Keywords and You

16th October 2018

Keywords and You

SEO

“Keywords” are both a throwback to the wild days of the internet, where basically stuffing your website with search terms would yield results and an integral part of a modern business’s overall SEO strategy. We examine the key considerations and tools you should utilise in your pursuit of clicks and conversions.

It is true that the original functions of keywords within your site were simple but today their implementation is much more complex. With the introduction of Rank Brain AI, among other elements, Google’s Search algorithm is now at a point of its evolution where its evaluation of user intent is extremely sophisticated. The best advice to you as the business owner is that you should consider several factors and ultimately seek to achieve the goal of clarifying to Google exactly what your business is and its relevancy in SERP . Here are the key points for you to consider on your road to the perfect keyword strategy:

1. Short and Long Tail

   Short tail keywords are those with more generalised targets and thus greater search volume. Long tail are more specific, longer terms with less search volume which, interestingly have a greater impact on voice search. While your initial strategy will obviously focus on the short tail keywords, as these are the broad terms which cover the spectrum of your business, you should research the terminology prevalent within long tail searches relevant to you. These more specific searches mark a high intent from the user and can be considered “conversion-ready” customers.

2. Research

   Try to delve into the mindset of your potential clients. Break the process down and examine how a user might approach the decision to select your company over another. Brainstorm the three key points on the path to conversion: 1. Awareness Stages (Inspiration – pain points). 2. Consideration Stages (research-comparison) and 3. Decision Stages (purchase-advocacy).

3. Search!

   Familiarise yourself with every SERP you are featured on. Understand why these terminologies are finding you and review what Google thinks is most relevant to your business. See how this cross-references with your researched terms and take this opportunity to discover what your competitors out-rank you for. Review the “Related Searches” section on your SERP page and this may provide inspiration and guidance.

4. Analyse the Competition

   You should try to examine the keyword structures present within your competitors websites. Why have they chosen to rank for specified terms and is it working for them? Your research should have provided you with the key terms you are interested in, now dig around on the sites which have achieved good results for these terms. Pay close attention to URLs, header hierarchy, meta titles and descriptions.

5. PPC Keywords

   At this point you will have noted which businesses are targeting your terms through PPC. What keyword terms are your competition bidding on and why? Your adwords campaign should work side-by side with your keyword strategy so decide what you need to spend money on and what you can achieve organically.

6. What Rank Have I Already Achieved?

   You can check to see if you are ranking well for certain terms which users have identified or if you are perhaps stuck at the top of page 2 for some phrases but just need a little extra care to move up. By visiting your Google Search Console account you can check Search Traffic > Search Analytics, filter by queries and click “click/impressions/CTR/Position”. Use dates and filter by Position to view the positioning and terminology.

7. Metrics

   Utilise the tools available to help generate quality metrics by visiting https://adwords.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner. From here you can examine:

   • Search Volume: Utilise this alongside “Google Trends” for greater search visibility to a bigger audience.
   • Keyword Difficulty: Strike a balance between the competition for a keyword and its value to your business.
   • Clicks: These can be skewed by map listings and organic, rich snippets so be cautious and smart.

Overall you should be able to construct a structured keyword strategy, relevant to your business. Your web developer can help advise how to best implement this strategy within the syntax of your site but you as content editor can perform the bulk of the operation from your own desk. Take your time, try to think like the client and turn clicks into conversions.