Looking for the number one starting point in your internet marketing strategy? Start with the keywords. Before we go into further detail, let’s take a look at what a keyword is and what it actually does to help your business get discovered on the web.

Keyword Definition – A word or a phrase used by a web user to find information on a certain topic online.

Consumers find businesses, products and services based on simple searches so your Google ranking place is important as it is in any search engine. If you want your website to be discovered, you need to optimize it, using terms relevant to the industry keywords. Using the right keywords on your website will drive better traffic to it. Which leads us to…

Keyword research is an ongoing process and optimizing your website won’t happen overnight. Trends emerge and fade away, together with the keywords related to them. You need to check your keywords periodically to have a better chance to be discovered by the right people in your industry. However, keep in mind that predicting with 100% accuracy the exact keywords that will drive the most traffic to your website is close to impossible.

You can experiment by adding different content to your website and then analyze the traffic in Google Analytics – who visits, what do they type in the search engines, etc. From this you can make a list of keywords that are relevant to your business. Choose between 3 and 5 words and phrases you want to be found by and don’t use your brand name; stick to short phrases that are at the core of what your service is about.
Next up, look at the relevance and difficulty of words. General words such as “business” and “marketing” are hard to rank for, especially if you are a small to medium-sized business. Instead, go for less competitive keywords so you rank higher with them. Avoid obscure terms that are not relevant to what you do, even if they are easy to rank for. You can use Google Keyword Tool, but you need to create a Google AdWords Account first.

When your keyword list is ready, rate each entry in terms of competition level and relevance. Ideally you will have a list of keywords that are not too competitive, but offer plenty of traffic. You don’t have to pick the perfect keywords at first. You can always try out different combinations to see which generate the most visitors.

Designing Your Website

Once you’ve chosen the most relevant keywords to your service or product keywords, you need to optimize your website around them. Incorporating these keywords in key places is an integral part of your keyword strategy. For example, the images on the home page need to have alt text that includes relevant keywords.

If you want your business to be discovered, your aim should be to be on the first pages in search engines. It’s much easier to achieve that than you think. One of the elements is having a Google+ business account – it will aid your SEO efforts. Another thing to do is make sure you optimize all your social media profiles to include the relevant keywords.

You may agree with Google’s suggestion to design your website for real visitors, not for search engines, but a good understanding of SEO will eventually result in more visitors, and leads, which is your primary goal.

 

Stay tuned for more essential SEO tips on our blog. In the meantime, you can get your SEO report from us. Use the comment box to tell us about your keyword strategy and which advice you’ve found the most useful.