My Last post on Pagerank And Backlinking relation sparked some debate and curiosity in the minds of the readers about the effect pagerank has on your rankings since I mentioned that there are many other metrics for search engine ranking and keyword relevance is one of them , and I had promised you about bringing up the issue in my next post, so here it is assuming you have already read the basic prerequisite to Achieve Good Keyword Placement this would be easier for you to digest.
Tired of all the keyword tools and SEO gurus bugging you with their ninjas and samurais? want to know how these things really work or rather if they really work or not? read on to get an extensive insight into what keyword research really is and how it works and how it could shoot your blog to the top of SERPs without you needing to buy these warriors! Dont make a mistake, this is what those big firms do and this is precisely the reason why that shady competitor of yours ranks higher than you!
Instead of beating round the bush lets kill the rabbit straightaway!
Know Your Keyword Search Target.
Let this might sound a bit obnoxious but, instead of your blog being the target , you have to understand that your customer is your target! You got it right! the person who is making the search! Believe it or not, if you are into business blogging then your bread and butter depends pretty much on this one and only symbolic person who is searching for a service. (please note : after reading this, please avoid yourself from thinking of real people as burgers and breads with butter smeared on them , i just intended it to be a pun!)
Get In The Brain Of Your Customer
Keyword Analysis
Click on image to enlarge it (Trust me its worth it!)
Imagine all possibilities that he would use in order to search that would make him land up at your site. Are you selling computer parts? Then the most possible searches he will make is of the brand names and the product specification. Here is your golden chance. Most of your competition will spend time and money to optimize for the keyword ‘computer parts’ not to mention that money could have been of better use had they donated it to charity, simply they cant rank for such generic terms owing to killer competition.
Compile The Possible Keywords
I have already listed the other SEO tips needed to optimize you post. Let us further extend the query with your hypothetical computer business which we set up at the beginning of the article.
Your best bet would be something like ‘Dell Core 2 duo with graphics card’ , ‘Alienware HD gaming PC’ ‘Acer Laptop with A2DP adapter’ . Yes i know these queries sound stupid but thats the reality ! people make such queries all the time , and when i mean all the time i mean 80% of the search engines queries are long tail keywords which suposedly sound stupid. For better instance, when was the last time you remember searching for ‘how do i make my wordpress post sticky’ when you had to do so , instead of googling for ‘sticky post’ ? That says it all .
Add Some Wit To The Keywords
Sprinkle in even more long tails you think can be possible searches. Directly search for them as if you were the customer and see what results turn up. Don’t make a mistake here, just because google was sweet enough to return them to you as a search result does not mean those are friendly sites, those are infact your competitors! See their keywords, make modifications in your long tail and study their keyword pattern. Dont copy their keywords! use wit just to get an insight in the possible keyword that will be searched by a customer. (your competitor is not necessarily an SEO expert).
Big Keyword List Isn’t It?
Keyword Analysis
Click on image to enlarge it (Trust me its worth it!)
Yes i know you will have a big list of keywords. Now is the right time to filter them .
Use a tool like Google Adwords Tool or Insights to see the global monthly searches and simply match the keywords with a lot of searches and medium to below medium competition.These are your primary keywords.I will explain how to use the tools in detail in my next post. For now – High search volume , low competition is your slogan!
Using The Keywords
got the keywords ? Now what? Now starts the main task of using the highly researched data.Use the keywords strategically in such a way that different but synonymous versions are prominently used in the following
1)Custom Permalink Structure
2)Meta Tags
3)Header Tags H1 ,H2…
4)Text surrounding the header tags
5)Keywords Density
Important Note : Limit your keyword density to just 4 % not above it. Optimal is 2.5 % spread accross your article body. So if your post is 100 words, make sure you dont stuff more than 3 primary keywords in the article. This will not only irk the public but it will also raise a red flag with the search engines.
All Set? Now Publish The Post And See The Results
Make your direct keyword searches when its indexed and find your site listed there (unless you did a bad job with writing the article) you can gain some insight about how to write good blog posts here. Note You might see some fluctuations in the results based on your post relevancy , keyword and your offsite link building but that is a completely different aspect of SEO which we will tackle in my next post. As far as making an SEO optimized post is concerned , you have done your homework if you have read the above post without snoring !
Use it as an experiment to Draw Traffic To Your Blog and make a new post , whatever your niche may be, and let me know the difference you see in your SERPs when the post is indexed. Personally i have been doing this for each and every post that i write and i am ranking pretty well for both my primary and secondary keywords.
Waiting for your feedback and comments , and do share the article with your friends , dont be selfish !
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Keyword selection is one of the initial steps to start online business or blog, may be it’s hard to find the perfect keyword, but after deciding we can plan for next step, infographics which you designed are very informative, nice tips! Very cleverly explained, thanks!
Absolutely! Starting a business blog without prior research is like going to a world war without weapons!
Totally agree . The keyword selection process is the main foundation on which the whole edifice of the SEO project stands.
The selection involves the understanding of the psychology of the searcher and the signals which the keyword suggest tools give you. That is why SEO is an art as well as a science.
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