Keywords are the bread and butter of every SEO strategy, and are central to helping users find your website, read your content, and look at your product.
Here’s the truth: if you have a website, you need to be using an effective keyword strategy. Signposting your site for organic traffic can be challenging, but with the right approach, you can start leveraging keywords to build strong organic SEO traffic to your site.
In this blog, we’re going to delve into the importance of keywords, how to know which ones to target, and the step-by-step guide to get a strategy underway.
What is keyword research?
Keywords are specific words or phrases that encapsulate the main topics or themes of your content. They serve as the bridge between user queries and your website, giving search engines the information they need to match content with user intent.
By finding the terms and phrases your target audience is searching for, you can tailor your content to show up in the search results. And there’s more advantages. Keyword research provides valuable insights into market trends, competitor strategies, and content gaps that you could capitalise on.
If you want visitors to find your website via a search engine, then you need to consider a keyword strategy.
How to choose the right keywords for SEO
Check keyword ranking online
First step – do some digging and find out which keywords you’re currently ranking for and what position your website is ranking. There are many tools out there that can help with this, including Google Search Console. This gives you a great foundation to know how you’re ranking for certain products or topics.
This groundwork is worth it. It can help you detect what you’re doing right and the areas you need to improve. It’s also a foundational step when formulating your SEO strategy.
Consider keyword relevancy
What should your primary criteria be for starting your keyword strategy? Relevancy! What do we mean by this? Well, you’ll want to choose keywords that focus on the products, solutions or content that you’re offering to your target audience. You need to discover the interests of your target audience.
Think outside the box for relevant keywords! Consider topical and trending searches, such as relevant industry events and news.
Keyword search volume and competitiveness
Targeting high-volume keywords can seem like a safe bet. Afterall, we’ve just mentioned that you need to be targeting popular, trending keywords, right? That’s true, but don’t be lured in by keywords with high search numbers.
You need to consider competitiveness. For example, ‘shampoo’ is going to be a densely searched keyword, and that makes ranking for it very competitive. This is especially true if you’re a new or small website. Your aim should be finding the sweet spot; keywords that people are searching for, but not so broad that you’ll struggle to rank for SEO. Creating a niche can help you maximise your visibility, as well as using long tail keywords, which we’ll discuss more below.
How to use long tail keywords
Short tail keywords are short, refined searches, whereas long tail keywords are an excellent tactic to drive people to your site.
Long tail keywords include the short tail, but are longer and more conversational, such as ‘shampoo for long hair’. Because they’re more targeted, they also give a good insight into your target audience, which allows you to refine your keyword strategy further. Long tail keyphrases can be used to offer solutions to searched problems, which could mean higher quality leads. Which leads us to our next tip…
Get to know your target audience
Understanding the intent of your target audience is key to selecting keywords that drive meaningful traffic to your site. User intent can be informational (seeking information), navigational (looking for a specific website), or transactional (ready to make a purchase). Tailor your keywords to match the intent behind users’ queries to attract qualified traffic.
It may sound like a lot of trial and error, but without targeted SEO strategy, you’ll struggle to reach the right audiences and get site visitors with the right intent.
Get to know your competitors
So, we’ve talked a lot about your target audience. But there’s layers to SEO strategy, and competitor analysis is an important one.
Competitor keyword ranking analysis gives you valuable insights into gaps in the market and areas where you can differentiate yourself. If you can identify the keywords your competitors are ranking for and their performance, this gives you the intel needed to identify opportunities to stand out.
Create a long-term SEO strategy
Keyword trends are always evolving, it’s not a landscape that sits still, so neither should you! Every business needs to have a long-term strategy in place. At the very least, you’ll want to be monitoring changes in search patterns, industry trends, and audience preferences, which gives you the tools to adapt your keyword targeting strategy over time.
Utilise SEO tools
There’s many platforms out there that can help you with your SEO strategy. Once you’ve nailed down your goals and objectives, you can get started on the R&D. What’s the best keyword ranking tool? Try these:
- Google Keyword Planner: a free tool offered by Google that provides insights into keyword search volume, competition, and suggested bid prices for paid advertising.
- SEMrush: a comprehensive SEO toolkit that offers keyword research, competitor analysis, and rank tracking features.
- Moz Keyword Explorer: an in-depth keyword search tool with tons of keyword suggestions. Limited to 3 searches per day for the free version.
- AHrefs: Keyword ideas generator with lots of other helpful SEO tools available.
The next steps for your SEO Strategy
It’s important not to overlook SEO in your wider marketing strategy, it plays an important role in increasing brand awareness and generating potential sales leads. Targeted, topical and relevant keywords and keyphrases are essential if you want to up your SEO game.
Once you have your keyword list in place, you’re ready to execute as part of your overall SEO strategy. This includes updating existing content as well as planning for new content to be added to your website. SEO can sometimes feel overwhelming and complicated. That’s where we can help. Our team have helped many businesses increase website traffic and visibility, developing a targeted SEO strategy that generates ongoing results over time.
GetCrisp are a Digital Marketing and SEO Agency in Lewes, Sussex. Reach out to our team to find out how we can help your business.