Keywords Optimization: 8 Facts You Need to Know
8 useful tips to select the right keywords to optimize
Keyword research and targeting have been around for as long as SEO. We all do it at a certain level.
Although context and quality of content really matter, we must determine at a certain level for which keywords or topics we want to be well-positioned.
There are lots of great tools, resources, and processes for doing keyword research.
But no matter how good the keyword research process is, there is always a risk of choosing keywords and topics that require a lot of effort and do not produce the desired results.
Ultimately, we must be careful to choose the right keywords to optimize.
We can do this by following an approach that contains specific principles to keep us on the right track for the right targeting for our organizations.
1 # Start with goals
It may seem obvious, but we must start with goals for organic or paid search efforts.
Ultimately, we know what we want to achieve at the company or organization level and work backwards to determine how search influences this, is our starting point.
If we want to grow our leads, sales, engagement or other statistics by a certain amount, we can determine how much search conversions and traffic we need.
To generate traffic, we have found specific keywords and topics.
2 # Get Information from Real Users
With goals in place, we're ready to start finding the right keywords.
To generate a seed list, we can gather insights and ideas from stakeholders such as salespeople, other parts of the marketing team, the C-suite, customers, and prospects.
Get input from stakeholders or what they would like to find your business, your products, your services, or your content.
At this point, take anything they give you. We are not yet at the step of filtering or judging the validity or accuracy of what they are telling you.
Capture and build out a list of what you're hearing and learning.
3 # Competitors Analysis
We never want to assume that our competitors are doing well or well.
However, we look at what they focus and do.
- Are your traditional competitors outsmarting you?
- Do they offer the same products, services or content?
Then there is a good chance that something can be learned from them.
- Their title and meta description tags.
- The topics or the pages on their site.
What they are talking about and for which they occupy a prominent place in search results, social media, PR and beyond.
Make a list of topics, terms and expressions that you think competitors will focus on and that are in some way consistent with your organization and content.
4 # Keyword Research
There are many great sources that talk about the tools and processes for doing keyword research for both organic and paid search.
I am not going to describe this in detail here, but I want to make sure that you look at search types and use the right tools for paid versus organic search.
Know the mistakes you should avoid and do not use Google Keyword Planner for SEO.
As you research, you want to use the basic keywords and terms that you have identified through stakeholder and competitor assessment.
Try to expand these lists further by finding related keywords.
5 # Select the Most Appropriate Topics
There is a good chance that you will have a lot of separate words and phrases after you have performed your keyword research.
The good news is that topics matter more than keywords.
You don't have to compile pages for every keyword and you don't have to. If you don't, you have to translate keywords into topics.
To get started, you can use the content on your site (unless you start an organization all over again).
At some point, decisions were made about how to group the content of the website into product, service or current structures.
I do not assume that your site navigation or information architecture is perfect. But there are probably topics or themes if you already have some depth of content.
You can use these topics as a starting point if you are confident.
Anyway, if you search through your entire research data, specific themes or topics are likely to have emerged naturally.
Check-in your keyword list if you have found meaningful groups of topics.
These are probably your paid search ad groups or your content clusters or sections on the SEO focus site.
6 # Balance between your topics and keywords
With keyword research distilled into specific topics and themes, you can then validate the keywords to make sure they are the right terms.
While it may seem like a great idea to want to rank for a "car" as a local car dealer - that might not be the best use of a paid search budget or SEO investment.
Yes, technically speaking, it's all about cars at the car dealer. But we are going through a lot of layers deeper and more specifically about what we really are about.
If the person looking for a brand is looking for which I don't have new inventory, I have wasted that effort or budget for that click.
Find the balance between your topics and keywords to ensure that they are as closely linked as possible to your products, services or content offers.
7 # Monitor the SERPs
It may seem as if we have used all filters and ways to validate our keywords.
However, with the ever-changing layout of search engine pages for search engines, we have to spend some time manually viewing them.
Take some of your top keywords and topics and literally search for them in the search engines.
- What's going on?
- Do you see the competitors you expect?
- Where do the organic and paid listings appear on the page?
- Is there a lot of noise?
If you find that the search results are not where you want to be or where your target audience is searching, you may want to reconsider the importance of those keywords or topic in your strategy.
This applies in particular to organic results. They can be pushed so far below the fold on desktop and phone browsers that even with the right keyword at number one, you might still not get the traffic to generate the conversions and end goals you need.
8 # Analyze & Monitor performance
Only when your paid search and SEO plans are implemented will you get the real data you need - and find out if you have chosen the 'right' keywords.
Certain keywords may perform better than others. There can be a large number of reasons why.
However, when you have data, you can adjust the priority that you set for specific topics and keywords. Or you can identify other areas to identify in your marketing or website.
Things to watch out for:
Keywords for which you cannot score organically.
Keywords that produce many impressions, but a few clicks.
Keywords that generate a lot of traffic, but not many conversions.
These are all indicators for digging deeper and going back to the principles outlined.
I would first look at the SERPs and then look at analyzes to see if there is a need for optimization of the conversion ratio, a UX problem or something deeper.
Conclusion
The nature of search marketing and the ever-changing landscape gives the word 'good' a subjective feeling.
Technically speaking, choosing keywords for paid and organic search.
However, you have to start somewhere.
Make sure you have a way to ensure that the work spent on keyword research and keyword optimization is important.
By knowing end goals, creating topics and validating the keywords we choose, we can do our very best.
From there, continuous monitoring and validation do not end.
We must go through the principles to ensure that we have chosen the right conditions and that we continue to refine our campaigns and efforts with a focus on quality and performance.
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