Client: "I want to rank for the keywords X, Y and Z."
Me: "Why do you want to rank for those specific keywords?"
Client: "Because that is what my product/service is..."
Me: "Ah, I see, but do your customers/potential customers use those keywords to search for your specific product/service...in your area?"
And that is a conversation I've had countless times over the years.
Keywords can be slippery little suckers to nail down. It's not just about ranking for keywords for the sake of generating any traffic; it's about getting ranked for the right keywords--the ones that your customers and potential customers enter into the all-knowing search box on Google.
EXAMPLE:
Say you sell refurbished Chris Craft boats. (For those of you who aren't boat enthusiasts, think James Bond or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.) Do you want to rank on the first page for the keyword "boat"?
No, of course not. That search term gets roughly 2.2 million searches a month globally, according to Google Ads keyword research tool. And it's anyone's guess on what a user is looking for when they just enter "boat." They could be looking for a ski boat, riverboat, sailboat, boat repair, boat rentals, and so much more
You get my point. Out of those 2.2 million searches, how many of those are searching for your specialized Chris Craft refurbished boats to buy? You want to rank for what keywords and search topics are relevant to your bottom line.
Now on the flip side, if you are a boat review site that offers advertising space on your site and you're really heavy on traffic, then ranking for a search term like boat is defiantly going to be on your radar.
THE RIGHT KEYWORDS FOR SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Now we can get to the nitty-gritty. Finding the right keywords to rank for and drawing in the right traffic is now our focus. So, how does one determine what keywords are the right keywords?
A good place to start is Google Analytics and Google Search Console. If you don't have your site linked to Analytics or Search Console yet, do it. Google provides these free tools, which are packed with all the good stuff to help you optimize your website and know how your website is performing.
Google Search Console
This free Google tool will be your best friend when it comes to SEO and how Google regards your site. Search Console reports the following:
- All keywords you're currently ranking for and the average position (Positions 1-10 all appear on the first page of searches)
- Current number of indexed pages
- Errors on your site that affect your ranking
- Overall average Google organic search position
- Impressions and clicks generated by organic keywords
The list above is only a fraction of what Search Console offers, but this is an excellent tool for determining your current standing with the search engine giant.
Once you've determined which keywords you're ranking for (both good and bad), you can start updating your website content to both strengthen the relevant keywords and weed out content that may draw in the wrong type of traffic.
I included errors on your site for a particular reason. Let's go back to your theoretical Chris Craft business. Your Chris Craft site has seven pages on every model you offer. Each page has detailed information that you know Chris Craft collectors look for when searching online.
What if those pages were blocked from being crawled by a "noindex" tag, or there are broken links on that page. All of that glorious, keyword-rich content is useless. You'll want to address that issue right away with your website developer.
Google Analytics
Also free from Google, Analytics is an invaluable resource for seeing how your website users interact with your site. The dashboard gives you:
- Users enter on
- Users leave on
- How long users stay on the website
- How they enter your website: social, referral or email
- New users versus returning users
These data points all help you determine what pages are optimized for the right users and which ones aren't. While analytics doesn't give you the best organic keywords information, it does report which pages get the most organic traffic. If your product/service pages aren't getting traffic, it's probably time to refresh that content.
CONTENT IS KING
We've said that before, and it's still true today. Google smiles down upon those who actively add fresh, original content to their website:
- Do you often blog about your products? Industry? Tips and Tricks?
- Are you adding or updating your products or services?
- Are you adding new offers or calls-to-action to your site?
Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Think about how you would have searched for your product five years ago, three years ago, and today. It's changed. Users have evolved. Search engines have evolved. The economy has grown.
It's ludicrous to think that five-year-old content on your site would effectively bring in traffic today. Google feels the same way. If you aren't consistently adding and refreshing your content, as the soup nazi would say, No rankings for you.
Yes, finding and implementing the right keywords to rank for is no small undertaking. It's research, testing, tracking, then repeat. You can't cram all of these efforts into a month. It's an ongoing process that starts when you take your website live and never ends.
Want to know how you rank the wild world of web marketing? Take our assessment to find out where you're killing it and where you need to step it up a bit.
Written by Nikki Wardle
Nikki has a degree in Marketing from Boise State University and worked as an Inbound Marketing Specialist at Tribute Media from 2014 to 2019. She's a Google Whiz and dog lover, now serving as a marketing director for a local veterinary clinic.
