SEO Foundations-Keyword Research

I have been through SEO course recently on lynda.com. In it few fundamentals of SEO been covered that I’ll write about in this series of articles.The first topic which is ‘Keyword Research’.

SEO is a different ball game. A web developer or designer can build a valuable website.But,what’s the matter of designing and developing a website which is hard to find.
You can visit ‘Keyword Strategy’ article for broader view .
I’m dividing this article into steps as given —

Planning-
First step-brainstorming-
Collect search volume-
Keyword attributes-
Keyword distribution-
Keyword evaluation-

What are keywords anyways? Keywords are the search queries that a user give-in to search engine to get working answer.
For example-a user wants to improve his/her financial life-user then searches online something like-”how to improve my finance”-then he/she clicks on random articles,finds that books are great resources,finds a book highly recommended-be it ‘Think And Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill-then user searches-”buy think and grow rich”-and ends up buying the book.

Keywords are key to success.Thus,if your user won’t able to find your blog,website,your resource,unfortunately-it’s useless.

1. Planning-
   When you are planning for keyword research you must be in what I call customer-mindset.Look at your website,as your product and it’s future is dependent on being at right place right time when user enters those golden words.
   See through customers eye and Think through customers mind.
2. First-step brain-storming-
   You have to brain-storm keywords-thinks about your website,blog-what it is about,that subject of your website.
   
   For ex.-
   If I have a blog about recipes- Chinese,Mexican,Italian and Indian.My website name,be it- ‘foodrecipes.com’- first I’ll brainstorm keywords about my website,then about different section of my blogs according to cuisine,then about individual recipes.
   Tools-
   You can use free tools as Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner or free trial/paid tools like MOZ , Keyword Map,you can always search to know more tools.
3. Collect search volume-
   Collect keywords and categorize them on specificity basis. More specific and relevant keywords ,more traffic and less competition.
   Long-tail keywords(long phrases) are 50% to 60% useful.While small and specific keywords are sign of CTA (call to action).
4. Keyword Attribute-
   These are:
   * Search volume
   -traffic for specific keyword.In simpler words,how many time a keyword has been searched.
   * Competition
   Race between websites to rank for specific keyword.
5. Keyword distribution-
   List all them keywords on spreadsheet,use programs like excel. Then,distribute keywords in categories,like specific webpages,topics.In short, categorize them.
6. Keyword Evaluation-
   SEO landscape changes all the time,re-evaluate keywords per year at least 2 or 3 times.
   BIG part of evaluation is that- is it working? Do visitors change into profit?

You can also buy keywords,if that’s in your budget.(those paid ads that you see at top of results page).

Hope this article ,be of help to you.