Keyword research has become an important feature of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Keywords/phrases function as the leads to the websites. The keywords are generally the most common words that a prospective user will type in the search engine column in order to get directed to the relevant website.
For example, if a user wishes to get details about the painter Michael Angelo, the name ‘Michael Angelo’ alone is the best keyword. However, if he wishes to get the details of the ‘last known work of Michael Angelo’, he may type either ‘last known work of Michael Angelo’, or ‘Michael Angelo last work’ or any modified version of this phrase. Thus there are infinite choices for the keyword for particular information. It is therefore very difficult for a beginner to understand the appropriate keywords that will suit his website. Keyword research thus becomes a vital component for effecting better SEO. The following are the different methods employed in devising better keywords.
* Conduct a survey on different groups of people randomly on the possible keyword options that they might come up with for describing the product or information that is highlighted in your website. Record these findings on a regular basis. After getting a satisfactory result from them, say four or five groups with consistent keywords/phrases, you may proceed with the selected ones.
* Find out the alternate words or synonyms that match the chosen keyword/phrase. Find their suitability in your website. For example, in the earlier example about the ‘last known work of Michael Angelo’, an alternative can be the ‘latest work’ or ‘final work’. Prepare a list of these related words and phrases. You may use them as secondary keywords.
* Check the traffic of other similar websites (if there exists any website similar to that of yours), with the selected keywords. This will give you an idea of the positioning of these websites on the basis of these keywords. If your selected keywords give satisfactory response with the intended contents, like that of yours, you may proceed applying them. However, remember that there is a tough competition ahead, and prepare your website by improving other SEO components so that it will surpass the competitors in page ranking.
* Get the help from the online tools. There are many tools provided by the prominent search engines such as Google and many web solution companies that help the website owners decide the effectiveness of their keyword/phrase. The website owner needs to simply key-in the different keywords and check their efficiency using these tools.
* Get data about user habits. There are websites that provide the statistics of the user habits while searching for a particular content. By studying these, you get the knowledge on the user habits and their preferences of the keyword. In some cases, the keywords will change according to the local preferences of the people in different parts of the world. For example, ‘mortgage’ is a common word used in the USA/UK while ‘home loan’ is the common term used in some other countries for the same service.
Keyword research thus plays an important role in improving the SEO of a website.
Labels: Keywords, Search Engine Optimization
