Performing SEO Keyword Research is key to ranking high on search engines like Google. Keyword research will provide you with an array of keywords, but you can’t choose all of them. From the list, you’ll need to choose the right keywords for your website.
If you have sought the help of a professional and experienced SEO Agency, their SEO experts can assist you in choosing the right keywords for your website. However, having prior knowledge on how to choose the right keywords also helps. Today, we’ll talk about how you can choose the right keywords for your website.
What Are 3 Things SEO Keyword Research Uncovers?
Keyword research uncovers the following three things:
- What is Your Target Audience Searching for?
- How Many People from Your Target Audience Are Searching for It?
- What Kind of Format Does Your Target Audience Want that Information?
The SEO Melbourne agency you hire for keyword research can help you answer these three questions. Once you have received the answers, you can create an effective SEO strategy. We’re going to explain you the process of selecting the right keywords for your website, so you can design a strategy around it.
How to Choose the Right Keywords for Your Website?
The following process will help you choose the right keywords for your website:
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Ask Several Questions
You need to ask several questions that help you focus more on your target audience and what they are looking for. Learning those two things will help them narrow down the potential keywords that can increase their rank in the search engine results. Here’s an example of the type of questions you may have to ask yourself if you have a fast food restaurant:
- What type of burgers, fast food, appetizers, and snacks are users searching for?
- What type of users are searching for these terms?
- When are users searching for fast food, appetizers, and snacks? (seasonal trends or all throughout the year)
- How many users are searching for burgers? (the words they use, the questions they ask, the device they use to perform these searches)
- Why are users searching for burgers? (looking for vegan and/or vegetarian options, keto fast food, or specifically just craving for juicy burgers)
- Where is the potential audience located? (locally, nationally, or internationally)
Even though an SEO Melbourne agency can guide you into answering these questions, having a slight idea of the answers to these questions can streamline the entire process.
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Discover Keywords
You may have made a list of the possible keywords you want to rank for in the search engine results. Those possible keywords relate to your products, services, and other areas of your website. With these keywords in mind, your research will start here.
You can provide these keywords to the SEO specialist who will then perform keyword research to discover similar keywords and the average search volume per month. This will help you determine the different variations of keywords that users most commonly use.
You will also discover that the search volume of the keyword you found varies greatly. Some have a high search volume, whereas others have a low search volume. Instead of zoning in only on high search volume keywords, you should also use low search volume keywords, as they are less competitive and generally speaking have a higher degree of user intent or buyer intent.
In short, use a combination of the two. This will require you to learn more about search volume keywords and most business owners do not have the time to sit down and educate themselves about this. It would be better for business owners to outsource SEO to an SEO Melbourne agency with updated up to date industry experience relating to SEO.
The SEO company will develop an SEO strategy by creating a list of keywords by competitor and region. Here’s a look at keywords by competitor and region:
- Keywords by Competitor – From your long list of keywords, you can either prioritise high volume keywords that your competitors are not using to rank, or you can use the same high-ranking keywords that your competitors are using to rank. Note that each competitor may be focusing on a different sub-set of phrases they deem important for their business.
- Keywords by Season – An effective content strategy involves knowing which keywords rank high on search engine results during various seasons. You will need to incorporate those keywords into your content.
Instead of creating SEO-optimised content during the current month, you should develop it a few months before the arrival of the season. You can engage the services of an SEO copywriting company to create content for you.
- Keywords by Region – You can narrow down your keyword research to targeting certain states, counties, or suburbs. Geo-specific keyword research can make the content of your website more relevant to users. You can contract the services of an SEO Agency to perform geo-specific keyword research.
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Choosing Keywords: Head Keywords, Body Keywords, and Long-tail Keywords
The three categories of keywords include head keywords, body keywords, and long-tail keywords. To choose the right keyword for your website, you need to select a keyword category. Here are the three keyword categories:
- Head Keywords – These one-word keywords have the highest competition and search volume in the market. For instance, marketing or blogging. The downside to using head keywords is that they are too generic, therefore making it difficult for you to convert them. For example targeting the word ‘loan’ may attract a lot of false traffic as its termed as the user may not be after the type of loan you are offering and they may be quite early in the buying cycle with this kind of search query. Additionally broader phrases could also be search by a broader user base including university students Googling around for information of a general nature to complete their assignments, hence the term ‘false traffic’.
- You can’t convert them because predicting the intention of the person using head keywords to perform a search is impossible. For instance, a user searching for a marketing job is completely different from a person searching for a marketing company. Head keywords define an industry.
- Body Keywords – They are two to three-word phrases that are more specific in comparison to the head keywords with the ability to generate a good amount of search volume. The search volume for body keywords is lower than head keywords, but they are still competitive to rank. Body keywords define a niche in the industry.
- Long-tail Keywords – These keywords are specific phrases made up of four words or more. For instance, PPC advertising for marketing companies and direct mail advertising for advertising company. Each long tail keyword will usually have a low search volume but as a whole, they have a high search volume, as they account for most of the website traffic. Long tail keywords define a niche or topic.
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Vary Keywords or Repeat Keywords
Another dilemma you might run into when choosing the right keywords for your website is whether you should vary keywords, such as cat food, kitten food, and Purina or repeat keywords such as cat food reviews, cat food comparison, and cat food rankings.
You can repeat keywords, but only if you vary the meaning of the phrase. For instance, cat food and cat food online mean the same thing and using either of those two keywords will bring you the same type of content.
On the other hand, cat food reviews and cat food comparison will bring up different search results and hence are suitable to use together as keywords. More importantly, you want to select keywords for your website that are closely related to your products, services, and brand.
So, if you do not have a cat food comparison chart on your website, do not use it within your content, as it will mislead your target audience. Google also frowns upon websites doing that. If you want to use all these keywords, your website must feature a comparison section, rankings section, and reviews section.
Your SEO specialist can optimise your website by using the keywords, tagging each section or page of your website with the relevant keyword.
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Select Your Top Keywords
You need to select the top keywords that you want to incorporate into your website. Once incorporated, you need to monitor the results to see how they are performing. You will need to tweak your SEO strategy from time to time.
For instance, if a certain keyword is not doing well, you can substitute it with another. Or you can even opt for an SEO Audit, which will analyse your entire website to determine the areas of your website that need improvement.
Keyword research requires an extensive understanding of SEO but also an SEO Agency’s understanding of your business, its service and product offer. They should demonstrate an ability and care factor to ask the right questions.
Ultimately consulting with an SEO agency to perform SEO keyword research is the right approach, but the right agency will also steer you in the right direction and ensure you have a healthy input into the final decision of which phrases to target as part of a longer term SEO Campaign. The right mix of phrases to target will determine how soon you can attract the right clients across the broader terms as well as the more buyer intent phrases that can drive new sales to your business sooner rather than later.
