Keywords are an often misunderstood and many even be considered scary by some people new to content marketing and seo. The fact is keywords can be a strong ally in the development of your site with a few tips on some tools you can use to find keywords that work for you and understanding what to look for when using the tools.
A keyword is basically the word or words that are placed in a search engine when searching for something on the internet. There are different types: the Keyword – which is the one word term that consists of your search.
For instance, let’s look at the term – “houses”. If you are searching for a new house and begin your search using this keyword, you will bring up millions of articles, tips, for sale sites and more.
However, if you refine your search to “houses for sale” and then refine it even more to your state or city and even the style of home you are looking for, you are now using Long Tail Keywords. These will bring up more focused results. That is what we are looking for when choosing keywords for your business.
But now you are probably asking:
There are tools that you can use to find keywords that will also give you the ranking and importance of said keyword so you can find the best one for your site. The most popular and free tool to use is the Keyword Planner by Google.
If you have a Google account, you can access and use this free tool. Simply sign up for Google Adwords and in the Tools area is the Keyword Planner. There is an article and a video in there to help you fully understand how to use the tool so I will not go into detail here. What I will say is that you want to begin using keyword and long tail keywords that are on the medium to low spectrum of the search volume for the laser focus searches that lead to higher conversions.
What that means is if someone is looking for a “Single Family Home with 3 bedrooms and a pool in Atlanta, Georgia for sale”, chances are much greater that you will get those searches right into your site if you are using similar to exact keywords, which will then allow you to convert those searches, assuming your copy is asking for a conversion.
Save your keyword tool search results in a spreadsheet so you can plan your keyword usage for development on your site. By using focused keywords you can improve searches and traffic for your business.