How to Select Keywords

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Keywords are essential to your business. Without appropriate keywords, people won’t be able to find you because the search engines won’t list you. Therefore, if you want your business to succeed, you must use the most relevant keywords possible.

It is true that search engine optimization (SEO) can be a little frightening and it can be overwhelming to try to come up with effective keywords that really work well for your business. So, you might ask yourself how you get started on choosing amazing keywords. A methodical approach will probably work best for you and if you take it one simple step at a time, you will see that you will achieve positive results.

The following are simple steps that you can incorporate into your keyword approach:

  • Search for your brand: It is extremely important that you understand where your brand falls in the search engine rankings. Your objective, in this case, is to force your competitors’ rankings to fall below your rankings. You want your brand to appear as high up on the first page of the search engine as possible. If you are at the top, nobody else can be. You want to own that spot. Additionally, you need to ensure that all of the terms that are connected to your brand (such as brand-specific product names) also appear at the top of the page.
     
  • Gather suggestions for keywords: There are keyword suggestion tools that will help you to obtain a list of top-quality keywords. You can obtain this by entering relevant keyword and your competitors’ URLs into the tool. Remember to make sure that you include a variety of different terms (head terms, mid-terms, and long-tail terms). Head terms are terms that get less than 1,000 monthly searches, mid-terms are terms that get between 100 and 1,000 monthly searches, and long-tail terms are terms that get less than 100 monthly searches.
     
  • Beat out the competition: You should identify the keywords of your competitors by including their homepage URL to your keyword suggestion list. Then you can compare their keyword list against yours. That is an easy way to identify if you have missed any important keywords.
     
  • Hone your keyword list: Hone your keyword list by categorizing in by search volume, relevancy, competition, and present status. Your objective should be to choose 10 keywords that are part of your SEO strategy. Those words should include your brand name and four other relevant keywords. Your choices should be only the keywords that are extremely relevant to your business. You can look at the specific words that are already ranked in the search engines. It is easier to begin if you have a running start. An important thing to look at is your global monthly searches.  Think in terms of conversion. Try to picture people searching for those terms in the context of your website and try to determine if they could actually be converted.
     
  • Develop a strategy to rank your keywords: Once you have your established list of keywords, you can create your SEO strategy around those terms. You need to watch the terms over time by monitoring the patterns of the rankings and by gauging exactly which type of traffic you are receiving as a result of those terms.

Conclusion

In as much as SEO requires a lot of effort up front, the results will be long term. Keyword selection is critical to the success of your business’s success when it comes to your SEO strategy. The keywords will make all of the difference. If you do it correctly, uncomplicated SEO can positively affect your website traffic and your brand awareness will increase exponentially.

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Author

  • Michael Cohn

    Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has decades of experience in IT and web technologies. Michael founded CompuKol Communications to help small businesses and entrepreneurs increase their visibility and reputation. CompuKol consults, creates, and implements communication strategies for small businesses to monopolize their markets with a unique business voice, vision, and visibility. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

18 Responses

  1. Eric G Steinberg says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Small Business Online Community
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    Indeed!

    Start by searching your keywords. Look at the number of hits. Start with the ones that are good matches with you business and have the lowest number of hits.

    For example if you select a keyword(s) that has 250,000,000 hits vs on that has 1,000,000 hits it will take for ever for you to get notice.
    Posted by Eric G Steinberg

  2. Ivan Walsh says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: A Solo Business – Solopreneurs And Business Owners
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    Nice one,

    I also try to work on phrases as people tend to type in these when searching,

    Ivan
    Posted by Ivan Walsh

  3. Kayalucia Lauwerys says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Online Advertising Professionals – North America
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    Excellent reminder and checklist for business' that are unclear about their SEO tactics … thank you,  Question to you and others – how and how often do you recommend businesses access (measure) and refine their keyword strategy?
    Posted by Kayalucia Lauwerys

    • Michael Cohn says:

      Kayalucia,

      That basically depend on how often you monitor your analytics and your analytics results. Some people look at their analytics several times a day, some on a weekly or monthly basis and some never. The results of your analytics would determine how good your keywords are. We recommend you keep an eye on your analytics on a weekly and monthly basis and review your keywords success once a month.

  4. hima chhag says:

    really had less knowledge about keywords.
    very informative and easy to understand.

  5. Chitra Raghavan says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Business Writers of America
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    Thanks for these SEO tips. I have found that including the relevant keywords whenever you post your link/article on twitter/FB makes a huge impact in ensuring that your website lands on the top 10 spot.
    Posted by Chitra Raghavan

  6. bernard schokman says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Fans of Mashable
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    I use a product called Market Samurai. It's very good for finding the niche markets when it comes to keywords.
    Posted by bernard schokman

  7. Zamir Anjum says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Web Developer & Graphic Designer
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    yes sir, you are right, for keyword research Google provided its tool name Google keyword suggestion tool it let you know the volume of specific keywords searched.

    you research your site by those keywords thru Google tool and this is how you wisely optimise your site with keywords.
    Posted by Zamir Anjum

  8. Peter Curtis says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: The Content Wrangler Community
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords


    Key points: (1) Understand where your brand falls in the search engine rankings; (2) Use only keywords that are relevant to your business. After developing a long list of keywords, it's tempting to try to cram a lot of them into your copy. But it's important to pare them down to only those that will help searchers find what they're looking for on your site.
    Posted by Peter Curtis

  9. JALAL MOHAMED KHAN says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: eMarketing Event Group
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    Yes Michael,I agree.If the key words not used in communication persons,companies products and ideas are left behind.One has to put in lots of efforts to use these key words.Well said. Regards.
    Posted by JALAL MOHAMED KHAN

  10. Anthony Broom says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media in Science – Applying Social Media to Laboratory, Scientific & Health Professions
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    In terms of keywords what would the most effective to improve you companies ranking? Is it product in or company info?
    Posted by Anthony Broom

  11. Jimmy Frazier says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: eMarketing Event Group
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    I agree, Key word are very important. But one must be is to use and analyze the best keywords that you think will do the best for your conversion rate. Flooding your site with random keyword can reek havoc on the advertizing budget
    Posted by Jimmy Frazier

  12. Erin Feldman says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media in Science – Applying Social Media to Laboratory, Scientific & Health Professions
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    I think the answer to your question lies in what kind of company you have. Is the company more known for its products or its company identity?
    Posted by Erin Feldman

  13. Tristan Walker says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media in Science – Applying Social Media to Laboratory, Scientific & Health Professions
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    I use a tool that lets me know what people search for, based on the company and product! Then I place them in both meta tags and also use these words in content. This will help your ranking…
    Posted by Tristan Walker

  14. Anthony Broom says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media in Science – Applying Social Media to Laboratory, Scientific & Health Professions
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    @Tristan Walker, what tool would that be? The company is based purely on the quality of product. We sell sports nutrition supplements.
    Posted by Anthony Broom

  15. Tristan Walker says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media in Science – Applying Social Media to Laboratory, Scientific & Health Professions
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal it's a great tool, and will help you select keywords per country! There is so much to SEO, that it goes beyond the keywords! But this is a good start! Back to the tool, don't choose the most competitive keywords, as it is much harder to grow organically. Use moderate ones. Hopefully this will make a difference. Are your meta-tags updated. One final thing… If you have people linking back to your site(s), try and get them to link back via keywords you use. This will really boost your rankings… Oh, and label images based on keywords… LOL. the list is endless!
    Posted by Tristan Walker

  16. Charles Clayton says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Online Advertising Professionals – North America
    Discussion: How to Select Keywords

    Keywords, as in metatags? Google haven't used them in search for over 5 years. Keywords and key phrases in the copy, that's fine.
    Posted by Charles Clayton

  17. Hidden DVR Cameras says:

    I need to look back at my keywords. Thanks you for this article