To understand how to be going in the right direction with keyword research, we need to know what it is.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is a very valuable asset in the search marketing field. It’s used when people use any search engine to find a result. If your website is about types of hoodies, then they’ll most likely search for keywords that lead to your website. E.g. zip hoodies, zip-up hoodies, over the head hoodies, hoodies

You could even fit in the colour type of the hoodies but adding too many can sometimes go in the wrong direction with your website.

Researching keywords for your website

Now that you understand how keyword research works, the first and foremost is making a list of the relevant keywords that relate to your website. If you’re doing hoodies then don’t put tags about shoes or computer parts, make it about hoodies. Is it a black hoodie? Is it brown? Is it a zip-up or over the head? Keywords relate to what you’re selling or what you’re giving information on.

If you’re struggling on evaluating a keyword’s value then ask yourself, “is it relevant to your website’s content?”, “Will searchers find what they’re looking for on your website if they search for them keywords?”, if the answer to both of them is yes then you can clearly see that the keyword is 100% valuable for you website.

Add extra information or add more keywords if you have to, for example:

  • Big hoodies
  • Small hoodies
  • Cheap hoodies
  • Hoodies sizes
  • Zip hoodies
  • Over the head hoodies

As long as they’re the phrases you think customers might use to search for content that’s related to your websites content.

Keyword research isn’t everything

Keyword research is extremely great but if you’re pulling in visitors anyway, there are other factors that can hit your website that make it less pleasing as others. Blue Ocean Search has a blog about the reasons your website displeases your visitors. With this hindsight in mind, you can bypass most websites that are trying to rank their website with your keywords in any search engine.

Internal links

Internal links are necessary for pushing up your website through the ranks. Once you have your keywords down, internal links will help along the way. They’re links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They’re commonly used to help users navigate your website and help spread link juice. Blue Ocean has a more in-depth blog about internal links.

Keyword Competitors

There’ll most likely be competitors doing the same thing as you. Don’t worry about them, you’re allowed to use the same keyword as them. Although it might take longer for you to hit the top with the same keywords, using the same ones is still advised. but if they’re disregarding other unique keywords then use them as well. They’ll help you in the future and can easily become a big part of your website. Moz is a great website for guides on these subjects and will help you further with Keywords.

Keyword tools

Using keyword tools can be helpful, such as Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner. Google’s tool is generally the starting point for keyword researching. Not only does it give you a suggested list of keywords, it can retrieve historical statistics and estimate the search volume to determine how popular/unpopular a particular keyword is.

Finally

Now that you understand what keyword research is, you can throw in the extra tidbits about internal links and additional factors about pleasing your audience. Don’t forget to add more or re-evaluate your keywords every few months, this will help you keep on top of your competitors.