Success! Your website is finally finished and you have just indexed it on Google. Like any self-respecting marketer, you post relevant, high-quality content on your site regularly and stay active on social media to generate traffic. Despite the effort you’ve put into promoting your website, you’re getting few visitors and even less conversion.
Our SEO experts agree that content is one of the most important factors for ranking, website traffic and conversion. Unfortunately, even if you have the best content in your field, no one will benefit from it if you don’t get any visitors.
That’s where keyword research comes in. Read on for an overview of keyword research and why it’s important for SEO.
What is a keyword?
A keyword is a word or phrase that internet users type into a search engine to find websites that have the information they’re looking for. For example, if you enter “antique furniture restoration” in the search bar, Google will come up with a selection of results that it considers most relevant to the keywords you chose.
Search engines like Google constantly make updates to improve their understanding of what people are looking for in order to provide the best possible results.
What does this have to do with your website?
Your website contains words that provide information on a topic. When internet users enter keywords that are relevant to that topic, search engines will include your website in the search results. As a web agency, our website won’t appear in search results for “antique furniture restoration,” but it will pop up for queries like “website design,” “web agency,” “SEO agency,” etc. We have integrated strategic keywords into our pages at particular places so that Google is able to understand the content of our website and the types of queries we want to rank for.
Remember that keywords are just one aspect of SEO. There are many different factors you can optimize to increase your ranking. Keywords are a great start, but don’t forget the rest!
Why do keyword research?
Producing marketing content and maintaining a website without doing keyword research will just waste a lot of time and money. Keyword research is a vital part of making your website and content an authority in your field so that you can reach the coveted positions at the top of the Google results page.
1. Be visible on Google
Google receives almost 92,000 queries every second. It is estimated that half of the world’s population now uses the internet (around 3.77 billion users). The internet is a powerful tool for increasing your renown and introducing your company to potential customers. That being said, the competition on Google is fierce, so you need to be strategic in order to get the best visibility possible.
Source : blog.neocamino.com
As much as 92% of clicks on Google are made on the first page of search results, so ranking on the firs page is essential, and keyword research is a vital part of that.
2. Guide google in the right direction
Keyword research doesn’t just affect SEO—it determines your entire web marketing strategy.
Never forget that Google’s goal is to offer users the content that is most relevant to their search. The marketing content you put on your page is Google’s main focus. However, not all words on your page carry the same weight. You’ll need to highlight your keywords to help Google understand what your content is about and demonstrate that your page is relevant for internet users who enter queries on the subject.
Always make sure that your keywords match your content. If you own a garage but post blog articles that highlight keywords related to plumbing, you may end up being ranked for searches that aren’t relevant, and Google and internet users will penalize you for it. Your choice of keywords guides Google in the right direction.
Let’s use our agency, My Little Big Web, as an example. Right from the home page, we show visitors and Google which services we provide, who we are and how we do what we do. All of this content was determined by doing keyword research.
3. No keywords, no web traffic
The main purpose of SEO is to improve your ranking on search engines. When you create content, you’re not just writing for your customers—you’re writing so your customers can find you.
There are 3 essential components of SEO: content, link building and keyword research. Your website needs to be indexed in order to get web traffic and conversions, but ranking among the first search results is not enough—you need to attract qualified traffic. Qualified traffic refers to internet users who are actually interested in the products or services you offer and can therefore be considered potential customers. In order to increase qualified traffic to your website, you’ll need to do keyword research.
This is easy to see when measuring a website’s performance using Google Search Console.
Questions to ask to find your keywords
Before making any final decisions, it’s a good idea to ask yourself the following questions to determine whether your keywords are really relevant to your website.
- Do my keywords target what people are looking for?
- When visitors find my website by searching my chosen keywords, are they satisfied with what they find?
- Is my web traffic helping me meet my goals (economic or otherwise)?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, you will need to do keyword research.
How to choose keywords
Now that you know more about keyword research, it’s time to get started!
Luckily, we have an article that explains how to choose keywords step by step. However, keyword research can be complicated, particularly if you’re just getting started on the web. Our team of SEO experts can take care of finding the best keywords for your pages.
Here are the 5 steps of keyword research we discuss in our article:
- Step 1: What is your website about?
- Step 2: Understanding internet users to find relevant keywords
- Step 3: Identifying search intent to help determine your keywords
- Step 4: Studying the competition to choose the right keywords
- Step 5: Long tail, a strategy for choosing keywords
Now you know why keyword research is so important! If you decide that your keyword research, digital strategy or content writing could use a professional hand, contact us on our website. We will be happy to help!
Cofondatrice et Spécialiste SEO-SEM
Eugénie a commencé sa carrière en marketing Web chez Microsoft auprès de partenaires tels que Hewlett-Packard et Dell. En 2013, elle co-fonde My Little Big Web avec Maxence afin d'aider les PME à optimiser leur marketing Web. Ses compétences en SEO, publicité en ligne et expérience utilisateur permettent aux clients de My Little Big Web de se positionner rapidement et durablement en haut des résultats de recherche. Le partage de connaissances fait partie de ses priorités. Elle donne donc de nombreuses formations internes et externes ainsi que des conférences sur de multiples thèmes relatifs au marketing numérique.
