Using Advanced Keyword Research strategy to gain high rankings

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Advanced Keyword Research is the process of determining the actual search terms (words and phrases) that people use in Search Engines when conducting a search and then compiling them into a list for use on web pages

Keyword research is done to find out keyword popularity for relevant keywords with the intent of targeting for better Search Engine rankings.

Compile keywords from the right sources

The first step of the “keyword research strategy” is to generate keywords that are relevant to the website theme. This process can be started by going through the website and getting words and phrases that form the essence of it. This step can later be extended to:

a) Brainstorming all the words that people would type into their search box when trying to find a website.

b) Preparing a seed list of historical keyword data through which the website is gets traffic currently.

c) Build on the existing list of keywords from the use of range of keyword research tools. One such tool that can be used for this purpose is “Google AdWords keyword tool”. There are also other tools like, Trellian Keyword Discovery tool, Wordtracker, etc.

d) Preparing a classified list of synonyms for important keywords. Google synonyms can be one such tool used for this purpose.

e) Generating ideas from websites of competitors (for instance by checking meta tags used in competitors’ sites) and other informative sources. There is also need to check the ranking status of competitors for the same keywords to determine the competitiveness for the relevant keywords.

This whole exercise results in a large base of keywords, which will encompass words that are informative as well as sales or service-oriented. Also, these terms can either be broad or targeted. In addition, there is need to avoid generic terms as far as possible. Targeted terms are much easier to rank and will help in getting quality traffic to the site but this does necessarily mean that the broader terms be ignored. We need to rank for both broad and targeted terms and there should be a right blend of these in our keyword list.

Filter the right keywords

This forms the second step of an “advanced keyword research strategy“. It involves choosing the keywords from the large base of keywords by deciding on the terms that can make into the final list. While doing this, parameters like direct relevance to the content, search volumes or traffic, historical performance of the keywords, etc. are taken into consideration. Traffic for a given keyword can be determined by inputting chosen keywords into a keyword research tool and understanding how many users conduct searches for it every day. Figuring out competitiveness of each phrase helps us to know how difficult it will be to rank for a given term. There might also be terms that have low competition, but high relevancy. We also need to ascertain, which terms are impacted by seasonal trends. So after giving due consideration to all these issues, we can narrow down to few relevant core keywords.

Content optimization

This forms the third step of a “keyword research strategy“. This explains how to implement the final list of keywords into the website.

Content optimization involves the use of keywords in the following sections of a web page:

• URL: Align the primary keyword within the URL.

• Title tag: It is one of the most important elements of a web page. Title appears in the SERP when the web page is displayed in the organic search results. It is the very first code that the Search Engine sees when it crawls the website. Using the primary keyword phrase here becomes important.

• Meta description tags: Although, they are not among the significant factors that Search Engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be ignored. A meta description tag is a concise summary of your page’s content and primary keywords should be reflected in this. A meta keyword tag is a list of the most important words or phrases on the web page.

• Headings & sub-headings (H1 to H6): It is the next most significant factor beside the title tag, so including the keywords or key phrase in these is important.

• Body text: Targeted keywords should be included in the page’s content with a keyword density of 2 – 5% (for every 100 words, the keyword should appear 2 – 5 times) Direct relevance of the targeted keywords to the content can be increased if there is willingness to rewrite the content.

• ALT tags: Include keywords in the image ALT attribute.

• Anchor text: Use it as the text to any outgoing links on the page.

• Footer text & links: Use keywords in the links in the footers.

These processes have to be repeated time and again. As your consumers’ needs and market trends change over time, so will the keywords. It is important to keep monitoring keywords and make tweaks when necessary. By doing this, we will stay ahead of the competition and get better ROI.

Contributed by Girish Narayana

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Tags: Advanced Keyword Research, Content optimization, Keyword Research Strategy, Optimizing content