Keyword research for search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital part of any online business. It allows you to find out what keywords people are using to look up your products or services, and how much traffic these searches bring in. This information will allow you to tailor your website content accordingly, which in turn increases conversion rates and makes your business more visible.
How Does Google Work With Keyword Research?
Google uses a variety of methods to determine the best ways to rank websites in its search engine results page (SERP). One method involves analyzing how often users type specific words into the search box. If your website has a lot of terms related to your product or service, then you may see an increase in traffic from Google as well as other search engines. Another way is through analysis of how many times certain keywords are searched for on different devices.
In addition to these methods, Google also looks at how frequently certain keywords are searched for on mobile devices. If your website is optimized for desktop computers, but not mobile phones, then you might have a problem. Finally, Google analyzes how often certain keywords are searched for on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. By connecting your website to these networks, you can increase the amount of relevant traffic that you receive.
How Does Keyword Research Help Your Business?
Performing keyword research will help to improve the overall visibility of your business online. A customer who is searching for a product or service using their mobile device may only find your website if it is optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. In addition, they will be more likely to choose your business over another one that ranks higher in search results.
Another important reason to focus on keywords is that it makes your content and website easier to navigate. It’s no fun for users to have to scroll through walls of text in order to find what they are looking for. By implementing relevant keywords throughout your website, you can create a better first impression and give users quick access to the information that they seek.
When Should You Focus On Keyword Research?
You should start focusing on keyword research as soon as you begin creating your website. However, it is possible to change your website’s content and features at any time; keyword research should be seen as an ongoing process of always improving your site.
How Can You Improve Your Website Using Keyword Research?
When it comes to keyword research, there are two main types of search terms that you should concern yourself with: “navigational” keywords and “transactional” keywords.
“Navigational” Keywords
These types of keywords are general phrases that describe broad topics about your business or industry. For instance, if you’re a tax consultant, some examples of navigational keywords could include phrases like “tax preparation services” and “irs refund”. These types of search terms tend to have higher search volumes, but they are also much more competitive than transactional keywords.
For navigational keywords, you want to try to optimize each of your webpages for 2-3 of these search terms. Using the example above, a website for a tax consultant could optimize their homepage and an “about us” page for these navigational keywords.
“Transactional” Keywords
These types of keywords are more specific search terms that relate directly to products or services that you offer. They often contain specific wording such as product names, prices, descriptions, etc. For instance, transactional keywords for your tax consultant example could include “irs forms”, “tax returns”, and “Schedule C”. These types of keywords usually have much lower search volumes than navigational keywords, but they are also more specific and can often be more easily optimized for.
For transactional keywords, you’ll want to create specific pages and content around these keywords, which will enable your site to rank higher in SERPs.
For both types of keywords, you’ll also want to check your competition and see how they’re ranking. Are their pages better optimized than yours? If so, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to improve your existing pages or create new ones in order to rise higher in the SERPs.
Google Keyword Research Tool
This is pretty much the SEO standard for keyword research. It’s run by the big G themselves, so you know it’s got to be good.
It’s fairly simple to use, but here’s a basic rundown of how it works:
- First, you’ll enter the webpage that you want to target a keyword for in the search bar at the top. Let’s say you wanted to target the keyword “Denver Family Attorney”.
- Then, just scroll down a bit and click on “keyword ideas” ( Alternatively, you can type in some keywords and it will show you a bunch of suggestions ). Under “keyword ideas” it should bring up a list that looks something like this:
- As you can see, the Adwords tool provides a lot of suggestions, some related, some not. You can sort by “Keyword”, “Search Volume”, or “Match %”. The match percentage is a good way to tell how specific the keyword is. The closer to 100%, the more specific it is.
- The “Avg. Monthly Searches” column displays the approximate number of searches for that particular keyword each month.
- The “SA” column stands for “Search Ads”, which means that keyword already includes words that advertisers are paying to appear on search results for, e.g. “Denver Family Lawyer”.
- The “CT” column stands for “Contextual Targeting”, which means that this keyword is used by advertisers who want to appear in the ads of related searches, e.g. “Family Attorney” shows ads for “Divorce Attorney”.
As you can see, the numbers can be a little confusing at first, but if you know what to look for, it makes finding what you need a lot easier.
An important thing you might notice is that the keyword “family attorney” has a search volume of ~360 monthly searches according to Google’s Keyword Tool, but when we look up the actual data, it’s only 60. This is because the Keyword Tool takes into account all variations of that phrase: family lawyers, family law firm, family lawyer, etc. However, if we were to target the variation “family law firm”, then the numbers would be a lot lower.
You might be wondering, with all these keywords, how will I ever rank for them all? The answer is you won’t, at least not immediately. But what you can do is use this list, break it down into smaller chunks and tackle those.
So rather than trying to conquer the wide world of “family law” you can start with something more specific like “Denver Family Lawyer”.
Final Thoughts
Choose which keywords you’re targeting, and make a list. The actual process of “keyword research” is now complete. This was just the beginning of your promotion strategy. After this, we’ll move on to the actual content marketing, promotion, and monetization strategies.
Jobin John, CEO & Founder of Egochi, Inc as well as a veteran Los Angeles SEO, has helped multiple businesses with their SEO needs and keyword research has always been the toughest part, I hope that this article has helped you and grown your knowledge on keyword research.
