Why your website needs keyword research

There’s no point investing in a website if no one is viewing it. But how do you attract visitors with a view to converting them to sales? We’ve already spoken about why fresh, regular content is imperative for the success of your website but now we’re going to tackle basic SEO ideas.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a fancy term that describes how visible your website is on search engines like Google in the natural or unpaid search results. Of course you want to be on the first page of rankings, as high up as possible, but how do you achieve this?

Develop a keyword strategy

This is not as scary as it sounds! We usually recommend selecting 8 – 15 keywords. They may not always be words, but could also be relevant phrases.

How do I know I’ve selected the right keywords?

You don’t. Selecting keywords is not an exact science, but you can ensure you do your research first. There’s a few different ways to approach selecting your keywords.

• First, come up with a list of keywords that you think are relevant to your business
• Next, do some Google related searches yourself to see if you’re on the right track
• When you type in the Google search term, start with one or two words and see what Google completes for you in the search bar. This can often be a useful way of indicating what words or phrases are popular
• Consider the number of results when you do a search. This will show you how many other web pages respond to that search term and give you an idea of what sort of competition you are up against
• Another nifty tool to help you out is Google Trends (www.google.com/trends/) Here you can enter your search term and see how it’s trending. You can filter based on location and year, too.

We usually recommend popping your prospective search terms into a spreadsheet and applying a simple ranking system based on the results of the bullet points above. Once you’ve done this, add them up and compare your search terms to see which ones performed best, then select 8 – 15 of them.

If you’re unsure about any or all of this, our course Search Engine Optimisation for WordPress might be worth a look. The first section of the course dives into all the skills you need to do this work for your website.

I’ve got my keywords, now what?

Put them into action! We recommend sticking to your newly developed strategy for a solid few months at least. Get started in developing new content for your site, blog regularly and of course optimise all of your existing content.