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Not All Keywords Are Created Equal

How can you improve your website content to improve your search results?  One of the most important ways is to make sure that your text includes the best keywords possible.  What are the best keywords and phrases to use? They are the ones your prospects use when searching for your product or service.

How do you know what keywords to use?  This is where your SEO consultant comes in.  We have tools that let us test your website content to optimize it.  All keywords are not created equal.  There are several factors that affect how well they will perform for your search results.

Search Volume

A keyword or phrases’ search volume is a measure of how many times a month search engines see the search string. Depending on the keyword the number can be so few that our tools do not have a value. Some search phrases appear millions of time per month, others less than 100 times. Google for example is now processing about 40,000 searches per second, or more than 3.5 billion searches a day see here. Google has a trends page see here, that lists searches by content category. It is interesting to peek into what searches they are seeing.

While the stats above are interesting, they do not provide insight to what search keywords you should use. Finding those words takes the research and tools that we provide. We begin by analyzing the keywords you provide to us. We then look at those and related words and phrases to find the most active ones. The search volume of your keywords is one of the factors used in your final selection.

Click Though Rate

The Click Through Rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks to appearances. For example, if a person searches for a phrase, and looks at 30 results and clicks on one, the CRT is 3.3%. Since clicks turn into website visits you want to use keywords that have a good CTR. We also look at your personal CTR. Each time your site shows in search results (known as an appearance) you can earn a click.  The more clicks you get the higher your CTR.

Your CTR depends on several factors.  One is how well your content relates to the search term.  A second is the quality of your meta description. We will help you in both areas.

Keyword Difficulty (Competition)

Keyword difficulty is a measure of the competition for that keyword. The higher the keyword competition the more difficult it is to rank well on that keyword. When your service or industry is very competitive for search results, your keywords are also going to be very competitive. What should you do if this is the case?

One strategy is to find related keywords that are less competitive.  Then target those keywords in your content. A second strategy is to use “Long Tail Keywords”. A long tail keyword is a string of 3 or 4 words that are very specific to what you are selling. You will want to make sure that the long tail keywords you choose have a meaningful search volume. All of nothing is still nothing so do not choose long tail keywords without doing volume research.

Conversion Rate

Your conversion rate is one of your most important performance statistics. Yet, it is also difficult to measure. Your conversion rate is a measure of your success after a prospect has visited your site. You have chosen your keywords, tweaked your meta description.  You have earned that elusive click! Now you must convert that website visitor into a client.

Several factors affect your conversion rate:

  • The match quality of the search phrase
  • The quality of your site content
  • The quality of your site navigation

If the search keyword is a good match for your product or service, you have brought the right visitor to your site. Now your site must answer his question.  Give him the information he needs and assure him that you are the best option to meet his need.

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