Finding Keywords
Knowing & understanding that SEO is an ongoing task that enables your business to be found in web searches is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many intricate and technical details that need to be considered when pushing forward with optimizing your website. Read on for more information on intelligently finding keywords that are relevant to your website and how to figure out if your campaign is actually effective!
How do I decide which keywords to focus on?
Start simple – go to Google & enter your business to see what pops up on page 1 search results, that will give you an idea of what they think are the most relevant search results. Vary your search based on what your target audience (the people you serve) might enter into a search & the various results that you get will give you an idea of where to start. There are other tools that those of us in the SEO field can use to provide much more specific data such as this:
This sort of tool (this one is AHREFS) provides an SEO (yes, referring to someone who works in SEO as “an SEO” is correct) with the relevant data to know which search terms are receiving the most attention, how difficult it is to rank for the term, and what related terms that could be candidates exist. This sort of tool is where the magic happens in SEO, providing insight into a website’s techincal SEO & providing immediate notes on a site audit to identify issues that need to be addressed, what a site’s top pages are, and so forth. AHREFS, in particular, has compiled so much data over the years that they have extensive server farms to house their data & the volume & quality of their data makes it much easier when finding keywords for clients.
A good SEO is worth their weight in gold for your website.
Having access to the data is one thing but being able to know how to use the data is something that comes with time & experience – oh and did we mention that search algorithms are updated constantly, making it so that we always need to be on our A game?
How do I know what effect my SEO campaign is having?
You need to be able to measure your traffic over time using tools such as Google Analytics and perhaps invest in an SEO rank tracking service as well – your SEO specialist should be able to provide you with this if you’re working with one. Realize that SEO is an exercise in patience & it takes a minimum of 1-3 months to see any results at all & that’s assuming that the campaign is focusing on low-competition keywords. If you’re focusing on higher-competition phrases, it may take years before your work begins to deliver the payoff but if you’re committed & patient, you’ll definitely get there because there is no substitute for a driven will!
What’s next?
Part 3, the last part in this series, will address how you can improve your rankings, and a recommended plan of attack for your SEO!
Search Engine Optimization: On-Page,Technical SEO, Part 3
(if you missed part one, click here)