The keyword is an essential component of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). No matter what is your occupation, it is highly likely that you would have come across this term while surfing the web. If you would like to considerably increase the reach of your website, you must know how to choose keywords for SEO. It takes time to get accustomed to efficient keyword research but it pays off in the long run. Here is everything that you need to know in order to get started with keyword optimization.
Get familiar with the term “Keyword”
To put in simple words, it is pointless to look for something if you don’t know what it is at all. A keyword is a word or collection of words that portrays the whole idea of the entire content. It is a memorable word or a sentence that is evenly distributed on the page. You can use these extraordinary terms for any content that is indexed by search engines (crawled by search engines to categorize and provide it as a suggestion while people search for similar information).
Short-tail vs long-tail keywords
Keywords for blog are essential but they are not all the same. Depending on the length, two main categories of keywords are short-tail and long-tail. Even though you will come across more categories, these two types are the most essential to be familiar with. Short-tail keywords also known as “Head” terms consist of 1-2 words, while long-tail keywords are those that consist of more than 3 words. However, these definitions are about to change as people are more willing to use longer search queries. This will most likely redefine the notion of short-tail keywords as most of the keywords will be 3 words or even longer.
Many people argue which type of keyword is superior compared to another. However, it is pointless to argue about this issue as the answer will highly depend on the type and the performance of the website that we talk about. Short-tail keywords are usually more informative and they are meant for informational purposes, rather than converting potential customers. On the other hand, long-tail keywords are more focused, have less traffic, and higher conversion rates. As you can see, they serve thoroughly different purposes and it would be impossible to differentiate one from another without a clear goal in mind.
The function of the keyword
The keywords may serve a different purpose depending on the needs of the writer. Especially when we talk about keywords for a blog post. Three main types of search terms based on their functions are: Transactional, informational, and navigational. Transactional keywords directly focus on sales and use straightforward words such as “buy”, “purchase”, “best price”, “cheapest”, etc.
The name of this post “How to choose keywords for SEO” represents an informational keyword. Such search term usually uses words that are meant for questions. Lastly, navigational keywords directly focus on improving traffic to the website. Even though they might not trigger customers to make a purchase, they will noticeably improve the ranking of the website.
Choose the keyword research method
Keywords for the blog are essential to reach more readers. If you are already familiar with the keyword research process you will know that there are a plethora of opportunities for getting keyword ideas. Choosing the appropriate method will make the process easier and will allow you to find the terms that your target audience uses. Similarly, you can always use a combination of these methods.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers
Having explicit knowledge of your products / services is not enough to find the appropriate keywords. You have to think like a customer and write down all the keywords that you can come up with. Imagine searching for a product / service that you offer and think of the words that you would have used as a customer. This process is fundamental to get term ideas that are relevant to your business.
Brainstorm with your colleagues
One brain will never be as good as multiple ones. If you look for keywords for a blog post make sure to get the help of your peers. Ask your colleagues to think of the keywords that they would have used and add these keywords to your list. Some of your employees might be responsible for dealing with customer related issues and they will have a more in-depth understanding of the keywords that the customers use most frequently
Use Google Console
If you don’t use yet this amazing and entirely free tool, start using it as soon as possible. It provides valuable information that you can use to optimize your website. To search for keywords that your customers use, press the “Performance” key on the left menu, and scroll all the way down. You can use this information to optimize webpages better for the keywords that you don’t rank well or simply to think of long-tail keyword ideas.
For instance, if you find out that you rank well for “sell a car” you can write down the similar long-tail keywords as “how to sell a car” or “why people sell a car” depending on the role that you would like your keywords to play.
Search in Google for suggestions
Google always keeps note of long-tail keywords that are most popular with certain terms that visitors use. Therefore, when you type a keyword that you would like to search for, you will get long-tail suggestions that people search for as usual. To find all the appropriate keywords, write a search term in the search bar, put a space, and follow one by one with letters alphabetically. You can even use the combinations of two letters for even more results as shown on the image (Image 1). This will allow you to get keywords for the blog.
Use Google Keyword Planner to get useful information
If you would like to know how to choose keywords for SEO you have to get familiar with Google Keyword Planner. At last, we are at the point of listing the keywords that we can use. However, you may be surprised to hear that even a one-word difference can have a significant influence on the likeability of the keyword. Therefore, to get statistical information about the list of keywords that you made and to find new keyword suggestions you will need Google Keyword Planner.
To access this amazing tool, create Google Ads account (if you don’t have one yet), on the top bar press “Tools & Settings” and under “Planning” choose “Keyword Planner”. Google puts some restrictions on this tool and you may have to spend some money on Google Ads to get explicit data. Rule of thumb is to search for keywords that have high search volume, high CPC (cost per click), but low competition (Take into consideration that the competition shown here is for ads solely and not for organic ranking).
Use SEMrush to get organic competition score
SEMrush is one of the most amazing SEO tools that you will ever come across. Even though you will have to purchase one of the packages that they provide, it is worth the price. You can also have a one-month trial that will allow you to test the website and all the great things that you can accomplish with its help. This is the tool that you can use without any previous methods; However, you will have to premium for this tool.
You may wonder why you need a paid tool when you can use Google Keyword Planner for free. You will be right to think so if you have a small company that cannot afford the premium prices of SEMrush. However, the most amazing thing about this tool is its explicit data provided about the keyword of your choice, including statistics that you had to get from Google Keyword Planner. SEMrush also provides data about the difficulty score of the keyword to rank organically. Unfortunately, CPC and competition for ads cannot provide the precise information that you require for your organic reach improvement.
If you ask SEO experts, they might advise you different tools that provide similar information. Although, after using the most popular websites that help with keyword research, I decided to include this sole option in this explicit guide. Feel free to consider different options but make sure you compare the data across different tools. Such websites require explicit data to provide relevant results and most of them fail to meet this criterion. The location of your target audience is an important factor as some websites are only useful for certain regions.
Use Google Trends to check the seasonality of the primary keyword
Unfortunately, simply choosing the keywords is not enough to increase sales. You have to follow the seasonality trends of the main keywords as it might significantly affect customer behavior. If the keywords that you chose for your blog post are affected by such fluctuations you may not rank well at all.
The image below (image 2) shows the fluctuation of a search volume of a specific keyword during one year. Certain keywords have significantly lower search volume during specific seasons and you have to be aware whether your keywords are relevant for that specific time or not. Even if you have seasonal products / services you have to think of the keywords that will have a navigational or informational purpose rather than straightforward sales intend only. The keywords that you choose for your page have to initially increase the credibility and only after this you can focus on sales.
Make sure the keywords are relevant
During the searching process, you may encounter plenty of keywords that qualify as the best search terms to use depending on the level of competition and the volume. However, you have to make sure that they are relevant to your page to rank well. Using irrelevant terms will not only cause a high bounce rate (customers leaving the page without visiting another page) but will also affect how Search Engines perceive your page.
The new algorithm update of Google favors customer experience more than SEO. Even though it takes into account the keywords that you use on your page, it also checks customer satisfaction levels based on their behavior. If visitors bounce back soon, Google will assume that this page is not relevant to the keyword that they used. If Google notices such unusual behavior on other pages as well, it is highly likely that the overall Domain Authority (a rating that is given to a website) will be affected. Keywords for a blog are essential but they have to be in line with the overall idea of the article.
Do my keywords look natural?
Customer experience highly affects how you distribute keywords on your blog. Before posting give the text to someone else who shares similar characteristics with the target audience and ask them to check if it looks natural. Using the right keywords will let Google know what it is about, but can sometimes confuse the visitors. It doesn’t matter what keywords do you use and how well if they don’t look appealing to the readers.
For instance, sometimes people tend to remove prepositions (on, at, etc.) to have the exact keyword variation that they would like to rank for. However, google usually neglects such words and you can simply include them. It’s not only prepositions as there is a huge list of words that google neglects entirely. Always keep these words in mind as using grammar inappropriately is much worse than using a different variation of the keyword.
If you would like to check by yourself the credibility of this factor, we can use this article as an example. Press Control + F for windows (Command + F for Mac) to open the search bar. If you use another gadget simply navigate to functions of your browser and look for a search bar. The primary long-tail keyword of this article is “How to choose keywords for SEO?” that has a 3-digit search volume at the moment of keyword research solely in Canada. Another long-tail keyword that I use is “keywords for blog” with slightly lower search volume (it is vital to have the primary keyword that has the highest search volume). If you search for these keywords you will see that you don’t get an optimal amount of results (you will get more information about optimal density later).
However, if you have come across this article in google especially with a similar search term it means the keywords are distributed well. You don’t see many results mainly because I used the words that google neglects. For instance, besides “keywords for blog” I used “keywords for your blog”, “keywords for a blog” and many other variations.
Check your chances of ranking on the first page
As we have already discussed, while used simultaneously with other methods SEMrush will show statistical information that is vital to choose keywords for a blog or for any other sources. However, besides these characteristics, there are Domain Authority and the Page Authority that are equally important. As the names suggest they determine the authority of the website in general and the authority of the page respectively. These criteria will affect your chances to rank high in SERP. Therefore, you will have to check the first three results for your target keywords and make sure that you can gain a competitive advantage over them.
To check the Domain Authority and Page Authority of your direct competitors, you can use Mozbar Extension that will list this information for each website. Simply by creating a free account, you can get this information for each of these pages. The results will be in the range of 0 – 100 and you will have to compare it with your website but keep all the other characteristics in mind as well. Similarly, you can use Moz Pro servicesto check multiple links at once. This amazing website can give you an edge over your competitors if used properly.
Choose optimal keyword density
You may know how to choose keywords for SEO but if you don’t choose optimal density you are not going to rank well. Do you remember old good days when you could simply stuff pages with keywords? These old good days are gone as Keyword stuffing became a thing of the past. Google now has a plethora of “Quality Assessors” whose only job is to look through top-rated pages. They manually rate them based on the specific criteria to make sure that the purpose of these pages is customer satisfaction and not deceiving search engines. To make sure that your pages are in line with these criteria have a look at “Google Quality Assessor Guidelines”to get familiar with factors that they take into account while evaluating your page’s content.
The optimal keyword density is 0.5% of the overall content size. Even though it used to be much higher, Google Panda update started to fight with keyword stuffing and made this major change. Having 5 keywords per 1000 words will simply be enough to use one main keyword. Hence, you will need 2-3 additional keywords that you can rank for. These may be Semantic keywords (synonyms) and LSI keywords (the terms that are frequently used with the main keyword).
If you have a WordPress website you can make your life easier with Yoast SEO plugin that helps you optimize your pages and will tell you if you underuse the keywords on your page. With a premium version, it will even check for other supporting keywords that you can use to enhance the page. This tool might even be essential in order to use multiple keywords for your blog.
What are synonyms and why do they matter?
Have you ever wondered why there is highlighted text on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)? This is the text that google finds the most relevant to your search term. However, you may have noticed that it is not always the same as your long-tail keyword. That is because Google focuses more on context and logic rather than gramma when determining similar terms (Image 3). Similarly, it takes into consideration the other words on the page, website theme, customers’ previous experience, and many other factors.
The algorithm is still in the learning process, hence there might be some mistakes in terms of highlighted keywords. Don’t rely entirely on the research and focus on evaluating the performance of your website. Before we start discussing the role of synonyms it is vital to compare it with other ranking factors that are sometimes entirely neglected.
Synonyms vs Co-citations and Co-occurrences in terms of ranking
Synonyms
As the name suggests the synonyms are the words that have exactly the same meaning. These are the words that you can use interchangeably without affecting the main idea of the sentence. However, if you would like to rank 1st for marketing adviser you will most likely get automatically ranked for marketing consultant, marketing pro, etc.
Although, even if you rank first for your main keyword – “marketing adviser”, your rank will be different for synonyms as google favors those who have the exact match as their first option. Of course, this will not be the sole factor but it will still give them a competitive advantage for that keyword. Although, if you mention marketing pro several times as an additional keyword, you will most likely rank much better for this keyword as well.
Co-occurrence
Co-occurrence is a process of using similar keywords across the same websites. Co-occurrencehappens with keywords that are topically relevant. However, they are not exactly the same as it was in the case of synonyms. This can also help to boost SEO performance as you will rank for these keywords as well.
Expect to rank well even for the keywords that you have not mentioned exactly in the headline or any other required places. Even a partial match with the search term can make you rank well, assuming there are not many websites with better characteristics than you do.
Co-citation
Co-citation is a process when two different websites mention the third website, but don’t link to it. In such cases, Google assumes that the content of these two pages is related. It has the same effect as backlinks do, even though these pages will not directly link to it.
Remember the main differences among these occurrences as it will help you to understand how to choose keywords for SEO.
How google update affected the role of synonyms?
Each new update of google gives birth to new technologies that are meant to make google more human-like while accessing the readability and the relevance of the pages. The most recent update uses “latent semantic indexing” technology. It can determine not only synonyms but also LSI keywords (related terms). LSI keywords don’t contain the same words as a target keyword but are usually used in context with it. For instance, “SME”, “income” and “sales” can be LSI keywords for “business plan”.
However, as we have already discussed Google is much clever now and it can even determine LSI keywords. Hence, it tends to punish those who overuse them. The synonyms on the other hand are acceptable after panda update (the latest update). If you would like to avoid harsh punishments you can use one main keyword on the webpage and 2 other synonyms.
Similarly, overusing words might become annoying and synonyms will make your content look more appealing. If you recall an article that clearly was overusing certain keyword, most likely you would remember the annoyance that comes with such experience. The synonyms will help you to keep your readers engaged for a longer period. The article that sounds more natural is much likely to succeed.
Find synonyms for your main keyword
Now it’s time to discuss the methods that we can use to find the relevant synonyms. All you need to keep in mind is that you’re looking for direct synonyms, not “related keywords” that appear at the bottom of each search engine result page (image 4). We could use the “iOS device” as a synonym for “iPhone”, not just for “Apple”.
Search in Google
Probably the easiest way is to type your main keyword in Google and look at suggested pages. As you have seen from Image 1 Google highlights the text that made the page relevant to your search term. You may be surprised to see that sometimes even the first suggestion doesn’t contain the exact keyword. This is because there are many other factors as well that determine the position of the webpage. You can search around 5-10 SERPs pages depending on your search term. Sometimes the synonyms might appear on the very first page, but sometimes it will take more effort to find relevant terms.
The drawback of this method is a lack of information about the keywords. You will have to use the additional tools to get the information related to search volume and competition level. Similarly, it is quite time consuming and will require hard work to get the list of synonyms. On the other hand, it is one of the most reliable sources as you can see on your own that Google perceives these keywords as synonyms of your primary keyword. It doesn’t matter how reliable your preferred keyword research method is, it will never be as reliable as exact SERP of your target search term. Google does like to keep certain tricks as a secret and even premium SEO websites cannot provide precise results.
Install Browser extension “Keywords Everywhere”
There are many browser extensions that will make your life easier in terms of SEO. However, Keywords Everywhere is probably the most useful extension that you can use to track and use the terms that are relevant to your main keyword. As you have already seen aiming solely for one keyword is not a good idea and you have to use other search terms as well by all means.
To make the best use of this Extension, search for your main keyword and visit the first three pages of SERP. Now you can analyze these pages with the extension and see the keywords that are most used on the page. Make sure to differentiate synonyms from co-occurrence terms as they play a different role.
As an example, I analyzed my another article How to write a blog post with this tool to check the keywords that I could be eligible to rank for (Image 5). Even though the results include some irrelevant keywords as well that I was not even planning to rank for, I still can find the synonyms of my primary keyword. When you use this tool simply neglect the terms that are irrelevant through filtering based on the number of words in the keyword. As you can see from the image you have multiple options to export your keywords to skim fast through all of them and keep only relevant terms.
Integrate Keywords Everywhere with Übersuggest
Übersuggest is an amazing website that besides keyword research provides explicit data for optimizing your website. It integrates with Keywords Everywhere extension and provides search volume data of the keywords. After getting ideas for terms that you can use, highlight those that have at least a 3-digit search volume and download them.
Use dictionaries
If you simply search for synonyms for any word you will encounter multiple websites that will help you with this issue. As we did for the simple google search, you will need to use different tools to get explicit data on these keywords. This information will help you to determine their likability. Three main websites that you can use for this purpose are Thesaurus, Merriam Webster, and Collins Dictionary. They can play a crucial role in determining the synonyms for your blog.
The tools used for searching the main keyword will also come handy for synonyms. For instance, Keyword Planner and SEMrush will show suggestions that might not be direct synonyms, but you can always look through and find convenient terms.
Choose the right synonyms
Similarly to main keyword research, you can get all the vital information for choosing the right synonyms. Moreover, it is not always about competition, you have to make sure that they will look natural in the context. The rule of thumb is writing it for readers and only include keywords if they don’t affect the readability negatively.
Google differentiates the synonyms, and sometimes listing direct terms with the same meanings will be a waste of opportunities. For instance, Google knows that if someone searches for “car” it can show the results for “automobile” as well. Hence, without including this synonym, you will automatically rank for this keyword.
On the other hand, as we have already discussed above, the pages that directly target this keyword will have an advantage over your webpage if you don’t include it. If you have high Domain Authority and your page has high chances of getting a good authority score as well, focus more on diverse synonyms to increase your reach. This way you can easily rank for direct synonyms without including them. If your website is still on the development stage try to use direct synonyms as you have to target a niche to increase your chances of ranking well.
Use local keywords
If your target audience is located in a specific geographical location use the words that specify the location. For instance, if you have a restaurant that is based solely in New York you can use the keyword “restaurant in New York” rather than simply “restaurant”. The visitors who search for the first keyword, most likely want to visit a restaurant in New York. Similarly, it will be much easier to rank well for this keyword.
On the other hand, the second keyword (restaurant) is broader and it will be extremely hard to rank on the first page. You will have to compete with websites from around the world and even if you can withstand this harsh competition you will get multiple irrelevant visitors. Most likely they will simply leave the website instantly causing lower Page Authority.
The recent algorithm updates of Google focus on solving similar issues. If the search term is exclusive in terms of location, Google will favor those results that come from the same location as the location of the visitor’s device. If you search for “restaurant” while you are in New York, you will get suggestions for restaurants in New York. Although, simply including the name of the location in the keyword might give you an edge over your competitors.
Distribute keywords
Finding appropriate keywords is essential but simply including them in the text will not rank you well. The distribution is another important criterion that Google takes into account while crawling the website. Here are the main suggestions that you have to be cautious about.
Include a primary keyword in the first and last paragraphs
The first paragraph is usually an introduction that explains the main idea of the article. On the other hand, the last paragraph sums up the whole idea of the page. This is why both these text bodies are so vital in terms of keyword distribution. Take into account that by first paragraph I meant first 300 words. Even if you have a huge paragraph make sure to include as close to the beginning as possible. Similarly, it is more advisable if the first sentences of the summary include the main term.
Use keywords in headers
H1 is a place that sums up the main idea. Hence, it is vital to include the primary keyword in header 1 to increase chances for ranking for this term. To increase the chances of ranking well for this keyword, you will have to include it in one of the header 2 as well. However, take into account the structure of the article as well. If it doesn’t fit appropriately prefer customer experience over SEO.
Moreover, it will be good if you include at least one of the synonyms in header 2. It is not only for search engines but also for the customer’s experience. If you include the relevant keywords in headers, it will help the readers to skim fast and determine the topics that they are truly interested in.
Make sure to include high search volume keywords in H2 (or H3 when applicable). However, they must not have a higher search volume compared to the primary keyword that you use in your meta title.
Make good use of Meta Description, Title Tag and URL
A meta description is a short text that appears below the headline on SERP. As a summary of the whole page, it must include the primary keyword to underline once more the importance of that term. The same applies to URL as it must include the primary keyword by all means. Although, if you use a long-tail keyword you may have to include a trimmed version in the URL to make it look natural. Lastly, include it in the title tag but make sure to use a little bit different version compared to H1. Even though many SEO experts suggest using exactly the same Title tag as H1, it is a good opportunity to rank well for closely related synonyms as well.
Include the keyword in Anchor Text
An anchor text is a text that we use to describe the image on the website. Google frequently accesses the purpose of the search term to provide results in the most appropriate format. For instance, if you search for “nature” you will get images as a first suggestion, but for the comparison of two cars, it will be either video or a post depending on the exact search term.
If you don’t use images for your pages make sure to include them next time. They make everything more memorable, improve a visitor’s experience, and allow you to be found from Google Images. Even if your page is not ranked on the first page, you will have an opportunity to gain customers’ attention from images. If your primary keyword cannot be represented by an image make sure to use a certain modification of your keyword that can be expressed by photo.
If you consider yourself to be a forgetful person, you can always use the Yoast SEO plugin if you have a WordPress website. Besides multiple advantages of this plugin, it can also remind you any time you forget including your primary keyword in any place that we have already discussed. However, the content always has to be your priority. Don’t aim to accomplish all Yoast suggestions if they make your page look unpleasant.
Follow-up steps after publishing page
The optimization is not a one-time activity and requires constant attention. Unfortunately, it is not one of those “do and forget” actions that you can abandon after implementation. Here are the steps that you have to follow to improve the page and the overall website ranking. Even if you already know how to choose keywords for SEO, you have to also know how to keep them functional.
Use different keywords for other pages
When you find an excellent keyword that meets all the criteria you may be triggered to implement it. However, quantity doesn’t always lead to quality in the case of keywords. You have to avoid repeating your primary terms in order to gain an opportunity to rank for synonyms as well. As we have already discussed, the pages that use the search term as a primary keyword always have an advantage.
Similarly, if your website gets popular you may risk cannibalizing your pages if they start competing with each other. Using the same primary keyword for different pages will make it more difficult to rank in top 10 of SERP. It is a well-known fact that almost 80 % of all customers click the first three results on SERP. Hence, if you optimize more than 3 pages for the same primary keyword, you don’t stand a chance to get the most out of your pages.
Change keywords of underperforming webpages
Sometimes it happens that the pages that you had high hopes for don’t perform as they had to. Multiple factors can lead to such undesirable outcome and one of the main factors is the primary keyword. To determine underperforming pages check Google Analytics data. It will give you the list of pages that provide the best results for the search term. If visitors don’t like your page, it is highly likely that you will soon lose the chance of ranking on the first SERP.
If this happens to you, make sure to optimize the page and change the main keyword. Take into account that changing such an important word might affect SEO performance. Google only likes minor changes to the existing pages and you have to be cautious all the time. On the other hand, without such changes, underperforming webpages will be destined to fail.
Initially, you must test such changes with several pages only and observe how it affects the performance. Although, make sure to keep notes of any changes that you make on each page. If something goes wrong you can always revert the webpage to its initial condition. The keywords for blog are crucial and simply changing them entirely may have unforeseen consequences.
Check frequently for Google Algorithm updates
Google likes experimenting and changes preferences frequently. For instance, if they make major changes in terms of density of the keywords, old pages might suffer significantly. Most likely they will not rank as well as they used to. To refresh the web-pages, you have to be aware of such updates and make relevant improvements.
Takeaway
As you have seen, knowing how to choose keywords for SEO is essential to write content that converts potential customers. Choosing appropriate keywords for a blog is crucial to make the best of your hard work. Make sure you choose the terms that are relevant to your capabilities. You may waste your opportunities if the keyword is too easy with low search volume. On the other hand, focusing on the extremely hard term can mean never ranking on the first page. Hence, you will need to find a golden middle with the keywords that will derive the desired results.