7 TIPS ON HOW TO PICK YOUR SEO KEYWORDS WITH CONFIDENCE

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 How To Choose The Right Keywords




You probably already know that keywords are important for SEO but what do we actually mean when we talk about SEO keywords? How can you find the right keywords for your website and more importantly, how to use those keywords in your content and maximize your SEO?

Picking the right keywords and keyword phrases is one of the most important steps in successful search engine optimization (SEO). Increasing traffic to your site is a priority, but attracting the right audience is a necessity. Choosing the most effective keywords to connect with your target market can take time and research, but the results will be worth it.

Here is how you can choose the right keywords for your content in 7 easy steps.

#1. Analyze search Intent

Search intent helps identify what keywords to select based on why people search. They're divided into three categories:

  • Navigational - The user wants to find another web page
  • Informational - Researching a topic
  • Commercial - Desire to make a purchase
To choose the right keywords with the best results you need to think like a customer. Searches like buy 'low-cost water heater' are very different from water heater broken queries. One is a commercial key phrase and the other is informational. Ideally, you should offer content on all three areas with the goal of completing your call-to-action (CTA). Your keywords will target different landing pages or web pages dedicated to those search phrases. In the case of informational searches, you should provide some unique content related to that phrase. Blog articles are excellent for this type of search and can contain several keyphrases. Naturally, you need to link that content to your product pages or contact forms. Commercial or transitional intents are the easiest to focus on but are also highly competitive. That's why hiring an SEO agency to write your copy can help match your keywords when Google crawls your site.

#2. Decide for which search terms you want to be known for

Your first step is to spend some time thinking about the following:

  • For which search terms do you want to be known for online
  • What words or search phrases people might use in the search engines to find you.
  • Which words best describe your products or services.
  • Words describe your niche better
The outcome of the above exercise should be a list of phrases that we'll use to turn into a keyword list in the next step.

#3. Create a keyword list




To create a keyword list, you need to take the list created above and associate it with the actual keywords people type in the search box ie SEO keywords. To do that we need the help of keyword research tools. There are a lot of tools you can use but my recommended tool is the Google Keyword Planner which is free.

The Google keyword planner is part of Google Ads and its offered by Google for free for the Google Ads customers. Nevertheless, it's a great keyword research tool and you can use it to find your SEO keywords. 

#4. Analyze the level of competition

When doing keyword research, it's important to pay attention to the competition for your target keyword phrase. The simplest way to analyze the competition for a given keyword is to put your keyword into Google or another search engine and see what comes up. The first thing to look for is ads. In Google, these are marked with either the "AD" tag or the "Sponsored" tag. Google will always display paid-for ads above other results, so it's worth assessing the ad landscape before you commit to creating a big piece of content. The second thing to look at is the websites that are organically appearing on the first page of Google for your target keyword. Is this page dominated by brands with enormous marketing budgets? If so, it's unlikely you'll take the top spot with your very first blog post. Lastly, take a look at the results themselves. Is the content beatable? In other words, can you create content that the average searcher will find more useful than the content currently in the top spot? Weak content is often short, poorly formatted and lacking in key details. You can claim the top positions by meeting the searcher's needs more thoroughly than the competition.

#5. Refine your keywords with LSI

Latent Sematic Indexing or LSI is a convoluted way of saying word association. Google uses LSI to produce related results through context. In other words, the search engine tries to understand what you mean through your keywords. To demonstrate this, go to Google and start to type a phrase. The autocomplete menu displays results based on your keywords. But as you keep typing, those phrases will change. That's because Google identifies other possibilities as your long-tail search grows. Related searches will display at the bottom of the screen too. Use these semantic or associated words to refine your keywords list. Google has identified them as important to use them to your advantage.

#6. Understand the long tail keyword

Long tail keywords are a combination of three or more words or phrases. While long tail keywords tend to boast lower search volumes, they generally attract more relevant traffic, are typically less competitive, and easier to rank well on. Choose long tail keywords that help to specify your product or service.

#7. Link with the landing page

You need to optimize your landing pages to link with your keyword selection otherwise they won't work. Landing pages display targeted content, so it is important you optimize them to link with your keyword selection. Your chosen keywords will fit in the page title, headings and alt image tags. Everything about these should relate to the keywords you want to rank for. Keep your landing page in mind when choosing keywords. Not only will Google rank your page higher, but an optimized landing page will act as the starting point for sale or lead.
The best way to keep your ideas organized is via a simple content schedule. A content schedule is useful for two main reasons;
  1. A content schedule keeps you organized throughout a long campaign.
  2. A content schedule can stop you from targeting the same keyword on two different pages on your website.
It is also important to remember that websites don't rank, webpages do. In general, it's a good idea to make sure that your web pages each target different keywords. Usually, you'll want your products and services pages to target keywords with a lot of commercial intent. Your blog posts, on the other hand, can target informational keywords. Try to avoid targeting the same keyword in two or more different places on your website.

Final thoughts...




Picking up the right keywords for your website is important. When choosing keywords, try to think outside the box and consider all possible search phrases people might use in search engines to find your products.

Add those keywords in a spreadsheet and take advantage of the dat provided by the different keyword tools, to expand your list as much as possible.

Group your keywords into two categories. First are the keywords to use in your homepage and main website pages and second the keywords to use in your blog.

With these tips be sure to get results. Your comments and suggestions are also welcomed.


Learn more about digital marketing


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Written by: Antony Moturi


DJ | Social Media Specialist | Online Marketer | Content Creator | Sound Engineer


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