WordPress SEO Basics – Part 5
People type words in a box and out come relevant results!
At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Keywords are a big part of this process. Most people know that keywords are important, but most people don’t know how to use them effectively. In the old days of the internet, people used to list keywords repeatedly in the footer of their website hoping to gain visitors due to their keyword density. This does not work in the framework of today’s search engines. So it’s important to understand the power of keywords.
Ranking for the correct keywords can make or break your website and I don’t say that lightly. Researching keyword demand can not only teach you which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also the habits of your customers as a whole. It’s not about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors. Ultimately, if you don’t get the right kind of visitors, they won’t do business with you!
Knowing what keywords will rank for your site is more of an art than a science. Some keywords are obvious, others are not. One of the best ways to do keyword research is to look at competing sites. Another way is to test traffic through Google Adwords. Simply choose “exact match” and point the traffic to a specific page on your site. Be sure to have a good sample size to analyze. It is also important to quantify the value of the keyword search result. Once you quantify, you can figure out exactly how much revenue your website will produce from these keyword tweaks.
The following is probably the most important part of keyword research and if neglected will never net you new clients from your website! Dealing with keywords that have 5,000 searches a day, or even 500 searches a day is great, but in reality, these popular search terms make up less than 30% of all searches performed on the web. The remaining 70% lie in what SEO professionals call the “long tail” of search. The long tail contains hundreds of millions of unique searches that may be conducted only a few times a day, but, when taken together, comprise the majority of the world’s search volume.
Long tail keywords are vitally important also because they convert better. Long tail keywords are usually used by customers who are later in the buying cycle. They may have done their research on other bigger sites, but now it’s time for your site to shine!
Great places to do keyword research are as follows:
- Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool
- Google Trends
- Microsoft Bing Ads Intelligence
- Wordtracker’s Free Basic Keyword Demand
I also like to use Google AdWords, but this takes a little more know how.
Another great tool for WordPress is Yoast SEO. This powerful plugin will practically hold your hand while you figure out the best keywords for your site.
