Effective Keywords Makes All The Difference

The formula for selecting key phrases

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a long-term project. It's common for the fruits of your labour to take several months to appear. That's why it's so crucial to select the right keywords for your website. One of the most common misconceptions about conducting keyword research for SEO is the belief that you already know which key phrases a person might use to find a site. This can negatively affect your results because you are not thinking like your customers.

Another misconception is that generic or "big dollar" terms are the most important for rankings. As an example, 'holiday' receives over 90,082 searches per day in Australia, but it would not be an effective keyword for most websites. Sure, tens of thousands of searchers probably type that word into their search bar daily, but they could be looking for holiday locals, statutory holiday dates, etc. The terms you select need to narrow down the search audience to ensure visitors spend time on the site and don't leave immediately (this is referred to as bounce rate).

Other factors to consider when selecting key phrases are geographical targeting and understanding the long tail include:

Geographical targeting refers to the inclusion of specific locations in the search. When searching for products, it is common for consumers to search by their local area. Why search for a fridge in Perth when you live in northern Sydney? Simply acknowledging geographical targeting in your keyword research can stretch that marketing budget a mile.

The long tail on the other hand refers to the extensions, combinations or mutations of key words. This could mean the use of suffixes, prefixes, street slang, and numerous other variations of words. Knowing and incorporating the possibilities in keyword research is critical, as it is rare that consumers will type exactly what you think they will type. Behaviour may be predictable, but we are still not mind-readers!

iQuantum advocates using a single keyword per page. By allocating one keyword it is possible to optimise the page to rank highly by search engines. The allocated keyword should appear in the title and link to other pages within the body of the supportive text. The idea is that the greater the number of links to pages within a website, the better the site will perform in search engine ranking. Internal linking helps improve SEO because it allows web crawlers to easily navigate throughout a site to index content.

Our keyword services include researching your entire category using sophisticated tools at a cost that focuses on value. There are free tools you can use; however, our in-house tools allow us to go further into not only the Australian market, but also specific global regions that are quite difficult to fine-tune using free software. We support you to select the right key phrases for each page of your website and provide reference materials showing you how to weave keywords into your existing text. All this at a reasonable cost with the guarantee that your web traffic will increase over time.

Also, keyword research can significantly improve your Pay Per Click campaigns. It's important to ensure your bidding on the right keywords for each ad group. By knowing which keywords attract your target audience and result in higher volumes of conversions is vital to your return on investment (ROI).

Finally, if you're a blogger or publish articles it is very important that you allocate the right keywords for your headlines and titles. Knowing the future trends is also crucial to ensuring that the way you craft your point of view doesn't appear dated too soon. The relevance of the keywords you use can make all the difference.