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Wednesday, 17 August 2011 15:32 |
Keyword research is a fundamental part of Search Engine Optimisation, but it is often a process that people spend less than an hour doing. In my experience, investing time and energy at this stage will pay dividends at a later stage in your campaign.
What you don't want to do is select keywords based solely on the search volume. I would suggest that when performing keyword research you need to identify keyword opportunities that meet the following criteria:
Relevant – identify keywords that are suited to your business. It sounds so straightforward but it can be easy to get carried away with keywords that look attractive, but if they aren't relevant, then targeting them effectively is going to be challenging.
Conversion friendly – identify keywords that your prospective customers are going to use to look for your services, don't waste your time driving traffic that isn't going to in some way benefit your business.
Ample search volume – the number of people searching monthly for that keyword is obviously an important metric because you need to know it is going to be worthwhile optimizing for.
Realistic – understanding and appreciating where your site currently sits in terms of SEO is important at the keyword research stage. Thinking you are going to effectively target 'web design' as a keyword perhaps isn't realistic if you are a freelancer just starting out. A more localized keyword such as 'web design Calabasas' might be more realistic and probably lead to more clients if you are pitching yourself as a local designer.
Be clear which pages of your website are going to champion the keywords you have chosen to target. A common mistake is to attempt to target a dozen or so keywords with the homepage, when in reality you could silo your website, and more effectively target different keywords with different areas. For example you might offer web design, email marketing design, and social media page design services – separating these and targeting them as individual business areas would improve your SEO.
Source: Freelancer's Guide to SEO – More Visibility, Traffic, and Clients |
