SEO Tutorial 3: 5 Steps to Define Keywords
So, how to select keywords? The steps are:
1. Brainstorm all your keywords - use Excel or other softwares to list all the keywords that come into your mind. Do not worry about refining, we will do this later. Some things to think about are: what are your products / services? where are you located? do you offer seasonal products?
2. Increase the number of your keywords by involving other parties - ask your organizational team members, your customers, friends and neighbors, or even your competitors’ websites. Another idea is to steal related terms from search engines (e.g. ask.com).
3. Calculate the competitiveness of your keywords. Use wordtracker, overture keyword, keyword discovery (fee-based), and google adwords.
4. Evaluate the competitiveness of your keywords and record them. In each keyword, use the above tools to consider your keywords:
(i) search popularity - is your keyword popular? The more popular it is, the more people are searching for it.
(ii). relevance - is your keyword relevance to what your website is giving? Consult your other team members in regards of the relevancy.
(iii). competition level - are there many websites that use this keyword? You can based your keyword competition level by searching through Google and see how many pages it returns.
5. Shorten the list of keywords. Now, it is time to shorten your keywords. Keywords that are higher in popularity, higher in relevancy, and lower in competition level are keywords that you want to choose. As you select these keywords, always remember to think through if the keyword connects well with your site.
Though these are just 5 steps, each step will take a certain amount of time to accomplish. It is better to plan well than to fail later on.
So, to-do list:
1. Create an excel file to store all your keywords record.
2. Brainstorm and expand your keywords and record them into your excel file.
3. Compute each keyword based on popularity, relevancy, and competition level. Record them in your excel file.
4. Shorten your list by evaluating the above factors. (HIGH populary, HIGH relevancy, LOW competition level = BETTER keywords)
The above tasks should occupy you for around 1 week. So, have fun and all the best! :)
Email This Post
May 7th, 2008 at 2:42 am
[...] When selecting keywords, it is important that you use keywords that your potential customers will search for. You can start by going through the list of keywords that you have developed in the beginning of this SEO tutorial (5 Steps to Define Keywords). [...]