Every marketer is familiar to some extent with SEO, or search engine optimisation. It’s such a powerful marketing tool that no business owner today should be a complete novice in the field.
But in case you don’t know, SEO, or search engine optimisation, is a process that aims to improve a website’s visibility in search engine results. SEO involves a variety of strategies and techniques, such as keyword research, content optimisation and technical changes, to help search engines find and better rank your website’s content. Effective SEO leads to increased organic traffic, which can increase conversions and business revenue.
SEO keywords are therefore the SEO foundation that determine how well a website is visible in search engines. Choosing and using the right keywords can significantly increase website traffic and improve conversion rates. Let’s take a closer look at why keyword selection is important, how to choose the right keywords and what tools to use to find the most effective keywords. Plus, we’ll share practical tips on how to use analytics results to create and optimise content.
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What are SEO keywords?
SEO keywords are specific words and phrases that people use to find information in search engines. These words help search engines to understand what a website is about, and thus determine which search results a website appears in and where it ranks.
Choosing the right keywords and optimising your website is critical, as they have a direct impact on your website’s visibility, organic traffic and ultimately the success of your business. Strategic use of SEO keywords helps target the right audience and increase the relevance of the website.
How they affect a website’s visibility in search engines
SEO keywords play a critical role in a website’s visibility in search engines. When a website contains well-chosen and optimised keywords, it helps search engines understand what the website is about and who it is targeting. Keywords influence the search engine algorithms that determine which search results a website appears in and where it ranks. The result is more organic traffic and better targeting, which in turn can boost conversions and business.
Keywords are the direct link between what people search for online and what can be found on your website. That’s why it’s important that search engines also understand what you offer and help the right customers reach you.
Therefore, the right choice and use of keywords is crucial to a website’s success. In addition, in-depth keyword analysis helps to identify new opportunities in marketing and content creation, ensuring a competitive advantage.
How to choose the right keywords?
Choosing the right keywords is an important step in your SEO strategy. Here are some key steps to follow:
- Find out your target audience: Understand what words and phrases your potential customers use when searching for the products or services you offer. Whenever possible, include people who are your potential customers, not industry experts, in your research.
- Use keyword tools: tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush and Ubersuggest can help you find popular and relevant keywords. Use search tools such as Google Search, Search Engines, Google Search, Google Search, Search Engines.com, search for search terms such as search engines, search results, and more. Google’s algorithms are powerful and even give suggestions on how users search for something.
- Analyse the competition: See what keywords your competitors are using. Evaluate their success and analyse whether they could be suitable for your website.
- Evaluate keyword search volume and competition: Choose keywords with high search volume and low competition. These are the keywords with the highest search volume and high competition. The keywords chosen should be relevant.
- Check relevance: make sure the keywords you choose are relevant to your products or services and match your customers’ intentions. Customers are not lazy and if they can’t find keyword-matched information on your website, they will simply leave.
- Create keyword lists: divide keywords into primary, secondary andlong-tail keywords to cover a broader search spectrum.
- The main (primary) keywords are high search volume words that describe your main products or services. For example, in the case of Web Systems, these are “web development” and “web design”.
- Additional (secondary) keywords support the primary keywords and can be more specific. For example, in our case we might use “web development for small businesses” or “local web design”.
- Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific phrases. They have lower search volume but lower competition and are more precise. Examples: ‘website services in Tallinn’, ‘best web design for business’.
- Keywords: use the keywords you choose to optimise your content. Use selected keywords in content, meta descriptions, titles and URLs.
- Monitoring and adapting results: working with keywords is an ongoing process. Monitor the performance of keywords and make any necessary adjustments to your optimisation strategy. As your competitors are also constantly improving their SEO, you need to analyse it regularly and update keywords if necessary. We recommend that you do this as part of your overall website maintenance.
When choosing keywords, make sure they are specific and relevant. The more specific your keywords, the more likely you are to reach your target audience. For example, if you’re offering home cleaning, use “home cleaning” or “private house cleaning” as keywords. If you use more general keywords like “cleaning” or “cleaning services”, you will also compete with industrial and commercial cleaning services.
Search volume, competition, intent and relevance
There are a few parameters to keep in mind when choosing keywords. These will help you to understand whether a keyword is valuable or not.
Search volume: this shows how many times a given keyword is searched for per month. Keywords with a high search volume bring more traffic, but are often more competitive.
Competition: this refers to how many other websites are competing for the same keywords. Keywords with low competition are easier to optimise and give faster results.
Intent: users’ intent shows what they are looking for – whether information, a purchase or something else. Keywords need to match users’ expectations in order to deliver valuable content.
Relevance: the relevance of keywords means how well they match the content of your website. Relevant keywords improve the user experience and SEO performance. Customers will also spend more time on a page if the content matches what they were hoping to find on the page.
What makes a keyword a good keyword?
Each of the above parameters affects whether a keyword is good and also effective. Understandably, some companies have such a narrow field of activity and such a specific clientele that broad keywords are not feasible. But simply put, a good keyword is a good keyword:
- A keyword that is searched for a lot. The more the merrier. AGA…
- The less competition for the keyword used on the optimised page, the better. If many people have optimised their page for the same keyword, the competition will be higher.
- The more accurately your chosen keyword or phrase describes your product or service, the better.
How are the keywords distributed?
While it may seem like a keyword is a keyword, in reality, users’ searches clearly tell you what stage they are at in their search. Consequently, keywords can also be broken down into different categories.
- Brand-specific keywords – if the customer already knows what they are looking for, it follows that they have done their homework and are looking for what a particular brand has to offer. For example, a customer might search for JBL headphones.
- Product-based keywords – for these keywords, the customer is still in the pre-work phase of looking for the best possible solution. These searches can be generic – for example, headphones.
- Informative keywords – the customer has discovered a problem they are trying to solve. It may not even be a search for a specific product yet, but for example, gathering information on “best noise cancelling headphones”.
- “Buy now” keywords – these searches mean the customer has a card in hand and is ready to make a purchase. An example of this would be “JBL headphones on sale”.
- Alternative and related keywords – these keywords are related to your products and services and help users find the right offers. For example, “noise cancelling” is not just about headphones, but also about earplugs and even interior finishing materials.
Best tools for keyword analysis
As what we’ve read so far suggests, SEO keyword analysis is a highly technical job. Fortunately, there are both free and paid tools available online that can help you to do the analysis in a systematic and efficient way, and with much more accuracy than would be possible without the data.
Keyword analysis tools are essential for any successful SEO strategy. They can help you identify which keywords drive the most traffic and conversions. In doing so, they take into account keyword search volume, competition and user intent. SEO tools provide in-depth data and analytics to help you make informed decisions and ensure that your SEO efforts are delivering the desired results.
The easiest way to find the tools you need is to type “keyword search tool” or “keyword tool” into Google. As always with Google, the best ones are generally at the top of the search results.
Free tools
If you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur or marketer and don’t want to choose a paid tool right away, you can experiment with free tools for now. While they may not offer full functionality, they have their benefits. Google Search Console isn’t a keyword tool directly, but it does provide some information, especially on how keywords work.
Answerthepublic
Answerthepublic is a visual keyword tool that helps users find the questions and topics people are looking for. It presents data in the form of charts and graphs, helping to identify popular searches and create relevant content.
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a Chrome web browser extension that provides quick keyword analysis directly from the Google search results page. It shows search volume, related keywords and estimated click-through rates, making it easy to find popular keywords.
SEOquake
SEOquake is a free SEO tool that offers a wide range of SEO metrics as a browser extension. It allows you to analyse website optimisation, assess competition and get a quick overview of keyword performance, providing valuable information directly in search engine results.
Best tools
While there are a number of free tools available on the market, they are generally very action-oriented or have limited capabilities. However, the best tools are paid, but their low monthly cost will make your job much easier. Not only do these tools help you to select keywords, they also help you to analyse their success, and the best ones even give you tips on what can be improved. Many of the paid tools have a free trial period, which allows you to get to know them better before making a purchase decision.
Semrush
Semrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that provides in-depth keyword analysis, competitor analysis and content optimization. It allows you to monitor the performance of your website and your competitors, providing valuable information on search volumes, keyword difficulty and trends.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs focuses on keyword research and backlink analysis. This tool provides a comprehensive overview of the popularity and competition for specific keywords, and helps to identify new keyword ideas and opportunities for content creation.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a user-friendly tool that provides keyword ideas, competitor analysis and content suggestions. It is ideal for smaller businesses and beginners, providing practical and easy-to-understand data.
SE Ranking
Se ranking is an affordable and versatile SEO tool that includes keyword tracking, website auditing and competitor analysis. It provides accurate data on search volume, keyword difficulty and position tracking, helping users to effectively manage their SEO strategy.
This is just a brief overview of some of the SEO tools that can help you do your job more effectively. We’re sure that every SEO professional can find tools to suit their needs online.
How can the results of the analysis be used to create content?
Once the analysis has identified the keywords that should be used on the website, they need to be smartly integrated into the website. There are many more ways to do this than just using the words in the text.
Headings and subheadings
Use main and additional keywords in the headlines of relevant pages. This way, the search engine will immediately know that the word or phrase you have chosen as a keyword for a page is relevant to that particular page. Also, be sure not to forget to H-tag headings in the relevant category.
Metadata, URLs and visual content
We see the meta title and meta description first and foremost in the search engine. These are short titles and descriptions that give you an idea of what the page is about. Keywords could also be used in the URLs of a webpage, adding further credibility to the page and reassurance that the keyword matches the content of the page.
All visuals added to the page should also be accompanied by an appropriate alt description. This will make your page visuals stand out more in search results such as Google Images.
Creating content
The easiest way to add keywords to a website is to add content. Use keywords in promotional texts, in descriptions of products and services, as well as in texts about the company. In the content, it is possible to use keywords at every level, as relevant keywords only strengthen the page.
If creating content for your website is difficult, consider adding a blog or news section. There, you can share background information, tutorials, good tips and more related to your products and services. Often, people are not looking for a specific service or product right away, but a solution to solve their problem.
It’s good practice to place important keywords towards the front of the text, as Google expects the most important ones to be at the top of the page.
Frequently asked questions
On the one hand, SEO is a simple tool that can produce significant results if done well. On the other hand, however, it is a relatively technical marketing tool that requires ingenuity and good analysis to deliver results. Unless you’re an SEO specialist, you’re bound to have some questions.
What happens if the keywords are wrong?
One might say that the wrong choice of keywords is simply a missed opportunity, but in reality it leads to tangible consequences.
- Low organic traffic – poorly-chosen keywords can reduce your website’s visibility in search engines, as users will not find your content through relevant searches.
- Lower conversion rate – if keywords do not match the target audience’s intentions, visitors may not find the information they are looking for, reducing conversions. Whether the goal is to make a sale or increase the customer base.
- High bounce rate – unnecessary keywords can bring in the wrong target audience who will quickly leave the page, increasing the bounce rate. This again signals to the search engine that the page is not relevant to users and will be ranked lower.
How often should keywords be updated?
Keywords should be updated regularly to ensure the SEO strategy is effective and adapts to market and competitor innovation. In general, it is recommended that keywords are reviewed and updated at least quarterly, but the frequency may vary depending on the industry and competition.
Updating keywords involves monitoring search volumes, competition and user behaviour, and adjusting SEO strategy based on this data. In addition, the performance of the content should be constantly monitored and necessary changes made to be relevant. Update outdated information and supplement existing content with new content.
Screenshot from Google Search Console. The image shows the keywords that bring users to the SoWood page.
SEO is a combination of precision science and predictive science. In an ever-changing environment, where there are many players, SEO must be taken as a hygiene activity. Just as you keep your office tidy to make your guests feel welcome, your virtual home needs to be presentable. And if your customers can’t find you because there’s no sign on the office door, they won’t find you online if the SEO isn’t done. If you’re feeling underwhelmed, get in touch and we’ll help you make your virtual home visible.
