Keyword research and optimisation
Keyword research and optimisation
Keyword research and optimisation is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO). It involves identifying the keywords and phrases that your target audience is using to search for products or services related to your business and then optimising your website’s content, meta tags, header tags, images, and URLs to include those keywords.
To begin your keyword research, you’ll need to identify your target audience and understand their needs, pain points, and search behavior. This will help you to identify the keywords and phrases that they are using to search for products or services related to your business.
There are a variety of tools that you can use to conduct keyword research, such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz Keyword Explorer. These tools allow you to enter a keyword or phrase and see the search volume, competition, and related keywords. This information can be used to identify the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your business and that have the highest search volume and lowest competition.
Once you’ve identified your target keywords and phrases, you’ll need to optimise your website’s content to include them. This includes optimising your website’s meta tags, header tags, images, and URLs.
Meta tags are HTML tags that provide information about your website to search engines. The most important meta tags for SEO are the title tag and meta description tag. The title tag should include your target keyword and provide a brief, accurate, and compelling description of your page’s content. The meta description tag should also include your target keyword and provide a brief summary of your page’s content.
Header tags, also known as H tags, are used to organize and structure your website’s content. The most important header tag for SEO is the H1 tag, which should include your target keyword and provide a clear and concise summary of your page’s content. Other header tags, such as H2, H3, and so on, should also include relevant keywords and provide a clear and logical structure for your content.
Images should also be optimised for SEO by including relevant keywords in the file name, alt text, and captions. This will help search engines understand the content of the images and make it more likely to appear in image search results.
URLs should also be optimised for SEO by including relevant keywords and providing a clear and logical structure. URLs that are easy to read and understand are more likely to be clicked on by users and are also more likely to be indexed by search engines.
It’s also important to note that keyword stuffing, which is the practice of including a large number of keywords in the content, meta tags, header tags, and URLs, can harm the ranking of your website. Search engines will penalize the website for keyword stuffing and it will not provide a good user experience.
In addition to on-page optimisation, off-page optimisation is also important. Backlinks, or inbound links, are links from other websites that point to your website. Search engines view these backlinks as a vote of confidence for your website’s content and authority. Building high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites in your industry can help to improve your website’s visibility in search results.
Finally, it’s important to monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed. Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to track your website’s performance in search results and measure the success of your keyword research and optimisation, and your greater SEO strategy.
Top 10 things to do
- Understand your target audience: Identify your target audience, what are their needs, what are they searching for, what are their pain points, these insights will help you to identify the keywords you should target.
- Conduct keyword research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience is using to search for products or services related to your business. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz Keyword Explorer to find the keywords with the highest search volume and lowest competition.
- Optimise your website’s content: Once you have identified your target keywords, optimise your website’s content, meta tags, header tags, images, and URLs to include those keywords. Make sure your content is high-quality, relevant, and informative.
- Optimise for long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific phrases that are less competitive and can drive targeted traffic to your website.
- Use LSI keywords: Latent Semantic Indexing keywords are keywords that are semantically related to your main keyword, these keywords can help your content to rank higher and also provide a better user experience.
- Use keyword research tools: Use keyword research tools to find the best keywords to target. These tools will show you the search volume, competition, and related keywords, which can help you to identify the best keywords to target.
- Monitor your rankings: Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor your website’s rankings for your target keywords, this will help you to identify if your optimization efforts are working or not.
- Optimise for Local SEO: If your business has a physical location or serves a specific geographical area, it’s important to optimize your website for local search. This includes creating local listings on directories like Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yelp, and including your location information on your website, including your business name, address, and phone number.
- Monitor your competitors: Keep an eye on your competitors and their SEO strategies, you can use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to monitor their backlinks, keywords and other SEO-related information.
- Continuously update your strategy: SEO is an ongoing process, and it’s important to regularly review and update your strategy. This can include experimenting with new keywords, updating your content, and making changes to your website to improve its visibility in search results.