What are Keywords?

SEO Primer

Keywords are the words and phrases entered in a search engine to reach a result page.

How to choose effective keywords

Consider…

• traffic (How often do people search using the keyword?)
• competition (How many other sites appear with this keyword?)
• relevancy (Is this the keyword people will use when searching for this product or service?)

Traffic

Use the Google AdWords free keyword tool to get a quick look at the advertiser competion and the search volume for the previous month and 12-month period.

Go to the tool and enter your keyword in the “descriptive words or phrases” box.

You will get a list of keywords with search volume details. If you don’t check ‘Use synonyms’, you will get a list with fewer keywords.

Competition

Use the same tool to research the competion.

After you select the keywords that best fit your product or service and that have sufficient traffic, go to Google and search to see which web pages rank for it. Make the list of the first ten URLs so you can analyze each site in the keyword tool.

Go to the tool, click the radio button for “Website content” and enter the URL in the box.  You will be able to compare the high-ranking site with your own. Analyze your own page and see which keyword(s) you are missing. Edit the pages to include the suggested and related keywords.

Relevancy

Use the ‘Additional keywords to consider’ list for more related keywords, and the match type dropdown menu to broaden or narrow your search. (Learn about keyword match types.) Don’t be afraid to change one or more of your keywords if you find that you are not getting the results that you expected. Evaluate, analyze, test, and repeat!

Happy Keyword Hunting!