There was a reason why I spoke about content in my first blog and this is because people are often tempted to keyword stuff. This is where you write your content and then randomly put your keywords in where they simply don’t fit. What I would suggest is writing about who you are what you do in depth. If you write your content well then it makes keyword selection quite easy as you’ve already written them somewhere.
Choosing keywords that relate to you
Instead of picking random words out of the air if you have your content in front of you then you can go through and find terms that appear often. These will be the main products or services you offer choose quite a lot of keywords at first as these will be narrowed down to a shortlist later.
If you have different sections to your site for instance web design, seo and brochure design then you already have some keywords. Note down these main sections and then add them to your list of words that appeared often in the content and there you go you have a list of keywords now to make sure there worth it….
Does it mean anything to the public ?
One of the main problems with keyword selection is people choosing keywords that mean a lot to them but Joe Bloggs down the street would never type it into a search engine. To avoid this there are various online resources for checking search volumes. A free one is the Google Adwords keyword tool, this is used for people to select the best Adword keywords however it can work just as well for this purpose. If you type in your keywords then it will give you the amount of local searches as well as a competition bar. Ideally you want keywords with high monthly searches and low to medium competition as this means it will be easier to rank. This will narrow down your list slightly.
Is it the right word for your market?
Another good test is if you put the keyword into Google and your competitors appear in the results this is probably the right word to use. If the results that appear have nothing to do with the product or service you provide then this probably means that the people searching this word would not be interested in looking at your site.
In Summary
I realise that this all sounds very complicated, keyword selection is often a task that we help clients with as it can all become a little confusing. It should be taken very seriously however as it can be the difference between 50 people coming to your site or 500 people.
If I were to summarise id say look through your content if you’ve written it well then this will give you a great start to your list. Check how many people search the word locally. Check that the results that appear in Google are what you were expecting. These three things should ensure a clever keyword selection. If you need any help with SEO check out our site or contact us.
The next blog will talk about how to optimise these keywords on your site so don’t miss the next installment next Monday 23rd.