Choosing the important words and phrases to rank for is the first step in any SEO campaign. The ways that search engines use keywords may change over time but the process and importance of keyword research itself is fairly endemic to the way the internet works.

So here’s a step-by-step guide to choosing the words you want to rank for.

Back to Basics

Put very simply, search engines work by finding relevant pages to show to their users, based on whether the words typed into their search bar appear within the text on that webpage or not. If the search terms used appear on your site and Google has cached that webpage, then the chances are that your site will appear in the results.

The position any given webpage will appear in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) is determined by a multitude of other factors and metrics, foremost being the number of links to that page and the domain authority of the websites linking to them (this is in turn derived from the number of links pointing to them, and so on and so forth).

Therefore, choosing the important words and phrases to rank for is the first step in any SEO campaign. The ways that search engines use keywords may change over time but the process and importance of keyword research itself is fairly endemic to the way the internet works.

So here’s a step-by-step guide to choosing the words you want to rank for.

Make a Long List

You should be able to populate a long list of keywords fairly quickly. Brainstorm all the words that you would like your site to rank for. Include all the terms you think people may use to search for the service, product or information that your website provides.

You need to remember to avoid the use of jargon or industry terms that customers are unlikely to use themselves. A strong sense of who your target customer is and a little research to find out how much knowledge they tend to already have about what they’re looking for goes a long way.

Your competitors may also have had some bright ideas so checking their sites to tease out their keywords can add to your list.

Utilise a Keyword Research Tool

Once you have your long list get more
information about each term using a keyword research tool. The Google Keyword Planner Tool is useful but there are others that give similar data, including search volumes for each term and their conversion rates. Some tools also suggest alternatives for each term – useful to fill in any gaps you might have.

Analyse and Refine

Now it’s time to use the information you’ve collected to refine your list and pick out the most relevant and convertible keywords and phrases.

First pick out the ones that are most closely related to your site’s theme and subject. Delete the least relevant to the product or service you provide and any that don’t fit with the content on your site.

Now you need to identify the broad from the targeted keywords. Broad keywords tend to have higher search volume and plainly describe what you offer but won’t necessarily return easily convertible traffic. You need these to describe what your pages are about, but they may not be that lucrative.

Targeted keywords tend to be used by people who have a clearer idea of what they are looking for. They are often three words or longer (long-tail key-phrases) and are far more specific. Targeted keyword searches actually make up most of the variety of search terms used but represent a smaller overall volume of searches than the shorter broad keyword searches.

The real trick to maximise conversions is to identify the most relevant long-tail keywords with the highest search volume.

What Now?

You will now need to make sure your keywords are strategically placed in your content. Some of them probably already are. It’s important not to over-optimise the page by including the same keywords too frequently and you don’t want to optimise each page for more than a couple, otherwise the effect will be diluted. Perhaps most importantly of all, make sure they fit into your website content naturally, to form coherent sentences.

And finally… keep up to ****

You will need to refresh your keyword research – how frequently depends entirely on what your website is for and how quickly your industry sector changes. Remember your customers and what you can offer them may change over time, so you’ll need to keep all your keywords current and up to ****.

About The Author

Magnus Linklater is an SEO specialist and digital marketing professional at Bespoke Digital in Bristol, UK. He possesses many years of both on- and offline sales and marketing experience that we think readers will find helpful.

Please use the comment section below to ask Magnus questions, discuss this post or suggest topics you’d like him to address in a future post.