Wondering how often Google updates its search results? Do you have a new website yet to appear in a google search despite being updated? Or have you made changes to the content on your site, but it doesn’t reflect in a google search?
Google is constantly working around the clock to ensure that it provides fresh and up-to-date information to its users.
The question of how often Google updates its search results cannot be unequivocally answered. Several subjective factors go into this process. The process typically takes between 4 days to 4 weeks or more for your site to appear in a search result or for changes to reflect. Some websites have reported noticing changes within only a few hours.
How does Google find my site?
How long does it take Google to update search results?
To answer these questions, we’ll delve a little deeper into the technicals of Google search, its bot and algorithm, and how they function. First, we’ll define the terms.
Googlebot
Google follows a crawling and indexing process to find and add it to search results using its crawling software, Googlebot.
Googlebot is Google’s search software that collects information from websites on the web. These pages are evaluated and analyzed for changes, freshness, and relevance per the Google algorithm.
Crawling
Googlebot and other search engines find content to display on searching by scouring the whole web to find relevant content. Crawling is the process by which bots search the web. Bots go from website to website, inspecting content according to Google’s guidelines on SEO and report back to Google.
This process is continuous. There are billions of websites and web pages to be crawled, and the process may seem slow if it takes a while to get to your content.
Indexing
After the bots collect information, it is processed, and adjustments are made to that page and added to Google’s searchable index. These pages are then ranked depending on the quality of content detected by the bot.
How long does it take Google to find and update my site?
Crawling and indexing are subjective and controlled by Google’s algorithm. An algorithm is a computer program that decides which sites to crawl, how often to crawl them, and how many pages to fetch from each crawled site for indexing.
How often Google crawls your site depends on a few factors:
Backlinks
These are links from other websites that lead to your site. Having links that lead to your content prompts google bots to search your site when they get to its URL. High-quality links will do you a world of good. Do not pay sites for backlinks because it goes against Google’s guidelines and could incur penalties.
Analytical performance
A site with high traffic, click-throughs, and increased engagement triggers Google’s algorithm to analyze them more frequently than slower sites. Higher performance leads Google to trust your content and index it more often.
Make analytics your best friend to keep track of your site’s usage stats and notify Google that your site exists.
Domain authority
Domain Authority predicts how well a website ranks on searches. It is a 100-point score developed by Moz.
Device adaptability
Google is known to favor websites that are adaptable to any screen size. Google checks for fast loading speeds, ease of view on different screen types, and mobile editing.
Content
More significant sites that produce a lot of content- approximately two or three 1500-word articles per day- get priority over smaller sites. If yours is a local website with a lower search volume, expect slower results.
Popularity
A site’s popularity depends on the traffic flow, click-through rates (CRT), and engagement with the site’s content. Google crawls Websites with higher stats in terms of organic traffic flow, CRTs, and engagement at higher rates than their less popular counterparts.
Crawlability and structure
The structure of your website may make it hard for google bots to crawl your site. Websites that use technology other than HTML may make it hard for bots to go through them and function properly.
New site crawling and indexing
If your site is brand new and you’re still not appearing in searches, fret not. It typically takes Googlebot a few days or a few weeks after the launch of your website to crawl it and report back to Google to add it to its searchable index. This process is continuous, and the bot will get to your site.
You can also take the initiative to fast-track the process by:
Making high-quality content
Serve high-quality content to users. Your number one priority is ensuring that users have the best possible experience. Make your site unique, valuable, and engaging. Keep up-to-date with Google’s guidelines on content SEO. maintaining high-quality web content directly affects how often Googlebot will crawl your site and update its search results.
Multi-device adaptability
Most people are searching on mobile. As discussed earlier in this article, your website’s ability to adapt to different screen sizes and still perform optimally is a deciding factor for the algorithm to send crawlers to your site or not.
Mobile-friendly sites are more likely to be crawled more often
Optimize your web pages to load quickly and display properly on all screen sizes. Google favors mobile-friendly websites. Google is more likely to crawl your website and update search results if your site is adaptable to mobile devices as well as computer screens.
Website security
Users nowadays expect the sites they visit to be secure. Paying attention to Cyber security and ensuring your website is secure may improve the rate at which bots crawl your site.
Add analytics
Analytics is good for tracking your website performance. It paints a picture of what you’re doing right and provides insight into what can be improved. Adding analytics to your website data is good because it could also alert Google that a new website is ready to be indexed. Once updates are indexed, Google updates its search results.
Use the Google Search console.
Google Search Console (GSC) is a must-have tool for website stat management. It is a free Google tool that allows you to monitor your site’s status in Google’s index and search results. The search console enables you to submit a new website for faster indexing.
Submit a sitemap
A website sitemap is a map of your website. It lays out all of the content of your website to help Googlebot discover the information you think is vital to your site, updates, and the frequency of the updates. You can submit your sitemap onthe Google Search Console dashboard.
Sometimes when crawling, Google may miss your sites. Crawlers go through billions of web content at any time, so this is not an uncommon scenario. Here are some reasons Googlebot might have skipped your site.
submitting a sitemap will help Googlebot index you faster and update search results
No links are pointing back to your site from other sites on the web. Backlinks play a massive role in visibility, and a lack of them may cause Google to overlook your site altogether. That said, Do not pay for backlinks.
The site design makes it difficult for Google bots to crawl its content effectively.
Web pages return an error while bots try to crawl. This may stem from login pages, or the site blocks Google. Check your site by ensuring it can be in incognito mode of a web browser.
Re-indexing for edited content
If you’ve removed or edited some of your web content, but it still appears in the original format, that means crawlers have not yet made their way to your new content, and Google needs to crawl it again. Sometimes, even after crawling, content may stay the same. This may be the case if:
For deleted content, Google believes the deletion is an error not intended, and the URL will be back
Many pages linked to the URL
Google has not been allowed to crawl the URL due to the robots.txt configuration.
Robots.txt are files webmasters create to instruct web crawlers such as Googlebot on how to crawl pages on their websites. The robots.txt file is a part of the robots exclusion protocol (REP). These crawl instructions are specified by “allowing” or “disallowing” the behavior of user agents (web crawling software.)
To make sure Google is de-indexing deleted pages as fast as possible, check if:
Page responds with a Status 404 cod error or a 410 error.
Make sure the robots.txt file is not blocking the URL
Don’t link to the URL internally anymore
Manually submit the URL for de-indexing in Google Search Console
If you delete a lot of URLs at a time, consider using a sitemap to help Google understand currently active URLs.
How does SEO help?
SEO- Search Engine Optimization- is the practice of employing calculated strategies to your website and content, so it is discovered faster by search engine crawlers and ranked on search engine results pages (preferably the first page)
Optimization makes it easier for Googlebot to find your website and rank you higher. Optimization comes in two forms; optimizing your website and optimizing your website’s content. For more information on SEO, please read our article on SEO and how to do it yourself.
Conclusion
We cannot definitively answer how often Google updates its search results because they are based on several subjective factors. Some sites get crawled and indexed hourly, while others take days and weeks.
The frequency of search results updates for highly relevant, timely, high-quality sites appears near real-time. These sites may be high-traffic news sites like CNN or FOX.
Practice makes perfect. Constantly educating yourself on SEO and its changing dynamics and applying these seemingly little changes to your site and its content can help Google direct its bots your way. If your site takes a while to get noticed; another gets noticed sooner, don’t panic. Carefully review your stats following the broken-down guide provided in this article to see if the problem lies on your end. If not, keep making amazing content, and Google will notice it.
For any business with a website, visibility and attracting organic traffic on Google is an important goal. Google is a powerful search engine that uses bots to crawl the web and determines the websites that are most relevant to a user. Websites are then ranked on the results page according to the criteria used by these crawlers. Google has to determine that a searcher’s query is relevant to your page. Ideally, websites should aim to be on the first SERP (search engine results page) if they want to succeed. No one visits the second page.
This may seem like a tall order for smaller websites competing for the same space as larger, more established sites, but it’s not that hard to feature on the first page as well. Google crawlers go through all web pages available, select the most optimized websites, and reward them by ranking them higher.
Optimizing your website, making a few changes, and tweaking things here and there is your best bet at appearing on searches.
Importance of appearing on the first page
Appearing on the first results page is crucial if you want your website to do well and grow. The first results page is a highly competitive space and takes effort to get there, but it is well worth it. Some of the advantages of your website appearing on the first results page include but are not limited to:
Improved visibility
Higher rankings on SERPs mean more visibility for your website. Traffic and click-through rates are highest on the first SERP. Not only that, but there’s also a significant decline in traffic to the first vs. last websites ranked on the first page.
Engagement scores decline as you go down the page.
Immediate exposure
Ranking on the first page exposes your business to more people interacting with it, which could convert to more traffic and click-throughs. Interactions with your website are essential as they will eventually convert to customers.
Increased industry authority
Google crawlers use a set of criteria to make sure that only the best sites are ranked first. Ranking on the first page means that your website and its content are relevant and provide immediate solutions to users. People trust your brand and will likely purchase from you or come back.
How to be found on Google
1. Get a simple domain
Choosing a domain name that reflects the purpose of your website is an ingenious way to get traffic to your site. Human beings are inherently simple creatures. A person is likelier to click on a website with a domain that is easy to understand with your focus keywords rather than one filled with random numbers and letters.
For example, if your business is fixing roofs and wants to create a website where potential clients can see what services you provide, choosing a domain name with the words roof in it would be ideal. www.roofingservices.com would be indexed by Google crawlers making your site appear when a person conducts a search.
2. Use location if available
If your business has a physical location, add it to your website. Studies show that people search local businesses online first before making a purchase. Using the above example, if the roofing services company was located in Seattle, the owner could add the location as part of the domain name www.roofingservicesseattle.com. This will appear in roofing services searches for a person living in Seattle.
This specificity will make you appear when people search the services you’re providing combined with a physical location. Add your business on maps and provide an accurate address for an even better ranking. Of course, the more specific your location, the better and easier it is to be found and create organic traffic to your site.
3. Submit your site to Google
Although it takes time for new websites to appear on Google searches, you can boost the processing speed by submitting your sitemaps to Google via the search console. Google search console allows you to submit your site for indexing.
Search using your homepage’s URL to determine whether your site is already included in Google’s search index. If it appears, you’re good to go; if it doesn’t, the search console will help. The search console has a lot more functionality than just assisting with the indexing of your website; it can also provide stats on how your site is doing, traffic and user interactions, and much more.
4. Create a keyword strategy
Keyword mastering is a necessity in SEO. We’ve described what keywords are in our previous article here. Keywords make it easy for Google to scan and index your web content. Learning how to use keywords properly is vital because misusing them (keyword stuffing) can lead to penalties from Google. Placing keywords strategically within your website and content is an art form you should invest time in learning. With proper keyword use, your site will be indexed and ranked higher on results pages, giving you more visibility for your niche.
Although Google has made it known that metadata does not affect SERP rankings in any way, metadata is still important in getting visitors to your site.
Metadata consists of a meta title and a meta description of a webpage on the web. Metadata helps viewers know at a glance what your page has to offer if it contains the information that would make them click your link.
Use clear and concise wording of the title and describe the content in a few carefully chosen words. Metadata helps you get seen, helps people decide to interact with your content, and helps Google identify your content’s relevance to users.
6. Optimize your Google My Business page
Listing your business on Google My business is an option a business with a physical location can opt for for more visibility. It helps significantly with the visibility of your business when people search online. It’s imperative to provide as much information about your business as possible. Complete business profiles get more clicks than incomplete ones.
Keep your business information correct and up-to-date, and update your profile and content like images if available. Follow through with claiming and verifying your listing to monitor, maintain, and optimize it as you see fit.
7. Create user-centered content
Focusing on ensuring your website is good enough for Google may make you lose track of user satisfaction, potentially harmful to your rankings, especially keyword stuffing. Google can detect this and penalize your site. Provide valuable, trustworthy, easy-to-read, and informative content, not just the keyword.
Make your website easy to navigate and provide information that answers a visitor’s most immediate questions.
A good rule of thumb to remember is to make content for human consumption, not Google bots.
8. Be mobile-friendly
Mobile devices like smartphones have taken over from the bulkier solutions like computers. It is estimated that three out of five Google searches happen on mobile, and more than fifty percent of general traffic has switched over to mobile. Optimizing your website, so it’s visible on different device types is imperative. Google is user satisfaction centered and favors mobile-friendly websites over desktop ones. If available, the best option is to use responsive mode for your website, as it will adapt to any screen size. If this option is not available, it is possible to tweak your site’s settings manually. A mobile-friendly site is:
Fast and has good loading speeds. Faster sites rank higher on Google and keep visitors engaged or coming back.
Learn and keep up-to-date with best practices for mobile web design.
Keep your mobile website clutter-free.
9. Work on your backlinks
Backlinks are links that point back to your website or web pages from other websites. They are important because they signal to Google that your content is reliable and improve your ranking, which may lead to more traffic to your website. An excellent way to create backlinks is through outreach to other websites by writing content for them. Another way is to create content that is so good other publications use it. Backlinks help assert dominance in your niche, leading to a higher click-through rate and hence higher rankings on Google.
Note: It is better to have a few high-quality backlinks from established websites that have low-quality ones. Google can detect and penalize your website if the algorithm thinks your backlinks are spammy.
10. Use Google
Google offers a lot of information, written and video tutorials, about optimizing your website, so you rank on the first results page. This information is free and straight from the source, so you know you can never go wrong.
Set aside time to go through materials necessary to gain knowledge on optimizing your site, which in turn creates visibility for your site.
Conclusion
The key to appearing on Google searches for your niche is ensuring your website and content are optimized for Google. Optimized content improves your ranking on the search results page, especially for the first page. This drives more traffic to your site, which could mean a higher click-through rate and potential customers.
The SEO process is never-ending, but the rest will be easy once you get the hang of it. Catching up with all the latest trends and updates and working on improving your output. Don’t get tired of working to improve your site; remember to have fun with the process.
Search listening is one of the cornerstones of SEO for content. Google gets an estimate of 3 billion searches every day, and 20% of those have never been asked before. This might look like a lot of data, and it is when you’re doing your research on making content. It can be utterly useless if you don’t know where to find it and how.
In our previous article, we looked at how to perform keyword research. There are countless free and premium tools at your disposal, but tinkering with them can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a newbie in the SEO industry.
Google searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche.
Seth Davidowitz, former Google data scientist and author
What are people searching
With the numerous data that crosses Google’s search engine daily, it’s essential to know what people are searching for. This information will help make the keyword research process more manageable and your website’s content optimization.
We’ll look at the best tools to help you figure out what people are searching for. Some of the tools discussed in this article have been covered previously, but the usability will be slightly different.
Our top picks will help you answer pressing an SEO marketer asks themselves.
When is the best time to put out new articles?
How will the article perform?
What’s the target audience for this article?
This is not a sponsored post, and all tools mentioned in this article were tested without bias.
Google Tools
The best place to start would be Google, with its pocket-friendly and competent tools list.
Google Trends
Google Trends helps you view top stories or charts. If you have no idea where o start with your research, this is a great place. With Google Trends, you can view what trending topics people search for on Google in real-time or look at daily and yearly searches and their respective analytics.
Trends doesn’t, however, offer much insight into the analytics of your data search. It is excellent for surface-level insight on topics people are searching for and a great tool to help a beginner in their SEO analytics journey.
Google autocomplete
Google autocomplete is a built-in feature on Google search. It completes search sentences depending on what people have previously searched. It is an excellent tool for finding different variations of your selected keyword.
Start typing in the Google search box, and related terms will display in a drop-down menu. This will give you a rough working plan for content planning or researching keyword phrases that would drive traffic to your website.
People Also Ask, and related searches.
Some of the best SEO quick research features are within Google itself, so it would be reckless not to take advantage of them.
People Also Ask andRelated Searchesare features within the search results page that display related long-tail search phrases of what people have searched on Google.
YouTube Trends
YouTube is the world’s largest video search engine with an estimated 2.6 billion viewers monthly (those with Google accounts) and is under the Google umbrella. It is the second-most-popular search engine after Google, with the highest social media consumer penetration.
According to SEMrush’s list of 100 most googled terms globally, YouTube topped the list with 1.4 billion searches for that period. YouTube Trends is a handy tool that will help you view and digest search statistics on the platform.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a market favorite when it comes to search insights. The platform has different tools to make your SEO marketing a walk in the park. Content Discovery is one such feature that enables you to search by trending topics worldwide or by country. You can specify your search criteria using filters to get trending search data from search engines like Google.
BuzzSumo has a lot of functionality as a keyword analysis and SEO tool. It can show all trending topics on different social media platforms and what competitors are writing.
SEMrush
SEMrush is a market giant and leader in SEO content and marketing tools. SemRush published a list of Google’s most searched for topics in their blog. The data was collected from the company’s extensive database of over 20 billion keywords worldwide.
They have perfected the art of SEO management, and the tools they put out are well worth the effort and money you might pay for them. Their SEO toolset helps you find out the freshest search terms from search engines such as Google and analytics to help you plan content and marketing strategies.
Answer the Public
Answer the Public enables you to get a deeper level of understanding of how people search around topics.
It reveals questions and queries you wouldn’t think of at the top of your head. This concept works around primary keywords, so you need to know what you want to find. With your keyword, the website searches its vast database for all the questions people are asking about that topic.
Apart from its usability in figuring out the questions people are asking, the site arranges its data in a neat, easy-to-read format that is pleasing to the eye and makes information easier to digest.
Social media
Knowing what people are searching for on Google is an excellent strategy to help with optimized content creation, but you should not limit your data source to Google. Looking to social media platforms will help you understand people’s interests in real-time. Hashtags and trending topics give indispensable insight into what people are talking about, trending topics, and, therefore, relevant topics to help you write your content.
Twitter
Twitter’s trending topics category lists all trending topics in the region you live in and the people you follow. You can tweak the settings to get a real-time view of trending topics worldwide.
Twitter Trends (pointed by the arrow) shows all trending topics and popular hashtags people are searching and interacting with.
Pinterest
Pinterest is a specially specialized social media platform for sharing images. Users collect and organize their ideas and save them as pins that other users can discover.
Pinterest’s recent #Explore button enables people to see what people are searching on the platform and explore trending topics and ideas.
Quora
Quora is a question-and-answer platform, and all its content is crowd-sourced. That means that every question and answer has been provided by its users. It also allows people to create social networks and follow topics that interest them.
Quora is an excellent place to source all the questions people are asking, organized by topics, the answers people are providing, and gauging interactions and responses.
Final Note
Knowing what people are searching on Google and other search engines is essential in helping you see what content you need to put out for your audience.
Although it may seem daunting to figure out what works and what doesn’t, with the right tools, this search can be as easy as ABC.
Practice makes perfect. Dedicate a portion of your work time to figuring out how these tools work, where they are most applicable, and what works specifically for your brand. This way, you’ll grow and hone your SEO skills.
Most, if not all of all us, are familiar with conducting a simple search on Google. We use ‘Google’ here because it’s the most common search engine. After all, it’s the most prevalent search engine, enough to spawn its own verb. Are you confused about the most popular search engine? Why don’t we google it?
For anything we want to find online, we have to write a phrase or word into the search section; the engine runs through its massive content looking for sites that match your search term. More often than not, one search operation will bring up content you’re not particularly looking for. It can be exhausting to go through all this content to get to the right one.
Part of your SEO responsibility is knowing how to conduct a proper, time-efficient search on Google.
Searching on Google
Using several factors, Google has made it easier to conduct a productive search in a short time. This article will look at how to search Google like a pro.
Use more specific words.
Fine-tune your search by using more keywords to describe your search phrases. Broad search words will yield many results, making it hard to sift through all the results to find what you’re looking for.
It may also be distracting, leading to results other than what you’re looking for and wasting your time.
Searching used mustangs for sale will yield better results with a more specific search phrase. If we compare the two search results, a search phrase with the words ‘mustang for sale’ produce more direct results for websites that sell Ford Mustang cars.
Use tabs
Tabs appear at the top of your Google search results page. They help refine your search by specifying the criteria by which you’d like to view your results.
Tabs are a quick way to refine your search without including any unique words or symbols in your search phrase. If you prefer to view photos of BTS, type BTS in your search bar and then click on the images tab (shown above using the red arrows).
You can refine your search further in images by filtering images by specific tags: Wallpaper, Jungkook, Taehyung, e.t.c.
specify the website
If you know the website you want to get your information from, add the name of the website plus your search term in the search bar. The top results (not the ads) are what you’re looking for from the website you want.
This side-by-side comparison shows search results when a website name is included in the search phrase vs. when it is not. Image A shows many websites that may offer royalty-free images. Image B returns results for Pexel, a website that offers royalty-free images.
Knowing the website’s name can help narrow your search process significantly and save time.
Search by images
Google did us a solid by adding a search by image icon that allows you to conduct a Goole search using images. It is an excellent add-on for those who don’t know an object’s name but have a picture with them. For example, if you want to know the name of a particular plant, take a photo of the plant and use it to search via images.
Use of operators
Operators are specific phrases, punctuation, or a combination of both to perform a specialized task whole searching. These are the latest operators listed by Google as of the writing of this article.
It is essential to use these operators as they appear for a productive search. Do not add spaces between these symbols or words and a search term.
Hyphen (-), addition sign (+)
While searching, use a hyphen to exclude words you don’t want to appear in your search.
Example: phones-iPhone will return all phone results but leave out the iPhone.
Likewise, if you want to include something specific in your search, add the addition sign (+)
Exact match (“_”)
Enclosing your text in quotes will return results with words that match your exact phrasing.
Range (..) ellipsis
Adding an ellipsis (..) between two numbers in a range returns results of numbers within the two specified numbers.
Typing phones $400..$800 will return results for all types of phones that fall within this price range.
(OR)- all caps
When between two terms, e.g., While running a search to compare Samsung and iPhones, OR can be used to return results of only one of the search terms.
The search query “iPhone OR Samsung” (not in quotes) returns search results of either iPhone or Samsung, but not both.
NB: For the operator to work, OR must be in all caps.
AND
AND on the other hand, includes both phrases in its search results.
Unlike OR, AND includes both search terms on its search results. iPhone AND Samsung returns sites that compare the two devices.
Specify the site (site:)
Put site:website name. Do not add a space between the Colon and website name. This operator works the same as adding a website name to your search phrase.
Site:shein.com search returns results of summer dresses from the shein.com website. Capitalization, in this case, does not matter.
Related operator
Related: helps you find all the sites related to a website you’re searching. When using the operator, do not leave a space after the colon—type in the website address that you’d like to get comparable results.
related:pexels.com will return all the websites that have the same functionality as pexels.
Advanced search
Like operators, Google’s advanced search is a tool that allows you to be more exact with additional search options.
Google’s advanced search tool helps you get specific with your search phrase by filling out the specified categories of the search query.
You can do an advanced search directly by typing Google advanced search into the address bar. Advanced search can also be accessed by clicking on settings and clicking on ‘advanced search’ on a typical results page.
Voice search
Voice search is another handy tool that allows you to use your voice to search rather than typing. The voice search tool appears as a microphone on the right of the search bar.
Apart from the operators, which should be used exactly as they appear, your spelling doesn’t affect your results. Google’s algorithm opts for the most common type of spelling and will return results accordingly. It’s a pretty adept invention, knowing what you’re looking for, even when you don’t.
Conclusion
Searching on Google is pretty straightforward. Remember to be as exact as you can be in your search query phrasing and avoid unnecessary words. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do it, and only practice can get you better at googling. Make your journey a bit less tiring and more fruitful by using the search hacks we’ve provided you. Experiment and understand your needs and what tips work better for you.
Have fun with the process, and don’t take yourself too seriously. After all, it’s Google! You can never go wrong.
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.
