What are keywords and why are they important?
Keywords drive targeted web traffic to your business for free. When used well, the right words or phrases can move your business and get you sales success online.
Keywords are the words and phrases that Internet users type into a search engine, such as Google, to find websites that match what are looking for.
Where your site shows up in Google’s list depends on various factors, including the quality, performance, relevance and authority of your site. Google has a formula to determine what sites rank the highest, but you’ll never get your site on the list if your content doesn’t match what people are looking for.
Keywords are also used to tell search engines about the content of your web pages.
Some keywords get hundreds of thousands of unique searches a day while others get a couple of hundred. You should aim for the really popular keywords, right?
Well, no. Not always. High-trafficked keywords are very competitive, because many businesses are trying to get hits from users when they search. It is worthwhile considering the competition for a particular keyword before targeting it. I’m here to help you get a realistic sense of what keywords you should use on your website and how effective they will be in marketing your site online.
Hits – quality over quantity
Not all high keywords rankings are good rankings. Only ranking for relevant, quality words or phrases will result in the right kind of visitors to your business.
Even though a keyword may have a lot of search traffic, you need to consider whether it will bring you quality traffic. Will it result in conversions and revenue?
What are keywords?
They can be one word or a phrase; most are actually three-to-five-word phrases and are often referred to as “long-tail keywords”. These are well worth targeting for a number of reasons.
Popular search terms such as “plumber” actually make up around 30% of the searches performed on search engines. The remaining 70% exist in the “long tail” of the search. The long tail has millions of unique searches that might be done a few times each day, but, when used together, they create most of the world’s searches. Long tail searches often hold the highest conversion rate: as people get more specific in their searches, they are probably more ready to buy or pick up the phone.
In addition, when looking for services people are much more likely to try a localised search and add the specific area in which they live or need the service in their search phrase. For example, someone searching for a builder will often search “best builder in Warkworth” in Google when they are ready to commit, instead of just “house builder”.
Initially, you should try to rank for long-tail keywords and synonyms of the very popular keywords. After you build enough authority with your site and content, you can start to aim for the high-competition words.
How to add enough keywords
Google loves new, interesting content. Keywords can always be added to all the important, hidden areas of your website that aren’t listed on your main menu – but of course link back to it. For the sake of this article, let’s say you have a website about a B&B in Matakana and, based on your research, you came up with the following keywords to target:
- Short breaks Matakana
- Places to stay near Matakana
- Holidays north of Auckland
- Accommodation near Omaha
It would then make sense to create pages on your website targeting those keywords. The way to do this is through pages with quality content that provide relevant, useful information to online searchers looking for B&B accommodation in and around Matakana. That is where I come in ……… I can write the pages while you run your business.
What are keywords, why they matter and how to use them
If you have any questions about keywords, how to use them or if you’d like help with writing great content about your business, let me know; I’d love to hear from you.
