Updated: May 15, 2024 By: Dessign Team
Keyword optimization is crucial in SEO and important in improving search engine rankings.
Choosing incorrect keywords can prevent you from ranking for the most important terms related to your business. This can result in targeting the wrong audience and ultimately causing higher costs without any corresponding profits.
So, a large part of SEO depends on finding the right keywords and optimizing your blog content based on those keywords. Surprisingly, many SEO experts consider this the most difficult part of search engine optimization.
This article provides tips for identifying the right SEO keywords to improve your site's content.
1. Add to the list of topics
Before you delve into research and keyword selection, you must identify a specific topic. What subject will your writing focus on?
Also, the scope of your explanation should not be too general. It is important to provide detailed and specific information. For example, you should decide:
- What is the main topic?
- What are some of the specific topics that you would include in the discussion?
- Who is it for?
- The benefits that readers will get from this.
2. Brainstorming Keywords
After choosing and confirming the topic for your blog post, the next step is to come up with a variety of keywords through brainstorming.
This step is crucial but often overlooked by many SEO professionals.
Before using any keyword research tool, it is advisable to put yourself in the shoes of the user. Create your list of keywords that you think the average person would use to search for the same topic.
Write down a few key phrases that you think are suitable for this. It is best if these phrases are of different lengths, ranging from 2 to 6 words.
3. Research Keywords With a Keyword Tool
At this point, you can begin conducting keyword research using a keyword tool like https://ninjareports.com/keyword-rank-checker/ which is sufficient for this purpose.
In this step, you should paste all the keywords you came up with earlier. The goal is to see if your target audience is searching using these keywords. Using a mix of short and long keywords can help you find a good balance.
4. Filter Keywords
The Google Keyword Planner tool provides information on the search volume and competition levels for each keyword you enter. It also gives suggestions for related keywords.
To start, write down popular keywords that are often searched for. Then look through the list of related keywords to find additional terms that you can include in your article. Some of these related keywords are often used as sub-topics or sub-headings within a blog post.
5. Prioritize Long-Tail Keywords
In the world of SEO and content marketing, it is better to avoid choosing highly competitive head keywords with a large search volume when conducting keyword research. Achieving a high ranking on Google's first page for such keywords is now extremely difficult.
However, using long tail keywords gives you a chance to easily rank high on the first pages of Google.
If you don't know, title keywords are single-word keyword phrases like “business” that are typically too broad to achieve a high conversion rate. It is extremely difficult to rank well for a keyword like “business.” Conversely, long-tail keywords, which typically consist of three or more words, such as “online marketing business in Chicago,” are more specific and can lead to higher conversion rates.
It is more profitable to appear on the first page of Google for a specific, less popular keyword that receives 2,000 searches per month than to be on the 20th page for a more general keyword with 100,000 searches per month.
Long-tail keywords are highly effective at indicating a user's intention to make a purchase, resulting in a high conversion rate.
The growing use of mobile devices and voice search has made long-tail keywords increasingly important.
Currently, more than half of people use mobile devices to surf the Internet and search for information. Many of these users choose voice search, which typically involves more natural and longer sentences compared to searches done on desktop computers.
In conclusion, long-tail keywords give you many benefits:
- Increased likelihood of appearing on the top page of Google's search results.
- Higher chance of conversion
- More targeted traffic
- More mobile traffic
6. Research LSI keywords
Choosing a keyword is not enough; It is important to include related LSI keywords to provide additional context and depth to the blog post. LSI keywords, also known as hidden semantic keywords, help search engines understand the main topic of a blog post.
7. Identify what you're missing
Sometimes it can be difficult to determine the most effective keywords to optimize for. In such situations, it is wise to study the strategies used by your competitors.
Conclusion:
Identifying the right keyword phrases is the beginning of content marketing and search engine optimization.
Once you have identified a few effective keywords, be sure to include them in your web pages and tailor them to improve their visibility to search engines. Here are some tips to help:
- Make sure your main keyword is included in the title of the web page.
- The main keyword phrase, as well as some variations of it, should be evenly distributed throughout the web page or blog post.
- Another useful practice is to include key terms in subheadings. Be sure to include your main keyword in the alt tag of at least one image.
- Make sure your meta tags (specifically the title tag and meta description) include these main keyword phrases.
