For many webmasters and search engine marketers, keyword selection is all about choosing relevant keywords that have little competition and decent search demand. The truth is that selecting the right keywords to optimize your website is definitely more than that.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind and I hope this article will help inspire you to identify profitable keywords for your online business.
1. Decent Search Demand
Yes, most people are right about this. This should be the first consideration before you start optimizing your website for any keyword. You need to make sure that people are already searching for what you are going to optimize. Don’t waste time on keywords that have low search volume. It is like opening a large shopping center in the middle of the desert. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that there will be small buyers.
2. Evaluate the level of competition
The fundamental concept of this is that if you want to fight someone, make sure you pick one that you “think” you can beat. Can you imagine fighting and winning a mixed martial arts heavyweight champion? If not, you better know the rules, learn how to be smart and how to pick the right fight or you will lose each and every one.
3. Keyword Research vs. Keyword Buying
To keep things simple, keywords can be broadly categorized under Research or Buy.
This represents the searchers intent when they enter that specific keyword into the search engine. For example, someone intending to purchase a gaming laptop online would go through a purchase funnel like this. Initially I would search using keywords like “gaming laptop brands”, “recommended gaming laptops” after which when I am done researching and ready to buy in about 1 week I would search using keywords like “gaming” . lowest price laptop”, “buy xxx model gaming laptop online”.
It’s common sense, and you’ve probably been through the same process. Surprisingly, this is the part that 90% of SEO marketers don’t know about. The money is in the buy keyword list. If you want to be successful, you need to optimize your website for buying keywords. Consider keywords like review, buy, order, discount, color, and deals.
4. Searches are unique: stop using that keyword search tool for today
Do you know that approximately 25% of Google searches each day are new or have not been searched in the last 30 days? Also, 90% of webmasters use the same keyword research tools and get the same keyword list. That is, many people will try to rank for the same keywords. It’s time to put your knowledge of your industry to work. Are your potential customers using any jargon or terms for a particular item?
A quick tip for finding unique keywords would be to check the search log on your website. This would tell you exactly what your target audience is looking for.
5. Long tail keywords – Don’t forget about them
Google has reported that approximately 54% of their search queries are longer than 3 words. On top of that, according to data from Hitwise, long-tail keywords falling outside the top 10,000 keywords were reported to have accounted for 70% of search traffic.
It’s important to note that while long-tail keyword phrases tend to drive less traffic, when done correctly, combined traffic can add up and make a difference. In my personal experience, these searches also tend to be of better quality because they tend to be more specific.
In conclusion
Choosing and selecting the right set of keywords to optimize for is more than running your keywords through keyword research tools. It also requires you to use common sense and knowledge of your industry. If you can keep the above five points in mind, your chances of success are sure to be higher than the average SEO marketers who rely solely on keyword research tools.
