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| keyword research |
keyword research
How do you know where to start on building your keyword list? It requires a little thought, and a fair amount of research using tools which are readily available to help you both grow and refine your list of keywords.
Brainstorm
Think about the words you would use to describe your business, and about the questions or needs of your customers that it fulfils. How would someone ask for what you are offering? Consider synonyms and misspellings as well.
Bear in mind that people might not ask for your services in the same way you describe them. You might sell “herbal infusions” whereas most people would ask for “herbal teas”, although some might request a “tisane”.
If you are selling Tamagotchis, remember that the spelling can be tough to recall, and you might need to consider common misspellings like “tumagochi” or “tamagochi”.
Survey customers and look at your web site referral logs Look to see what terms customers are already using to find you, and add those to your list. If they are already sending you some traffic, it is worth seeing if you can increase that traffic.
Use keyword research tools
There are several tools available for keyword discovery, and some of them are free! Some tools will scan your web site and suggest keywords based on your current content. Most will let you enter keywords, and will then return suggestions based on past research data with:
Similar keywords
Common keywords used with that keyword
Common misspellings
Frequency of the keywords in search queries
Industry related keywords
Keywords that are sending traffic to your competitors
How many other sites are targeting your keywords
See Tools of the Trade for some tools that you can use.
Bearing in mind the factors that make a good keyword, you need to aim for the right mix of keywords. Low volume terms, with low levels of competition may be a good way to get traffic in the short term, but don’t be scared off by high-levels of competition in the high-value, high-volume areas. It might take longer to get there, but once there, the revenue can make it all worthwhile.
It is a good idea to create a spreadsheet of the list of keywords, where you can also store information relevant to that keyword.
How do you know where to start on building your keyword list? It requires a little thought, and a fair amount of research using tools which are readily available to help you both grow and refine your list of keywords.
Brainstorm
Think about the words you would use to describe your business, and about the questions or needs of your customers that it fulfils. How would someone ask for what you are offering? Consider synonyms and misspellings as well.
Bear in mind that people might not ask for your services in the same way you describe them. You might sell “herbal infusions” whereas most people would ask for “herbal teas”, although some might request a “tisane”.
If you are selling Tamagotchis, remember that the spelling can be tough to recall, and you might need to consider common misspellings like “tumagochi” or “tamagochi”.
Survey customers and look at your web site referral logs Look to see what terms customers are already using to find you, and add those to your list. If they are already sending you some traffic, it is worth seeing if you can increase that traffic.
Use keyword research tools
There are several tools available for keyword discovery, and some of them are free! Some tools will scan your web site and suggest keywords based on your current content. Most will let you enter keywords, and will then return suggestions based on past research data with:
Similar keywords
Common keywords used with that keyword
Common misspellings
Frequency of the keywords in search queries
Industry related keywords
Keywords that are sending traffic to your competitors
How many other sites are targeting your keywords
See Tools of the Trade for some tools that you can use.
Bearing in mind the factors that make a good keyword, you need to aim for the right mix of keywords. Low volume terms, with low levels of competition may be a good way to get traffic in the short term, but don’t be scared off by high-levels of competition in the high-value, high-volume areas. It might take longer to get there, but once there, the revenue can make it all worthwhile.
It is a good idea to create a spreadsheet of the list of keywords, where you can also store information relevant to that keyword.
This will help you to choose the right keywords to target. These lists should be created for the whole web site, and then can be broken down for each page you want to optimise.
