SEO

SEO Keyword Research - Finding the words people search for

The starting point of SEO is to figure out which words and phrases people will be using to search for your product. This is called keyword research, and there are a number of tools we can use to end up with a list of phrases, usually grouped according to topic.

All of the tools return a list of words, with figures telling us approximately how many people searched for the phrase in the last 3 months, and possibly over longer time periods if the product is a seasonal one. It's important to target the keyword research at your target location, as different words are popular in different places.

You will have guessed at many of the popular keywords on the list - the real benefit is finding and comparing all the other keywords you didn't think of. We can also compare the popularity of the keyword and how many web pages already contain the keyword.

This allows us to target keywords which may have fewer searchers, but also appear in fewer pages. This gives us a better chance of getting high rankings than choosing a phrase which appears in 50000 other pages.For example, SEO, and Web Design, are very competitive keywords, however SEO New Zealand, or Web Design NZ, while still popular, are less competitive.

Often these phrases we choose will be more specific, so will be actually be more targeted to your customers.

Competitor Keyword Research

Depending whether the keyword research is being used for SEO or for Cost per Click or Pay Per Click (CPC or PPC) advertising, we may do more research to find out how many other campaigns target this keyword, or which words your competitors are targeting in their PPC advertising.

Using keyword research

Keyword phrases are used to:

• Provide the information viewers are looking for
• Indicate to search engines that the information you have provided is appropriate for the keyword
• Target searchers directly with paid search engine advertising

Helping customers and robots find your website

Robots or spiders are programs which fetch web pages and feed them to the search engines. A spider 'crawls' across the web, and when it comes to a link to another page, it goes off and indexes it.

So it follows that links as well as keywords are important in getting your pages indexed. The good thing is that having multiple links to pages within your site makes it easier for people using the site as well.

Properly improving your site for search engines will improve usability for your viewer, who wants to find good information in one place, with easy access to related links.

Each page should contain useful information about the topic addressed by one set of keywords. A well optimised page will gradually perform better in organic search, and will perform better for CPC campaigns as well.

It is cost effective to optimise a new website as it is developed. Navigation, page titles, URLs, content structure and copywriting are all considered and optimised at the time the structure is being built. SEO is enhanced by regular articles, news, or blogs, which can also be set up during development.

For sites which already exist, the good thing is that any changes to the site can make a difference. A modest SEO budget can be spread over a year, allowing you to make gradual improvements every month.

Whether the budget is large or small, you should review site reports monthly and make updates as frequently as possible.

• Updated content makes a difference to people and to search engines. A blog or news section is a good way to regularly add new content.
• When creating new pages or adding to your blog, use the keywords and key phrases identified. Page titles and headers are especially important.
• Use FaceBook and Twitter to highlight interesting or new content on your site.