7 Secrets to Finding the Best Keywords
Search engine optimization is constantly changing, but you still need to include keywords in your content. But how do you find the best keywords?
With the tools and tricks of experienced search engine marketers, of course. Use these secrets to find keywords that help you pull in lots of profitable traffic.
Look for Long-Tail Keywords.
Long-tail keywords are really phrases of 3 to 5 words and sometimes more. They work because people searching for longer key phrases are usually closer to the purchase stage in the buying cycle. So even though the overall search volume is lower, long-tail phrases attract targeted traffic that you really want on your website anyway.
And because long-tail keywords usually aren’t as competitive as shorter keywords, they can be much easier to rank for, meaning they are more likely to send you some traffic.
How to Find Long-Tail Keywords:
Product titles are a good place to start. Search your brainstormed list of product or service keywords in the Google Keyword Tool, making sure you’ve checked the “Exact Match” box.
Use Latent Semantic Indexing.
Known as LSI, this secret to finding the best keywords involves using related terms in addition to your main key phrases.
LSI works because search engines are getting smarter. If a page talks about cars, for example, search engines expect to see related terms like makes, models, and car parts. The more semantic words they find, the more relevant and authoritative they assume you are. So you rank better for more keywords.
How to Find Semantic Keywords:
Search your main keywords in the Google Keyword Tool with the “Broad Match” box checked. This will present a list of search queries that are similar to your keyword, often in different orders or with different word endings (such as -s, -ed, -ing). You can also brainstorm related words yourself, use a lexical database, or search in Google with a ~ before the keyword to see related results.
Keep an Eye on Trends.
Trends show you what’s popular on search. If any of the trending search queries or topics are related to your niche, or if you can effectively newsjack a trending topic, you can get a lot of traffic very quickly.
How to Find Trending Keywords:
There are a lot of tools available to help you discover trending search queries, but the most well-known is Google Trends.
Incorporate Location-Based Keywords.
Adding a country, region, state, or city name to a main keyword can help you stand out from the crowd and show up higher in local search results.
Local keywords work best when you have a physical location for your business. That way, your business shows up in Google Maps and you can encourage prospects to buy from you either in-store or online.
You can use local keywords without a physical location to capitalize on your target market’s desire to shop locally, to offer fast shipping, or if they will want to meet you face to face.
How to Find Location-Based Keywords:
Using various keyword tools, filter your results by location. Many will automatically filter by country, but try filtering by your state, city, and zip code. And don’t forget to add your listing to Google Places.
See What Works with Analytics.
If you’re already getting some traffic to your website, use your analytics data to find good keywords that are already working. Then use variations of those keywords and repeat what works. Why reinvent the wheel?
How to Find Keywords with Analytics:
Drill down until you can see just the search traffic each page gets (no direct, referral, or ad traffic). Look at the keywords that are attracting the most traffic for each individual page and across the whole website. Use these words and variants of them more often.
Prioritize Keywords According to Profit per Sale.
The best keywords attract visitors that eventually buy from you. So one of the secrets to finding great keywords is to know which phrases will affect your bottom line.
How to Find Profitable Keywords:
First, research your keywords and separate them into related lists. Then list the cost of each product or service you offer and try to determine which products might lead to a multi-item sale. Finally, use this information to determine which keywords are worth more, which of course you will you use more. This article from Search Engine Watch explains the process.
Check the Competition.
Risk-taking business owners might want to optimize for the highest competitive keywords right from the beginning, while more conservative businesses might prefer aiming for low-competition keywords and building on success over time.
Either way, it’s always a good idea to know the competition level for your keywords so understand how much work it will take to get results.
If you use a paid or in-house keyword research tool, a lot of the competition research will already be done for you. If not, use this basic method:
1. Log out of any Google properties such as Google+ or Gmail.
2. Search your keyword in Google.
3. Add up the PageRank values of the first 10 natural results. Videos are acceptable unless there are more than 10 results on the first page; in that case, do not count YouTube videos since Google owns YouTube.
4. Divide the total PageRank value by 10 to determine the average PageRank of the results for that keyword.
5. Use the table below to assign a competition level to the keyword.
The higher the average PageRank, the tougher that keyword is to rank for. When you know the competition level of your main keywords, you can organize them by color to see their competition level quickly.
A smart strategy is to choose one highly competitive keyword and several related low- and medium-competition keywords for each page to start building up authority for the high-competition keyword.
What are your secrets to finding the best keywords?
Help everybody out by sharing your experiences in the comments below!
Do you know anyone – a business owner, a marketer, a blogger – who could use these secrets to find keywords that work? Share this article with them using the social media buttons to the left. You could be helping them in a big way!
Comments (27)
Thank you, really interesting. Unfortunately in Italy there are less systems to search and build strong keywords systems, but internet world develops every day :)
Hi Maddalena, I’m glad you liked this article! Most of these ideas should work anywhere, but the tools you use to implement these ideas (trends, news, analytics programs) might change. Good luck researching keywords in Italy!
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your post an tipa, it really does make sense that longer phrases may not get as much traffic but would rank higher in search results and be more relevant for the person searching. Will be updating my keywords and keeping an eye on analytics.
Jill, I’m glad I could help you improve your keyword strategy. I’ve known several website owners who targeted lots of long-tail, low-traffic keywords at the beginning and were able to build up their ranking until their sites were strong enough to go after more competitive keywords. It’s a great strategy. Good luck!
I always worried about SEO but this article really help me. Thanks for the article.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found this post useful. Good luck!
Thanx for Such info regarding to SEO….Please tell me about google new keyword planner..?
I haven’t used Google’s Keyword Planner yet…maybe we’ll have to write a new post on it. Thanks for the idea!
Keyword Planner is like a workshop for building new Search Network campaigns or expanding existing ones. You can search for keyword and ad group ideas,
The tool gives you greater insight into which keywords, ad groups, bids, and budgets you may want to use.
Tracy, thank you for the advice, will give a try to the tool some time later :)
Nice article about keyword research.
Jaime,
Glad you’ve found the article helpful :)
Hi Christina, what would be the minimum monthly searched that we need to get for the Google Keyword Planner? And also what would be the highest competition level result that we need to consider on Google search, both with and without phrase mark?
Lastly would there be some tool that we can for us to easily check the availabilty of the domain name based on our preferred keyword phrase?
Great article and liked this line most- “A smart strategy is to choose one highly competitive keyword and several related low- and medium-competition keywords ”
Great advice to keep in mind for bloggers like us. thanks
Yes, you’re right, Amita. Finding correct keywords for your blog is crucially important.
nice article
I use this tool https://rankbrain.me developed by a guy in Silicon Valley, he was working for SEO company and he can’t find the long tail keywords he needs. The tool is free and it gives you all CPC, search volume, and other competition level.
Hey Andrew, thanks for stopping by and sharing :)
Thanks for sharing this. I stick with the steps laid down on this post for my keyword research
http://www.easypressit.com/how-to-find-keywords-for-seo/
Any particular keyword research tool you use?
Harsha, at Writtent – we tend to stick to Ahrefs and SEMRush. Works for us :)
John is impressed and hires Ralph. Several months pass and Ralph has the website ranking for keywords like “best blue widget” and “buy blue widgets” which have fewer searches, but convert three times better. John is happy, Ralph is happy and it is all because Ralph took the time to do keyword research and competitive analysis the right way. If you are an inhouse marketer, you probably know your biggest competitors, but as an agency we do not always have that luxury. Before I work with any client, I need to understand the competitive landscape because I am going to be making big decisions that impact sales, employees and shareholders.
Good blog, I have learn much useful information from your blog. And in addition to these methods, you can also buy app keywords install from a reliable app store optimization company(asotop1.com), which can provide more professional services to help you find the appropriate keywords.
I have little bit confusion about keyword difficulty. If anyone choose keyword that seo perameter like allintile or allineurl are easy to pick keywords but keyword difficulty high or medium. In this situation, which is important for select keyword title-url perameter or keyword difficulty most important? Please answer and remove my confusion to start my job.
Ahrefs
While we’re on the topic of SEO, I wanted to mention Ahrefs. Ahrefs is a tool that allows you to do keyword research to ensure you’re targeting the best keywords with the highest traffic and lowest difficulty to rank for.
While this tool isn’t free or cheap, they do offer a free two-week trial. Alternatively, you can use their competitors like Moz or SEMrush (who also have free trials, hint hint). Whichever one you choose, if you’re serious about ranking on Google, I highly recommend a keyword research tool. Without them, you only have access to Google Keyword Planner, which doesn’t really help you find the right keywords.
I think this artical is not very different from others the only thing interesting is the title which is why it led me to this page. It would be interesting to know which is the best and easy tool to use to find the keywords.
The best and most thorough article should command Google’s attention and make the first page; but that is not the case anymore, and the articles that use the most tricks and gimmicks seem to be the ones that make it to the top. In this respect, reading is not even the same anymore because everything is confused, and fragmented, and jacked up!
In this regard, what used to be good, relaxed, refreshing reading is not that anymore: Rather, it is who can pull the most tricks. In my opinion, reading should be thorough and in-depth, with solid paragraphs. Although this does necessarily mean that paragraphs be long, the paragraph is the second level of good writing and should reflect background information or foundational ideas, some kind of topic sentence, a body, and a conclusion: All that has vanished from the mess called digital writing.
What has stopped people from wanting to read? I feel lost in a fog of foolish writing that doesn’t make any sense anymore. What has happened to the society of order and meaning that we all used to know–where did it go.? Nowadays, it is not uncommon to find people writing posts with a stream of one sentence paragraphs–what absolute nonsense! What mental fragmentation, what folly–what stupidness!