How to Choose the Right Keywords
In this article, we’re going give you tips on selecting the best keywords to revolve your Search Engine Optimization around. This method also works for selecting Pay-Per-Click keywords.
Brain-Storming Keywords and Phrases
Ask yourself: “What would people search for to get to your site?” . Your customers may not know the industry jargon. They may also search using long terms or proper keyphrases like “website page design company”.
Compile a list of Keywords
Write down every keyword or keywphrase that comes to mind. What about location? Is there a certain state or region you do business in? If so, include locations. If you were a web design company, your list might look something like this:
- web design
- custom web design
- websites
- website graphic design
- website design company
- indiana web design
- web hosting
- indiana web hosting
Let’s take a look at the sample list. We’ve got a nice array of phrases. Some are more popular than others. Your list is probably much longer since this is just an example.
Choose Reasonable Keywords and Phrases
We now need to look at each of these keywords and consider whether they are reasonable. The first keyword is “web design”. That’s what we’re all about, however– what does our competition look like. According to Google, we have 322,000,000 competitors. That phrase is too broad at this time. Getting ranked on the first few pages for “web design” alone is not a reasonable goal right now. How about “custom web design”? There are 32,200,000 competitors– only about a tenth of the competitors that “web design” had. That’s much better, however it’s still large. Since we’re located in Indiana and because we have a ton of competition, lets start at home. “Indiana Web Design” brings up 7,380,000. This is a reasonable keyphrase to shoot for. Once we accomplish ranking at the top of Indiana Web Design, we can expand to a broader region.
Reasonable keywords will vary. Your particular business or organization may not have a ton of competition. You may be able to shoot for your keywords without tacking on a location.
Stay away from getting too narrow. Your website may be #1 for “red big flowers outdoor beauty vase”, but who’s gonna search for that.
Does Your Website’s Content Reflect these Keywords?
If you’re website’s text reflects these keywords, great! If not, you won’t be doing yourself any good. Use keywords often in your text, but not too much. It should not be clumsy to read. The frequency of keywords within your website content is called keyword density. If your keyword density is too much, search engines may think you are keyword cramming, and ignore them. Use your keywords in moderation.
Research Keyword / Keyphrase Popularity
How often is your keyword or phrase searched for? Find out what the most popular, related search queries are with Google Adwords Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox. Type in a few phrases and check out the results. You may find that peoples’ actual search queries are different than you might expect.
Traffic vs Conversions
Website Traffic is the amount of visitors your website receives. While traffic is good, having a ton of traffic doesn’t nessacarily mean you get a ton of sales (or inquries; whatever your goal is). Conversions is a term that describes a visitor to your website that reaches the goal of your website, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up, or getting the info they need. Are their certain keywords that tend to result in more conversions than others? Focus on those.
Summary
Be reasonable in selecting keywords. If you are a small website: start out small; if you’re a large popular website, shoot for more popular, more general keywords. Don’t forget the goal is Conversions, not Traffic. Your website is on the internet for a purpose. The keywords you select should help fulfill that purpose.
