February 27, 2017 •tanmay
Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) is a vital aspect of getting your website, blog or online shop noticed. Not only is it important that people see what you have to offer, but it is also important that the right kind of people see what you’re offering. So how do you find the best keywords for your website?
Trending Topics
Popular topics and trends are worth keeping an eye on. If something is ‘trending’ online, then millions of people will be searching for words related to that topic, and if you can incorporate these popular search terms into your blogs and articles, then you can harness some of this popularity for yourself. Sometimes it can be difficult to alter the topics to fit in with your niche, but if you can, it’s definitely worth it to boost your traffic. You can keep an eye on trending keywords by using Google Trends, checking the trending topics on Twitter and Facebook or downloading a trend-watching app.
Long-Tail Keywords
General keywords that are related to your niche are great, but long-tail keywords are even better! A long-tail keyword is a phrase that usually consists of 3 – 5 words (but can contain more). These keywords may seem overly specific, but they are especially useful, as these longer phrases signify that the searcher is close to the purchase stage in the buying cycle. Therefore, you are attracting customers or readers that are definitely interested in what you have to offer. The Google Keyword Tool is particularly useful in finding what long-tail keywords are most suitable for your brand.
Analytics
With analytic tools like Google Analytics, you can track exactly what works and what doesn’t work in your keyword strategy, and by keeping an eye on these stats you can start to build up an idea of how your customers or readers search for your products or services. By looking at the search traffic that each page of your website gets, you can see which keywords attract the most traffic, and make a note to use them more often.
Keep an Eye on your Competition
Selecting the most appropriate keywords for your website can boost your traffic, but checking what competition these keywords have will really give you an insight into what words you should be using. Keywords that have very little competition will allow your pages to show up higher in search results with very little work, whilst extremely competitive keywords will require a lot of graft. To see how competitive your keywords are, you can either use a paid keyword research tool, or follow a few basic steps to check the PageRank value of your pages.
Latent Semantic Indexing
Search engines are getting smarter every day, so for example, if a page mentions sports, then the search engine will also expect to see information about types of sport, team names, fixtures and results. Therefore, the more semantic words that are found, the more relevant and trustworthy the website is assumed to be. This is where Latent Semantic Indexing (or LSI) comes in. The more words and phrases that you can use that are related to what your website is about, then the more authoritative search engines will assume you are. Using the Google Keyword Tool with the ‘Broad Match; box ticked will allow you to see what similar words you could be using.
Location, Location, Location
It’s no secret that there are billions of websites out there, and your little website has to compete with all of them in order to show the people that care about your product or service your website. A great way to help you climb up the search results, and target your specific audience is to add a country, region, city or town to your keywords so that you can target people who are local to your business. Of course, this tip works best for businesses that have a physical location.
From LSI, to long-tail keywords, these tips and tricks will help you to boost your website’s performance when it comes to search results, but as with all types of SEO, keeping an eye on your analytics and what works for your website specifically is what’s key to finding the right keywords for you.
For more information or to see how The Bright Click can help improve your online presence please contact us today on: 0843 383 2732.