Keyword Optimization: How to optimize Keywords for SEO

Keyword optimization is an essential part of your website SEO and you would lose customers if you don’t use keywords for search engine optimization (SEO).

According to Junto,75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines.

Building a website and how to improve your website visibility is an ongoing series we started last week on our blog post and social media platforms for those that are just starting their website and those that already have a website, but want to increase it for search engine optimization to make it rank on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines.

We promised on our Facebook page that we are going to go into details about keywords research and at Sparkconect solutions, we keep our promises to our audience.

In this blog post, We are going to discuss what we mean by keywords, keyword optimization,  the benefits of keywords, and how to perform keyword research to make your website rank more on search results.

What are keywords Optimization?

SEO keywords are the keywords and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your website via search engines. It is a set of ideas and topics that define what your content is all about.

Keyword optimization is the process of researching, analyzing, and selecting the best keyword to target to drive quality traffic to your website and rank on search engine result pages.

The idea behind keyword optimization is that it helps communicate to the search engine what a webpage is about.

Therefore when you align your content with the words, topics, products, or service your target audience is looking for, you have a better chance of ranking higher in the search result.

SEO keywords range from single words to complex phrases and are used to inform website content to increase relevant organic search traffic.

Your audience uses them when searching for something related to your brand.

When effectively-researched and optimized, keywords act as a link to connect your target audience with your website.

Types of Keywords

Short-tail keyword

Short-tail keywords are short keywords that are made up of three words or less. They are sometimes called a head keyword.

This type of keyword has a huge amount of search volume,  highly competitive, and also doesn’t convert well.

Make use of it as a theme keyword that appears consistently throughout your website.

2. Long-tail keyword

Long-tail keywords consist of more than 3 words and are also usually much more specific than short-tail keywords.

This type of keyword has a much lower search volume compared to a short-tail keyword but is less competitive.

The idea behind a long tail keyword is that you can easily pinpoint the search intent.

Geo-targeting keyword

Geo-targeted keywords are search keywords or phrases that identify with a particular location.

People who use this term are looking for results that are near them, or in another location, they are interested in.

Hotels in Mokola, Universities in Texas, Restaurants in Ikoyi, etc are good examples

Product Keywords

These are the keywords that explain and describe your product and services.

People searching for a product or service defining keyword are looking for something very specific.

One of the best ways to get your product targeting keywords is to look at your product list, then create a detailed description for each of them, look at those descriptions and pick out two fundamental keywords and them to your product name.

Customer defining keyword

These are keywords or phrases that identify a specific segmentation of customers or audience.

Make use of these keywords to address your customers directly to create a sense that the product is tailor-made for them.

This kind of keyword often has a low search volume, low competitive rate, and a high conversion rate.

A highlight of the benefit of keyword optimization

If well researched and optimized, keyword optimization can bring huge benefits to your website, SEO, and business.

Here is a highlight of the benefits;

• Drive more qualified traffic to the appropriate webpages of your website.
• Identify and create useful content for the target audience by speaking the language of the target market.
• Help communicate to Google that a webpage is a match for a query.
• It can help improve search engine rankings by helping Google understand what your webpage content is all about.
• Increase time spent by visitors on your website by directing more qualified traffic to each webpage.
• It can lead to a high conversion rate by helping customers locate your website rather than that of your competitors

How to Perform Keyword Research

Keyword research is also known as keyword optimization refers to the process of understanding the language your target customers use when searching for your products and services as well as content and topics.

It involves the process of researching, analyzing, and selecting the best keyword to drive quality traffic from search engines to your website.

STEP 1: Research your industry/Niche

Before you start your keyword research, you need to have a good idea of your industry.

To know more about your industry, you can do the following;

• Collect feedback from your existing customers to get to know them better.
• Create a customer avatar for each of your products and services.
• Join online communities or forums dedicated to your industry to know what they are talking about,
• Research your competitors to know the type of keywords they are ranking for. SEMrush comes with a handy tool that can help you research your competitors.

STEP 2: Define your goals

As you perform keyword research, you will come across potential terms and phrases to use in your strategy. 

You will need to identify your goals to know the route to take for your SEO strategy and plan.

An important part of learning how to do keyword research is knowing which keywords to choose and which to ignore.

Note that different keywords will drive different results.

For example, short tail keywords or popular keywords may have high search volumes and drive a lot of traffic but with a low conversion rate.

While less popular, more niche or industry-based keywords may drive less traffic but with more conversion.

Knowing your goals will help you determine which keywords to focus on.

There is no point in getting traffic from search engines when it doesn’t help your business meet its goals.

It is better to get 5000search clicks that lead to 20 conversions than 20,000 search clicks with little or no conversions.

STEP 3: Creating seed keywords list

Seed keywords are very broad terms that describe topics or content that are relevant to your audience.

They are terms your target audience is searching on Google and other search engines. 

Seed keywords or focus keywords help you define your niche and identify your competitors.

Every keyword research tool asks for a seed keyword, which it then uses to generate a huge list of keyword ideas.

If you already have a product or business that you want to promote online,  Just think about what people type into Google and other search engines to find what you offer.

STEP 4: Make use of keyword research tools

Keyword research tools like Semrush, Ubersuggest, Google keyword planner make your job easier and faster by helping you generate more keywords based on the exact match keywords and phrases based on the ideas you have generated with the above steps.

After you have identified your goals, main topics, and focus keywords, you should use a good keyword research tool to expand the search terms further.

This exercise might give you alternatives that you might not have considered.

With a good keyword research tool, you would be able to identify how much monthly traffic a search term gets and how difficult it would be for you to rank for some specific term on Google.

On Friday I am going to discuss where keyword search optimization comes into play.