Choosing the keywords your site will use to target is the first step in optimizing it for search engines.
Making this choice is essential if you want to succeed with search engine optimization. Even if you do everything else flawlessly, if you choose the wrong keywords to target, your website will fail miserably. I’ll outline exactly what to look for while looking for strong keywords in this topic.
Most so-called “gurus” and “experts” in Internet marketing will advise you to conduct your keyword research using the Google Keyword Tool (formerly dubbed “Keyword Planner” and exclusively accessible to members of AdWords accounts). This is a serious error! You’ll wind up going around in circles and the rest of the herd won’t succeed if you solely use the Google tool. Why? Despite giving you a decent list of several hundred keyword variations, the Google tool says nothing about how competitive the terms are. You have no idea how difficult it will be to appear in the search results for any given term. This is important. The majority of novices pick a phrase from the Google Tool that is overly competitive and end up running into a wall. Building a site that won’t ever rank in the search engines is not something you want to accomplish at any cost.
We advise using a program called Keyword Canine to conduct proper keyword research. In addition to giving, you a good list of several hundred keyword variations, Keyword Canine (KC) goes above and above with its analysis of each keyword variation’s competitiveness. This is essential, because it is how you distinguish yourself from the 99% of people that merely utilize the Google Tool.
What is KC’s secret? You can enter your term and receive an immediate response thanks to a sophisticated algorithm in its backend that analyses the top 10 Google search results for your selected query and generates an accurate analysis in the form of “Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard or Fierce.”
Although Keyword Canine includes a ton of additional capabilities that can be useful to you as an Internet marketer, the competition analysis is what we want for keyword research. I won’t walk you through the steps of using Keyword Canine to conduct keyword research here because their tutorials cover everything rather well. Just join up for the service, then do as they say.
Let’s now examine the characteristics that a keyword must possess in order to be profitable for us.
It must first have a commercial value. This has to do with your company strategy and how you monetise your website.
Internet marketers frequently make money from two sources:
- Ads from Google AdSense.
- Programs for affiliates
You should hunt for keywords in markets where AdSense advertising and affiliate networks are willing to spend top money in order to optimize your income from those two.
The search volume is a factor you should take into account when looking for good keywords. It goes without saying that if no one searches for the keyword you rank for, even the top spot won’t help you at all. I would think that 200 monthly searches should be the bare minimum that you are looking for (Keyword Canine shows you the search volume right next to the keywords in the list). Some may argue that this is too low of a target, but I’ve had a lot of success with pages that aim for searches that are similar to this number each month.
The second characteristic of a good keyword to take into account is how competitive it is, or how difficult it will be to rank for it on Google’s first page of results. This is crucial, however if you utilize Keyword Canine, it will analyze the competition for you and provide a recommendation along the lines of “Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard, or Fierce.” I wouldn’t push a new site past “easy.”
In order to find a decent keyword, you need take into account:
- Economic worth
- Search activity
- The level of competition
How many keywords should one site aim to target? Depending on the size of your site, some may advise you to search for multiple terms and optimize each page for a separate term. It is recommended to focus all of your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts on the main page that is optimized for each keyword on a tiny specialty site that only has a few pages. You don’t want to waste your time targeting multiple keywords on a small site.
SEO: On Page Optimization
It’s time to optimize your web pages once you have the content and pages in place so that Google and the other search engines will rank them as highly as possible. We’ll talk about “On Page” optimization in this topic.
On-page optimization is necessary for off-page optimization to be successful even if “Off-Page” optimization, particularly the external linking structure (that will be covered in another topic), is what will provide you an unfair advantage. What I’m trying to convey is that even the best off-page SEO in the world won’t benefit you a bit if the on-page optimization is done incorrectly. therefore, you must pay close attention.
We will now walk you through what you must do step by step:
- The first HTML tag is the title tag, which is placed in the header portion of the website. The most crucial on-page SEO component is the title tag. In the title tag, your keyword should be present, preferably at the start. Making it appealing will encourage searchers to click on it as this is what Google displays on its search results page. Make sure your keyword is appealing before you simply throw it in.
- Make sure your page has one H1 tag with your keyword in it. Headline tags (H1, H2, H3). This headline tag informs Google that the content is significant to the target market.
- The meta description tag. Although this does not affect a website’s ranking, Google still uses this tag to pull the language that describes your page to other users. Make this tag appealing to ensure that more users will click on your page.
- Images – Each page should have a minimum of one image. Additionally, add one video to one of the pages of your website. You can just embed a YouTube video. Ensure that the ALT tag of one of the photos contains your keyword. All other photos must have ALT tags as well, but they must not contain your keyword. A Google over optimization penalty may result from using your keyword in an excessive number of ALT tags.
- Keyword density – The precise keyword density is unimportant. I’ll repeat it again: the precise keyword density percentage is unimportant. It is sufficient to just include three instances of your keyword on each page, one of which should be near the start of the article and one of which can be in bold or italics (do not be tempted to overdo it; overdoing it is a classic rookie mistake).
- Synonyms – You can add two or three synonyms to your website that don’t use your keyword exactly.
- Article topic: It’s crucial that your content is relevant to the niche and the keyword that it is targeting.
- Include one outbound link that points to a reputable website related to your topic. This might be a Wikipedia entry on a subject related to yours. Placing it at the bottom of the page and labelling it “recommended source” or a phrase to that effect. And keep it in its natural state; don’t tag it with a “no follow” attribute.
- Unique Content – The page should not have duplicate content, and if you are using a spinning article, at least 75% of the content should be original. Additionally, it must to make sense and use proper grammar.
- Article length: Each page should contain between 500 and 1000 words. The length of the content on a website should be varied. Make sure that no two articles are exactly the same size.
It’s time to begin building links pointing at your site once it is live and the on-page optimization is configured. how? SEO: Link Building Strategies is the topic to look into.