Keywords are in the simplest terms the search words that people use to find your site on the internet. They also tell search engines what your site is about and are one of the elements that affect your Google ranking. When you use the right combination of keywords, you will find that you are attracting your target audience who is actively searching for your content or services.
Determining your keywords is not difficult if you follow a few simple guidelines.
Use keywords naturally.
Your content should sound natural, not be difficult to read and should provide your visitor with the information they need. Be sure to use your keywords so they flow naturally and avoid keyword stuffing.
“Keyword stuffing is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique, considered webspam or spamdexing, in which keywords are loaded into a web page’s meta tags, visible content, or backlink anchor text in an attempt to gain an unfair rank advantage in search engines. Keyword stuffing may lead to a website being banned or penalized on major search engines either temporarily or permanently.” ~Wikipedia
This practice will result in the opposite result you want and you will lose both visitors and search engines hits!
Choosing your keywords.
A big part of choosing the correct keywords is knowing your ideal customer very well. Think about who they are, what they do, and what they will use your product or service for. When you pick your keywords, keep this in mind.
Avoid terms that are too broad. Remember your prospective customers probably have at least a little bit of experience related to the goods or services that you provide, so you may be able to use a certain amount of niche-specific words or phrases. For instance, if you sell tropical fish, you could list the different breeds that you have. While you may not want to use the scientific names, using names like Hawkfish or Lionfish will distinguish you from people who sell fish wholesale to supermarkets. Your keywords should speak to your target audience.
Use keyword research to discover the best ones for your site.
One of the best ways to start keyword research is to brainstorm. Here are some tips to help you:
- Think about your potential visitors. Who are they?
- What words do your visitors use to talk about your services, products or information?
- Which words are alternatives to the most common words used on your site? For example, a word like car has alternatives such as automobile, vehicle, truck, van, etc.
- What types of alternate spellings are common for those words?
- What synonyms are used?
If you are unsure about what types of keywords you can use, take the time to talk to other people. When they are looking for a business coach, for example, what would they type into a search engine box? Some words might include:
- Business Coach
- Business consultant
- Business coaching services
- Professional business coach
- Small business coach
Each of these terms is unique and they are likely to be typed into search engines dozens if not thousands of times each hour. Include those that you believe are relevant to your website to ensure that your target audience can find it
One of the most commonly used ways of researching keywords is online tools. These tools, which are free to use, allow you to plug in words that you believe are important to your website and the tool then tells you what related terms fit.
A few keyword research tools I recommend are Google Adwords: Keyword Planner, Keyword In and Wordtracker. The goal is to provide you with information about which keywords you should use on your website. It is important to note that these sites cannot guarantee that the information they provide to you will increase your ranking in the search engines, but if used properly, these tools can help you obtain your goals.
Keyword tools like this work very effectively. All you need to do is to type in the keyword that you think is important to your website. For example, if you are building a website about life coaching, you would type the word ‘life coach’ into the search field. Once you do that, the tool will provide you with a list of keywords that people have typed into search engines related to that word.
The keyword tools will also provide you with a number which is the frequencies in which the words are used. You can then pick and choose which of these keywords to include in your website to help you increase traffic. Of course, choosing higher ranking keywords is important, but a good variety is even better.
Keywords are essential for the success of your website and should not be overlooked. While the art of search engine optimization is a specialized field, this will give you the basic knowledge you need to incorporate keywords on your site.
