Choosing the best keywords for your website's SEO

If no one has told you today, you need to get your keyword game right immediately.

Keywords are what define what your content is about, it can be topic names such as photography, engineering, and more. When it comes to Search Engine Optimisation, these are the words someone will put into Google to find what they are looking for. If what they are looking for matches closely with the content keywords on your website, then the chances are they will find you. Taking into consideration that your website is in good health and standing with Google.

You need to do your research on keywords because some can be too brief that they are highly competitive and less likely to generate results for you. Others can be too specific and complicated that no one will find them. It is all about discovering the balance and being relevant to your website. No one wants traffic that is all the wrong type. Later on, we will discuss this further.

 If you are choosing keywords, look at your audience’s language and what they are looking for. That way, everything is much easier in terms of getting the right people to see your content.

We have created this blog post to break down keywords and help you get the most out of your optimization!

Types of Keywords

There are many types of keywords, different people tend to say different amounts and different phrases to name the types, but we want to simplify it for you. Let’s make life easier for us both… deal?

What Are Short-Tail Keywords?

These types of keywords usually consist of one or two words. For example, “Computer mouse,” is what would be considered a common keyword. It is a broad term that is used a lot, it doesn’t specify anything else about the mouse. Many people looking for a computer mouse might just generally search this and see what comes up but the competitiveness of these types of keywords is extremely high because they’re so generic.

It can be tempting to use these keywords but many brands are specializing in computer mouses out there with a lot more popularity, so it perhaps wouldn’t be the best idea to use such keywords with high competition depending on the current reach of your business.

What are Mid-Tail Keywords?

I’m guessing you are getting the hang of things after the previous explanation. This one should be fairly self-explanatory just as the one after should be. We will break it down for you anyway!

Mid-tail keywords are usually three-to-four-word phrases that are slightly more specific than short-tail. An example going off our previous could be, “Wireless computer mouse,” as there is more specification through stating wireless as opposed to wired. These keywords usually do have lower traffic, but considerably less competition to a short tail. Keywords like this could lead to better conversion rates due to having a better description and a better user intention when searching for something like this.

What are Long-Tail Keywords?

Have you figured it out yet?

As you can tell long-tail keywords are longer search terms usually over four words. These are a lot more targeted and searching for specific things compared to the other two. Search traffic is low and there is low competition, so these are easier to try to rank for as they’re so specific. Our example for this is, “Wireless windows gaming computer mouse.” This is very specific and classed as long-tail, if you’re using these keywords then people will find it relatively easier to find you, and commonly, people searching this specifically know what they are wanting so likely to become a customer.

One thing you have to be careful of when using these types of keywords is that you don’t overdo it. Putting too specific long-tailed keywords can make it difficult for people to find you online. When it comes to putting long-tail keywords into a website, this can often prove quite difficult and it is best to avoid keyword stuffing when doing this.

Keyword stuffing is the spam of keywords into a website’s content or meta tags. Some do it to try to give themselves an advantage in rankings of searches, but it backfires a lot of the time.

Keyword Intent

Keyword intent is what the user is intending when they begin to search for something. When beginning SEO, you must put yourself in the users’ shoes and try to think what they could be thinking when searching for something. There are three types of search intent which include: navigational, informational, and transactional.

 Don’t worry, we won’t leave you in the dark… Let us explain.

Navigational Intent – This is when a user creates a search to direct them to a specific website. This could be, “Prototype Creative,” or “Bite Digital.”

Informational Intent – The user searches to gain more knowledge on a particular topic or find an answer to their question. An example of this is, “How do I use keywords in my website?”

Transactional Intent – The user intends on making a purchase online. This could be something like, “wireless keyboard.” Alternatively, this could include a specific brand or actual phrases related to transactions such as, “Buy,” “for sale,” “purchase.”

Transactional keywords have a high intent online, as the user is looking to buy something. Whereas the other two have a lower intent because they aren’t necessarily out looking for making a conversion.

Conducting Keyword Research

Keyword research is a must if you are looking to optimize your website’s ranking and boost traffic to it. No one likes conducting lots of research, we get it. It is important to understand this is just something that has to be done in order to improve your online presence.

We could even do this for you. No hassle.

 First, a good idea could be to look at your competitor’s website and find what types of keywords they are using. There are plenty of keyword research tools online which will also help you find what your closest competition is ranking for in Google. Tools such as SEMRush and UberSuggest are two good sites for this. Ultimately, you want to use this research as leverage to develop your own keyword strategy and content.

Mind mapping and starting with broad keywords related to your content could be a good start. After you have gone through all of the short terms, try to get more specific and extend the length of your keywords. This activity could prove useful when it comes to researching how these keywords perform as if they seem poor performing, you can cross them off of the list.

Now, you may have noticed a reference here to the above… so we hope you have been taking the information in because, if you notice, earlier we explained the types of keywords. This mind-mapping activity focuses on you starting with short-tail, going to mid, and eventually ending up with long-tail keyword ideas. It is a process of narrowing down your focus to create the best keywords that are effective in creating those conversions and boosting your search engine ranking for them.

If you have already had your website up for a while, another idea to finding effective keywords that are already working is to visit Google Analytics. Analytics can show you the keywords you already are ranking for and the ones which may not be as effective as you thought. In the future, Google Analytics is a good tool for you to use to see how your keywords are performing, and then it allows you to make any adjustments.

As you can probably already tell, keywords for search engine optimization can be quite difficult to get your head around at the beginning. It is a case of trial and error through seeing which ones you chose are performing and which ones are not. Then eliminating and going back to the drawing board. 

Once you have your keywords you want to place them strategically on your website, this includes the title, content, and meta description. As we said above, do not keyword stuff! This causes a lot more harm than good.

We hope this guide proves useful to you when looking to boost your site’s rankings and direct more traffic to it. Think like the user who is searching, what would they be looking for in relation to your site? How would you phrase a search as a user?

Of course, your website needs to be responsive and have good quality content on there to create conversions from users. Otherwise, you could find yourself with the right words which produce volumes of traffic but no positive outcomes from the search.