Keyword research advice
How to find and use the right keywords or phrases
What are keywords and phrase
The text people type into search engines is compared to the actual text in your website. If those keywords or phrases are in your site then Google will deliver your link as a result. Assuming there are not other sites it considers more appropriate.
Google classifies site into different market areas, e.g. it won't return a car site if you are looking for car stamps, but the words must be in each site somewhere.
The value of keywords
Keywords have real value. Whether you generate traffic and sales from the search engines or pay for click through (PPC) using adwords campaigns.
Of course any thing with value becomes very competitive and will require lots of time, knowledge and research to get the best deal.
Choosing the best keywords
Your website content should contain the keywords other people type into the search engines rather than just what you want to write. Fortunately you don't need to guess which words are typed in, there are several services that record and analyse these words on a daily basis.
Try the following sites to see the words they recommend compared to what you expect people would type in.
Expanding your keyword list
You should not concentrate on one or two main keywords e.g. insurance or mortgages. These will be highly sought after and are not particularly specific. Expand you list by experimenting with 'car insurance' or even 'small car insurance'. More specific phrases are likely to generate greater sales and the more keyword phrases you include the more traffic you will generate from the search engines. Often a number of 'long tail keywords' will generate far more traffic that one or two high level terms.
Use the keyword discovery sites to find the best phrases either Keyword Discovery
Where to place your keywords
Obviously the home page is the most important on your site and the larger, title text at the top of the screen (and meta title) are the most important on that page. As your eyes move down the page then the headings and then text become less important. Forget trying to trick Google with text size and colour. It's how you read it is how important it is.
Each page can probably only be optimized for one or two key phrases so make sure they appear in the title and main heading etc. Up to 5 times on a page as a guide but any more and you could get penalised. Concentrate on making the page readable and you should be OK. Spamming is not.
Each page of your site can focus on a different category so consider which keywords are appropriate for that section of the site. Think in terms of primary and secondary keyword phrases on the home page with a third phrase on the secondary pages.
Planning the website content
Usually keyword placement happens after the site is finished in an effort to improve its position. This is less than ideal and can lead to a site that is difficult to read.
Ideally a team of people should site down before anything is written and brainstorm the best keywords for each page. In practice the whole process takes place continuously as you compare and research your positions against other sites. You'd be silly to optimise for 'car insurance' if you are not a major player in that field. Any good optimiser can advise on what is achievable and if they make big claims without proof then run a mile.
Look for new keyword opportunities
Keyword research often shows up related keywords that are not well served by other sites. 'How to …' and '… help' are sometimes looked for but not satisfied. It may be that you can create a complete site just to supply the information they are looking for and that will generate visitors who are interested in the things you are trying to sell.
Experiment with Adwords
Google adwords is a pay per click PPC advertising system where you bid on each keyword or phrase. You can use this to experiment and find the best keywords. Start with a lot of different phrases to see which ones generate the most business. This may help you identify the best keywords more quickly and therefore make sure you get the quickest return on your investment.
How long will it take to get to the top
Google has a time delay of up to 9 months. This is not universal and be influenced but it also tends to enter new sites quite high and then send them to a mysterious nowhere land until they mature.
It scans busy sites regularly to see what's change but major re-valuations may only occur a few times a year.
Professional research and analysis
SEO and keyword analysis for competitive terms is very competitive. It can take a lot of time and effort before you get a good understanding of how well your site works in comparison with others and what factors are having the most effect.
Please contact us if you would like to know more about the services we offer to help.