How to choose the right keywords for SEO

The importance of incorporating the right keywords in your website’s content can’t be underestimated when it comes to attracting organic traffic.

If you’ve created killer content that answers the questions your potential customers are asking, it counts for very little if it doesn’t contain the right keywords.

Weaving appropriate keywords into high-quality content is the key to success.

So, how do you choose keywords that work for your SEO?

Do your research

Any keyword-related activity has to begin with proper research. Keyword research helps you get to grips with what’s going on in your customers’ heads.

It identifies topics and questions that interest them, and which should be included in your content strategy. By deepening an understanding of what your target audience is looking for, you can ensure that your content delivers the answers they need.

Keyword research will support a range of marketing approaches, not just content creation; it also has a role to play in email marketing and other promotional activities.

It can assist with understanding your competitors better, and is helpful if you use pay-per-click advertising.

Finding out the keywords your competitors are using can help refine your own content strategy.

To make life simpler, you may want to use a SEO keyword tool to help you find the most relevant and effective keywords for your business.

Think about intent

When you’re undertaking keyword research, it can be helpful to think more broadly about the intent behind each Google search or query.

To aid this, SEO sometimes divides keywords in to broad categories.

Three of the most common are navigational, informational and transactional:

Navigational

A navigational keyword is when someone uses a search engine in order to navigate to a website.

For instance, they may search for Twitter or Asda, and then hit on the link to take them to the company website.

Informational

An informational keyword is when a search engine is used to locate a specific piece of information.

For example, they may ask where they can find a certain product, query who owns a company, or ask how to find a particular emergency home service.

Transactional

Transactional keywords are sometimes referred to as commercial keywords, which should give you some idea about what they are.

If someone uses a word that suggests strong commercial intent such as “buy” or “purchase” then it’s clear that they’re interested in spending money.

Search intent

Search intent plays a key role in keyword research because it allows you to develop your content in ways that meet the needs of your target audience.

If someone is asking questions about a product, then they’re clearly thinking about making a purchase but still require some more information before they make a commitment.

If someone has already reached the ‘buy’ stage in their searches, then it’s likely they’ll want to be taken straight to the product page to enable them to make a purchase.

They’ll be looking for easy-to-access information about prices and shipping.

Check out the competition

As part of keyword research you should investigate how your competition performs when it comes to a target keyword phrase. The easiest way to do this is to put your keyword in to Google and then look at the results.

Pay attention to the types of companies who are dominating the first page of organic results. If they’re big brands with large marketing budgets then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to compete with your first blog post.

Test out lots of alternatives, and see how they fare. You may be surprised at the range and variety of results that are returned.

With intelligent choice of keywords, smaller businesses can find a niche in the search results that allows them to compete with large companies.

Finally, take a look at the content itself

Are you confident that you can create content that’s more useful, detailed and engaging than your competition?

Weak content that’s lacking in key details, is poorly formatted, or little more than a box-ticking exercise is there to be improved upon with what you offer.

So, use the appropriate keywords, but make sure you deploy them well.

How can Aqueous Digital help?

At Aqueous Digital, we can develop a comprehensive content marketing and SEO strategy that ensures you stand the best chance of appearing prominently in Google search results. Even when your business is closed we ensure your SEO never sleeps.

Talk to our experienced team today to find out what we can do for your business. Call us on 0800 285 1424 or email us at hello@aqueous-digital.co.uk to have a chat about how we can support the success of your business with our award-winning search engine optimisation.