This guest post is written by Erinn Stam from nurshingscholarships. See our guest post guidelines to submit your own.
Mastering keyword research gives you an edge over your competitors.
Selecting and properly using the right keywords is critical to search-engine optimization strategies and to driving traffic to your Web site or blog.
Many sites talk about how to effectively implement your keywords and how to be successful in your SEO strategy, but few talk about how you actually select the keywords in the first place.
If you are a blogger who is just starting out, how do you know how to select your keywords? How do you know if your keywords are in demand and have the potential to make your blog a success?
Here are a few tips on getting started with your basic keyword research:
1. Brainstorm
The first step is the easiest and perhaps the most obvious. Once you have decided on your niche – a topic that you enjoy and that you know well – start brainstorming the keywords that are associated with that niche.
What words come to mind when you think of your topic or product? How might a customer try to find information about your product or topic?
Be specific with your examples – such as “vintage dresses” instead of “clothes” – but beware of using specialty language that a general audience might not use or be familiar with.
If you’re stumped for ideas, try browsing a competitor’s site to see what language is being used or search for synonyms through a thesaurus.
2. Google It
If you really don’t know where to begin, you can use the Google Keyword Suggestion Tool to analyze your site and give you some ideas.
The program will scan your site and provide suggested keywords based on the content. It will also give you real search terms that customers have used that are related to your site.
3. Check Performance
After you have created a list of potential keywords – including all potential combination and phrases for those keywords – check the performance of these search terms to determine their earnings potential based on your traffic.
The following tools and programs can provide feedback on keyword
performance:
- Google Adwords tool
- WordTracker
- Keyword Discovery
After entering your keyword (s) into these programs, you can get information about how often they are searched daily to get a gauge of their earnings potential.
Also, doing a simple Google search with your keyword can show you how many other web sites are using those search terms, and whether the keywords are popular enough to encourage multiple sponsored links and ads.
4. Put them to Work
Once you have determined the most relevant keywords for your site, then whittled those down to the top potential performers, you need to implement the terms appropriately on your blog or Web site.
Overloading your page with search terms will only dilute your ranking performance.
Write posts or content that center around a few terms (no more than 4 or 5) per page. Use the terms so that they sound organic to the content and not forced.
Quality content always trumps quantity.
Also be sure to include your search terms appropriately in items such as your title, meta descriptions, headings, alt text, and anchor text and links.
Much keyword research is about trial and error. It may take months for you to determine the best performing keywords for your site and to start seeing results.
However, taking the time to do this research and selecting the right keywords is vital to the success of your site.
About The Bio:
Erinn Stam is the Managing Editor for nursing scholarships.org. She attends Wake Technical Community College and is learning about lpn scholarships. She lives in Durham, NC with her lovely 4-year-old daughter and exuberant husband.