Before you get down to business with an experienced SEO consultant from a firm such as 5 Star Brand, you’re likely to face a widely asked question: “Do you have your target keywords ready?” Don’t be surprised if you get asked this, as it’s technically the first point of order anywhere in the SEO landscape.
There are many reasons for this. For one, keyword research is the foundation of SEO success. Every time someone looks something up on the web, the search engine must decide which results to display from literally millions of possible pages. Then, the engine’s algorithms go to work determining the best and most relevant matches available. This is where the right keywords play a central role in the mix-and-match game.
Keyword research doesn’t have to be tedious. By heeding only a handful of easy-to-implement tips, you can choose the best set of keywords to put your site at the topmost half of the results pages. Here are a few pointers to get you started:
Understand target market behavior – Before targeting specific keywords with your trusted SEO agency, analyze your target audience’s behavior first. Always remember that some keywords may be popular at one particular moment, while others may be overlooked on other search engines. Therefore, do not always chase high traffic-keywords as of the moment, as these might be flashes-in-the-pan and may lose their popularity in the long run. Understand how your target market behaves, then act accordingly.
Specificity is critical – You can still opt to use single-term keywords, but understand that you won’t be the only one doing this—you will be competing with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other entities that use the same keyword. For instance, if your company sells cars, then the keyword “cars” would do a poor job in making your business stand out from the others. Bottom line is, whatever you’re selling, you’re most probably not the only one out there who carries it.
Look your competitors’ way – Chances are, your competitors also hold the key to your company’s SEO success. Competition analysis helps in two ways: Knowing which domains need to be outranked, and which keywords they’re using in order to outrank others—including your own enterprise. You can simply type some keywords of your choice into the search bar, check which competitor offers are available, and then look if sponsored links of similar offers also appear. If so, then you’ll want to target that specific keyword in order to break into the fold, since said keyword possesses significant value.
(Source: The Beginner’s Guide To Keyword Research For Ecommerce, Shopify.com)
