Keywords are the basis of a successful SEO campaign. But, how do you decide what keywords to use?
One of the first things to remember when beginning search engine optimization is that you need to be realistic. There is a lot of competition to obtain the top ranking spots, especially for the very generic words. It is important to find out what your niche is and expand from there. You cannot be everything to everyone.
The Internet is ever evolving, so you do not want to be too specific or fixate on one keyword. Your keyword list should be constantly evolving.
Just like the other parts of your business strategy, SEO is about understanding your customer. Understanding how they search for your product and how they view your brand.
There is already a lot of information available regarding how customers are finding your website, just pull the Google Analytics “traffic generating” keyword list. This list will show what searches are already bringing the most traffic to your site. If you have an internal search, pull the keywords logs from there as well. After reviewing both lists, choose the less competitive (or less generic) keywords for your SEO campaign. Above all, remember that SEO is constantly evolving.
Once a quarter it is important to re-evaluate your campaign to:
- Remove poor performing keywords
- Identify opportunities and areas of growth
- Modify your SEO strategy for the upcoming quarter
As your campaign progresses, analyzing which keywords have the highest conversion rate. If your goal is to get people to your site and have them submit a “Contact Us” form, see which keywords are achieving this goal and which ones are not. If your keyword list is not achieving your goals, consider revising the direction. If your list is meeting your goals, you will still want to look for available opportunities for growth and monitor how the keyword results are changing. Because, one quarter you may hold the top spot, but by the next quarter you may not.
Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net