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SEO 101: Choose the Right Keywords, 3 Things to Consider

by Article by Remington Begg Remington Begg | January 20, 2013 at 10:12 AM

medium 5267464508 resized 600The foundation of any website is based around keywords. In order for your website to be found you need to make sure it's indexable by Google and other Search Engines.

Having a strong core website that is relevant for the keywords your buyer personas (or target markets) are searching for is increasingly important. Not only do you need to have your meta tags optimized, but the content also needs to be relevant for the keywords so that you rank well. If you're interested in how to learn more about optimizing your website you can check out our other blog post: How long does it take to Optimize a Website

How to Choose the Right Keywords?

The first step is to compile a list of keywords that your buyer personas or "best" customers would search for to find your business or product.

Stay away from Industry Jargon, Your Company Name (you should already rank well for your name). Focus on pain points and even long tail keywords.

Once you've got a list you can use the HubSpot Keyword tool, or even the Google Adwords keyword tool to see the following information. You Can also find some more information from our Free eBook "5 Strategies for a Successful Website"

Here are 3 things you need to keep in mind when looking for keywords.

  1. Relevance: Is the keyword relevant to your buyer personas or target markets? Is it going to allow people to find you in the right stage of the buying process? If you're a location based business it might be a good idea to add your city name before and/or after your service type (ie: blue widgets [city name]) this will allow you to be relevant for local people.
  2. Search Volume: You want to make sure that if you put time and resources towards a keyword that it will yield results. If you look at the Keyword tool and it's not searched often, or doesn't come up to often you may want to move on to a more productive keyword. (If it's Extremely Relevant (see above) then it may be a good idea to focus on it still). In order for you to generate traffic from keywords, the keyword needs to be searched, but if there is a high search volume then most times you have to worry about #3.
  3. Difficulty: Difficulty is one of the last things our clients tend to pay attention to, and they should. If the difficulty (or competition) for the keyword is high, it doesn't mean that it's impossible to rank for. I simply means that you've got a longer journey ahead of you. We explain it like this to our clients "If you want to rank better than your competition you not only have to follow them, you have to do it better than them consecutively" If the difficulty is higher, it's going to take more time and resources to get the rankings for that particular keyword.

Finding the right blend of relevance, search volume and difficulty will allow you to craft your content and additional pages in your website in a systematic way that will ultimately drive traffic.

Interested in learning more about how to qualified traffic resulting in more leads to your website? We're always sharing insight and tips for SEO and search engine marketing. Download our free beginner's guide to inbound marketing below.

Ready for an Effective Marketing Strategy for 2014? Download our Free eBook on Inbound Marketing!