Choosing the Right Keywords
*The guest tip is by Christopher Holland*
The very first and most important step you should do when starting a search engine optimisation campaign, is to sit down and choose the correct keywords. Keywords are the phrases that potential visitors will type into search engines to find your website.
Anyone can think of relevant keywords for their business, but to be successful you will have to find the keywords that are not only achievable but will also bring in traffic.
Before you start brainstorming potential keywords, you should bear in mind the following:
- Use phrases. Aiming for a simple keyword such as design is not only going to take along time to achieve but statistics show that around 80% of searches are now compromising of 3 or more words, e.g. web design London.
- Relevant Keywords. The keywords that you want to aim for should be relevant to your business and your website’s content.
- What would you search? Try to anticipate what your potential customers will search for to find your business.
- Local Keywords. At first you should try to achieve good positions for local phrases, but don’t be too specific.
- 5 Keywords. You should not choose more than 5 keywords per page. Try to aim for 1 or 2 primary keywords, followed by 1 or 2 secondary phrases.
If you’re finding it difficult to come up with key phrases, then try to create a list of words using your business name and the services / products you offer. You should then mix the keywords together, and also add locations, e.g. web design Kent.
Now you should have a nice long list with all your potential keywords, its time to find out if they’re actually worth targeting.
I would recommend using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Enter your keywords into the space provided, and click “Get Keyword Ideas”, then select exact from the drop down box (you do not have to select exact, but I feel this gives me a better idea of numbers).
(Here are a few more ideas on using this keyword tool properly)
Not only will this give you statistics from last month’s searches but it will also give you more keyword recommendations.
After you have noted all of the new keywords and the monthly search figures (taken from the “global monthly search volume” column” its time to see how much competition you’re facing.
This is a little time consuming, but I would definitely recommend it. Go to google.co.uk and type the following:
Allintitle:”keyword” – Obviously entering your keyword.
Using this search phrase, will tell you the amount of other websites using your keyword in their title tag (see image for details), therefore giving you a rough guide to the amount of competing websites.
So, now we have a long list of keywords that tells us the monthly search figures and amount of competing websites.
You can now choose the keywords that will bring in traffic and are achievable (not thousands of competitors).
This article was by Christopher Holland, who is a search engine marketer for nbat Digital – professional web design and search engine optimisation services. Follow us on twitter – @nbatdigital
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This is a great topic that always seems clear but I still end up with questions. Picking the keywords with high search volume from the keyword tool is simple but where it gets vague is when you talk about competition. How much is too much? Is there some type of formula that considers search volume and search-engine results and will provide you guidance on which words are better to target than others?
I have not come up with any specific formula (although I am sure that there are many out there), but when I start a new campaign I go through my keywords like above, and then run a search allinanchor:“keyword” – this will tell me how many links contain the keyword. From this I divide the results from allinanchor to allintitle and then this will give me a very rough indicator on how many links each site has on average.
“How much is too much?” That’s down to personal preference, how much time will you be dedicating? What industry are you in? etc..
Josh Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Great tip regarding the allinanchor/allintitle comparison. That wasn’t mentioned above. Thanks Chris!
Good tips for choosing the right keywords. Make it list of primary and secondary keywords of the site.
More is better … as long as it is still relevant. Target your top priority first, but never neglect the many other possibilities for relevant traffic.
I find the use of lateral keywords to be hugely important. So important that I rank #1 there on Google. Why? Does it bring me a ton of traffic? No, but it is one of about a squillion different phrases that will land people at one of my sites. I am a big fan of long-tail keywords, and keeping to only a small few words / phrases per page. It really shows the massive value of blogs and having large amounts of very high quality content. It is also a lot easier to have both incoming links and conversion when you have an article that matches specifically what somebody was looking for.
Keywords plays an important role for ranking website in search engines. Because you can use keywords in meta tags and also in content with hyperlinking. Thanks for the update.
Chris Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Choosing and implementing the correct keywords is in my opinion the most important factor in any campaign.
The only important META tag around these days is the description tag. This doesn’t really contribute to rankings, but gives you a couple of lines to sell your website!
Mark Aaron Murnahan Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Ha! Meta tags? Nobody is reading meta tags. That was 1998.
After choosing the keywords with appropriate number of searches then go on to google search box then type the keywords in the double quotes to get exact number of results for that keyword to see your exact competition.
Also, if you are in a crowded marketplace, try to think a little different – some keywords may have lower search volumes but it all adds up