When people think of Search engine optimization they tend to think about keywords – found at the core of all online marketing they are the bulk of what Google uses to differentiate between the many millions of websites found online today. It is those websites that include the right keywords in the right places that enjoy the most success.
The majority of SEO’s treat keyword research and implementation as a serious priority in their marketing methods yet very few actually go about it in the most effective way. There are far too many webmasters who see 10 minutes spent with Google’s Keyword Tool and Google Trends as a sufficient amount of research for their keywords. Although these pieces of software are very helpful at gaining of idea of the sort of words you should be using they are in no way in depth enough to be considered a keyword solution. Real keyword research takes a significant investment in time but the results are well worth the effort. To show you just how in depth keyword research can be I have listed out a series of tips below– hopefully they’ll open your eyes to what real keyword research should look like.
Take a look at your competitors
Although the keyword tools may give you some good ideas it is by looking at results in the real world that will help you the most. Take a look at the words used by your most successful competitors – you should take note of their most common words and plan to use these as your own seed terms. Until you are out ranking/out selling them you will need to adapt to any re-writes they perform. They may be updating their keywords on a monthly basis. (Please note that your most successful competitors in this context may not necessarily be your industry rivals but instead those websites that are ranking for the same keywords that you are/will be.
Use more tools than just Google’s
A common SEO mistake is to think that Google has all the answers when it comes to research. Just because Google dominates the search engine world it does not necessarily follow that it offers the best tools when it comes to keywords. It is in your best interests to use a wide variety of keyword tools to help combat the weaknesses that each one inevitably has. Collecting data from a wide range of sources makes it much more reliable you should remember that from school.
Learn your lingo
In the long process of research you will come across hundreds of potential keywords and phrases for your site. You should refer to all of these as prospects. These will all need to be read through to confirm whether they are appropriate for your site and/or proven effective for other websites. The list that you are left with should be referred to as your candidates – they are the words that have passed your interview per se. The ones from this group that you place on your site and optimize for should be granted status as your keyword targets. This terminology should help you if you are to converse with an SEO expert.
Be realistic about the keywords you choose
Choosing to use the most popular keywords for your site is not a wise decision. The competition you will be up against for these terms will more often than not be able to knock you out of the park – that is to say that their sites will hold much more authority and respect in the eyes of Google. You are much better off choosing relatively popular terms that you can specialize in and enjoy a place in page 1 of the SERP’s. A small business trying to rank for the term ‘shoes’ has absolutely no chance – more specialist terms should be utilized.
There are many things you can to do improve the effectiveness of your keyword research so don’t just accept the above as gospel. You should see keyword research as that tedious, boring and annoying part of SEO that you need to spend hours onto find success. Once you put some real time and effort into your research you’ll notice significant improvements in your PageRank.
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Uchenna says
January 15, 2013 at 2:51 pmWith all the recent changes in the search engine of late, it’s also important to think about longevity, I feel. It’s all good ranking for these terms, but for how long, should be a question you ask yourself, and the solution to this equation is to write high quality content. Keyword research is still very important, but quality content is becoming increasingly more important.
Elliot Smith says
September 24, 2012 at 11:11 amOne thing that I like to do when researching for my keywords, which I think is very important is to analyze my competition, and I’m not talking about through the conventional ways, which most people tend to do, which is to look at the link profile of their competitors or look at their page rank. No, for me, I do all those things, but I also look at the content of my competitors and ask myself, whether I can produce something better. The search engines are getting smarter and smarter by the day, so looking at the content quality of your competitors is more important than ever.
Robert Olsen says
July 15, 2012 at 3:43 pmThe Google tool tends to be a little simplistic in my opinion, so for that reason I’d have to agree with you. There are so many tools out there that you can use in addition to Google; and we can’t stress enough how important your keyword research is.
Danny says
December 23, 2011 at 10:13 amGood points.
I always use the free version of seo powersuite to do a backlink check on my competition to get a better idea of what I’m up against.
For keywords I like to start with long tail keywords that include my most important/popular keyword, to overlap those words with the other keywords I rank for, making it much easier to later rank high for the main and more difficult keywords.
But in general longer tail keywords bring more targeted traffic and if done right the conversion rate from these longer tail keywords can be much higher than the more general short keyword.
Nate says
November 27, 2011 at 9:13 amI noticed looking at keywords from incoming visitors greatly helped me figure out what people wanted from me…and a lot of the data you wouldn’t get from a typical tool!
Aman says
November 17, 2011 at 7:47 pmKeyword research is the most important thing in SEO and people should choose the right keywords. Even I feel that it is not always good to focus on some generic keywords. It takes a long time to rank for these keywords. It’s better to rank for some generic keywords and more long tail keywords because then a person can expect some targeted traffic. Targeted traffic is always better.
Mitz says
November 18, 2011 at 2:04 amI agree that we all need targeted traffic. I would much rather have 100 targeted visitors than 1000 randoms. I would definitely make more sales actions out of the hundred targeted visitors.
Mike says
November 16, 2011 at 8:05 amYou have given some good tips about keyword research. I agree that choosing the right keywords is a difficult thing to do and it takes time to find out the targeted keywords that convert. Sometimes it takes lot of experimentation to find keywords that convert.
Mitz says
November 6, 2011 at 12:16 pmYes I agree I like longtail, less competition keywords…I always would rather these first and then work my way up to the big ones..
Anne Lyken-Garner says
November 5, 2011 at 8:09 amI only use Google. I’ve tried to use Word tracker for researching kewywords, but it’s quite complicated, the results aren’t clear and the whole point seems to be that they want to make you ‘upgrade’ (pay) for a better service.
I’ve always used Google to research keywords for my articles. I’ll have to change that.
Mitz says
November 6, 2011 at 11:55 amGoogle keyword tool is ok to use..It just takes a little bit more time to get the results and drill down…I use Keyword Elite as i find it a bit easier..with lots of video tutorials to learn…I also use google when I have time.
Satrap says
November 4, 2011 at 10:07 pmHey Mitz,
I agree that a big mistake many people make is to go after big keywords. I think starting out with long tail low competition keywords has a lot of advantages.
It’s easier to rank for them. Plus, after you ranked for a few long tail keywords, you will have some authorities in the eyes of search engines which means it will be a bit easier for you to rank for bigger keywords at that point.
It’s a strategy that has been serving me well.
Mitz says
November 5, 2011 at 1:01 amThat’s how I made a successful blogging business…I didn’t always concentrate on my main keyword…I went for other longtails because the competition was easy to beat.. I still do this now, especially in the making money online niche and building websites niche…It is so flooded you simply have to look outside the box.