Target The Right Keywords

Your 2018 SEO traffic plan is well underway. Yet, despite all your best efforts, your site still falls short from your target spot in the search engine results pages (SERPs). What gives?

As with many SEO tasks, it is so easy to overlook the smallest details that can have a crucial impact on your rankings. After all, there are so many SEO strategies you can use and a long list of things to accomplish. How then can you possibly realize that the answer is staring at you right in the face – cursor blinking and all? Keywords.

Why search for the right keywords

Every day, online users make use of a blank rectangular box and hit the search button. Regardless of the search engine used, these people enter a word or set of words to jump-start their internet query.

Whether they are looking for some advice on how to do something, or simply browsing for the latest products that they want to add to their wish list, every single one of them enters a keyword. And when they do, this is where your battle for a spot in the SERP ranks begins.

These string of alphanumeric characters, also known as keywords, are among the factors that search engine algorithms take note of when a search online commences. In other words, users speak to web crawlers through keywords entered on the search engine bars.

In turn, these bots fetch sites containing content with exact matches or offer a degree of relevance to the keywords entered. Depending on how the algorithm perceives your site’s overall appeal to user experience, you get a higher rank when your site’s content and SEO strategies are targeted towards the keywords entered by the user.

This is where keyword research comes into play.

One of the surefire ways to gain a rank in the SERPs is to make sure you are targeting the right keywords that users type before they hit enter. To know which ones to target, you need to do a little digging so that you can come up with keywords that actually turn up during online searches.

The more targeted your keywords are, the higher your site’s chances of gaining traffic online.

Aside from attracting more site visitors, keyword research can help you further reach your SEO objectives. Specifically, conducting a thorough research of what keywords you want to rank for can help tick-off three things in your optimization goals:

Direction. In a world where websites constantly compete for online presence, it is so easy to give in, succumb to pressure, and aim to rank for anything and everything under the sun. Fortunately, researching for keywords helps clarify your perspective in terms of what you want your site to be optimized for.

With the right tools and data, you can identify which keywords are in demand (and therefore constantly searched for). In the same manner, this kind of SEO-related research also enables you to gauge just how hard it will be to compete for the keywords you want to rank for.

Vision. Behind every keyword entered is a user in search of something, under a certain context. With an effective keyword research strategy in place, you can have a better understanding of what your target market wants and needs. In turn, you can create more of the content and products that they are actually looking for.

Evaluation. As with any other SEO-related task, executing keyword research properly can help you evaluate your site’s current goals versus the actual SEO rank and results. This is because keyword research is more than just playing with semantics and connected terms and phrases.

It gives you an in-depth view of your niche and the metrics that come into play when you decide to target certain keywords and phrases.

How to find target keywords

Now that you have finally heeded your link building company’s long-standing advice on targeting the right keywords, it’s time to do some actual research.
As vast as the World Wide Web is, so are the possible combinations of words that you can use in order to turn up among the top ranks of a search engine results page.

To help you determine which ones to use and which ones you can do away with, you can start by following these steps:

1. Choose your topic.

Apparently, SEO keyword research has some similarities business startups. In both fields, you need to identify a certain niche, first and foremost, so you can narrow down the scope of your succeeding actions.

For keyword research, this means choosing an idea or the main keyword. In SEO technical terms, this is called a seed. This keyword is seed important because this is where you will be deducing your set of target keywords from.

There are a number of ways to find a topic that suits your website’s SEO goals. For some, this involves the traditional marketing tactic of envisioning a buyer persona and figuring out what he might search for, based on his profile.

Others, on the other hand, take advantage of the sea of comments and questions that flood online forums and threads. While some make use of their own industry knowledge and experience to figure out what keywords might be at the top of their target users’ minds.

2. Grab your tools.

Once you’ve identified your seed, get your free or paid tools and start digging online for data and other related resources. You can choose from tools that allow you to explore keywords and their corresponding metrics and statistics, so you can see which ones are worth targeting.

Search engine giant Google has a similarly useful program called Google Keyword Planner that helps businesses with their keyword brainstorming tasks. It has two options which you can choose from.

First, you can discover keywords and choose which ones you find appealing in relation to your niche. Or you can go straight to the numbers and see forecasts on search volumes and other useful stats.

Whichever tool you employ, make sure you learn what keywords can help you achieve your website optimization goals. Usually, data from these valuable tools can give you an idea of whether your chosen keyword can help you achieve the click-through- or sales conversion rates you are going for.

3. Expand your search.

By now, you probably have an idea of what to search for and whether or not these keywords will complement your search engine optimization tactics. Depending on your niche and industry, some keywords just might be harder to rank for, especially if you have big companies with dozens of marketing teams deployed for search engine optimization.

But you need not lose hope. Search engines recognize that there is more than one way to search for something. Which is why most SEO enthusiast will tell you to always have several related terms and phrases lined up, as your additional target keywords.

Doing this may be as simple as coming up with several other terms that you can think of yourself. You can also try using search engine suggestions of related terms or related searches and pull out several combinations of words which can be useful to your keyword research strategy.

Aside from related words, keyword length also plays a role on which ones generate the best results in your chosen niche. Short, generic keywords (also known as head terms) are becoming harder to rank for, so most SEO keyword strategies are eyeing long-tail keywords which are poised to address the voice-revolutionized future of search.

4. Check out your competition.

If you’re doing SEO, then you are most likely trying to outrank other websites and competitors that appear on top of the SERPs lists. And if the search engines deem them appropriate to be on top, then they must have effective keywords that help propel them to where they are. Instead of getting discouraged about your ranking, use this as an opportunity to learn more about what your competitors have to offer.

Several tools that help you explore keywords on websites are available to help you do this. Or, you can do it manually and have a quick rundown of what keywords constantly appear on their content.

5. Generate your own list.

Finally, after much brainstorming, sifting, and comparison, create your own list of keywords. You can even group them based on topic, user intent, or in terms of its value for your business. Regardless of the format, however, make sure you have a handy list that you refer back to, so you can retain the ones that are effective and take out the ones that are not.

6. Update and re-calibrate.

From your conducted keyword research, evaluate your content and update your site accordingly. Create more articles and content that include keywords which you have determined to be effective in generating online traffic.

Also, continuously observe the trend and forecasts when it comes to target keywords. In relation to your target market’s profile and online search behavior and activity, be flexible and be prepared to re-calibrate, when needed.

Conclusion

Keywords mark the beginning of every online search activity. They are the primary means by which users express their needs and interests online. As such, knowing more about these set of words by conducting effective keyword research is a crucial SEO task that needs as much effort and attention.

As with any other SEO strategy, however, keyword research results can vary based on several factors. While it can be executed independent of other SEO strategies, it is still important to align your chosen keyword research techniques with your overall search engine optimization approach to produce favorable and unified results.

Author Bio: Originally from the U.S., Rana Tarakji is the founder of One SEO, a multinational link building agency, author of Off-site SEO guide: A Hands-On SEO Tutorial For Beginners & Dummies, and a web content specialist who now lives in Beirut, Lebanon. Rana’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications in print and online, including Life Hacker, Upwork, Christian Today, Newswire, and many other outlets.