Keyword research is a way to find and examine words that people are searching on engines such as Google and identify the best ones to optimize a website for in order to better target the website and rank better on the search results page. A customer’s purpose is to find a website that is relevant to what they are looking for. Two of the main reasons people use search engines is to find information or they’re looking to make a transaction.
It is imperative to understand what your target market is searching for so that you can properly identify the right keywords to optimize your site and build content around. No matter if you are posting a blog, trying to get purchases off an e-commerce site or simply have a website to give information, it is important to put content up that the person will easily find and read.
Keywords are the place to start in order to strategize for your target market for your product or service. There are a few different types of keywords you can choose from in order help search engine crawlers to find and rank your website.
The ultimate goal to keyword research is to optimize your website so it shows up as high as possible on the organic search engine results page. Once this is accomplished, it is easier to get visitors to click on your page. Once on your site, it is important for that page to be relevant with strong content so the visitor stays on the page and hopefully makes a purchase, fills out a contact form, or requests more information.
Keywords To Reach Your Market
There are a few things you want to identify when choosing keywords for your content. If you are posting information on a blog, research good keywords different than if you are trying to increase purchases online. You can begin by identifying your target market and any niche markets that closely relate to each other.
Knowing who you are marketing to and their overall goal online can lead you to the correct keywords to use. Once this target audience has been identified, you need to learn what their intent is and focus on that. There are different keywords that attract more viewers and ones that attract more buyers for instance. For example, if you are selling cell phones, some keywords to choose from may include cellular store, cell phone cases, types of cell phones, or where can I buy a smart phone?, etc.
Once you have figured this out, you can modify your keywords to focus on your customer group. Every market is different and unique in its own way; not understanding this can affect your results. In the end, the best results will come from connecting with the customer’s buying behaviors.
Best Use of Keyword Research Tools
There are several Keyword Research Tools out on the web. Starting with a great tool is important to build a good strategy for keyword research. Each research tool is a little different in their own way. Some keyword tools that are not Google related and free include ones like WordStream’s Keyword Tool, Soovle and Ubersuggest. While using these tools, there are specific strategies to consider.
There are options with type of keywords to use, such as Broad keywords which are one word and very broad such as ‘phone’. These can return a lot of results making them very competitive and they don’t convert as well. Exact Match keywords are 2-3 word phrases, which rank more naturally, have a higher search volume, and better buyer intent and competition. When using these, it is easier to gain with Long Tail keywords organically as well. Long tail keywords or Phrase keywords are 4+ word phrases and are much more specific such as ‘cell phone repair service’.
Keyword Research Tools allow you to find all types of keyword combinations and lengths. Once you have found what keywords might be useful, you can see their popularity, search volume, and how competitive they are. From there, you will need to consider the right combination of each. The higher the search volume the better; the more competitive the keywords, the harder it may be to rank for them. It’s good to figure out some long tail keywords because many are searching for them but competition is often lower to rank for them. These long tail phrases make it easier for people to actually find you.
Knowing that Google dominates in terms of search engine rankings it is a good idea to start with theirs. One tool that Google has is called the Google Keyword Research Tool. This one helps with figuring out alternate key phrases for your site. Another useful tool is the Google Keyword Planner which can be found with the AdWords Keyword Tool. This allows you to identify popularity, volume and keyword combinations. No matter which tool you use make sure there are several features that will be useful for your research and easy to use several times a week.
Choosing Your Keywords Implementation
There are quite a few ideas on how many keywords you should use compared to the quality of keywords you are choosing. This can depend on the content you are working with, the product or service, and where on the web you are doing search marketing. A list of a few quality keywords can be much more lucrative than a larger list of keywords that are not as relevant. In a longer blog giving a lot of important information you may want to use more keywords than you would on a product description page for an e-commerce website.
If the customer that finds your website discovers that the content they found is relevant to the keywords they searched, there will be a higher conversation rate of visits to sales. If you’re linking to more informational content, the longer the better. Longer content can have much higher rankings if written and laid out correctly. This content will be more in depth and focused to answer to answer what the customer is looking for.
How many keywords you will have within your content can vary dependent on the content length and what your focus is. You will want to try and place the keywords as close to the top as you can. This way Google will consider the page more in terms of that keyword since the robots crawl the site from top to bottom. You should never stuff too many keywords onto one page of content, especially ones that are not pertaining to the topic, because this can be seen as spammy and against Google’s guidelines or rules.
Evaluating Keyword Research Results
There are a few ways to gauge if you have implemented proper keyword research for your websites optimization. One that’s obvious is searching specific keywords in a search engine like Google and seeing how high on the organic search results page lands in the list. You can also use a keyword tracking tool that looks at the rankings on a bigger scale geographically. However, it is important to remember that any SEO is not immediate and it can take a few months to see any real results.
When choosing your keywords the best way to evaluate if the proper keywords have been chosen is by evaluating the factors of each keyword in the list. You can use the tools mentioned earlier, which will show you the average monthly searches and competition for these keywords you can then analyze if they will be a good choice. If your page improves with a higher domain authority and page authority, it is a good sign that the keywords you have chosen to use are working.
There is a lot to know when it comes to keyword research strategy and executing a successful SEO campaign, which can be very time consuming. If you are looking for a reputable and trustworthy Colorado SEO company to get you showing higher in search results, give Customer Paradigm a call today!