Remember when keys were the things you played on a piano, and words were … well…words? Now we have keywords, and they are a key (pun intended) part of your marketing strategy.
Keywords are the link between what people are searching for and the content you are providing. Whether your content is on a website site, blog or social media, keywords enable SEO (search engine optimization) so that users have a better chance of finding your content among the vast amount of online information.
Keywords are important concepts or ideas derived from your content. Even more importantly, keywords are based on an understanding or your audience and competition.
You have to think like your audience. Here are 4 ways to help you get started optimizing for keywords:
Benchmarking
For example, if you are a producer of pure honey, what do people search for? How would you find a local honey supplier if you searched Google? What would your friends and family do? Do you know how your current customers originally found you on the Internet? What kind of words do you find on honey-lover forums? Quite simply, you need to understand the language your audience uses and what kind of content they need.
Looking at Competitors
Competitors also provide a great source of information. Go to their sites and read them carefully to identify keywords they are using. How does their content compare to yours? What are you forgetting?
Research Tools
There are keyword research tools that can help you gather information about keyword volume, trends, competition and more. We like SpyFu and SEMRush. If you are placing Facebook or Google ads, you can use their tools to help you determine potential target keywords.
Long Tail Keywords
One trick in using keywords is to master the art of creating “long tail keywords.” These combine three or more words or phrases that help attract more relevant traffic and are specific to your product or service. While they have lower search volumes, they more easily gain higher search rank because they avoid the highly competitive arena of popular keywords.
Keeping Up with Trends
Another trick in using keywords is to keep up with trending keywords or phrases. This goes along with monitoring your own keywords to see if they are working well.
Strategy!
Developing a keyword strategy is a critical part of SEO. While you can create content based on keywords, you can also develop content and then make sure that it contains keywords in both the title and body. With skill and creativity, you can write engaging content and still follow keyword usage rules to help both people and search engine bots find you.
Need help developing a keyword strategy to fit into your digital marketing plan? We believe we may be the key to your success. Give us a call.