Six Easy Steps For Keyword Planning

Posted on August 9th, 2012. Written by Suhail.

The foundation of any successful SEO campaign is based on accurate identification and classification of keywords.

Clients often inquire about how long of a keyword list they should aim for. However, there is no absolute answer to this question. Different companies have correspondingly different budgets, products and product markets. Thus, the correct answer for each company differs as well.

The following is a basic strategy, which can be used to initiate and develop your keyword plan.

1. Find your keywords

An extensive list of appropriate keywords must be identified at the beginning of the research. These words must be appropriate for and relevant to your website’s content so that potential users can be directed towards the page. Your initial keyword list can be fashioned by using Google search data, PPC data, analytical data, competitor insights and any records provided by your client or in possession of your company.

2. Expand your keyword list

In order to expand your main keyword list, you can easily use tools such as ‘Google Keyword Tool’, ‘Word Tracker’ etc. These tools can provide you with a list of relevant keywords along with their relative search volumes. This can help you to identify and target the most popular and pertinent keywords for your website. However, it is important to note that Google’s estimated search volumes are not strictly accurate. These projected search volumes are generally, only useful for comparing the relative popularity of one word with another, in terms of search engine results.

Note: If you can afford to do so, using professional companies to do your keyword planning and development is an excellent way to launch a successful SEO campaign.

3. Prioritize your keyword list

The next step in your strategy should be to select and target the most important keywords for your website. These keywords should be the ones that are most relevant for your business and have the ability to be potentially, very lucrative. In later stages of your SEO campaign, these selected keywords will also form the basis of your link building strategy.

It is also significant to prioritize the list of keywords, according to the competitiveness in your industry. For example, a large food chain such as the ‘Cheesecake Factory’ can successfully use the keyword ‘Lemon cheesecake’. However, a small bakery in Queens, New York would need to be more specific in terms of their keyword choice, if they are willing to invite many users onto their website. The small bakery would have more success by using keywords such as ‘Lemon cheesecake in Queens’ or ‘Lemon cheesecake in New York’. The main concern of smaller businesses thus, should be to target specific keywords that can fit a localized niche.

4. Classify the important keywords

Classification of your important keywords into groups is important if you are to fully comprehend the results and performance of your SEO campaign. Keywords should be at least categorized by brand or non-brand and other categories including product types, consumer sectors, business types etc.

5. Identify your ideal landing pages

After you have categorized your main keywords, you should start placing them on specific web pages. These pages will thus hold your most important keywords and will be the prime landing pages, for your targeted users.

As you continue with your On page optimization, you may discover that some pages are only appropriate for a few of your priority keywords. In this case, you can use other keywords from your initial keyword list, which were not selected as the main keywords. These keywords can then be used to boost your SEO efforts and target a wider array of searchers.

6. Evolve your keyword list

It is important to regularly check and review your data sets, if you want to evolve your keyword list. Paying attention to changes in data sets can help you to integrate new and important keywords into your website’s content. This flexibility and desire to advance can help your website to compete successfully in the online sphere.

Following the above steps, can help you in constructing a solid foundation for your SEO campaign.

Suhail

Professional content writer having experience in writing all types of contents like articles, blogs, ebooks, squidoo lenses, hubpages, reviews, web content, news, press releases, link wheel creation and much more.Check out my Gigs here: http://www.seoclerks.com/user/Suhail

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