When we talk about SEO, it’s hard not to mention keyword research and planning. Keyword research is the process of understanding the specific words your target audience uses when searching for content on the internet.
Keyword planning is a system of analysis, comparison to competitor brands, and prioritization of the content you put out.
What are keywords
Keywords are words or phrases that are associated with particular web content. They are what people type in a search bar when searching for items on search engines. They define what your content is about.
Keyword research can be time-consuming and frustrating. We help you figure out your most important steps
Keyword planning allows you to decide what keywords to use and how to use them for maximum impact. You want to create content that people are searching for, ranks well on search engines, and drives visitors to your site.
Importance of keyword planning
i) Link between content and target audience
Keywords help you understand what your target audience is looking for and tailor your content according to their needs. Creating relevant content increases your SERP ranking which can lead to higher organic traffic to your website.
The basis of a proper SEO starts with keyword research and planning
ii) Helps create a content strategy
Keyword planning will help you align your content so it provides value to your audience and not just crawler bots on search engines. Keyword planning allows you to formulate a keyword map that helps visualize the impact of your content and identify growth opportunities.
iii) Gain competitor insights
Planning involves a healthy amount of looking at competitor statistics and seeing the strategies they are using to drive more organic traffic to their sites and therefore, the gap areas you can improve on.
Types of keywords
Keywords can be summarized into major categories that can be subdivided into specific functions.
Length
These keywords range in size from broader, ambiguous short-tail phrases to more specific long-tail phrases.
1. Short-tail keywords
Short-tail keywords are the most common type of keyword. They are short phrases (one-word phrases) that are used in query searches.
In the example below, the word “cats” is a generic short-tail term that brings up several items. Short-tail keywords are broad and far-reaching and are the basic foundation of the research process.
Searching the word cat will produce high-volume search results that cover a wide range of topics.
They are highly competitive, with higher search traffic but a lower conversion rate. Short-tail keywords are typically used when a user is starting their research.
2. Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are keywords with longer phrases (three or more words). They are more specific, therefore narrowing down the search criteria. Because of this, they have lower search traffic compared to short-tail keywords but have a higher conversion rate. Long-tail keywords are used when a visitor is close to making a purchase or is looking for an exact item.
Posting your content with long-tail keywords in the title will reduce the competition significantly, helping your website rank higher on a search engine’s results page.
Long-tail keywords contain 3 or more phrases
Fresh vs long-term keywords
3. Fresh keywords
Fresh keywords are phrases that are recently hyped up but tend to die over time. Think of them as viral keywords. They have a peak season and then drop sharply after. You can take advantage of this high-volume search to come up with content that will remain relevant until it isn’t anymore.
This will allow you to attract new audiences, breaking from the existing ones. Be prepared though, for the sharp decline in traffic when the hype surrounding the topic is over.
4. Long-term keywords
Also known as evergreen keywords, these are the keywords that stay relevant for a longer period. The search volumes for this type of content are consistent without major fluctuations. Content that falls under this category would be informative or educational content (like this article!).
The views are consistent and can compound with time. This kind of content ensures you have a steady flow of traffic to your site. Craft your content around more informative pieces and this will add to your authoritative points.
Intent
These are keywords that searchers use during the purchase process. A good rule of thumb is combining long-tail keywords and adjusting them according to the audience’s intent.
5. Informational keywords
These relate to general queries a searcher may have. A good example is a search beginning with the words ‘how’. In this case, searchers are seeking solutions to their problems. Other types of informational keywords are comparisons between two items or the pros and cons of specific items.
Information keywords seek to answer questions like ‘how’, ‘how to’
6. Transactional/ product defining keywords
These are keywords that relate to a searcher’s intent to purchase items. The keywords used here are very specific and directly correspond to the conversion phase of the funnel. The audience already knows what they want to buy and will use specific terms to search for the product.
Tailoring your SEO keywords according to where your customers are in their journey will help you build content that reaches your target audience and creates opportunities for higher conversion rates and building a sustainable growth plan.
7. Navigational keywords
These are keywords that relate to specific brands or companies. They can also be geo-targeting keywords if you’re looking to attract an audience from a specific location. This might be the easiest keyword planning because there’s already a market for your content. Use navigational keywords if you focus on a specific niche area. Better if you can add a location to it. There’s a lower competition rate and lower search volumes, but if done right, the conversion rates can be quite high.
Primary and secondary keywords
8. Primary keywords
A primary keyword is the main focus word or phrase when creating content. This is the keyword that you want your web content to rank for. For example, the primary keyword in this article is ‘keyword’. Your primary keyword should appear in strategic positions; the title, headings, tags, first line of writing, and throughout the content. For higher ranking, include it in your rich content; infographics, images by description, or the filenames.
9. Secondary keywords
These are keywords that complement primary keywords. They are also known as LSI keywords. They are words associated with the primary keyword, either variations or synonyms. They help in reducing the saturation of the main keywords and help optimize content. They are important because they help in ranking for several keywords, widening the search criteria. They also help search engines contextualize and understand your content better.
Market-Specific SEO Keywords
Market-specific keywords target specific industries, brands, or customers. They are a broad term for customer-specific keywords, product, and competitor keywords. They hold keyword data of niches.
10. Customer-specific keywords
These keywords target customers specifically. They can include specific attributes of a customer, or they can be broader in search. Customer-defining keywords help in creating relevant search connections with an audience that is seeking to purchase your product or service. These types of keywords need you to have a deeper understanding of your audience so you can create authentic content for them.
Bonus: Product and Competitor keywords
These keywords contain specific names of the product niche as well as competitor details. Using product-specific keywords will help you reach a target audience. Competitor keywords can be used to evaluate your competition in the same niche. It is a good strategy to always stay on top of your game by understanding your competitor’s top products or services and how they market them to users. For example, Pepsi might use Coca-Cola as their competitor keyword
Conclusion
Keyword research is an important step in search engine optimization and accounts for a higher conversion rate. When choosing keywords, relevance and usability are important factors. It’s important to know where to place them in your content and the role they play in reaching your target audience.
In this article, we have discussed what keywords are and the types there are. This will help you get an idea about what you want to research before getting on keyword research tools, which we’ll be tackling in our next post. Stay tuned, and remember to enjoy the process!
SEO is the optimization of web pages to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Ideally, you want your web content to appear on the first results page when someone searches.
If you own a website or create web content, then chances are that you’ve come across the term search engine optimization.
Hiring an SEO expert can cost you a pretty penny but what happens if you can’t fund that yet? Can you do it yourself?
In this article, we will be looking at some of the best methods and tools you can use to optimize your website.
What is SEO
SEO is an automatic process done by search engines using crawler bots to find up-to-date and relevant content. The websites which adhere to this get higher rankings on SERPs, driving higher organic traffic to these sites.
SEO is important because:
Cheaper than paid ads to drive traffic to your website.
You can obtain actionable data to help you improve your marketing strategies.
Generates high organic traffic when people click on your website.
Tips on Setting up an SEO-friendly Website
An SEO-friendly website is a site that is easy to navigate, with updated and relevant content.
1. Understand your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is key to providing relevant content. Relevant content is what drives traffic to your site. Understanding what your audience wants and what they respond to will help you take the guesswork out of it. This will help you align your SEO as well as marketing strategies for the ideal customer.
2. Keyword research
Publish optimized content by using keywords that people use to search.
Keywords are specific words or phrases that people search on search engines. Conduct proper keyword research to match your target audience. The Google search page is a great way to start. Search the words you plan on using and check the pages that come up. The pages available will help you gain insight into how you will use the keywords. Scrolling to the bottom of the page will help you see related terms that people have searched for.
Employing the use of keyword generators can help you ease your burden by providing primary and secondary keywords. Keyword generators like SEMrush or Keyword Tool Dominator will help you visualize better what your audience is seeking.
Utilize analytics for optimization
Using Keywords
Create your content with keywords in mind. They should be reflected in the title of your posts, and in the links that you use for that page; both inbound and outbound.
Use long-tail keywords when coming up with titles. They have less search traffic compared to short-tail keywords, but have a higher conversion value. Long-tail keywords are used by visitors when they’re closer to the point of purchase.
Identify keyword gaps
This is a search query that your competitors rank for, but your site does not. Doing keyword research and using analytics tools will help you gain insight into your competitors’ data and help you create opportunities for your brand.
Secondary keywords
Secondary keywords. These complement the primary keywords and help with the distribution of keywords to avoid saturation of primary keywords which can affect your ranking negatively.
Rich content
Use rich content like images or infographics that reflect your content. Use keywords to describe the rich content and have the keyword saved in the filename too!
Amazon optimization planning
3. Utilize analytics tools
Analytics tools are important because of the data they analyze not only for your website but your competitors as well.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics gives you real-time data on website performance and provides audience insights like engagement.
The data obtained can help plan proper marketing strategies, provide insight on the most effective times so you can schedule your post times accordingly, and what your most popular content is.
Google search console
Google Search Console monitors a website’s performance on search engines. This data will show you your website’s visibility, web vital scores, and your average ranking on SERPs
SEMrush
SEMrush is a comprehensive data analysis tool that allows you to see how visible your domain is across devices. It provides a lot of data on your website’s usability, traffic, and comparisons with competitor sites.
4. Use of links
Links within your website or leading to your website are the backbone of SEO. The links you use, how you use them, and how well-distributed they are is the difference between how crawlers are assigned to your website by Google.
Permalinks
A Permalink is the URL of an individual blog post or webpage. Using simple permalinks that relate to the content makes it easier to navigate pages and drives higher traffic to your site.
Internal links
This is one of the best strategies to boost SEO. Internal links connect between different pages of the same website. They build organic visibility of important pages within your website. Using internal links within your blog posts or webpages allows Google crawlers to navigate easily within your website leading to higher rankings. When creating internal links, link pages that have similar content or that complement each other.
Backlinks are important to drive traffic internally within your website
Inbound links
This is perhaps the most challenging SEO task, yet one of the most crucial. Inbound links are external links from trusted sources that lead back to your website.
Google uses these links to check whether your content can be trusted and in turn rewards you by ranking you higher in search results.
5. Set up SSL
An SSL Certificate is a type of cyber security that encrypts the connection between sites and browsers. SSLs prevent unauthorized access by third-party sites and protect clients’ sensitive information when they are surfing the web. SSL-enabled sites have URLs that start with https:// instead of http://. They also display a locked padlock icon in the search bar.
Securing your website using SSL will mark it as a trusted site and will improve its ranking on search engines.
6. SEO-friendly themes
The themes you use for your site can either improve or destroy your search ranking. Some common themes to keep in mind while creating your site are:
Device responsiveness
Creating a website that adjusts easily between desktop and mobile views will greatly affect your ranking factor. Usability between devices creates a smoother user experience, which you’re aiming for.
Plugins
Depending on the platform you’re using to create your website, use built-in tools that correspond with the platform.
7. Keep your content up-to-date
All the work you put in will be useless if you do not provide your audience with fresh, updated content. Your research skills here will be required to make sure that your content is relevant.
When updating content, it’s important to replace the original content or delete it first to avoid duplication. Duplicate posts can bring your rankings down.
8. Blog consistently
It goes without saying that you need to put up new information on your site consistently. Having a regular posting schedule will help in planning how and when you put out new blog posts. You do not want to lose your hard-earned traffic flow because there’s nothing new or fresh for your audience to come check out.
9. Use SEO-friendly URLs
The top results in a search engine use simplified and user-friendly SEOs. They are short, concise, friendly, and easy to read.
Creating descriptive and friendly URLs greatly increases your chances of visibility on the first page of search results.
Keep up-to-date with the latest news and trends in SEO
10. Keep yourself updated
You have started the journey o optimizing your website, but it doesn’t end there. The internet and its content is dynamic and require a dynamic state of mind. Keep yourself updated on the latest trends, tools, and much more by constantly informing yourself on what’s going on in the SEO world.
Conclusion
Starting on any task can be a challenge and feel intimidating. We have provided an easy-to-follow action plan to set up your SEO without the help of expensive firms. This blog is dedicated to doing the “dirty work” and providing you with web solutions so you can focus on running your site without the headache.
