If you have spent any time at all developing an online presence for your business, then you will have heard the Internet buzzword “Keyword”, and perhaps you will know a little bit about what it means. For the most part, however, business owners don’t actually have a good understanding of the impact that the correct keywords can have on the amount of traffic their websites receive.
Properly chosen keywords represent the core of any successful search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, as without them your website is doomed to search engine obscurity. Choosing the right keywords isn’t as easy as it sounds, so the following tips will help you select the right ones for your SEO strategy.
PREDICT KEYWORD TRAFFIC
The first step is doing your research in order to predict the amount of traffic that a particular keyword will bring to your website. The most common method is to use industry standard keyword research tools such as Overture and WordTracker, which will both give you some indication of the popularity of certain keywords. If you want to get a more accurate view of keyword popularity, however, set up a Google Adwords (pay-per-click) campaign, which will show you exactly which words are typed into the search engine and how often.
CONSIDER COMMERCIAL INTENT
When deciding on which keywords you will target, always take into consideration the commercial intent of the keyword: are people typing this keyword into Google because they are in buying mode or info seeking mode? For example, people are in buying mode when they type in very specific phrases or product names and model numbers, or when they ask a specific question like “how to treat acne”.
PAY ATTENTION TO TOPICS YOU WRITE ABOUT OFTEN
In general, SEO favours the “drip method” of content creation, which basically means that if you take time to frequently put quality content on your site, you will make it closer to the top of the search list. With this being the case, choose keywords that you’ll write about often, rather than ones that are specific and that will only fit naturally into one article. Have a look at the content you already have on your website to see if there are already keywords that you write about regularly.
More often than not, your writing will already have a clear focus, so choose keywords that naturally gravitate toward your favourite topics.
NOT TOO BROAD, NOT TOO SPECIFIC
When it comes to keywords, you want to choose a term that is broad enough that a lot of people will search for it, but narrow enough that you have a decent chance of getting a high search rank for it. For example, the word “tour” is far too specific, but if you say “best wine tours in Australia”, then it’s a much more specific phrase to focus on.
DISTANCE YOUR KEYWORDS FROM COMPETITORS
Looking to see what keywords your competitors use is a great strategy for getting your own SEO on track, but avoid using too many of the exact same keywords. Choosing keywords that are unique or more specific to what you are offering is a great way to distance yourself from your competitors and get higher rankings. These days, people are searching specific things, so the more specific to your business your keywords are, the more relevant the search results will be.
Finally, remember to compliment your SEO efforts with a striking website design and great customer service.
