The Benefit of Keyword Research- Optimizing your website for SEO
Keyword Research-Today You Will Learn The Benefits
Anyone that does any type of internet marketing needs to understand one word. Keywords. This is one of the most important, if not the most important, word you’ll need to understand in the online world. When it comes to SEO, and making money on the internet, Keywords can be the difference between you gaining a ton of traffic for your website, or very little. Today we are going to be talking about the benefits of Keyword Research.
What are Keywords?
These are words that are punched into Google daily, as well as similar search engines, to find specific questions or topics that you are looking for. For example; if you are trying to learn about baseball, but don’t know what an RBI is. You might type into Google the keyword “What is a RBI in baseball?” So in simple terms, keywords are specific words that represent content of a webpage. This is how people ask for content in search engines. Strategically placing keywords in content will help communicate to Google bots and humans what your content is about. putting specific words in your content will help optimize your website for SEO. There is no specific place that you have to put keywords. It’s more of a general guide of what your article is all about.
What You Shouldn’t Do With Keywords
Never ever perform Keyword stuffing. What does this mean? When you decide to just stuff the same words over and over into your content to manipulate your search rankings; you are keyword stuffing. I always recommend putting your Keyword in the title of your post. As well as, you should put it somewhere in your first paragraph. It doesn’t and shouldn’t always be placed as the first words in your paragraph. It takes time to get ranked high but stuffing words will only hurt your chances. Back in the day many people would stuff keywords in their articles through white text so the readers wouldn’t actually notice it. This worked very well until Google caught on and changed their algorithms.
The Purpose of Keywords
The main goal of keyword research is to make a conversion or sale. That’s why you got into internet marketing in the first place. Of course, some people just blog for the fun of it. Even if that’s you; you still want to get recognized. Here’s just a couple points of why you should have them.
- Keywords also drive free traffic to your website.
For optimal results, you need to keep this in mind. Without it; you will never reach a high amount of traffic. When you reach tons of traffic, think about all the thousands of dollars you will save, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, every single year.
What Are The Different Types Of Keywords
There are two different types; you should familiarize yourself with both of them. There are broad, or short-tailed, keywords and long-tailed keywords. When you are a new website; you are looking for any kind of traffic that you can get. You need visitors; you just started and have nobody. If you used broad keywords you will be dealing with thousands of competitors every single day to rank number one. Think about when you search “baseball”. Google will pop up with millions of search results.
But, if you search “hall of fame baseball players from 1905 inductees”, then you will get thousands of results instead. There is less competition in long-tailed keywords which is what my second phrase shows an example of.
Here Are a Few More Examples of Broad Keywords Vs Long-Tail Keywords
Thinking about the above image; which side would you use for just general information versus when you are closer to the buying stage as a customer? As you gain information you become more specific with your search to refine the results to a smaller amount of information. You don’t want a lot, or broad amount, of information. You want specific results. Now think about it from an internet marketers perspective. If you use long-tailed keywords; then your “closer to the buying stage” customers will be the ones clicking on your website to find specific information. Which in turn, leads you to more conversions or sales.
What Are Long-Tail Keywords
They are three or four (could be more) keyword phrases that are very specific to what you advertise on your website. When people search for these words, they tend to be more specific with whatever product they are looking into buying. Using these phrases will make it much easier for you to gain qualified traffic that can convert. One important thing to know is this; approximately %70 percent of search inquiries are results from long-tailed keywords. Just think about when you use Siri or Google on your phone. You hit the speak button;then you go and ask a question of something specific to search for. I use long-tailed keywords daily. Don’t you?
Benefits of Long-Tail Keywords
I think the picture below pretty much sums it up. Especially when you are trying to get established as a great website to visit; you just need to focus on these words. Don’t plug a thousand into your article. It’s important to write naturally, but remember you are also trying to optimize your website to attract tons of visitors.
An Overview Of Keyword Research
So, just to summarize everything up about the importance of this special word, that you need to know about.
Keywords should:
- Never try to misguide humans or trick Google bots into thinking your website is about something different
- Help you identify as well as speak native tongue of your target markets
- Improve your search engine page rankings by helping Google understand what your content is exactly about
- Drive more qualified traffic to your specific Web pages leading to better conversions
- Increase time on your website by attracting more qualified traffic to your Web page
- Increase conversions by helping consumers find your website instead of other competitors
- Help you get your content placed in front of the right people at the perfect time
It’s important to research which keywords are the best to use and most relevant towards what you are discussing in your articles. Remember also, You have hundreds of keywords in every single post that you create. It’s important to write naturally, and you always have the opportunity to rank for keywords you didn’t even think of, but put in your post anyways.
What Is The Best Free Keyword Research Tool
Everyone needs a great research tool for keywords. The great thing is, I have found a tool matched by no other. Please don’t tell me you plan on using the Google keyword research tool because it’s inaccurate, and very complex to use. The tool I use only cares about how much traffic you’ll receive, and how much competition your keyword yields. The name of it is called Jaaxy. You can try it out for free down below. Let me know what you think. Also check out my review of Jaaxy. It’s the best keyword tool out there, hands down. Don’t believe me try it out and then yell at me after if you still don’t like it.
Please leave comments below. I would love to hear from you. What are your questions about keywords? Have I answered them all?
I like the article. I have used Jaaxy, and I do love what it offers. I have also heard good things about Semrush and Long Tail Pro, two other keyword tools. Have you ever tried using them? What do you think about them? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.
Hey Jacob,
I’ve done some research on Semrush and Long tail pro, but I haven’t personally tested them yet. The whole point of using these tools is to find the best keywords to rank, but just using Jaaxy has done great for me! But, i can’t really form an opinion yet on the other tools. I’ll let you know when I get around to testing them!
Best Regards,
Brandon
This is a great post on keyword research.
I have been struggling to rank my site and I have very little experience on keyword research. It seems that posting with the right keywords is essential to drive more traffic.
There are so many articles out there which only focus on stuffing keywords without quality content. I agree with you that reader engagement is more important, therefore, a combination of having a good content and keyword post is the key!
Hey Alex,
Thanks for stopping by, and I do agree there is way too much keyword stuffing being advertised on the web. Google wants your content to be more natural and conversational for the reader.
Keywords are more like a guideline. You put one in the title and maybe first paragraph and then after that just write naturally like the person is right next to you.
Stuffing keywords just tells Google you don’t care about the user experience because nobody wants to read an article that has the same keyword repeated over and over in the same sentence or paragraph. It just doesn’t sound right.
Best Regards,
Brandon
This is awesome information. If someone wants to be able to work from home he/she must understand the importance of keywords. If we want to be ranked by Google we need keywords that are going to bump us up in the rankings. I honestly found the information super helpful and everyone who is trying to create a successful website should read your post. Thanks for sharing!
Hey juan,
Thanks for reading. I’m glad you understand the importance of keyword research when it comes to ranking on Google. Not just just them but other search engines as well (bing, yahoo). Best of luck to you with your website. Let me know if you come up with any questions you may have.
Best regards,
Brandon
Great article on keyword research. From my experience I can say that Google doesn’t always care about keywords and sometimes you find a post on page 1 with a few paragraphs and without long tail keywords and it really frustrates you because it goes against all what you have learned about keywords. But anyway we have to use keywords in a way you explain here because it gives us more chances to get noticed by search engines and drive more traffic to our websites.
Hey Rufat,
I can agree about what you said about Google not always ranking the pages with the actual keyword at top. Really Keywords are more like a guideline than pure science. While it’s not guaranteed to work every time, If you follow the guideline your results are more likely to show.
Also think about it this way. Google has become smarter. So you may try to rank for the keyword ” How to clean your house.”
But when you check the rankings, someone is above you ranking for the keyword “How to clean your home.”
Although they are technically two different keywords they have the same meaning. So this is also something to consider when doing your keyword research.
Best Regards,
Brandon
Great info! I myself started a blog almost two years ago. Over 160 posts later I learned about the significance of keyword research and SEO. I never quite understood it before, but thanks to wonderful articles like this one I see the err in my past ways. I wonder if I should go back and re-title my posts after doing some keyword research… or would that hurt my websites ranking? Hmmmm… more research! Thanks again!
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing this for 10 years. Everybody still has something to learn. As far as re-titling your post… I would only do it for the ones that might be ranking pretty bad. If you are ranking well for a post and then decide to change the title. Yes, it could hurt your rankings for that post. But, if you’re on page 20 where nobody sees you anyways, then ya changing the title could do you some good as well.
Best Regards,
Brandon
Great article on the benefits of keyword research. You mentioned Jaaxy as a good choice for doing ones keyword research, do you think there are some good alternatives on the market such as long tail pro and do they work as good as Jaaxy? Thanks a lot and hope to hear from you soon!
Hey Jesse,
Thanks for reading. To answer your question, there really isn’t an alternative that you need. I did look at Long Tail Pro, but it cost more and doesn’t show the information you would want it to show.
It does work, just like how Google planner works, but for a newbie marketer just starting out these other tools can become overwhelming. For example, most of the tools are showing the cost per click for that keyword. Why does that matter to me? I’m not trying to run PPC campaigns at that moment.
Jaaxy simplifies things and shows you what you need to know. That’s the amount of traffic each month, how much of that traffic you would get for ranking on the top page, how many websites you are competing with for that keyword, and your chances of ranking on the first page. There are many other features too, but he questions you would want answered Jaaxy does for you.
Best Regards,
Brandon
Another really interesting post Brandon. I am just getting into Affiliate Marketing, and if I’m not mistaken, keyword stuffing used to be the way to get ranking up wasn’t it? I guess now, Google has improved the way they do their rankings. I like the fact that you have to really think of good keywords. That would really narrow your audience, but I guess it would give you the best chance of being seen, as there’s not as much competition. Well written piece. Well done.
Hey Todd,
Thanks for all of your interest in my different post. Yes, you are correct. Keyword Stuffing was the norm for a lot of marketers a few years ago. Google didn’t like this because a lot of low-quality websites were getting ranked higher than great quality because of this. Keyword Stuffing is a big no-no nowadays. Google has rolled out with many updates to help ding low-quality sites; this is so people have the best user experience, when searching for information. For many of the marketers that provided great quality but were overshadowed by the websites that were Keyword Stuffing, have been rewarded for sticking through the tough time. They have better rankings now and receive a lot more traffic for the effort in providing information.
Best Regards,
Brandon