Steps to Select Keywords

SEO can be exciting and the work can be easily achievable even for a small team. Many times it is noticed that even though having a website or a blog, not much time is spent on SEO. Hence, our effort does not pay off.


It’s natural for a company to think that they have the best insight where relevancy or targeted keywords are concerned. But, in reality, the way people search for a keyword may not match up with how you would expect your product or service to be found. Therefore, it’s very important to do sanity check to find out which keywords actually work best for your product or service.


Here are few steps to select the right keywords:


Own Brand Terms


Create your brand name. So first you should search for your brand name and see where you rank. f you don’t rank for your brand name, this is the first thing to go after. In most cases, this is a very easy step; you’re probably already there. If you have competitors ranking on Page 1 for your brand, you want to force them out and own this space (the search engine algorithms are now allowing a brand to own the full first page of results).


In addition to your brand name, make sure you own all terms associated with your brand name, like your brand-specific product names, as well as your management team’s names.


Get Keyword Suggestions


Add your URL, relevant keywords and competitors’ URLs to a keyword suggestion tool and get a list of recommended keywords. While adding keywords in the suggestion tool, make sure to include a range of head terms, mid-terms and long-tail keywords.


Beat Competitors


Identify your competitors’ target keywords by adding their homepage URL to your keyword suggestion tool. Validate your own keyword list against your competitors. Check if you have missed out any important keywords.


Narrow Down Keyword List


Compare your resulting keyword list by relevancy, competition, search volume and current status. Start by narrowing your keyword list to only the relevant ones. Check to see which keywords you’re already ranking for. Look at global monthly searches and competition.


Plan to Rank the Targeted Keywords


Take these top target keywords and build an SEO campaign around them. Monitor the keywords over time by tracking the trends of ranks and by measuring what kind of traffic you’re getting from them.