Keyword research is important for any online business. It will help your site to be found organically and it will put value on your site when visitors see your site listed under the top 10 in Google because we know that Google values sites with credible content.
How do we know that? Google Algorithms are extremely strict and if your site makes it to the top 10, you should pat yourself on your back.
In today\’s post we are going to talk about how you need to do basic keyword research to maximize your chances with Google.
1. Keyword research
You can research keywords in a variety of ways:
- You can simply Google them, which will give you a list of the top websites that use those words. Example: If your niche is dog food, then type in dog food.
- You can start with your own website and see what keywords are most commonly used. Example: Which words appear often in your text/solutions/advice or products? That could be a possible keyword.
- You can use a keyword research tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to find out more about the search terms people are using and their location. Example: Dog food in Orlando.
You can look at tools like WordStream, Ubersuggest or SEMRush to get broad insights into how people search for particular terms, such as:
- How many times a week are people searching for a given term?
- How often do they type in that term?
- What is the most popular website for that term?
- Are there any sites that have similar content as yours?
- What is the competition like for your site?
- What are other sites doing on those terms?
- How much traffic do they get per month?
- Is their content unique or generic in nature?
- Are there any competitors to your site that have similar content to yours?
- Anything else you want to know about your site’s usage of these terms from this tool?
2. Finding your niche
Many companies that are new to the online world of business have gotten very busy on the keyword research front.
In fact, I’m not sure there is a better way to spend your time than this. Especially if you are not planning to make use of paid traffic.
There are many different approaches to keyword research.
Google:
Google has a big database of keywords and when you search for one of them on Google, they will display all the relevant results in a table and show you how many people have used that same keyword in the past year (often called the Google Keyword Planner).
Bing:
Bing has its own database but it is more specialized and less widely used than Google’s so you may find it harder to find results if you don’t know Bing well.
Yandex:
Yandex’s database is designed for beginners and they have a free tool which is free to use. It will give you suggestions on long tail keywords coming from all the various important sites such as Google, Yahoo, Youtube and so forth. Here is a link for that tool: https://www.keyword.io/tool/yandex-longtail-finder
Important tip:
Do not focus on just one or two keywords at a time. Remember that focusing too narrowly on just one or two keywords will ultimately result in under-performing your site overall because only those people who were looking for clicks for those keywords will actually see that data. Create a spreadsheet and add all the keywords that you find for your specific niche. It will help you to create content for your site and even give you product ideas.
Conclusion
Keyword research is a very important step in the process of getting your business up and running. If you include keyword research right from the beginning, you will create a very important habit that will pay-off as your site is growing. The best keyword tip that I can give you:
Find the sweet spot…The keyword must have a high demand, but a low supply, meaning lots of people are looking for information on the keyword, but there are not many sites competing for the keyword. Also, make use of long-tail keywords.
Example: Your main keyword could be “healthy dog food” but you should also consider creating pages where your content is around long tail keywords like “healthy food for senior dogs”.
As you can see, it is important to plan your keywords to maximize your visibility not only on the search engines but to also provide value to your visitors by giving them what they are searching for.