Lots of people rush into Tags, URL’s and code
optimizing without realizing that the first step in any SEO strategy
will probably have nothing to do with that. Starting to correct code,
optimize tags, URL’s and metatags without carefully having planned a
coherent “Keyword Strategy”
beforehand is like throwing all your soldiers into a battlefield
without analyzing the terrain, the enemy, your weapons and your
tactics.
Your “Keyword strategy”
means in other words which are the keywords that you
choose to position your website with. To create an
efficient and effective keyword strategy, four main aspects need to be
considered:
- Keyword Search volume:
The search volume of a given keyword determines the total potential
traffic that this keyword can drive to your website. To give an
example, the monthly volume of searches in Google of the keyword “MBA”
is 5’000,000 while the volume of searches of the keyword “executive
MBA” is just 135,000. If you’d manage to get top listings for the
keyword “MBA” you would be in a very good position to capture a big
slice of the traffic generated by these 5’000,000 searches, much more
than if you manage to get first position with the keyword “135,000”
where your potential visits are just 135,000. If you have an Adwords
Account, you can use the “Keyword Tool” to estimate monthly traffic of
a given keyword you’re analyzing. Another useful tool you can use to
find relations of search volume and trends to help you decide which
keywords to choose in your keyword strategy is Google Trends (www.google.com/trends)
- Keyword relevance:
It’s not just the volume of searches what
matters but also how relevant it is to your website. Let’s say you
could hire the best SEO consultant in the world and he/she would manage
to get you number one ranking for the most searched keyword in
Internet: Sex. Is that something you really want (driving tons of
irrelevant traffic to your site)? Would the visits that having first
position for this keyword really convert in sales for your business? Of
course not. This is an extreme example but the reasoning still applies:
If you sell “Peruvian Gold Jewelry” Would you choose to position your
site with the keyword “Jewelry”? Maybe not a good idea since your
website only sells Peruvian Jewelry. Try to position your site with a
keyword that is too general, like “Jewelry” in our example and you’ll
end up receiving thousands Low quality visits,
meaning by low quality visits that don’t end up
in conversions and have a high bounce rate.
- Competition for the
keyword: Not only the search
volume and relevance of the keyword
are important in which keywords to choose but also the competition
you’ll find for it makes a big difference. If you want to be top ranked
for the keyword “tailor made Bolivian kitchen appliances” it will be
very easy; guess how many companies exist in this industry and how many
websites would try to compete for this keyword. Compare that to trying
to compete for position number one in “Free Downloads”, where tens of
thousands of websites worldwide are trying daily to get ranked on first
page. It’s not the same to try to get number one rank for a keyword
with only 4 companies competing that number one rank for a keyword with
1 million sites competing… Remember, regardless of how many companies
compete for top positions, Google’s first page of results will always
have only 10 available spots to show.
- “Goal Conversion” keyword:
You can use Google’s Goal Conversion tracking code to actually measure
with which keywords your customers are buying from your store. For
example, if you had 12 articles sold last month, this tracking system
can tell you with which keywords each of these 12 customers who bought
from you got to your website. This information should also be used to
decide with which keywords you want to position your website.
Your keyword strategy consists in balancing these
four criteria to choose wisely with which keywords you want to position
your site. Remember:
- Search volume:
Don’t go for too general keywords but when narrowing them down, always
look that the keyword you choose has monthly volume of searches that is
worth the effort.
- Relevance: Other
things being equal, always try to go for keywords closely related to
what you actually sell. Don’t try to position your site with words that
are somehow related, or more or less
close. Go for what you sell.
- Competition: Very
competitive keywords will require a much bigger and continuous effort.
Think on your available resources and in the importance of the keyword
for your business before deciding to go for a keyword with lots of
competition.
- Goal Conversion:
Always use this data to decide with which keywords you need to position
your site. At the end, this is the only 100% sure way to measure if a
keyword is generating sales or achieving your website’s goals.
Copyright by MBA
Internet Marketing Manager
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/
keyword-strategy-101-most-important-criteria-to-choose-your-keywords
-915607.html
About the Author
Pedro Neira is an MBA Internet Marketing Manager.
Freelance Consultant and Online Entrepreneur with experience in
Strategic Consulting, Start-Up fundraising and general management.
Online Marketing expert with special abilities in SEO and SEM.
Visit my blog MBA
Internet Marketing Manager
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