Keywords and SEO: How to Find the Best Keywords for You

Keywords and SEO: the two go together naturally, and rely heavily on each other. Keywords are one of the most important components of SEO. They help direct traffic back to your website by allowing your site to show up in certain searches. Search engines rank websites on their results pages based on how relevant the content is to the search. So if you’re a landscaping service, you want your website to show up in searches that have something to do with landscaping. Though keywords are very important to SEO, it can be hard to find which keywords work best for you. Some keywords have a higher search volume than others, which means people are looking for that phrase more frequently. Others have higher competition, meaning that several other websites are also trying to rank for that keyword. It can be tough to find the right ones, but there are ways to make the search for the perfect keyword easier. Read on to find out how to improve your keywords selection and just how important keywords and SEO are to your business.

Long Tail vs Short Tail Keywords

Let’s start off by discussing the two different types of keywords before we delve much further into the world of keywords and SEO. Short tail keywords are three words or less. Going back to the landscaping service example, a short tail keyword would be something along the lines of “lawn service” or “landscaping company”. Long tail keywords are longer than three words and generally much more specific than short tail keywords. This would be something like “garden maintenance service near Sydney”. These keywords are much more targeted, and generally see higher conversions because any search results will be exactly what the customer is looking for. There are pros and cons of both types. Short tail keywords have a higher search volume, but because they are broad, also face higher competition. Long tail keywords have a much lower search volume because they are so specific, but as such have lower competition and higher conversions. Using both types of keywords is your best bet to having a well-rounded SEO strategy.

Use a Keyword Tool

There are several free online tools that will help you pull together a list of keywords. Two good ones are Ubersuggest or Keyword Tool. You can take this list of suggestions and use Google’s keyword planner to see the search volume and competition level for each one. This is a good way to generate some new keyword ideas and determine how helpful they would be. This is a good starting point for short tail keywords, as that is what is most often generated by these tools.

Get Trendy

Look to see what keywords or content is currently trending in your industry and see if you can publish content centered around that. This serves to not only increase traffic to your website but makes you seem updated and fresh. No one wants to read old, outdated content. Stay on top of the trends in your industry so that people find you trustworthy and helpful.

Location, Location, Location

Incorporate location based keywords into your SEO. Add your city or region to your keywords, and you’ll start to rank higher in local searches. This also cuts down on competition, as your only other competitors will now be those in your area. In addition, if you have a physical location, your business should show up on Google Maps. That way, customers can buy from you either online or in-store.

See What Works

Keywords and SEO aren’t things you just do once. Keywords need to be monitored and tweaked so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. Just because you’ve found a good keyword doesn’t mean it’s driving traffic or conversions. Use a service like Google Analytics to see what keywords are doing the best for your website. By doing this, you can adjust your current content to fit certain keywords that work or ditch the ones that don’t. After investing a lot of time and resources into finding stellar keywords, don’t let them fall by the wayside. Continue to manage your keywords and you’ll see far more returns.

Ultimately, the keywords you choose can help make or break your SEO strategy. By using keyword tools and monitoring how each keyword is doing, you can help ensure that you’re getting the most out of your SEO.