Why Your Keywords Matter

Why Keywords Are Important

Image courtesy of Techopedia

We’ve defined links, citations and more, but now’s time to talk about keywords. They’re the buzz of the SEO world. To the right is a great definition of keywords from Techopedia to get you started.

“Keywords are what a searcher types into an engine,” says Trond Lyngbø in a Search Engine Land article. He gives a great example of how keywords are used. Let’s say you type “hotel Norway” into Google. The search engine doesn’t know if you mean you want to book a hotel, you’re looking for a directory of all the hotels in Norway or even you’re an architect looking to design a hotel in Norway. Tell your search engine your specific intent by being more descriptive with your word choices. Some search engines like Google are getting very good at guessing the context and intent behind even the most ambiguous terms, but that is a topic for another post.

Image courtesy of Roger Wollstad

“‘Booking a hotel room in Oslo Norway’ is far more detailed than ‘Hotel in Oslo,’” Lyngbø says. “Because there could be thousands of searchers using Google.com to research Norway hotels at any given time, a webmaster has no control over what they use to query the engines, and the webmaster must prepare for every possibility.”

As you keep researching for an Oslo hotel, you’ll narrow down your quest. Your next search might by “Hotel Holmenkollen Oslo Norway booking information,” which is a signal to search engines that you’re on a path to purchase and ready to buy, according to Lyngbø. This is where SEO comes in on a website. You want to anticipate what searchers are looking for and what key terms come up within your content.

Keywords In SEO Strategy

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Keywords are at the core of an effective SEO strategy, Lyngbø says. They help you “peer into the mind of a searcher, trying to figure out the intention and attitude of an interested prospect, and then position your website to be visible prominently to the ideal kind of customer.”

Once you figure out which keywords are popular and the sites you compete with, you can come up with a strategy to accomplish your SEO goals. Keywords need to be analyzed, and you can optimize your web pages to rank higher by doing some basic research. You can do On-Page SEO by “optimizing your website for the right keyword density,” Lyngbø explains. What’s keyword density? It’s the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. Lyngbø also warns that your keywords shouldn’t be too broad. Ken Lyons agrees and writes about keyword prioritization in a Search Engine Watch article.

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“Not all keywords are created equal. Some drive more traffic, others have higher intent, and still others may be more profitable for your business,” Lyons says. “So you can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to your keyword targeting efforts.”

Lyons list eight factors you should consider when setting up keywords-

1. Search demand
2. User intent
3. Competition
4. Budget
5. Timeframe
6. Goals
7. Profitability
8. Scalability

Search demand and user intent are the most important, demand meaning the interest people have in your individual keywords and an entire group of terms. It’s not all about the traffic though, Lyons says. Don’t just chase the big numbers. A keyword may have a high volume of traffic but low intent to convert or complete a desired action, Lyons explains, so it’s important to not just focus on search demand. That’s where user intent comes in. Ask yourself why the searcher is looking for this query and how can you provide and meet their expectations. Check out the rest of Lyons’ ideas for prioritizing your keyword research time.

SyCara Local Is All About The Keywords

Surprise, surprise- for this blog post about keywords, it’s truly all about the keywords. When setting up this post and publishing it in WordPress, for the SEO option, we put in the top terms throughout the blog and what we thought readers would search for. Our terms were of course “keywords,” “SEO,” “search engine,” “web page” and more.

We’re all about helping you make the most of your keywords here at SyCara Local. Our software tracks organic search keyword rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo as well as Universal Local or Google Plus Local keyword rankings. We also look at Google Maps keyword rankings and show you which of your businesses are showing up in search results to help do the work for you. For more information, schedule a free live demo with our support team.