Part 1
Since the early days of SEO, keywords have been an important ranking factor for Google and other search engines.
Today, they remain an important part of any good SEO strategy.
However, with the rise of semantic search, the way we use keywords has changed.
In this post, we’ll take a look at what keywords are, how they’re used in SEO today, and some tips for choosing the right keywords for your website.
What are Keywords?
A keyword is a word or phrase that describes the content on your website.
For example, if you have a blog about dog training, some relevant keywords might be “dog training”, “how to train your dog”, or “dog obedience”.
When someone searches for one of these keywords on Google (or another search engine), your website may appear in the search results.
Google uses a variety of factors to decide which websites to show for each query, but keywords are still an important part of the equation.
How are Keywords Used in SEO?
There are two main ways keywords are used in SEO: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.
On-Page Optimization: This refers to all of the actions you can take on your own website to improve your ranking in the search results. For example, including relevant keywords in your content and titles is an important part of on-page optimization. Off-Page Optimization: This refers to all of the actions you can take outside of your own website to improve your ranking in the search results. For example, building links from other websites to yours is an important part of off-page optimization. While both on-page and off-page optimization are important for ranking well in the search results, we’ll be focusing mostly on on-page optimization in this post. Now that we’ve covered what keywords are and how they’re used in SEO, let’s take a look at how to choose the right keywords for your website… How to Choose the Right Keywords for Your Website The first step in choosing the right keywords is to understand your audience and what they’re looking for. Who is your target audience? What are they interested in? What questions do they have that you can answer with your content? Once you have a good understanding of your target audience, you can start brainstorming potential keyword ideas. There are a few different methods you can use to brainstorm keyword ideas… Method #1: Look at What You Already Rank For If you already have a website with some traffic coming in from organic search, chances are you already rank for some relevant keywords. To find out which keywords you already rank for: Use a tool like Google Search Console or ahrefs Site Explorer Enter your website’s URL into the tool Click “Search Traffic” Click “Search Analytics” You should now see a list of all of the queries (keywords) that you rank for along with some other useful data like click-through rate (CTR) and average position… Method #2: Use Keyword Research Tools There are also a number of great keyword research tools that can help you brainstorm new keyword ideas… Google Keyword Planner: This is a free tool from Google that allows you to enter seed keyword(s) and see related queries as well as estimated monthly searches and competition levels. ahrefs Keywords Explorer: This is my personal favorite keyword research tool (I am an affiliate). It allows you to enter seed keyword(s) and see related queries as well as estimated monthly searches and difficulty levels (how hard it would be to rank #1 for that particular query). SEMrush: This is another popular keyword research tool (I am also an affiliate). It works similarly to ahrefs but also includes some additional features like competitor analysis and traffic estimation tools. Moz Keyword Explorer: This is another popular keyword research tool that works similarly to ahrefs but also includes some additional features like SERP analysis and topic research tools. Once you have a list of potential keyword ideas, it’s time to start narrowing things down… How to Narrow Down Your List of Potential Keywords The goal here is not to get too bogged down with low volume/difficult to rank keywords (keywords that not many people are searching for and/or will be difficult/impossible to rank #1 for), so try not to spend too much time on this step – especially if you’re just starting out with SEO or don’t have much experience with it yet… First things first – remove any obviously bad keyword ideas from your list (keywords that are way too broad/vague or have extremely high competition levels). Then take a look at each remaining keyword idea and ask yourself these questions… Question #1: How many people are actually searching for this query each month? Use Google Keyword Planner or another similar tool to find out estimated monthly searches for each remaining query Question #2: How difficult will it beto rank #1for this query? Use ahrefs Ranking Difficulty Report or Moz Keyword Difficulty Toolto get an estimate Difficulty scores will range from 0 – 100%, with anything above 50% being considered difficult/competitive Heres what Ahrefs difficulty score means: https://ahrefscom/blog/how-to-choose-seo-keywords/#whatahrefsdifficultymeans 0–10%: Easy11–25%: Medium26–50%: Hard51–74%: Very Hard75%+ : Extremely Hard From here its up topersonal preferenceas towhetheryou want totargetqueerieswith higher monthly searchesandlower difficulty scoresor lower monthly searche sand higher difficulty scores I usually like totargeta mixof bothbut its ultimatelyup toyouand whatyourgoalsare Withthat being said lets move ontothe next step Ineedtotargetthis setof key phraseswhich has avolume between 1000to 10000searches per monthand adifficulty under 40% The next stepis touse these volumeand difficulty scoresto helpyou come upwith astraightforward yesorno questionforeachremaining key phraseonyourlistIf Imlikelytoraise my rankingsfor thistermshouldI focuson it?For our purposesweregoing touse aminimumsearchvolumeof 1000per monthanda maximum difficultyof 40% Hereswhati shouldhaveleftonmylistafterapplyingthesefilters Thesearemostlikely goingto bethe mostvaluablekey phrases forme totarget So Illprioritizeoptimizingmy site fortheseterms beforelookingintoany others Byfocusingon key phraseswithhigh monthly searche sAND lowdifficulty levelsyoucan quicklystart seeingimprovementsinyourorganic trafficandsubsequentlyincrease thenumberof leadsandsalescomingfromyourwebsite Tip#2Keep YourKeyword List ReasonableThe mistakemanypeople makewhen starting outwithSEOis tryingtotargettoo manykeyphrasesat once Itsnotuncommonforpeopletotryandtargetseveralhundredkeyphrases atthe same timewhen startingoutwhichjustisnt practicalAnd honestlyits justnotnecessary Youdont needtotargetthathighof avolumeof key phrasesright awayin ordertoseesome meaningfulresults Instead startbyfocusingon afewdozen highvolumeAND lowdifficulty key phrasesand gofromthere Onceyouve seensome successwiththose termsyoucan always addmore later Thebottomlineis dont tryandboilthe ocean WhenstartingoutwithSEOjustfocusonasingle galloninstead And lastlyheresaquicktipifyourenot surewhetherornottotarget aparticular key phraseaskyourselfCan Isee myselfgettingat leastone leadorsalefromrankingfor thisterm?If notthen its probablynot worthwastingyour timeoptimizingforyet Tip 3Use LongTailKeyphrasesLongtailkeyphrasesare simplylonger morespecific versionsof shorter morebroad terms Inother wordslongtail keyphrasesusuallyget lesssearche sper monthbutthey tendtohavemuchlower competitionlevels whorelevant And sincewerefocusingon key phraseswithahigh numberof monthly searche sand lowdifficulty levels longtail keyphrasesshouldbetopof mind Whenchoosinglongtail keyphrasestrytocomeupwithterms peoplewould actuallysearchfor Whenindoubtjusttypeinthe termyousearchinto googletoseeif any relevantresults pop up If therearenone then chancesare nobodyelseissearchingfortheseterm either Which meansyourewastingyourtime And lastlyheresanotherquicktipifyourenot surewhetherornottotarget aparticular longtail keyphraseaskyourselfCan Isee myselfgettingat leastone leadorsalefromrankingfor thisterm?If notthen its probablynot worthwastingyour timeoptimizingforyet Tip 4Usea Mixof BroadandSpecific TermsBroadtermsaretheshorter moregeneralized versionsoft he longer morespecific longtailterms Inother wordsbroadterms usuallyget moresearchesper monthbutthey tendtocome withhigher competitionlevels whorelevant Keepinmindthat general termsget lessspecific trafficBut ifsomeoneis interestedinsomethingSpecific chancesaretheyll eventuallysearchforthe Broad termaswell Soits alwaysbesttocoverboth Whenchoosingbroadtermsagaintrytocomeup withtermsthatpeopleactuallywouldsearchfor And lastlyheresanotherquicktipifyourenot surewhetherornottotarget aparticular broadtermask yourselfCan Isee myself gettingat leastone leadorsale fromrankingfor this term Ifnot then its probablynot worth wastingyourtime optimizingforyet Conclusion Choosingthe rightkeywordsfortoyourwebsiteisnt rocket scienceBut therearedefinitely
