Source: multichannelmerchant.com
Search engine optimisation is the cornerstone of marketing in the current digital era.
I’m sure this is common knowledge today, but it is so important that it just can’t be understated.
One of the biggest factors within SEO itself is your use of keywords, but the hour’s question is how big?
And once we know this, we can figure out how best to use keywords to our advantage.
The term itself is fairly self-explanatory, but I will briefly define it to make sure everyone is on the same page.
It is any term added to online content to strengthen the online presence of your brand.
If you’re looking for a short answer on its importance, then extremely – it is extremely important.
For the longer answer, though, it is the foundation of any good SEO strategy.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that it is impossible to create an effective strategy without good keywords hence why it is step 1.
Any SEO expert would tell you to make a list of keywords for your brand before anything else.
It should NOT be something that is haphazardly chosen – it should be carefully deliberated through market research and brainstorming.
If you are running a race and start in a suboptimal position, then you will be at a handicap from the very beginning.
It may not be noticeable immediately, but this small factor is what will hold you back from that number one spot.
This is the same logic when it comes to SEO.
Now that we know how important keywords are, the next question is how to use them well.
Your keyword needs to hit a good balance between being relevant but also being niche.
It needs to be a term that people are searching for so that they can be referred to your website.
However, if it is too saturated, then people won’t see your results.
If you’re an upcoming interior decorator and ‘interior decorator’ is your only keyword, then your website won’t be anywhere near the top of search results.
Bigger and pre-established institutes will heavily outperform it. It could take years for your company to even come close in terms of SEO.
Therefore, we recommend for relatively young firms use long-tail keywords.
These are phrases (usually three words or more) that can be used as the focus of your SEO campaign.
We say keywords in SEO, but phrases are just as viable.
These are most effective for smaller companies because they tend to have less competition as they’re more specialised and specific whilst also having more people actually using the website.
The measurable effects of long-tail keywords are called your conversion rate and depend on the goal of your site.
For example, if you’re selling a product, it can be quantified by how many people actually buy it, which will undoubtedly be bigger than if you were to use a generic keyword.
Source: Backlinko
You can see this at work right before your eyes. Go to Google, type in anything, and observe how it gives you a host of specialised results based on what you type in.
Now that you know what type of keyword to choose, the next question is which words should you choose.
I suggest using questions that people are asking. Therefore when they type these questions into Google, your company will come up.
This is where the market research comes in, as you have to figure out what type of questions people will be asking about the product or service in question. There are multiple ways to do this.
For example, there is word of mouth, so asking people in real life (or informally on social media) what they know about a product, what they don’t know, what they want to know etc.
There are also websites dedicated solely to people’s questions about certain topics, such as AnswerThePublic.com.
At the end of the day, these are all just suggestions on how you could go about it.
If you have your own ideas, then by all means follow them. But you have to be able to justify any decision you make.
Constantly ask yourself why – if you can’t answer or are unsure, that could be a sign to approach from a different angle.
Hopefully, this has highlighted the importance of keywords and how to use them effectively.
However, you shouldn’t get complacent.
Keyword potency is dependent on the state of the industry around it. This can be very volatile, so you have to always keep up and make sure your keywords are still relevant.
This can be hard to maintain manually though, which is why I recommend using Serpwizz’s auditing tools which include keyword-checking.
Not only does it save you time, but it can also be done regularly to make sure your site is up to date – an absolute win-win!
So check out our services and let us help you build the best damn website Google has ever seen!
