Developing Your Keyword Strategy
As quickly as the search engines change their algorithms, it seems like you must come up with a new strategy. But, if you use smart techniques designed to make your content better instead of trying to trick the system, you’ll always be ahead of the game. To ensure that you’re using a good keyword strategy, these tips will help.
SEO practices enable people who are searching for your topic to find it (using a search engine like Google Search or Bing), due to the content and information that you put on and off your site.
Types of Keywords
There are single keywords, long-tail keywords, keyword phrases and more. Some keywords are related to the market and some are related to the customer. There are product-focused keywords, thought leader keywords, competing keywords, and related keywords.
Additionally, there are geotargeted keywords. For the purposes of this report, you’re going to want to find long-tail keywords, keyword phrases, and low-competition keywords as a part of your overall keyword strategy. A low-competition keyword is easier to rank for because the big-name brands aren’t spending a lot of money trying to attract people to that keyword.
Keyword Research
The first thing you need to do is conduct keyword research. At first, don’t try to come up with too many keywords. But understand that each page needs to have its own main keyword for which you want it to rank, meaning that when someone searches for that keyword, you want them to find that particular content you’ve created for that keyword. But first, find the keywords. There are many ways to go about it.
- Guess – This might seem like terrible advice, but if you’re part of your own demographic then you probably already know some keywords. Make a list of what you’d search for if you were looking for information about your niche. That’s a good starting point for finding more keywords.
- Your audience’s vocabulary – Find where your audience hangs out and observe their discussions and questions. The type of words they use are words you should add to your keyword list.
- Use keyword tools – Google Keyword Planner and Tool comes with your Google AdWords account. You can use the planner to help you find good keywords and keyword phrases, as well as assess the competition level of the keywords you choose.
- Google Trends – This is a great way to find out what is trending in terms of what people are searching for in each niche. You’ll be able to find a lot of content ideas, especially during seasonal spikes.
- WordStream – This keyword search tool offers a lot of features that you can use, and they also have a free version for limited use.
- Google.com – This is a great way to get ideas for keywords. Just start searching with your guesses and see what comes up.
- YouTube – Like Amazon, finding keywords using YouTube is a great way to find what’s popular.
- Twitter – Twitter is an amazing search engine that you can use to find keywords, starting with other keywords to see what turns up in a search.
- Yoast SEO – This plugin for self-hosted WordPress will make keyword suggestions if you upgrade it.
- Want to spy on your competitors to find out which keywords they’re using? This is great software to do just that.
The thing to keep in mind about keywords is that you don’t want to overstuff your website and content with them. Each page of your website – whether it’s your home page, contact page, about page or a blog post – should focus on only one keyword. In addition, you want to keep your keyword density between 1 and 2 percent.
You may also want to ready this post from Susanne Myers on “SEO Fundamentals: Let’s Keep it Simple.”
I’m author, publisher, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and would love to connect with you. If you are new to the world of online entrepreneurship please check out my comprehensive training on how to set up Funnels That Click and learn how to gain an unfair advantage when it comes to building a lucrative online business.
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