For my seminar this week, I gave a presentation on why keyword research and planning is at the heart of web content planning.
I thought it best to start with a brief description of what keyword research actually is. In short, keyword research is a practice used by web developers and SEO professionals to find and research actual search terms which are entered into search engines.
In a highly competitive market, it is essential for a company to understand the terminology, keywords and phrases that their online target market is using (Wikipedia, 2011), so it is extremely important for a company to conduct extensive keyword research. Keyword research is undoubtedly at the heart of any good SEO/SEM campaign.
What does keyword research help to achieve?
- It can improve a website’s search ranking (as part of a good SEO/SEM strategy) which should drive much needed traffic to a website.
- It enables a company to learn more about its customers. What they search for, how they search and the terminology they use.
- With keyword research you can “predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are already actively seeking.” (SEO Moz, 2010)
Daniel Lew states in his article ‘How Important is Keyword Research?’ that “[k]eyword research can affect your whole online personality.” Businesses have been known to change their angle of attack after finding that their target users are more professional or more relaxed than they thought. This leads to the whole personality of a site being altered to better suit the user and may affect the type of content chosen further down the line.
Basically, conducting effective keyword research could have a huge impact on your online business both now and in the future.
How is keyword research done?
- You can use online tools such as Google AdWord: Keyword Tool.
- Google AdWords allows you to insert a website or a word or phrase and it will come up with an extensive list of suggested keywords and phrases.
- Many webmasters will automatically focus on the keywords which have the largest number of searches, but these often have high competition from other websites, so it may prove more effective to focus on keywords and phrases with medium to low competition.
Once you have decided which keywords and phrases to use/target, they must be implemented into your website. Keywords should be included in the URL if possible, title tags, meta data, headers, the main content, navigation, image filenames, anchor text and alt attributes.
However – it is important to use keywords appropriately. Search engine spiders will discriminate against sites which have placed keywords inappropriately (whether in the text or in the code) in order to try and raise their search ranking.
How does keyword research affect content planning?
- Keyword research can help a company to really understand their target user. Understanding what they search for and how they search for it can affect the way a website’s content is put together.
- The website’s tone of voice may be altered in order to suit the target search market. For example, you may discover that your average user is looking for a site that is less formal than you were planning to create.
- The keywords and phrases you choose to target is likely to affect the content hierarchy of a website.
- The way navigation is set out – keyword research may enable web designers to help users to reach what they are searching for more effectively. For example, if many users are searching for one particular product, it should feature either on the landing page or be easily found in the main navigation.
- Content on the website should be planned with careful consideration of where keywords are placed. They should be repeated appropriately.
An example
A couple of weeks ago, I analysed the SEO/SEM of some websites that relate to my thesis project. One of those websites was Crumley Equestrian. This is a business that desperately needs to undertake some keyword research as part of an SEO plan.
Google AdWords suggested keywords and phrases
There are no keywords in the meta data (no information at all actually), all alt tags are empty and no key words or phrases in particular seem to have been targeted. “Horses for sale” is an extensively searched for phrase with a lot of competition. The important of adding a geographical location to this phrase should not be overlooked.
Google AdWords suggests “horses for sale in Sussex” as a phrase for Crumley Equestrian to consider. If Crumley Equestrian were to undertake some keyword research and alter their content accordingly, their SEO would undoubtedly improve and this might ultimately lead to a rise in horse sales.
Conclusion
In conclusion, keyword research and planning is at the heart of content planning because it is a fundamental part of SEO. Keyword research helps a business to understand its target market, allowing it to plan the website content accordingly. Finally, keyword research enables a company to respond to market shifts and build websites tailored to produce the products, services and content that searchers are already seeking.
Keyword research is vital to online business success!
References
Enge, E. Fishkin, R. Spencer, S. and Stricchiola, J., 2010. The Art of SEO. CA, USA: O’Reilly Media.
Lew D., 2010. How Important is Keyword Research? [online] Available at: http://www.danlew.com/how-important-is-keyword-research/ [Accessed 20 February 2011].
SEO Consult, 2010. Is Keyword Research the Most Important Part of SEO? [online] Available at: http://www.seoconsult.com/seoblog/keyword-research-and-search-engine-optimisation/is-keyword-research-the-most-important-part-of-seo.html [Accessed 21 February 2011].
SEO Moz, 2010. The Beginners Guide to SEO: Keyword Research [online] Available at: http://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-5-keyword-research [Accessed 21 February 2011].
Wikipedia, 2011. Keyword research [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_research [Accessed 20 February 2011].
I totally agreed with you that it could be more effective to focus on keywords or phases with medium to low competition. These keywords are more likely for the site to appear on top of search engines.
However, many people may be less likely to type “horse for sale in sussex” but more likely to type “Horse for sale”.
Therefore, the keyword “Horse for sale” could be the most important keywords to appear on the first page of Google. This could have more sale impact to the business. Therefore, I think it might be better idea to used Google Adword (pay per click) to adverting mainly on high competition keywords such as (“Horse for sale”) for better sales opportunity.
I have seen many online businesses using Good Adword to advertise their products or services. Google Adword can be costly but could have high return on investment. But, it’s all depending on their product or services and their competitors.
Good coverage and I agree that lots of SEO prep not only helps the google search placing but also allows you to really consider how people are going to find you – i.e. what they want to find out about and really how you are going to deliver your content in response to the way people are actually searching for it. I read ages ago about how one should do SEO as the first job before design – I realise now how important it is now, as it affects everything regarding content and navigation and page structure (particularly keyword strategy for targeting individual pages for the top keywords for an area of search you want to dominate in) if you are determined to beat your competitors for top organic placement.
Annop – thanks for your comment. Unfortunately I am going to have to disagree with you. If someone is searching for horses for sale, they are very likely to include their geographical location because they will actually have to go and see the horse (unlike ordering a product over the phone) and no-one likes to travel further than they have to! Also, by targeting “horses for sale in Sussex”, “horses for sale” will automatically be targeted as well.
Casey – I am looking forward to the challenge of beating the competitors to the top of Google!
I agree that zoning in on specific keywords that are relevant to your site, like location, is extremely useful in terms of SEO as well as to improve your knowledge of your user’s needs, thus driving more traffic to your site. :)
Will your own site be targeting a specific location or will it apply to the whole of Europe? If your users are in Europe, would there be a need to look at European horse-selling sites just to check that your keyword strategy is on the right line?