There are many steps to take when optimising a webpage for search engines.
We won’t go into all of them here because – quite frankly – the list is pretty exhaustive, and we wouldn't want you to lose interest.
So instead, we're going to concentrate on one of the most crucial and fundamental steps in SEO: identifying and targeting keywords.
What are they? How do they work? How can I help the person in charge of SEO find them (we LOVE this one)?
Let’s try and answer these and learn more about those keywords.
Keywords are like flares that attract the attention of search engines.
Picture the scene: you’re looking to get some flowers delivered to your Mum for her birthday.
So you hop onto Google and search for ‘flower delivery companies’.
You'll be presented with around 80 million web pages which Google has ranked in order of relevance and trustworthiness.
Get passed the ads at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Result Page), and you'll find the organic results.
Here are mine - yours will likely be different depending on your previous search history, location etc.:
Chances are these pages optimised their content by targeting that specific search term or ‘keyword’.
KeyWORD? But ‘flower delivery companies’ is three words.
Well, yes. But a keyword doesn't have to be one singular word. It can be a short phrase.
In fact, there are different types of keyword.
Let's rifle through some of these, then.
These are also known as ‘Head’ or ‘Body’ keywords. They can consist of anywhere between one or three words.
They usually have high search volume, but because of their vagueness, they can be tough to rank for because of stiff competition from other vying sites.
As the name suggests, these are slightly longer phrases(!).
The longer they are, the more bespoke they become; therefore, their monthly search volume is likely to be lower. But they should also be easier to rank highly (more on that below).
There are also different types of keyword based on a user’s intent.
They can be divided into three categories:
• Navigational – the user wants to find another web page
• Informational – researching a topic
• Commercial – desire to make a purchase
You need to think like your customer to choose the right keywords with the best results.
Searches like ‘buy low-cost water heater’ are very different from ‘water heater broken’ queries. One is a commercial key phrase, and the other is informational.
In the case of informational searches, you should provide some unique content related to that phrase.
Blog articles are excellent for this search type and can contain several keyphrases. You need to link that content to your product pages or contact forms.
Commercial or transitional intents are the easiest to focus on but are also highly competitive. Hiring an SEO Agency to write your copy can help match your keywords when Google crawls your site.
As we have seen above, choosing the right keyword in terms of intent is critical.
But there are other factors we need to take into consideration.
SEO reporting software (which we use here at Orca) can help identify some crucial information about the effectiveness of keywords.
Let’s take the flower example again.
The software has analysed the keyword ‘flower delivery companies’ and has told us:
What does this all mean?!
In a nutshell, although this term has a reasonably high number of search queries per month, it won't be easy to optimise a webpage to ensure it appears on page one of Google.
So, if we were looking to raise awareness of a business offering this service, we might want to concentrate our efforts elsewhere.
Any SEO professional worth their salt will be able to use their skills and software to help identify suitable keywords to help raise the profile of your web services.
But, there are certain things you will know about your business and clients that could help laser target the correct terms, particularly if your business serves a niche audience.
For example, knowing who your IDEAL customer/site visitor is (or who you hope it will be) could be incredibly beneficial.
Do you have a profile of that person? Demographics such as age, gender, and occupation could all help determine what they are most likely to search for
Oh, and knowing who your competitors are is also a huge help.
SEO professionals will then be able to analyse the search terms these other businesses use and assess whether they could work for you too.
Keywords are one of the most fundamental aspects of search engine optimisation.
There are many ways to help identify which terms could be most beneficial to you.
But once you have identified the best keywords to target, the process of amending a webpage for the benefit of search engines and site visitors becomes much easier.
If you would like help boosting your organic search rankings, contact Orca Online Marketing today and see how we could help.
