Steps to Successful Keyword Research – Part 2
You think you’ve come close, but you’ve still not found that needle in the haystack? Welcome to part two of our hints and tips when it comes to keyword generation.
You think you’ve come close, but you’ve still not found that needle in the haystack? Welcome to part two of our hints and tips when it comes to keyword generation.
Supplementary Keywords: Übersuggest, Keywordtool, SEM Tool:
The three free tools, Ubersuggest, Keywordtool and SEM-Tool can basically be used in the same way as Google Keyword Planner: Just enter your desired search term and the tools display additional possible keywords.
Übersuggest and the Keywordtool list the keywords with their additions in alphabetical order. Both programmes offer the possibility to mark the entire list of keywords so that they can easily be copied and worked on further.
The SEM tool marks the terms according to frequency; how often they’re used in searches on search engines such as Google, Bing, Amazon or Youtube. This is particularly useful if you want to optimize your webpages for search machines other than Google. The free version of this tool, however, only presents users with the results from the “Suggest-Search” from each search engine (these are the suggestions you get once you start typing into any search engine).
Source: sem-tool.com
Find Synonyms:
Using semantically similar terms and phrases, Google’s continually becoming better at determining the subject of a particular website. It follows, then, that those who optimize their websites using vocabulary applicable to the entire topic – rather than focusing on one or two key phrases – will have improved chances of ranking well. There are some incredibly useful synonym finders available online, though the two we’re presenting today are the OpenThesaurus for German suggestions, or Woxikon.
These portals provide you with a list of synonyms for the words you search for. This leaves you with the option to take these synonyms as additional keywords and produce specific content pages based on them. Alternatively, you could use the synonyms as ‘supporting keywords’ and incorporate them into the existing pages for your current keywords.
- Keep an Eye on the Competition
When it comes to researching your competition’s keywords, the number of (free) possibilities is very limited. The easiest option is to spend time on your competition’s website. Visit their most important pages and spend time looking into the HTML code (most easily done by printing on Ctrl+U). [V2] Check out the most-important SEO points, such as the title, meta-descriptions or the headlines (h1, h2, etc) to see which terms and phrases these include. Even the meta-keywords, if there are any, are indicative of where the competition is looking to be ranked.
There are some tools which make it possible to completely review a website. Seorch is a German-speaking example. Following a short scan of a website, Seorch can deliver detailed information about the various elements of a site, including: Meta-descriptions, titles and headlines, but also the keywords a website may be ranked for.
And finally, when taken together with the keyword planner, Google’s tool can really help provide an overview of the competition’s keywords. Just pop their website URL into the text field and await inspiration!
4.Check your information: Traffic
Once you’ve got your list of keywords, don’t throw yourself into getting your content created and optimized without thinking. The first thing you must do: Check your information!
Put your keywords into the keyword planner and check the details using the option ”search volume for keyword lists or divide keywords in advertisement groups[V3] ”. This will show you how frequently the terms are searched for.
The results display not only the details and values of the monthly searches on a word, but also how many others are currently competing for a ranking under this search term. The more frequently a particular keyword is used as a search term, the more it will pay off to use this term as the basis for your optimization – bear in mind, though, that higher the number of search requests using a particular term, the greater the competition for being ranked with it, too.
Which keywords should I choose?
As with all important issues in life, the answer to this keyword question is: It depends! There are two crucial factors for the choice of your keywords; the number of monthly search requests and the matter of short-head Vs. long-tail keywords.
Monthly Searches:
Don’t opt for the keywords which top the lists of the number of searches each month. Remember that it’s exactly these keywords which present the greatest degree of competition. Instead, turn towards the keywords which have fewer monthly searches, but correspondingly lesser competition. Here, you’ll have a greater chance of securing a good ranking. Weigh up the risks of embarking upon an optimizations-battle with the competition for a particular keyword.
Long-Tail-Keywords:
Generally speaking, there’s greater competition for the short tail keywords, as they bring more traffic, there’s significantly less competition when it comes to the long-tail keywords. These are specific searches which are, usually, composed of several keywords. For example: get high-quality SEO content written. Although the more detailed searches deliver less traffic, the visitors which arrive at your site using long-tailed searches are incredibly valuable: they convert significantly more frequently – they go from being curious to being customers.
Make sure you’ve got a good mix of keywords. To reach as many customers as you can, you should aim to cover both short-head and long-tail keyword searches.
And now: Putting it into Content
By now, you’ll have invested in your users and generated keywords based on their needs. You’ll have refined these keywords using expert tools, checked out the competition and got information on a keyword’s traffic. Now, it’s time to produce some relevant content! Make sure you get content which has a value for your readership. Your content should have a balanced approach to keyword density, as well as speaking directly to your target audience; it should help them find that needle in the haystack.
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