What is a Keyword?

keyword-researchKeywords are part of an informative word used in an information retrieval system to indicate the content of a document. It’s the word or phrase that someone using a search engine types in to find your website.

For example, you want to find out more information about a kitchen blender you fancy buying. Most people use Google (there are other search engines) so in the Google search box you’ll type something like “Nutriblender review” or “best kitchen blender”.  Those 2 phrases are keywords and you’ll find many websites listed in your search results.

The aim is to get your article as near the top as possible, how many pages do you scroll through, most people don’t go further than page 1.

 

Why Should You Care?

seoSearch engines (like Google) scan your website on a regular basis for new content. They then index that content so that others, who are looking for the kind of content you have, can find it easily when they do a search. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of writing the content on your page to help tell the search engines what your site is all about and how they should index it.

 

google-searchYou should care because choosing great keywords make a difference between just being indexed and ranking on page one.

As I said, the result that is displayed first on a results page gets clicked on 70% of the time. In order to become that first result, the search engines need to know that your site is about the keyword phrase that the searcher typed in.

In order to let the search engines know what your site is about, you have to know how people are searching for your content and then include those keyword phrases in your content.

 

How to Search

One way to search for keywords is to use Google Instant. What is Google Instant? Google Instant is a search enhancement that shows results as you type.

google-search-alphabet-soupYou can use Google instant to perform a search called alphabet soup.

I start typing best internet…then if I type ‘m’ these are the results >>>>

If I were to type ‘n’ instead then the Google instant would show ‘news’ just below the search bar. Google Instant starts giving suggestions and typically will show the most popular searches first.

Then you can take your keyword from Google and enter it into a keyword tool.

There are a few different keyword tools out there, both paid and free.

Free Keyword Tools

There are a ton of resources out there on how to effectively use these free tools so I won’t delve into them here.

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Tool

Ubersuggest – There’s a great tutorial here on how to use it

Keywordini

Paid Keyword Tools

Keyword Optimizer Pro 

Serpstat

Word Stream

The list is quite long. Personally I feel Serpstat is the best tool. Next in line would be the Keyword Tool found at Wealthy Affiliate that is included in your membership (which is worth every penny). I’ll add one more to my favorites which is Keyword Optimizer Pro.

I’m going to use Jaaxy for this example.  I won’t break down the columns here since I did a complete breakdown in my Jaaxy review. I’m going to use the phrase: best internet modem.

Jaaxy Keyword search results

 

I get 30 targeted search results. Choose from these results keywords which are relevant to your niche. Now you have something to build on.

The third column is the competition and below 200 is ideal. First column is the monthly searches and the second column is the estimated monthly traffic for websites utilizing those keywords. The green means great!

So, looking at these results, I would go with best internet modems – third item down.

Long Tailed Keywords

A long tailed keyword is one way to beat your competitors. These are phrases which are very very specific to the item you are promoting. The longer (and more specific) the search terms are, the easier it is to get a high rank for that term.  Although the long tailed keyword won’t be used as much, the traffic is highly targeted. When a consumer uses a specific search phrase, generally they are looking for exactly what they intend to purchase.

It is much easier to achieve a high rank for long tail keywords than for more common keywords.

long tailed Keyword research

 

So now you should have a better understanding about keywords and the importance of keyword research. If you need further help with this please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us.

 

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