4 keyword selection tips to improve seo

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4 Keyword Selection Tips to Improve SEO

Why are Keywords Important?

Search engines crawl website content, indexing it based on words and phrases that are used prominently.

Pages are ranked and placed in search engine’s index.

Keywords are a key component that search engines use to rank pages.

Content authors have more control over keywords than many other SEO elements.

You can choose keywords that set your products and services apart.

Keyword Fundamentals

How frequently the keyword is searched for.

Monthly Searches

Use keywords that your customers will use to find your products and services.

Monthly Searches

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How many other brands are actively using the keyword.

Difficulty/Competition

Discontinued Services

Use keywords that have less competition, or that are less difficult.

Difficulty/Competition

How your content ranks in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for the chosen keyword.

Rank

The lower the rank the better. A rank of 1 means your website ranks 1st for that keyword.

Rank

Step 1: Look for Starting Keywords

Start with major keywords used in your industry.

Use personas that identify the primary customers you’re trying to reach.

Think of keywords your primary customers will use to find your products and services.

Use focus groups with people who fit your persona demographics to generate lists of keywords to evaluate.

Type keywords in Google or Bing to see similar searches . That will give you ideas for additional starting keywords.

Tools like SEMRush, or Google’s Keyword Planner can suggest keywords based on analysis of your website or other keywords.

If you run search engine ad campaigns, review keywords performance to find the best keywords from those campaigns

Step 2: Selecting Keywords – Choose Long Tails

Short Keywords:• Are heavily used and have

high competition or difficulty

• May be very difficult to rank in

• They don’t describe your content with any specificity

Keywords with more words in them, are called long tail keywords.

They more accurately describe what your content, products or services.

The more descriptive your keywords are, the more likely they are to attract people who will be interested in your products and services.

Other brands and competitors are less likely to be using your long tail keywords.

Better chance of ranking higher for them, and getting into a top ten or top three position.

Choose the combination of words that do the best job describing your products and services to find your long tails.

Remember, ranking well for keywords often takes time, effort, and content. You have to use your keywords the right way.

Step 3: Using Keywords the Right Way

Content should be focused around a single subject so you don't have too many keywords.

Having a single keyword, or even two or three that you're trying to build ranking for is fine.

Include at least one keyword in:• Title of the content• URL of the content• ALT text for images in

the content• Meta description for

the web page

You can mix up the words that make up a long tail keyword. Search engines can figure that out.

Only use a keyword between one and four times in a page, or piece of content.

Step 4: Rinse and Repeat to Improve Ranking

Improving your ranking over the long term takes consistency and dedication.

Search engines look for whoever is publishing the most related to a topic.

To rank highly, you need to publish frequently on topics that use those keywords.

Don’t sacrifice quality to publish frequently. Publish quality content consistently.

If people don't like your content, you won't rank and people won't buy what you're selling.

If you put the keyword selection tips to work, you'll improve your SEO over time

as you start ranking for your selected keywords.

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