Let’s first break down exactly what the phrase “Keyword Research” means. Keywords are words or phrases that people type into a search box to find relevant information, products, or services that they are interested in. For example, let’s say they’re looking for the best company in Tampa, Florida to replace a hot water heater. At this point the user would type the keywords “best hot water heater company in Tampa” into the search box located at the top of their search engine.
If they just type in “hot water heater,” they might get listings for hot water heater installers in Texas or South Dakota. Keywords help to narrow down and target a search in specific geographic areas, even right down to a zipcode location with your search engine.
The search engine is a web-based software system that enables users to locate information on the World Wide Web. Popular examples of search engines are Google, Yahoo!, Safari, or Microsoft Edge. We’ll get into Search Engine Optimization or SEO in another blog.
“Keyword Research” is the process of finding, analyzing, and then using the most effective words within the website content so that your potential customer or client might enter those words into the search box as they look for the information, product, or service they need. This allows you to embed highly targeted, very specific-to-your- business words as part of your content strategy.
Keyword Research helps you to:
- Tailor your content strategy to the specific needs of your customer base
- Better understand what words motivate your target customer or client
- Generate much more appropriate traffic to your website
Without keyword research, many websites fail to generate significant traffic because there are not enough or there are no keywords in the content to point users to your site.
Steps to Keyword Research
At thirteen05, we do a step-by-step process to determine the best keywords for our Internet Marketing clients. We first find relevant keywords for your specific business using a vast array of keyword research tools.
We then prioritize your keywords using key metrics and criteria. Using the “hot water heater” example above, we would put the words “hot water heater” at the top of the list, and the word “plumber” closer to the bottom of the keyword list. They both apply to your search, but one is more important and should be written within the content more times than the other.
Last, we identify primary keywords, the ones that are searched the most for your area of business or industry.
You Can Help Us
First, you can make a list of words or phrases that apply to your area of business. Then you can add a list of phrases that you’ve heard your customers use in relation to your specific company. Or you can add your own phrases that you use to explain what you do or to provide sales information to your customers about your product or service.
Back to the hot water heater, you might say to a potential customer: “Our hot water heaters are the most cost efficient on the market today.” Keywords: cost efficient hot water heaters in Tampa.
One of the keys to finding out what the best keywords are, is to listen to your customers. How do they describe your product and business? Have they complimented your customer service? Do you have a wide selection of product to choose from? Type their questions into your search box and see what headlines come up. Those headlines may be just the keywords or phrases you need.
Keyword Tools and Software
With our keyword tools, we can take your phrase list and turn it into literally hundreds of ideas for inclusion in your website content. And as part of the keyword analysis process, we can determine how many times a particular keyword or phrase should be used for maximum optimization and essential metrics.
If you have an established website, you may already have keywords embedded within your content. We can run a competitive analysis to be sure you have keywords that are essential within your business niche and that they rank in the top list of search words or phrases.
If our Internet Marketing team is creating a new website or rebuilding your older website, we can run the same analysis to see what words are working, compare them with the keywords of competing businesses, and ascertain which words work…and which ones don’t.
Keywords for SEO Success
There are many factors that can influence the success of your keywords for the best SEO. You want words that pop up immediately, that describe your business or service in one word or phrase. Words that rank you at or near the top of a search list.
The applicability of search results may depend on your search engine. Google, for example, will list semi-relevant websites if there are not enough truly applicable keywords in smaller business websites to fulfill a search box query. But you can still outrank “Big Box” stores if your content better fills the needs of the searcher with the right keywords.
In addition, the more authority or expertise your website shows to a potential consumer, the easier it will be for us to target some keywords within your content. Even if we find keywords or phrases that have a higher difficulty, we can increase the search volume by optimizing those words within your search engine.
Bottom Line? When creating a website for your business, Keyword Research is as essential as the product or service you’re selling. It takes time, expertise, and experience.
