Whether you’re an SEO novice or an SEO Expert, work in sales or marketing, thinking of building a website or are a seasoned webpreneur you know and understand the importance of having the right keywords to drive web traffic that converts. The debate about ‘Why you need to have the right keywords’ has been long over. But now, the main question is:
How Do I Generate Keywords?
There are different approaches and philosophies to generating keywords, and is a science in itself. I like to start off by doing some research using Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool. This will help you identify top keywords that drive large amounts of traffic. However, even if you do identify the right keywords, you need to have the right SEO practices in place to ensure your pages are optimized for that keyword.
My best piece of advice when optimizing for specific keywords is to create content for people, not search engines. I discussed this point in greater detail in one of my archived posts: Optimize for Human First, Search Engines Second.
If you’re just starting out, and need some base keywords, analyze your competitors websites. You can use Textalyser to generate keyword analysis of your competitor’s websites. You can use some of these base words to expand your research using AdWords Keyword Tool.
These online tools will provide you with a comprehensive list of related keywords, competitiveness and how many searches have been conducted for these keywords. But one thing you won’t see is how well they convert.
So, the next logical question is:
How Do I Generate Keywords That Convert?
The answer to this question lies in your ability and willingness to do some market research. If you been running your business offline, listen to and keep track of words and phrases your clients use. Most people will use conversational language to perform online searches as well.
If you already have an established website, analyze your visitor data using one of the analytics tools. Find out how people are finding your site, what keywords they use, which keywords make them stay longer, which keywords convert visitors to paying customers and so on. This subject is beyond the scope of this blog post. See what works and what doesn’t. Optimize your future content based on well performing keywords.
Of course having the right keywords, is just one piece of the puzzle. There are dozens of other SEO tactics you need to deploy such as having properly optimized tags, page titles, links, etc.
As I mentioned earlier, I strongly encourage you to prepare content for people first, and search engines second. Good quality content will drive traffic, reduce bounce rates, drive conversions and prompt your site visitors to share with their networks.
