Find the essential words & phrases to add to metadata & text on your webpage to boost website ranking with search engines
There’s no getting around it. Keyword research is a vitally important aspect of your search engine optimization campaign. If your site is targeting the wrong keywords, the search engines and your customers may never find you, resulting in lost dollars and meaningless rankings. By targeting the wrong keywords, you not only put valuable advertising dollars at risk, you are also throwing away all the time and energy you put into getting your site to rank for those terms to begin with. If you want to stay competitive, you can’t afford to do that.
You have to make the keyword relevant to connect your audience with your products in the most effective way and this challenge multiplies when you expand into multiple languages. Think of keywords as questions being asked by a user. You’re engaging the user by drawing them in to your site. Be honest – do you have the answer to their question? Remember the quality of their experience can affect your brand positively…..and negatively! Think about what you are actually selling and don’t expand your keywords so much that they don’t relate to your content. For instance if you sell bath tubs, don’t be tempted to bid on keywords for shower equipment just because they do the same thing.
Follow these four essential keyword research steps:
1. Root Word/Concept
Drill down to the core topic or subject of your website and find the root keyword or phrase, for example “travel”. This includes thinking of phrases that are broad and targeted, buying and research-oriented, and single and multi-word.
2. Synonyms
Then work on all the words & phrases that are similar to your root word or phrase. This will expand your list of keywords to put in the title, description & keyword tags, as well as the main text on your webpage.
3. Colloquialisms
Add any colloquial words or slang that potential customers may use in search engines.
4. Qualify with Modifiers
These are words that you can use with your keywords to make phrases that customers make be searching for. This will help you to spot elements of meaning in the keywords that you are using, for example your keyword phrases may include: quality elements (compare, best), price adjectives, product adjectives, product names/types, manufacturer/brand names, words that indicates intended use (for him, back to school), intended action (buy, book) or a location/place name. If you can see the typical structure of meaning in your keywords, it becomes easier to think up more variations.
Now that you have your list of words & phrases from your keyword research, you need to study them & ask yourself if your keywords bring you….
- The right volume of Customers?
- Customers looking for your products?
- Customers ready to buy?
- Customers your competitors haven’t tapped?
- The opportunity to present your Unique Selling points directly against competitors?
Analysis around user intent on generic keywords from your keyword research is key to understanding the users’ request. Some keywords have multiple options as to precisely what the user is asking:
When translating and localizing campaigns, keyword analysis becomes more complex and user intent will vary per market. Using qualified local search marketers is the best option, but if you are using translation tools start simple! Translate basic concepts or nouns first and then use keyword research tools to expand and find variations. If translating nouns, try using the plural as you are most likely to get the meaning which corresponds most closely to the search user’s usage.
If you bear these SEO keywords research concepts in mind when setting out on your pay-per-click journey you’ll create a much better experience for the user, put your ad in front of customers actually looking for your products and services more often, which will enhance your brand. You’ll also save money because eradicating those wasted impressions and clicks will result in higher click-through rates for your keyword/ad combinations and better ROI.
