Starting your keyword strategy

The Checklist you need to kick off your keyword campaign! 

One of the things I quickly and painfully learned when it came to selecting keywords for my company's website is that it's very easy to get lost in a sea of information. I spent a huge amount of hours researching different guides, courses, articles, etc about SEO and the hardest part was the feeling that I was getting nowhere. 

When it comes to SEO it's a marathon, not a sprint, you are not going to become an SEO guru overnight. Learn a little, put what you have learned into practice, and then review if its working or not. With that in mind, I have devised a simple checklist that I wish I had when I started out. 

Background knowledge - don't get bogged down by all the terminology

Read a couple of simple introduction guides on SEO basics, familiarise yourself with the important terms, and how they relate to your business. My three favourite SEO websites are MOZ, Neil Patel, and Ahrefs. In particular, Moz does a series of easy to understand and practical guides on getting started. Have a read through, make note of the different definitions and terms he uses as they will be important when you put your knowledge into practice. If it all seems very complicated don't worry, when you start to do it yourself it will all start to make sense. 

Head v Long-tail

Before we begin our keyword checklist it is vitally important to understand the difference between the two different types of keywords there is: 

Head - Shorter keywords with a larger search volume, such as photographer, shoes, and ceramics. These target a wide audience and are usually more difficult to rank for.
Long-tail - These are more descriptive, multi-word search terms, like engagement photography NYC, red women's shoes, and glazed ceramic vases. These target more specific search queries, and maybe easier to rank for.  

Keyword selection/research

Spending hours worrying about what keywords to use is unproductive and unnecessary. The three sites I have mentioned above all have keyword research tools which will show how often certain words/phrases are searched and how competitive/difficult they are to rank for. Along with Google's tools Search Engine Console, Google Trends, and Google Keyword Planner you are well equipped to decide what your initial keywords will be. The process I followed when selecting my keywords as follows: 

Step 1: Brainstorm a list - use the logic "if I was a potential customer what words/phrases would I google to find a product or service". So think about your target audience, your product, your brand, competitors, synonyms, and related words. Write this list out in a word document.

Step 2: Refine the list - this is where your Keyword research tools come in, use them to see how your keywords match up on the following questions: How often are they searched? How difficult are they to rank for? How relevant are the keywords to your company? In general, your keywords need to broad enough to have high search numbers but specific enough that you are able to compete for them successfully, its all about balance! There is no optimum number of keywords but to start have three head and seven long-tail keywords. 

Step 3: Add the keywords to your website - Search engines look at where keywords appear on your site, and they prioritize some areas over others. It is of vital importance you add the keywords in a natural way and do not keyword stuff as Google will penalise you. 

 Here are good places to add your keywords, in order of importance:

• Site domain

• Site title

• URL page slugs

• SEO title and page title

• SEO site, page, and item descriptions

• Headings (eg, heading 1, heading 2, heading 3)

• Body text

• Categories

• Captions and titles for Image Blocks, Gallery Blocks, Gallery Pages, and gallery sections

• File names for files and images

• Alt text

• Search engine and page descriptions - Add compelling keywords to the description meta text that may appear below the site title in search results.

• Tags - Tags help visitors navigate and find things on your site.

Step 4: Request an index and monitor the results - on Search Engine Console request your pages to be indexed, please note this may take a few days. Then use Google Analytics to monitor what keywords perform well and what ones do not. 

Keyword strategy - play the long game

Your Keyword strategy should be an ever-evolving and long term strategy. Don't get disheartened if you don't see massive growth overnight, remember its a marathon, not a sprint. Keywords are the foundation of your SEO journey and by constantly nurturing them you give yourself a very solid basis to be successful in SEO. 

If you have any questions about keywords or SEO in general please hesitate to contact us here or call 089 6004061 or email info@precisionplanmarketing.com. We offer flexible SEO packages that range from fully outsourced services to training and guidance programs. We will design an SEO package to suit your needs.