If you’re planning to optimise your website, one of the most important phrases you’ll come across is keyword. Keywords or keyphrases are essential to the performance of any SEO campaign but what exactly are they?

Keywords and Keyphrases

Keywords and keyphrases are the terms that you need to include in your online content in order for search engines to understand the products or services you’re offering and rank you in the correct search results.

Identifying keyword opportunities

Most keywords and keyphrases are identified during the initial optimisation stage, and focus on the number of monthly searches, and competition.

The best way to begin with keyword research is to go through the pages of your website and list the search terms you’d expect people to type into the search bar to find your products or searches. Sometimes, it’s difficult for a site owner to identify the best keyword opportunities as they focus on industry specific terms that a regular user might not associate with the product or service, this is why it’s a good idea to ask a friend for their input, or engage the services of an SEO company to identify additional focuses.

You can also find potential keyword focuses by reviewing the terms your competitors are focusing on, or by viewing the Google recommended searches when you enter your terms into the search bar.

Identifying the correct keywords will allow you to effectively decide your site structure, plan your pages and categories, create new content, and optimise the landing pages.

Once you’ve created your list, there are various free and paid SEO tools that can help you decide whether they are worth targeting as well as suggesting additional keyword ideas relating to the keywords you provided.

If you’re new to online marketing, working with a professional SEO company is the best and fastest way to find the keywords that will generate relevant traffic for your website.

Longtail Keywords

Depending on the industry you are in or the products you offer, it may not be feasible to target generic search terms as they can be extremely competitive and difficult to rank for.

In order for smaller businesses to compete effectively, you may need to look at longtail keywords instead. Longtail keywords are longer, most descriptive keywords that focus on specific elements or features. Using longtail keywords is a great way to attract visitors that are closer to making a purchase and are looking for something specific. They are also the ideal choice for sites that are targeting visitors using voice search.

An example of where a longtail keyword could be used is with an online clothing store. A generic, highly competitive search term could be ‘dresses’ which currently returns about 699,000,000 results. A longtail keyword option could be ‘ladies black party dresses’ which currently returns about 7,710 results.

Using longtail keywords generally results in lower competition and higher conversion rates.

If you’re looking for assistance with identifying your target keywords and optimising your website, we offer a range of SEO packages to suit all budgets. Contact us on 0333 320 8099 to discuss your requirements or view our SEO package options.