Keyword research is THE most important step in building your website. The first thing Google looks at is the “On Page” factors of your website to determine it’s relevancy to a search query. In order for your site to rank well and be returned as a result for that word it MUST be in key places throughout your web page. A few of these places is in the title, description and header tags for example. Without the proper keyword research your site will under perform and suffer dramatically.
One things you should always keep in mind is that Google ranks web pages NOT web sites. This means each page on your site should target a different keyword. If you target words with good search volume and acceptable levels of competition you can end up with multiple page-one rankings. The more page one rankings you have, the more organic traffic you will get. The more traffic you get means the more chances you’ll have at conversions (sales and leads).
So the answers you need are…
- How to research your niche and find special keywords that you can build your content around?
- How do you find the search volume of a particular word?
- What’s an acceptable level of competition for a word or phrase you want to target?
- How do you determine which words you should start with for best results?
What are Keywords?
Keywords are search terms or phrases that people enter into search engines in order to find a website that meets their requirements. So, if you want people or businesses to find you amongst the masses of other websites, as well as your competition, you need to ensure that you are being found for the relevant keywords that apply to your brand, product, service and business.
The biggest difference between a website with very little organic traffic, and a website that has high organic traffic is determined by the keywords and phrases in which it ranks for.
There are plenty of ways in which you can rank in the SERPs. However, most of it is driven by the keyword, or phrase that you have attributed to your website or webpages.
Another element that the search engine will consider is the relevancy of that keyword, against the content on your website. What the search engine is trying to establish is, if your website is shown within the SERPs, is the content relevant to the user who has just searched for that keyword, of phrase?
Most internet users trying to find a product or service online use long-tail keyword searches (or long search queries) often combine with interrogative pronouns such as ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’ etc.
Finding Ranking Keywords for your Website
The first point of call, if you have your own website, is to determine what keywords you are currently ranking for in the SERPs. You can do this in a number of different ways.
Google Analytics provides a gateway to this information. Together with Google Webmaster Tools, it can provide you with a breakdown of what keywords are used by visitors to land on your website. In a pirate’s words, this is a treasure chest of useful information that you can use to improve your website rankings.
However, Google Analytics can be quite complex, especially if you are new to digital marketing. In that case, there are plenty of other tools and software that you can use to much better effect, especially if you are a small business. Companies like Plausible can help monitor your keywords and their SERP position in real time. Agencies can also use this to help other businesses when it comes to presenting their keyword research findings.
Which Keywords Will Give You the Fastest Results
The keywords that will give you the fastest results are the ones with the highest global monthly search volume and lowest amount of competing web pages. Pretty straight forward right? So, if you want to start getting traffic to your site as quickly as possible, look for these types of keywords.
- Global monthly search volume of 500-1000+
- Competing web pages in the range of 0-20,000-
Again, this is just to get you started with the least amount of resistance. Once you get the hang of things you can start using low search volume keywords and target words with a little higher competition levels. Here’s a chart that you can use to help you determine which keywords are best. I got this from a gentleman by the name of Adam Short. He doesn’t claim to have created it and I don’t either but it’s a great reference tool for beginners.
| Competing Pages >
Monthly Searches Below |
0-10,000 | 10,001-20,000 | 20,001-50,000 | 50,000+ |
| 0-499 | Good | Poor | Poor | Poor |
| 500-999 | Good | Fair | Poor | Poor |
| 1000+ | Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor |
How Keywords benefit your Online Business
If you really want to improve your online business results in SERPs, keyword research and tracking helps you establish what keywords you are ranking for, and find other keyword opportunities you can take advantage of using keyword planners. Think relevancy.
Once you have this in place, you can easily tailor your content, and your website, to these relevant search terms, and just like that, your website will start showing up higher in the SERPs. With more website visitors and organic traffic, you have a better chance of converting them and improving your business sales. It’s that simple!
