Conducting some in depth research into keywords that are relevant to your business is the first step to accelerating your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). In this blog we’re giving you a guide to keyword research.
What is SEO?
SEO is a digital tool that should be utilised by all businesses who find themselves using online platforms. SEO is generally concerned with your website’s ranking position on the search engine result’s page. Taking time to work on your SEO means that your website may appear for relevant keywords above your competitors and therefore you may be more likely to receive clicks.
SEO is not a quick fix and cannot be implemented overnight, it takes time and a combination of SEO skills to work. There are many factors that will determine the success of your SEO, one of those factors is the quality of your keywords.
How do keywords impact my ranking position?
Search engines such as Google use page ranking factors to determine where each website should be placed on the results page. Some of these factors include page speed, page experience and authority. Keywords are labelled as part of your website’s ‘on page Google ranking factors’ and they’re very important for search engines when they are deciding if queries are relevant to your site.
Keywords should relate to your business and be concerned with queries that your target audience are actually searching for. While they can be used throughout your website copy, you should not overuse keywords otherwise search engines will penalise you.
What do I need to consider for my keywords?
Relevance is very important when it comes to keywords because search engines will only show the best results for each query. If your website doesn’t offer the most valuable information, you’ll struggle to reach the top of the results page.
Search volume must be considered throughout the process of keyword research because you do not want to be competing for the highest search queries as it’s unlikely your site will appear in a high location. At the same time, you don’t want to work on the lowest searched terms because that means no one is searching for them. That’s why it’s good to focus on just a few keywords that have potential for your business.
How can I conduct keyword research?
Work out the basics
Start by looking at your business holistically and find around 5-10 topics that directly relate to what your business offers. After you have decided on some topics, you can begin looking at various keywords that fall under those topics. While deciding on a list of keywords, you should look at search volumes to see how likely you are to rank for various terms.
Keywords into queries
The next step is to consider how those keywords will be used in search queries by your target audience. Think words such as – how, why, what, when and where, these are often used in search queries. This part can be helpful later in the process when you’re thinking of other ways to improve your SEO such as through regular blogging, you could try adapting those queries for blog titles.
Keyword list
After this step, you can work out which keywords and phrases can be linked to your website’s content. Use a range of keywords throughout, some can be local and others can relate to the products or services that you offer. Your keywords should be varied in length as phrases with more than three words may provide more value.
Keep track
Once you’ve completed your keyword research and implemented the terms throughout your website’s copy, you should keep an eye on how they are performing. You can measure the success in a few ways but a good metric would be to use website traffic. There’s a chance that you’ll have picked similar keywords to your competitors so you can also conduct some research into how they are ranking.
If you need any assistance with your SEO, don’t hesitate to contact us, we’re more than happy to help.