When organizing your digital marketing strategy and SEO, you likely keep hearing terms like "keywords" and "key phrases." For online marketing, the first fundamental step in developing a successful SEO strategy is implementing effective keywords, but what are these exactly and how do they relate to your marketing strategy?
What are keywords?
What exactly is a keyword? It's a specific word or phrase that someone types into a search engine. They define what your content is about. You should boil everything on your page — images, video, copy, etc. — down to simple words and phrases, aka your primary keywords.
As a website owner and content developer, you want the keywords on your page to relate to what people are searching for so they have a better chance of finding your content among the results.
Why are keywords important?
How much is a keyword worth to your website? Keywords are essential for every business’ website as they drive targeted web traffic to your business for free. Using the right keywords can skyrocket your sales success online. They are the link between what individuals search for and the information you provide to fill that need.
Think about it – How many times a day do you ask Google a general question or look for a business type? This is much more common than using an exact business name or URL.
Why should I research keywords?
In choosing a keyword for your business, it is important to put some time into researching keywords. The difference between a website that gets tons of organic searches and one that gets none is in the keywords that you use. However, optimizing your website for searches is definitely not as simple as picking a few keywords to target and stuffing your pages with them.
Creating compelling content is about providing real value for real people, not just sending hints to our robot friends at Google. Overall, keyword research and development results in finalizing keywords that target your business’ needs and specific goals.
By using effective keyword research tools, you can determine a popular and profitable niche, find related markets, rank well in search engines for specific topics to drive traffic to your site, and promote your products and/or services by enhancing your marketing effectiveness. By finding out what people are searching for, you put yourself in a strong position to help them achieve their goals as well as yours.
Ask these questions to determine a solid keyword:
- Are my keywords targeting what people are searching for?
- Will people who find my site using these keywords find the answers to their questions?
- Are people searching for these terms the ones I visiting my site? Are they likely to be customers?
Putting some thought into targeted keywords for your website is an investment worth making. With tools and keyword analysis experts available, it will be easy for you to think of ways to use targeted keywords to get qualified leads to your website’s pages.
Want help finding the right keywords? Contact us about using Clustaar keyword analysis to determine your audience's searches, the keywords your competitors use, and where you can improve your traffic.
Secrets of Keyword Research
A key goal of marketers is to assure that every interaction with your brand leaves your audience with positive emotions—whether you're solving a problem, understanding a need, or commiserating with a shared challenge. These emotional ties are what build long-term loyalty with a brand, but it's nearly impossible to form this level of attachment unless marketers are listening closely at all times. Choosing words that your audiences are already using is one way of showing that you're hearing them, and is also why keyword research is so important in creating engaging, two-way conversations.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing
In the early days of SEO, the more keywords a piece of content contained, the higher it would rank in the search results. This led to many website owners stuffing their content with a ridiculous number of keywords— so much so that the end result was practically unreadable.
Google realized this was a problem and updated their software so that websites guilty of keyword stuffing were no longer rewarded. Now, keyword stuffing can actually get you punished in the search results. Today, the trick is to use keywords sparingly, only choose keywords that are relevant to your website and the content you are publishing, and publish high-quality, well-written content.
Make Use of Keyword Research Tools
Choosing keywords doesn't have to be an arbitrary process. Instead, you can make use of keyword research tools such as the keyword planner found in Google AdWords.
These tools show you important metrics such as the search volume for a given keyword as well as the level of 
competition for that keyword. Ideally, the keywords you choose will have high search volume and low competition. In addition to showing you these metrics, keyword research tools can also help you find relative keywords by showing you a list of keywords similar to the one you input.
One of the most robust tools, Clustaar, acts as a keywords analysis tool on steroids, optimizing Google big data so you can successfully:
- Determine and visualize the size and segmentation of your market
- Show your position in the overall competitive landscape
- Discover your audience's search trends and habits
- Guide your digital marketing strategy
By incorporating a revolutionary clustering algorithm and data visualization, Clustaar provides deeper insights and answers your biggest questions to offer clear guidance in the direction you should take.
Using Keywords on Social Media
Social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook are now some of the largest search engines in the world — with people skipping over Google and Bing to go directly to the type of information they wish to view. Breaking news is something you'd likely search for on Twitter, while how to make that perfect fold on your napkins is something you would find on Pinterest.
From trending topics on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to categories on Pinterest, social media has a strong relationship with keywords used in a natural setting. Understanding your customers means knowing what they're searching for, and incorporating that information and keywords into the metadata of your blog posts, landing pages, and status updates as well.
Experiment, Analyze, Repeat
Chances are you're not going to luck out and choose the optimum set of keywords for your website on the first try. Rather than settling for whatever results your first set of keywords gets, it's a good idea to continuously try new keywords, analyze how they perform, adjust your keyword strategy accordingly, and repeat this process until you come up with a set of keywords that delivers you the most traffic.
Start Leveraging Keywords Today
Keywords are one of the most effective tools that digital marketers have at their disposal, and, if you use them properly, they can deliver a lot of free traffic to your website. By following the tips and suggestions outlined above, you will be well on your way to making the most of keywords and becoming an SEO pro.
Want to go deeper? Contact us to learn how we can help you with a Clustaar keyword analysis to see your rankings, competition and opportunities.
