How To Pick Effective Keywords For SEO? 

Do you know that building authority around a specific keyword is very crucial to rank a website in search engines? To accomplish this, effective keyword research is crucial. Also, keywords are a huge component of both SEO and PPC. It might confuse you to understand what effective keyword research is about. It involves analyzing search terms entered search engines by people. By conducting effective keyword research, we can identify keywords to target, the popularity of these queries, and their ranking difficulty. Keyword research in short lays the foundation for optimizing a website.  

Identifying the best keywords to target is the first step in keyword research. By doing so, one can gain insight into the target audience’s actual searches on search engines. And knowing what search terms are being used can help to shape a content strategy and marketing efforts. If you find your website ranks well for certain keywords but doesn’t show you any results, there is a possibility that you’re not targeting the right keywords. 

However, we need to be clear about the fact that keyword research doesn’t just mean identifying keywords relevant to your business and target audience, but it also means finding ‘good’ keywords that are likely to provide you with plenty of traffic and not too much competition. 

A guide to pick effective keywords for SEO:  

 

1. Shortlist niche topics

   It’s crucial to shortlist and narrow down niche topics for your businesses.  As we all know that businesses can be divided into several categories. If your website is an e-commerce one, for example, your keywords will differ from those of a digital marketing agency.  Let’s suppose, for an organic mattress company if we use the keyword “organic mattress” then it will be very broad and general, but if we specify and use “organic latex mattress” then this can be a better keyword. 

2. High Volume Keywords

   Whenever we target a specific keyword, keeping a check on its search volume is very important.  Even if you wind up on the first page of search results for a certain keyword, but that keyword search volume is low then as a result no one will ever visit your website.  Let’s suppose we have chosen the keyword “content SEO agency” and it has a volume of 20 then one can easily rank on this keyword, but it will be of no use. 

3. Competition

   Another crucial step of keyword research is to look for how much competition exists for the specific keyword. In other words, we can say that with this we can get an idea about the number of sites targeting those keywords. We should always aim to find keywords with medium or low competition. If we select the keyword “SEO content” with a difficulty score of 83 and high search volume, then making it rank will be difficult. However, if we select “SEO content strategy” which has a high volume but a difficulty score of 55 then making it rank will be easy.  

4. Long Tail Keyword

   Do you know that keywords consisting of four or more words are considered as long tail keywords? Focusing on long-tail keywords is a great SEO tactic. They have a higher rate of conversion and CTR. They let you steadily increase site traffic and be found by interested audiences. For example, if the keyword “organic mattress” is used, then here the intent is unclear, but if we specify “best organic latex mattress in India”, then the search will be more precise and have a higher conversion rate.   

5. Latest Trend

   Keeping up with the latest trend is very important. It is very important to understand when people are searching for keywords. It is helpful in deciding when to update your website or write a blog and what keyword to target. We can use Google Trends and other tools that can let you gauge more. If the trend for the keyword “SEO content strategy” graph shows it is decreasing, we can look for other topics. However, if the trend is up, we can focus on the same keyword.    

There are various SEO tools available online. Here, you can find the list of keyword research tools you can use:   

1. Google Keyword Planner

   This keyword research tool gives an insight into how often certain words are searched and how those searches have changed over time. 

2. Ubersuggest

   It is an SEO tool that helps to do keyword research, analyze competitors, provide site audits, and much more. 

3. SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool

   This SEO tool helps you to do a lot more than keyword research. One can look for backlinking opportunities, site audits, and competitive research. 

4. The HOTH

   It allows users to enter a seed keyword and then generates a list of related keywords along with their search volume and difficulty level. 

5. Keyword Everywhere

   This tool can be added as an extension to your Google Chrome. It also helps in providing keyword ideas and offers features such as keyword research and competitor analysis. 

6. WordStream

   With the help of WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool one can filter results by industry. Also, one can get data about keyword search volume and competition level. 

7. Ahrefs Keyword Generator

   For each keyword phrase, the keyword generator displays search volume, difficulty level, and a list of questions related to the search term.  

Following these tips will help you to pick effective keywords. By optimizing your website content with the right keywords, one can ensure that your website continues to generate organic search traffic and remain competitive in the digital marketplace.