Basic Keyword Research is the basis of all search marketing. There is a raging debate between content marketing and search engine optimization – which is more important? In actually both work hand in hand. Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Combining Basic Keyword Research in all your content is a must if you want to rank for the search terms that your customers and potential customers use.
To start optimizing any site for search engines is to begin thinking about the search terms that your customers or potential customers might use. Think about your company and it’s websites mission. What makes it unique? Be clear in your mission and goals – you want to be found on the terms that fit your products or services. Ranking high on keywords that don’t fit you can hurt you. Google tracks bounce rate (people that come to your site and leave immediately) and penalizes sites with high bounce rates.
Starting your Basic Keyword Research
Start your basic keyword research by making a list of all the search terms you want to be found on. Keep them on a spreadsheet of your choice. You have to get inside your potential customers head – what would they type into search to find information about your products or service? This list will start small and grow as you do your research. If you get to 50 to start it’s a great beginning. As you use the tools at the end of the article it will get bigger! What you are going to end up doing is creating a specific landing page (the page you want people to land on in your site). Think in terms of long tail keywords. These are search terms that are longer (more than one word) and more specific. For example did you find this post by searching for Keyword Research or Basic Keyword Research? Using basic makes the search more specific – this article is for beginners to give them a simple place to start. It’s normally easier to rank for more specific terms. How competitive your sector is will have a big determination on how well you will rank for each term.
Evaluating your Keywords
After you’ve got a list started it’s time to evaluate them. First organize them into different groups that reflect the different areas on your site. This will force you to structure them around the structure of your site and determine which are the most important terms for you to start with and what landing pages your going to create. Use some of the tools below to evaluate how effective your terms maybe:
Google Adwords Keyword Planner
yoast.com/suggest
wordstream.com/keyword-research-tool
Google Trends
Each of these tools may take a little time to figure out how to use, but they are worth it! There are several articles around the web to help you along. If you want to learn more about keyword research read the article and watch the video on Advanced Keyword Research we posted on thetoolboxinc.com.
