Lifelong Learning

Keyword research is used by search engine optimization (SEO) to find actual search terms users enter into the search engines when they are conducting a search. It is the first and a vital step for search engine optimization to raise your website’s visibility. If your website is targeting the wrong keywords, the possibility that search engines and your users find your website is very low.

Research what your target audience want is always must, because your assumption may be not correct. By researching what your users are searching for, you will serve them better.

The keyword research process can be broken down into the following three steps.

Step 1 – Creating a potential keyword list

Firstly, create a list of potential keywords. Brainstorm all the words you think users might use related your website. This includes thinking of phrases that are general and specific, and single and multi-word. Those words that are relevant, but less competition are better candidates.

Learn from your competitors’ Meta Keyword tag is a good idea as well. Find out what key words they are targeting, then think about yours.

Step 2 – Using the keyword research tools

Secondly, narrow down your potential list. The keyword tools are very helpful for you to achieve this goal, which is find those highly attainable phrases bringing the most qualified traffic to your website.
By entering your proposed keywords into a keyword research tool, you can quickly learn how many users are conducting searches for that term, and other important analytical information, which depends on the keyword research tool. It may also spark you to better keywords meeting your needs.

Here are some of the tools for your reference.

Google Trends
It gives you a big picture, which helps you on which direction you want to go combining your interest and the number of audience.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Google’s keyword PPC tool gives you a little more information; it displays a colored bar, giving users a relative comparison, which is very useful.

Google Suggest Tool
It shows frequently search for phrases starting with the words and letters in your query.

Microsoft Keyword Forecast
It shows predicted Microsoft search impression count and historical trends.

Bruce Clay’s Check Traffic tool
It estimates the number of queries per day for your search term across the major search engines.

Wordtracker Free Keywords
It provides actual search numbers for keywords.

Keyword Discovery
It is another free keyword research tool.

You need to check both your targeting keywords and the competitors who also target them. Again your goal is to find something with more audience and less competition.

Step 3 – Finalizing your keyword list

Last but not least, you need to test your list, which you have narrowed it down. By using a spreadsheet recording your experiment data including word’s conversion rate, search volume and competition rate, you can figure out the winners and make your final keyword list.

Keyword Tips

Make your goals clear

In order to perform an effective keyword research, you need make your goals clear and keep your mind on them.

• Who are your audience?
• What your audience is searching for?
• What keywords are your audience are using?
• How many websites are you competing against?
• What is your competitors’ strength? (the sites’ rankings, how many other sites link to them, how many pages do they have indexed, etc.)

Be focus

It is recommended to make your final list of about 10-20 highly focused keywords, and use three or four related keywords per page.

Use your keywords effectively

In order to maximize the benefit of keywords, you need put them at the following places of your website.

• Title Tag
• Meta Description Tags
• Meta Keywords Tag
• Headings
• Alt text
• Anchor Text
• Navigational Links
• On-page content

Tuning your keywords accordingly

Users’ needs change, so does your website. In order to compete and move forward, you need keep monitoring your keywords and make changes accordingly. It is suggested to adjust your keywords at a certain period of time.

Related posts:

1. Are Long Tail are Better than Short Tail Keywords?
2. Top 20 SEO Tips
3. How to Market a Website Inexpensively and Effectively
4. An Easy and Effective Way to Start a Website
5. Using Article Marketing Properly