SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Google notoriously keeps marketers on their toes with constant algorithm updates, but there is one steadfast strategy to optimize a website to increase traffic: keyword research.
First: What is a Keyword!?
Let’s begin by illuminating what a keyword even is! Keywords are otherwise known as “search queries,” and they are the words and phrases that people use to search on search engines. On a website, keywords should be intentionally incorporated into the content to signal to search engines what the website content is all about. If you do a good job incorporating keywords, the search engines will reward with a higher ranking on their results pages.
There are different types of keywords you can use:
Short tail keywords
These are the search terms that are just that – short. Usually they contain only one or two words. Short tail keywords (also known as head terms) often have a high search volume and are highly competitive, and they come with a lower conversion rate. Since short tail keywords are significantly competitive, it takes a LOT of effort and time before a site can rank for these keywords. Examples include: website design, website rebuild, web designer. (See how broad? You can understand why they’re so competitive!)
Medium tail keywords
These search terms typically have two or three words and are more specific than short tail keywords. They are less competitive compared to head terms and can generate a decent amount of traffic to your site, but it’s not easy to rank for medium keywords. You will need high quality content and backlinks (another imperative SEO strategy). Examples include: Phoenix website designer, affordable web design, best web designer. (Still pretty broad and competitive.)
Long-tail keywords
You guessed it – these are longer, more specific search terms, usually 5 words or more. Incorporating long-tail keywords into content will optimize your site for SEO, and are simply the way to go. They’re less competitive and will be more profitable for you to target! Examples of long-tail keywords include: affordable web design company in Phoenix, Phoenix website design for small business, website design and maintenance in Scottsdale, web designers that incorporate SEO, prices for a website redesign in Phoenix, custom website design for a photography business. (SUPER specific to a niche and local market!)
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing search terms that people are likely to enter into search engines and provides valuable insight into the searches a targeted audience is actually searching on Google. When keywords are researched, the search terms can help guide the written content strategy of a company’s website (including their blog), as well as their larger digital marketing strategy. When marketers are looking to optimize on-page website content (which, they should be), keyword research narrows down the topics people care about and how popular those topics are among a company’s target market. SEO content writers then use the topics to guide their optimized content with the keywords that are getting a high volume of searches every month in a particular area or niche.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
Billions and billions of searches are performed on Google every day, and most users never give a thought to Google’s complicated algorithm that provides them with a list of relevant links to help with their search query. However, SEO experts know that there’s a whole lotta magic (magic = hard work, time, effort, and dedication to a targeted strategy) that happens behind the scenes to rank those links at the top of the very first search engine result page (SERP).
Google consistently ranks keywords as one of the most important SEO ranking factors (if not THE most important SEO ranking factor) when it’s determining where to rank the content on a website in their search results. If keyword research is done correctly and content is written accordingly, Google’s crawlers will be more likely to understand what your content is about, making your site more likely to pop up at the right time in response to a user’s search query. That means more clicks to your site and an increase in revenue. Winning!
We’ve spent years learning the best SEO strategies for helping our clients outrank their competition on the SERPs, and conducting keyword research for optimized content is just a a part of the services we offer. Inception Web Design is located in Phoenix, but we work with clients internationally and we especially love to work with small to medium sized businesses to build and redesign custom websites optimized for SEO. Schedule your free consultation today.
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