SEO 101 – #2 – On-Page SEO – Keywords
This video will take you through the keyword selection process so that you have some keywords to start using on your sites web pages.
Transcript of Video
When you first begin your own site optimization, the very first task that needs to be accomplished is locating those words and phrases that your potential customers are using. It’s these words and phrases that will be used on each individual web page within your entire website.
These are called “Keywords”. And keywords are nothing more than the words and phrases that someone would type into a search engine such as Google in order to locate more information or to purchase a product.
In SEO, you’ll often hear the term “keywords” and “keyphrases” used. The only difference between the two is that a keyword is one word whereas a keyword phrase consists of two or more words. In SEO however, they’re often used interchangeably. So for example, “cookie” would be a keyword because it only consists of one word whereas “chocolate chip cookie dough” would be a keyword phrase because it consists of two or more keywords.
The right keywords used on your site will allow you to get the qualified targeted traffic that you’re after instead of just generalized website traffic. Targeted traffic are those site visitors that find your site in a search engine and subsequently visit your site with an intention. Whether that intention be purchasing a product, calling you for more information or finding out where your business is located so that they can pay you a visit.
It’s important to note that each web page within your entire website will be listed or ranked, or in other words, listed in the search engines on its own accord. Each web page on your site will have its own keyword that it’s optimized for. This allows the search engines to understand what that web page is about and allows them to rank your page accordingly when it’s then sized up against your competitors.
For example, if you had a web page that was optimized for “legal resources”, a search engine will look at your web page and then decide where to place it within its search results after it compares your page to that of your competitors.
Initially, the keywords you want to begin to use on your websites pages are those keywords that are considered “keyword phrases”. Search terms that contain at least three or more words within the search term. The more keywords in the phrase the better.
As an example:
Poor keyword choice: “Law Firm”.
A) Too competitive (over 56,000,000 pages competing for this term)
B) Too generic (you don’t know what about a law firm people are trying to find.)
Good keyword choice: “Louisiana criminal defense law firm”
A) Few competitors (356,000 pages competing)
B) Very specific (you know that someone using this term is looking for a criminal defense law firm in Louisiana).
Not only does a long-tail keyword phrase help you get more targeted clients, it typically less competitive and gives you a much greater chance of getting a top position in a search engine.
So, where do you start?
The first part of the keyword selection process is actually very easy and nothing more than a brainstorming session.
Within your own industry you likely have words and phrases that are commonly used. The first thing you should do is make note of what these terms are.
Because regardless of what kind of business you’re in and regardless of whether or not that business is strictly online or you also have a walk-in store someone could visit, there are specific words and phrases related to that business and this is the list that you should first start with.
While brainstorming keywords for your own site, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
First, feel free to jot down single terms or complete phrases within your initial list. As we get into some simple keyword research we’ll be able to locate those phrases that might be a good fit for your site so don’t censor yourself at this point.
Second, if your business is local, that is, if you rely on foot traffic, incorporate terms that relate to your location. The city you’re located in, any words or phrases that someone local might use to refer to that city, for example, New York is also referred to as the Big Apple, and any surrounding cities and towns as well.
Once you have an initial list, do a quick Google search on each of those terms and see what your competitors are using as keywords on their website. Add any terms that would relate to your own business to your list.
Also add in words that describe your product or service. Terms such as:
- Free
- Help
- Advice
- Research
- How To
- Etc.
Additionally, you can also grab keywords and phrases from any printed material you currently use. If for example, you have a brochure that outlines the services you provide, jot down the terms contained within the brochure.
Lastly, if you already have a website, you likely will also have access to your server logs. If you’re unsure how to access these, check with your webhosting company or the company that created your website.
Most web hosting companies provide a free analytics service which provide you with details about who is already visiting your site. One of these critical pieces of information is the keywords that people have used to locate your site already. Once you have access to these, add them to your list as well.
Simply do a search in Google for “Google free keyword tool” or visit this website address.
Once there you’ll want to pick one of the words from your list, and place it in the box at the top of the page. Next, enter in the code that Google provides for you and then finally just click “Get keyword ideas” as shown.
Google will then return to you a list of words and phrases that are actually being searched on in the search engines and that also contain the keyword or the keyword phrase you just searched on.
Remember, ideally we want to focus on the keywords that have the least amount of competition first. These will be the easiest to rank well for. A good rule of thumb is to take a look at the column entitled “Advertiser competition”. If you click on the heading at the top of this column as I have done, it will sort the list by least amount of competition to most amount of competition.
This tells us how many people are advertising on the terms we’re looking at…the less green there is in the bar underneath this column, the less competitive there’s likely to be within the search engines.
Next, work through these phrases and see which of them would fit well with my website.
Once you have your list of keywords that you’d like to use on your site, it’s now time to go over where to place those keywords on your web pages so that they’re most effective. And that’s covered in the next video.
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