resource is Google Trends. This free platform allows you to enter a keyword or phrase and then list trending topics that coincide with that search. Google Trends also provides you with a list of related keywords and related queries to use. Add any keyword or phrase of value to your keyword list.
You can also gain more valuable information by conducting competitor research. Often you see what is working and not working for competitors and can mimic that success yourself.
To conduct competitor keyword research, you can pull a gap report. This Keyword Gap Report displays your ranking keywords in comparison to your competition’s keywords and shows the gap between them.
While performing competitor research, pay attention to what keywords are working for them and which aren’t producing any traffic. This will help you know which keywords to avoid.
Keyword Mapping & Research
Now that you have a completed list of topics and keywords you would like to target, it’s time to dig deeper. Remember that not all keywords are created equal. A keyword that may do well with one business may flop with another.
There are many free Keyword generators available online for you to use with your research.
These tools serve several purposes including finding new and related keywords and analyzing search volume, intent, and cost per click. Ideally, you want to focus on keywords with a high search volume, low competition, and high cost per click.
Analyzing Keyword Metrics
The best way to begin analyzing your keywords is to create a spreadsheet. The goal here is to choose the best keywords and phrases to use within your website.
To evaluate each keyword, you want to type it into a keyword research tool and look at a few factors.
- First, what is the search volume of that keyword? The search volume is the average amount of searches a month for that given keyword. If the keyword isn’t being searched, it is not worth your efforts to rank for that keyword.
- Pay attention to the keyword difficulty (KD), as some keywords are highly competitive to rank for. Instead of aiming to rank for difficult keywords, look for variations that may be easier to rank for.
- As we spoke about earlier, ensure that the intent of the keyword aligns with the intent of your writing and website.
Implementing On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is a critical part of the SEO process. This is where you match keywords to pages on your website. While optimizing for on-page SEO, ensure to include your keyword in these places:
- Title tag: these are the headlines for each of your pages. When you utilize keywords in your title, you are telling Google what the page is about.
- Meta description: a summary of what the page is about that appears in search engines below your page title. Make sure to include your keyword within the meta description.
- Header tags: such as H1, H2, etc. should also distribute your keyword.
- Content optimization: Google looks for content to be at least 300 words in length. While writing content, be sure to include your chosen keywords evenly throughout the text.
- Image optimization: be sure to compress images to a lower resolution and include your keyword in the image name. Also, be sure to add alt text including your keyword to each image.
Need Help with Your SEO Keyword Strategy?
Selecting the right keywords for your website can be daunting. At 232 Creative, we know that SEO optimization for your website is crucial for success. You can trust our experts to find the keywords that matter to you and your business.
Contact us today to learn how we can move your website forward with SEO keyword optimization.