How to choose Keywords
-
Am starting a company and in the process of developing the website. I would like to get a head start on content and want to know the best way to choose keywords and tips on how to write optimized content.
-
Keyword research is the most important part of any SEO campaign, as it represents your foundation. All subsequnt work is going to be based on your initial keyword research. Get it wrong, and you may found yourself spending many wasted hours on keywords which are simply not worth it.
If you are new to SEO, my advice would be to get some help with your keyword research, or at least get a second opinion.
The Google keyword tool is going to be one of the most important long-term tools you will use, and it will help you to effectively choose and find keywords. However, you must consider how strong the competition is for any keyword to give yourself the best chance.
Best of luck.
-
I would suggest using Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
Type in "amazon river cruise". Configure your audience (what countries you are targeting, languages, etc) and then see what the difficulty and popularity is for your keyword. You will also learn about other keywords that may be related such as "rainforest cruise" or "amazon tours".
If you are really trying to rank well and there is competition, I would recommend targeting only one keyword per page. If the competition isn't strong you can target two keywords per page.
When you write the content, use the guide ennovation offered as it is fantastic. The key is not to write random 500 word articles on a given topic. They internet is full of those articles already. Go through and read the content from the 1 - 10 ranked pages, then write something better then anyone else. Write the best article that has ever been written on the topic. Then you will earn links and improve your rankings even more.
-
Sure. We are a travel agency and will concentrate on selling amazon river cruises with this particular website. I am thinking to build a list of 10-15 (or however many necessary) keywords and see which are the easiest to get into position 1 with - over some time of course.
-
That would depend entirely on your goals, your content and a few other factors.
Can you offer some idea of your subject? Perhaps a topic you are considering writing an article about? Is the purpose of your site to sell products or services? Membership? Or are you a non-profit site offering general information?
I would prefer to offer some helpful advice rather then information which will probably be too generic for you to find useful.
-
Thanks Ryan that's very helpful. Any advise or procedure on choosing which keywords would be best to use?
-
Hi Jeremy.
Your keyword selection will be directly related to how much quality content you have to offer on a given topic. If you were to write about "golf clubs" then you can write a single page on the topic and that page could be the only one mentioning golf clubs on your site. Alternatively, you can have an entire site dedicated to golf clubs with hundreds of pages discussing "golf clubs", "wooden golf clubs", "iron golf clubs", "putters", "professional golf clubs", "women's golf clubs", etc.
To get a general idea for getting started, I would recommend taking a look at Wikipedia. They do several things exceptionally well:
-
Their URL contains the phrase the page being targeted such as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_club_%28equipment%29
-
The page has an H1 tag with the key word title in it. Their H1 tag is located at the top of the page.
-
The content itself begins by talking about the keyword. Notice the articles first words "A golf club is used..."
-
Notice if you right-click on the image and choose SaveAs, the image name contains "golf clubs" in it.
There are many articles and even books about how to write content. The above tips are just a few important ideas to get you moving in the right direction. I would also recommend reading the Beginner's Guide to SEO. It is a relatively short, outstanding guide which can help answer some questions.
-
-
I usually guide my clients based on this. Check Perfect Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimization
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Proper use of location in keywords
¿If I want to track keywords in a specific location, do I need to write the keyword with the location or only the keyword? For example: If I want to track the results of the keyword "hair salon" in a specific city, should I write "Hair salon in (city chosen) or only hair salon.
Keyword Research | | reginadelafuente0 -
Image alt attribute - keyword stuffing?
If on the page (blog post) there is a lot of images and they all have the same alt attribute - is it keyword stuffing?
Keyword Research | | templatemonster0 -
How accurate is Googles Keyword Planner?
I did some keyword research for our company. Some of the terms we got 100,000 search volume for in 2011 now have only 90 monthly searches. I am doing exact match for both US and Global and neither are any where near those high of numbers. Now I can't say how the old report on this was done but we are all a little skeptical of these numbers. Is there any other tool out there for search volume on Google? The Moz tool while it lists Google as an option only does Bing. Thank you!
Keyword Research | | Sika220 -
Where are the Google Search Volumes in Keyword Analysis
I just joined and started by doing some keyword analysis, For some reason although I select "On Google", the tool only reports Bing Search Volume (Exact match). I am not that interested in Bing - not sure how to display the Google search stats
Keyword Research | | jbendiner0 -
Keyword Research Local vs Organic
I am curious what tact people take when doing KWR for a local business where regional keywords are important, for example 'Dallas Family Dentist' vs just 'Family Dentist'? It can be challenging to consistently create content for these regional keywords without looking spammy or akward in the wording of titles and copy. Any advice on how you approach SEO research or content creation when these regional words are important?
Keyword Research | | AESEO0 -
Bulk keyword competition tool?
The SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty tool is great, but the 5 keyword limit is too small. I need a tool that will allow checking the organic competition level of 100's of keywords (to help in selecting blog topics). Anyone know of such a tool?
Keyword Research | | AdamThompson1 -
Google Webmaster Keyword Significance.
In my google webmaster tools the most significant keyword google attaches to my site is word 'VAT' as in, Value Added Tax. Followed by Basket. I can see why this is, as the word VAT and Basket is on every product page, but it really is not a keyword I want to target. Does this have any negative effect on other keywords I am targeting? What should I do about this? Here is the site: https://www.loveelectronics.co.uk
Keyword Research | | jcarter0 -
Effective keyword grouping - any suggestions?
I have a specific question regarding keyword grouping. Whenever I've have compiled a (long) list of keywords, I create smaller groups of keywords that can be targeted by a category or page. However, I find this to be quite labour-intensive as I'm doing this work manually through filtering in Excel. To illustrate what I mean, here's an example of a keyword list: baby shirt
Keyword Research | | DeptAgency
t-shirt for baby
pregnancy shirts
pregnancy gifts Normally I would create a list of root words, like this: baby
shirt
pregnancy
gift I would then manually filter the list on each root word and copy the filtered list to separate tabs, which would result in lists like this: baby
baby shirt
t-shirt for baby shirt
baby shirt
t-shirt for baby
pregnancy shirts etc. As you can imagine, this is a lot of work. So my hope is that you can help me out with a smart tool / Excel formula / ??? to automate this process. Thanks for any suggestions!0