How to Determine Effective Keywords for SEO

For an effective SEO strategy, determining the right keyword phrases to target on your website is key if you want to increase your visibility online.

Keywords are words and phrases that users type into a search engine to find a product, service, business, and more. As a website owner, you want to identify specific keywords that you can use on your site that will be relevant to your business and will effectively target your audience. The more strategically you place these keywords, the more likely users will land on your website.

Steps to Keyword Research

1. Determine relevant topics that describe your business and website

Start your keyword research broad. Think of overall umbrella topics that define your business and brand. Consider your values as a company and what you can provide for consumers. These overall topics can help you break down everything to more specific words later.

For example, as a digital marketing agency, some topics we would focus on for ourselves could include:

• Search engine optimization
• Pay-per-click marketing
• Blogging
• Social media

2. Break down the topics with specific keywords

Once you’ve identified the topics, find specific words or phrases that fall into those buckets. These words are important for what you want to rank for on the SERPs, or search engine results pages. By making sure you target relevant words, users who search and click on your site will be more qualified and reliable in terms of leads.

3. Research related terms

If you’ve hit a wall and can’t think of any more relevant keywords, use Google as a tool. Plug in a keyword, scroll to the bottom of the search engine page, and look at the suggestions for related searches.

These recommendations could help you recognize what keywords you should consider based on other searches.

4. Look to your competitors

If you are looking to finally outrank your competitors, search them on Google and see what they are ranking for. Determine what their keywords are and see if you can incorporate these into your content as well so you can outrank the competition.

5. Consider search volume

Once you have selected a few keywords and phrases, one last thing to look at is search volume. Search volume is the number of searches a keyword has during a month.

Typically, the higher the search volume is for a term, the more competition there will be. This means you need to increase your SEO efforts to ensure you rank over competitors. A high search volume means a lot of users are searching for your targeted words; however, to achieve success, you will need to maximize your efforts. If your search volume is too low, you risk no one searching and landing on your site.

To find the right medium, you need to target highly specific, yet low competition keywords. These are called long-tail keywords. Sometimes long-tail keywords with a low search volume end up converting better because there is less competition and searchers know exactly what they are looking for.

Where to Incorporate Keywords

Once you’ve established your final list of keywords, optimize your content with them. You can place them in:

Reach Out to Sixth City Marketing for SEO Help!

If you’re looking for efficient keyword research to help your SEO efforts thrive, contact our team today!