Denver SEO Company Webolutions Shares Keyword Selection Tips

Webolutions is an award winning SEO web design and search engine marketing (SEM) agency located in Denver, Colorado.  We have received multiple website design and SEO accolades and have proven for more than 20 years we are among the best search optimized website design services in the nation.

In this article, our SEO experts share with you tips on how to select appropriate keywords. Search engine optimization is both an art and a science that starts with keyword research, prioritization and selection. Once keywords are selected, we begin the process of mapping out a website’s optimal navigation and page structure consisting of champion pages and supporting pages with internal links optimized to help these champion pages rank well.

How to Choose the Right Keywords

When I started my SEO career almost 20 years ago, I made many mistakes, which I hope to help you avoid. Among the most common mistakes those new to search engine optimization make is not performing keyword research correctly. When I was new to SEO, I simply identified and selected those terms with the most search volume. This approach was bad for me, but it’s good for you since you can learn from my experience.

Since the purpose of site search optimization is to rank well and achieve more visitors to your website, it is understandable that one might think the best strategy would be to select those keywords that can generate the most traffic. The terms that can generate the most new visitors are those keywords with the most searches per month, right? It would reason, on the surface, that one should optimize their website for keywords with the greatest search volume. This is the way I approached my website’s SEO; however, it is not the correct way to conduct keyword research and selection.

Why Simply Selecting Keywords with the Most Search Volume is Wrong

Why is the selection of key terms based upon the greatest number of monthly searches wrong? The competition to rank well for highly searched, usually more generic, terms is very difficult. SEO newbies simply do not understand how difficult it is to rank for highly searched, competitive keywords. As such, they experience significant frustration because of their lack of SEO success.

I wish to help you avoid frustration and achieve success with your search optimization efforts quickly. To this end, here are the top SEO tips for selecting the right keywords.

SEO Tips for Optimal Keyword Selection and Success

Step 1 – Competitor Analysis

Start with industry and competitive analysis in order to understand the keywords typically used for your products and services. This is critically important for those who do not have extensive experience and familiarization with the vernacular commonly used for one’s industry. For those who do have experience in their industry and know the words used, competitive analysis is still critical.

Research of one’s industry and competitors helps to not only identify potential keywords, it also provides an idea of how frequently those terms are mentioned, which helps to prioritize terms. The thought being that one would select those terms used more frequently. Typically, terms which are commonly used will also be those searched for the most.

Step 2 – Collecting Keyword Metrics

The next step in the process of keyword research is to collect keyword metrics to help prioritize terms. What are keyword metrics? In order to select the right keywords for which one’s website will likely rank well, we need to understand not only the number of searches per month, but also the competition for each term. These are two basic keyword research metrics; search volume and keyword competition.

5 Best SEO Keyword Research Tools

There are many fine SEO tools to collect basic keyword metrics like search volume and competitiveness. Here are five of the best keyword research tools for search engine optimization.

Spyfu
SEMrush
MOZ
Keyword Tool

Step 3 – Prioritize and Select Keywords

The next step in keyword research is to prioritize your keywords based on a number of factors including:

1. Search term volume: how many searches per month
2. Competitiveness: how many other websites are competing for a given term (this is where competitor research will provide insights into how large one’s website many need to be as well as how many backlinks and the quality of those backlinks)
3. Purpose and goal of website: An organization’s business goals and strategy need to be understood in order to select and focus on those terms that fit an organization’s objectives. For example, let’s say your client sells almonds and oranges. Almonds are available year-round with steady demand. Oranges, on the other hand, may have more search volume in summer months. Our keyword prioritization must understand the nuances in one’s business in order to ultimately select the right keywords. In the above example, we might take a look at total year search volume to determine which has more annual searches and select that term over the other.

Prioritization and selection of keywords is where the science and art of keyword research converge based on factual metrics, nuances of one’s business and the experience of the individual conducting the research.

Step 4 – Develop Champion Pages

The final step after selecting your keywords is to create pages that will target specific similar key terms. These target pages are known as champion pages and should utilize white-hat SEO techniques to optimize the page. There are several good articles on basic SEO for beginners.

Here are Excellent SEO Articles to Learn Search Engine Optimization

1. MOZ – The Beginners Guide to SEO
2. Advanced Guide to SEO by Neil Patel
3. Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
4. SearchEngineJournal’s SEO 101

How to Use This Information

Webolutions is among the top SEO companies in Denver. When you need support for your SEO efforts, our SEO experts are available to help you build a successful search optimization strategy. Please give us a call at 303-300-2640.