SEO Keywords
Keywords for search engine optimization is something that almost all of our clients have heard of. However, almost none realize how to select these keywords and phrases. First of all we need to look at specificity. For example let’s look at an AC company. Firstly, we want to make sure that we don’t get hits for automotive AC. This can be done easily by using the keywords, residential and/or commercial. That’s easy an intuitive. Then we’d have to consider the geographic location of your customers.
Getting search results for “Houston residential air conditioning service is going to be really difficult, or impossible, to achieve–too many competitors! Houston is just too broad to be effective. Getting hits for “Galveston residential air conditioning service” is going to be infinitely easier than going after Houston as there are only a dozen in Galveston and 1,000 in Houston. Just rough numbers there.
There are a number of SEO WordPress plugins that can be configured to deal with synonyms. Think “air conditioning” and “A.C.”
Many web development companies fail to SEO the pictures so this is an area where WebWorks will gain you a key advantage. Take a look at our SEO your pictures article.
But how to choose the perfect focus keyword? Especially when you’re blogging and focussing on long tail keywords, it can be quite hard to decide which keywords to optimize for.
Your keyword strategy should have given you some idea what you want to write about. For blog posts, you will usually aim for a long tail keyword (containing multiple words). In our Yoast SEO plugin you will find a drop down menu which supplements your entry with suggestions. These suggestions are actually based on Google Suggest. This is exactly the same as what you’d see when you type the search term into a Google search box.
Once you have found a long tail search term you would like to start ranking for, you should put some effort into discovering whether or not the search volume of your chosen focus keyword is high. We will be the first to admit, Google has made this really hard. The only way to know ‘for sure’ how often a search term is used, is by having an active and alive AdWords account and by bidding on the search term of your choice. We understand this is a bit too difficult and expensive for most of you (we honestly hardly ever do this).
Not to worry, using Google Trends should give at least some idea, in a creative way, about search volume. Google Trends allows you to compare the search volume between two search terms over time. This will give some insights in the volume of the search terms people use (always relative to another term).
Using Google Trends to compare between your old focus keywords and the one you would like to choose will give you some insights about the prospects for your focus keyword.
Apart from knowing which search terms are actually used by people, you need to know whether or not your idea for your post or page fits the desires and expectations of the people who use the search terms. The best way to find out whether or not your content fits these desires is to Google your proposed (sets of) keywords yourself.