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Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy
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It is essential to distinguish the technical part of SEO and the strategic one. Developing a strategy in SEO involves keyword research. The reason is obvious; when you have a website optimized for wrong keywords the result can be real a nightmare for you and your client.
As an SEO professional you will probably have some resources, an extended brief on what the website is trying to market or maybe some sessions with a representative of the organization.
If you are more than lucky, in cases of website re-launching, you may have access to the metrics of the previous online presence. This means that you will be able to make an in depth analysis of the project needs. If you don’t have access on the previous Google Analytics account you can check the Search Queries tab of Google Webmaster Tools platform in order to see the keywords that bring more traffic on the site. Last but not least make sure you check the landing pages by using the Keyword Analyzer tool. Note the keywords with high KeywordRank and select the most relative ones.
Tip: Find the search traffic sources and check which keywords are generating quality traffic.
Before starting your research, it is very important to answer the following questions:
- What is and what isn’t the product/service?
- What is my target audience?
- How would I search for this product/service?
- What is the search volume of these keywords?
- What keywords our competitors are using?
Audience
When you know from the beginning the profile of the target audience, you can be prepared to communicate effectively in the proper frequency. In case of search you must do the same: Define the target audience.
Analyze the target audience
By trying to correlate the demographical data with the product info, you will export some valuable information for your audience: Some keyword ideas, Jargon, product names, stakeholders etc.
Tip: Short surveys and focus groups are some good ideas to get the first keywords.
Create a Keyword list
The first step is to start grouping the categories of the website by themes (an excel sheet can be valuable here).
The second step is to take a paper and a pencil and write down your first thoughts. Think of what keywords would you type in to find this website and create a broad list of keywords and key phrases. This will be the main body of you keyword list. My suggestion here have a second look with clear mind few hours later. This will help you see clearly the strategy from a different viewpoint.
Use Social Media
Enrich your list with information found within the Social Media discussions.
Tip: Dive into the audience, search through social media and ask people where to find what you are looking for. This will help you create an additional keyword list.
Keyword trimming
When the second list is ready you will come up with a wide list of keywords that you must trim.
Real example: Here’s what I found in 10’ of searching on Twitter and StumbleUpon for “mobile accessories”:
- Phone accessories
- Handheld accessories
- Mobile products
- Mobile Phone and Chargers Products
- Htc accessories
- Htc phone accessories
- Mobile case covers
- Best Mobile Products for Kids
- Accessories for Mobile Products
By removing keywords that aren’t much relevant & targeted will assist on creasing the probability to success.
Finalize the Keyword list
If you are following those steps, you should now have a sheet with keywords grouped by categories. Now it’s time to use some technology. There are various keyword tools provide you with useful data such as search volume, trends, competition of each keyword and even more ideas.
I suggest the tools provided by Google: Google keywords tool and Google insights for Search. They are free and easy to use:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://www.google.com/insights/search/
Note: keyword tools are not 100% reliable so you should cross check the results with other tools or follow your instinct.
After generating your own keyword list, you can have a sneaky look on your competitors. Start by using your keywords as queries and by checking your competitors keywords on titles, description etc. Use the Keyword Battle Tool in order to find the rankings of a list of keywords for a number of domains. Then analyze their landing pages by using the Keyword Analyzer tool and see what they do in order to optimize for those terms. Try to stay focused on your business Unique Selling Proposition and avoid mentioning competitor’s brand names etc
Use the keywords wisely across the most commercial pages and avoid the internal competition effect.
26 Responses to “Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy”
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Really nice summary.
Another way I search for keywords is by going to niche networks. Forums are just amazing for this. Also “Yahoo answers” gives you a great idea what “normal” people search for.
Great advice there, especially when it comes to double checking your stats. It always helps to view search volumes with healthy suspicion!
Good call on your suggestion to step away and come back. It’s a mandatory step in editing of all types that most people squeeze out.
[...] Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy – Dimitris Zoto provides good insight into doing keyword research. [...]
Great layout of a plan for setting up a website right from the starting point. So many, even 1 pagers, lack the basics of a couple of key phrases in the title, tag, and three mentions in the body. Is that so hard to do? I should cast the first stones, cause many of my posts have very poor value in the eyes of a search engine robot. Thanks for the tips, I’ll do much better in my upcomming video posts.
Thanks for shearing such a good things.
Before optimizing the website with the keywords I suggest to check if you can rank for that keywords. My firs advice is to check the keyword/keywords on Goolge Adwords Keyword Tool External and choose the ones that have Monhly search volume between 1.000 and 5.000. Choose 1-5 of these keywords and try to optimize your blog/website for them.
I’m using only free tools for keyword research for my websites, blogs. These are: Adwords Keyword Tool External, WordTraker Free Tool, SpyFu (free), SEO3Firefox free plugin.
Really nice article . thanx for sharing.
[...] Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy | Web SEO Analytics. marketing tools 5 Tips For Building Expertise Through Blogging : Performancing [...]
Thank you for this very useful information. You see, I have not seen earnings yet. I have yet to sit down and concentrate on this aspect. I need to earn just as everyone does. More power.
Very good article, I love the idea of using Twitter as a tool for keyword research.
Thank you
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Miguel Hernández. Miguel Hernández said: RT @veroSeoCancun: Buena idea la de usar Twitter para Keyword Research http://bit.ly/9ld7A0 [...]
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really this website giving lots of knowledge to learn seo tips.. and many more
[...] article “Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy” analyses the basic steps of one of the most popular SEO [...]
[...] what is the best way to create an effective keyword list? Following up a previous article “Keyword Research: The Core of your SEO Strategy», this week we will focus on a real world example, we will discuss the actual needs and we will [...]
Thank you for sharing this information, this will help me to implement my knowledge.
I really like your article. Very easy to read and extremely useful
Thx
interesting article, thaks for the info, i follow for my web site.
[...] first 2 characteristics have been extensively covered on the articles “Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy” and “How to create an effective keyword list”, thus in this post we will focus on how to [...]
[...] wondering what is the best way to create an effective keyword list? Following up a previous article Keyword Research: The Core of your SEO Strategy, this week we will focus on a real world example, we will discuss the actual needs and we will put [...]
[...] o post original em inglês: Keyword Research: The core of your SEO Strategy Categoria: SEO, Web MarketingTags: keywords > Palavras-Chave > Pesquisa de palavras-chave > [...]
Thank you for sharing wonderful post with us, this will help me to implement my SEO skills.
Thanks, needed this post to open up the field. Will use the Social Media tip!
This material is great. A step by step procedure outlining how to proceed. I’ve book marked and printed out for future reference.