Key Essentials to Keyword Search Optimization

Key Essentials to Keyword Search Optimization

Keyword optimization looks deceptively simple at first – it’s just a matter of using a bunch of high-traffic keywords, right? But, in reality, the process involves a fair amount of research and analysis. It can help a website generate exposure, produce leads, gain traffic, and improve sales figures, all at the same time.

So, where are the best places to insert keywords?

1. Title – Along with content, the title is a very crucial keyword placeholder.

2. Content – Keep track of your keywords here. Don’t overstuff!

3. Images – Images by themselves are not searchable by search engines. You need to tag them with labels or insert the keyword into the file name.

4. Links – Link building is related to keyword building. Your links should have relevant keywords in them.

5. URL – Make sure that your URL actually contains readable text.

6. Meta Description – This is the little snippet of text that can be read in SERPs.

7. Structure – Keyword hierarchy and organization is also an important factor for SEO.

Determining Your Keywords’ Intent

To further understand your visitors, you must look at the way they use your keywords. Keyword intent can be categorized into three groups:

Informational

Examples: “ultrabooks” “social signals”

Characteristics: high traffic, broad subject, provides general knowledge

Navigational

Examples: “Facebook” “New York”

Characteristics: gives specific directions, used mostly by well-known brands

Transactional

Examples: “buy ultrabooks cheap” “inexpensive SEO services”

Characteristics: relatively low traffic, more specific, high ROI potential, used by people who are intent on buying something

The Long-Tailed Versus Fat Head Dilemma

Let’s now take a look at two keyword choices for SocialMetricsPro (an analytics WordPress plugin). These are “social media” and “social signal analytics plugin”. The former is a fat head keyword – despite being general in scope it’s bound to be searched by lots of people. Meanwhile, the latter is long-tailed – it’s much more specific, and there are a lot less material dedicated to it.

The “social media” keyword is very prominent and competitive. A website that has managed to get itself into the top spot in SERPs for “social media” is bound to enjoy a steady stream of traffic. This would take a considerable amount of effort though. Ranking for “social signal analytics plugin” is definitely easier. However, the trade-off here is that there are less people who are actively looking for it.

It’s all about striking a balance between keyword popularity and ease of ranking. That’s why when you would have literally struck gold if you find a keyword that’s frequently searched for but not many people are competing for that keyword. And this is made possible with Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Decide, Apply, Measure, and Repeat

Keyword optimization is a continuous endeavor. Once you’ve decided on what your keywords should be, applied them to your content, measured their performance, then it’s time to repeat the whole process again. Believe me, this is the ultimate secret in making your keywords work for you.