Keyword research is imperative and extremely valuable when implementing a successful Internet Marketing campaign. This research enables you to learn what your industry keyword demand is, which terms and phrases to target, and learn what terms your customers are actually searching. It is our job to provide content that crawlers will display when these searches are performed.
We begin with a list of the obvious terms and research suggestions using tools and competitor research. Keywords can be targeted or very broad, depending on your goals, both types of keywords may be beneficial for a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
Targeted and Broad Keywords
Targeted keywords are often specific to your industry. For example, Atomic Design offers Internet Marketing services. This is a broad category with a variety of sub topics, one of which is organic or natural search engine optimization services. "Search engine optimization" is a targeted keyword that represents a specific keyword we offer, under the broader category of "Internet Marketing". Using targeted keywords will help search engines determine what your site is about. Users performing searches for targeted terms are more likely to be warm to hot leads and convert into a sale or other conversion. Web users prefer to find exactly what they are looking for and targeted keyword phrases provide exactly what they want.
Targeted keywords are often referred to as "long tail" keywords, which is the strategy of targeting less competitive keywords in niche markets rather than extremely competitive broad keywords. The advantage being that there is less competition so it is easier to rank on the first page of a search engine. Targeted Keywords or Long Tail Keywords, don't bring a lot of traffic separately but if you optimize for many targeted keywords you can receive a high volume of traffic.
Broad keywords describe your website in generalities and not to the level of targeted terms. Using our previous example of Atomic Design, and "Internet Marketing services," this is one of the services we provide. Other services fall under this keyword phrase, but using this broad term describes one main category. Using a broad term has the potential to drive more traffic to your website, but visitors may not know what specific services they are looking for. A user may then leave your site because they did not see what they were looking for, or they may stay because you provide valuable information regarding this term and the subcategories associated with the term.
Both types of keywords should be used for a successful online marketing campaign.
Start with more targeted words and as you become an authority on them, the search engines will associate your site with the broader search terms. Once you become an authority on specific topics a site theme will be established, and search engines will accept that you are an authority on the broader terms as well.
An excellent way to identify the best keywords is to research your competitor's sites. Identify the most prominent keywords and add them to your list. Make sure you do not target trademarked terms. Refer to the Competitor analysis section for a more in-depth explanation.
Keywords are used in a variety of ways on a web page and must be used correctly throughout a page and the website. Organic search engine optimization relies on keywords in order to rank.
The first place on a web page for keywords is the Meta Tag, which is located in the head section of the page's html code. The Meta Keywords tag (<meta name="keywords" />) should contain the most relevant keywords to that particular page, with the initial letter of each keyword capitalized. The same keywords should be placed in the Title and Meta Description of the page. Title and Description (<meta name="description" />) are used by the search engines to determine what a page is about. Keywords must also be used throughout the page content.
Keywords should be used in moderation and spread naturally on the page. Using keywords near the top of the page is important as search engines typically give more weight to the first 200 words within a web page. Using a keyword density tool is helpful in determining the distribution of keywords.
Use different keywords and titles for all main pages on your website. Each page should cater to different keywords. Excessive use of keywords, or keyword stuffing, is going to cause your pages to be ignored or to lose value for that keyword.
Avoid keywords that are not likely to be searched and especially if they do not contribute to your content. Alter the sequence of your keywords so they are not identical to ALT attributes, titles or body content. Duplicate content can cause penalties and serious problems.
Repeating keywords in headings (H1 - H6) and anchor text (link text) is also important. Using keywords in headings emphasizes the importance of those keywords. Headings can be short descriptions of the content that follows. Keywords in anchor text perform a similar function. Having a link, whether external or internal, implies that there is more information related to the keywords, enhancing the importance of the keyword and the theme of the page. Finally, keywords may be used in image alt attributes, keeping the length appropriate to the size of the image.
Keyword analysis, keyword research, applying keywords to web pages and creating targeted landing pages is extremely important to search engine optimization.