here are many sources of information about SEO – a quick search on Google and you are rewarded with a plethora of websites that provide you with the most basic to more complex instructions on how to implement SEO. There are many factors to take into account, and it changes as often as Google changes their search algorithm.
SEO can be broken down into 2 Main Areas:
On Page SEO – the optimisation of your content and HTML
Technical: How well your content can be crawled and indexed by search engines
Content: Having the most relevant and best answers to a prospect’s questions
Off Page SEO – Link Building or building your authority with links to relevant sources
Simply, SEO combines both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines.
SEO isn’t just about building search engine-friendly websites. It’s also about making your site better for people too.
The beginning of the SEO journey starts with Keyword Research. This research needs to underpin the site structure of your website and the content on your website.
Why is this important? When a search is performed with a search engine, whether it be Google, Bing or Yahoo their priority is to deliver websites that are the most relevant and have the highest quality of information to that searcher. These are what determine your ranking in the SERP (search engine results page).
Therefore, keyword research is the beginning of your SEO journey.
What are Keywords?
Keywords are words, phrases and sentences that users type into search engines when they want to look something up online. The goal of keyword research is to maximize your chances of landing your site in the top positions for searches relevant to the products and services you have to sell. It needs to be said at this point that there are also other technical factors that come into play to get you there.
How to Choose Keywords?
Simply starts with understanding the language of your target audience. Make a list of your key products and services. Then make lists for each one containing all the words, phrases and sentences that you can think of that encompass how you think people will search for these products.
Take this list and brainstorm with family, friends, colleagues and staff.
Use Google. Type in the words from your lists and use Google’s auto suggest beneath the search box for ideas of previous searches. You will also find more at the bottom of the search results page.
Use SEO tools, there are free ones such as Google’s Keyword Planner and there are paid tools such as Moz. Many of these come with free trial periods that will enable you to test and decide which ones you prefer to work with.
This keyword research should underpin the build and optimization of your website as a whole and at an individual page level.
