Keywords? The crucial aspect of your referencing
In a previous article, we discussed the importance of SEO to improve the ranking of your website. We have therefore decided to focus for a moment on keywords to better explain why they are so important: they are the basis of all searches on different browsers by a user. By using relevant keywords, you are likely to appear in search results on some topics rather than others and be visible in a more favorable position than your competition.
“2020 data shows that most of the title tags on Google’s first page included keywords that matched this search query exactly or partially.” (Source : bruceclay.com)
The importance of this topic is that keywords are nothing more than what users type into their browsers to perform their searches. It is therefore very important to think carefully about which keywords you want to appear on. Indeed, a well-chosen keyword will not only bring you more visibility in terms of ranking, but it will also allow you to target the audience you want to reach in order to generate more conversions.
In this article, we will explain what a keyword is and introduce you to the different types that exist. Then we will show you how to choose the right ones. There are a number of steps to follow that will help you make the choice that suits you best. Are you ready to find them out?
Table of contents
1. What is a keyword?
It is a word or expression that Internet users are likely to type in their search bar to look for information. It is not imperative that the keyword is perfectly and accurately specified, because programmers anticipate possible spelling mistakes made by the user who launches the search. In fact, depending on your keyword and the variants you are considering, you will find yourself confronted to different typologies that are called match types. The latter simply correspond to the types of results that will be displayed according to the terms used in the search:
- If you choose the Broad Match, Google will not only display you among the results of the keyword you have chosen, but also on the keyword with spelling mistakes, on possible synonyms and on other words that belong to the same field.
- If you choose the Broad Modifier Match, you will be present in the search results if the user types one of your keywords, even if the user spells it incorrectly. You will also be visible on other words that belong to the same field.
- If you choose Phrase Match, your content will appear in the search results when the user types the keyword itself and also when they insert it in a phrase.
- If you choose the Exact Match, you will be visible in the results only on the keyword itself.
- If you choose the Negative Match, you will indicate which keywords you do not want to be eligible on.
2. How to choose the right keyword?
Let’s now proceed to the very first step: choosing the best keywords for an optimal SEO strategy. When choosing the ones, you want to use, you need to make a list of the keywords and phrases that best refer to your business. Through this list, you will have a global vision of all the words that can relate to it and, thanks to this, you will be able to make sure you choose the most relevant ones. You should not underestimate them; they will be very useful to you because they represent the link between the search carried out by the Internet user and the content you offer.
Since keywords are the key to your search engine positioning, they must have very specific characteristics: they must reflect the content of your website so that they are coherent, otherwise they don’t do their job; they must generate as much traffic as possible so you should choose words or expressions that are in common use, but not overused otherwise you will get the opposite effect. To make the right choice, the advice we give you is to start by brainstorming all the keywords you want to appear on. Then you have to choose the best ones from this list. To do this, you can help yourself with the tools below:
- Google Keyword Planner, a service provided by GoogleAds, which allows you to compare the notoriety of different keywords.
- io, a free software, which gives you suggestions from Google, Youtube, Amazon and which are categorized by country.
- Ubersuggest, created by Neil Patel, a very famous marketer, which allows you to choose phrases that contain your keyword.
- SEMRush is a tool that gives you some ideas for keywords and a forecast of their search volume.
3. Keywords and SEO optimization
When you want to improve your natural referencing, the first element to optimize is the URL of the website and of each page that composes it. You should know that here, keywords play an essential role. Indeed, adding them to the URL of a page makes it unique and facilitates the search for content by Internet users. The keywords will also be useful to you in optimizing your content. Indeed, if your pages contain the keywords included in their URL, Internet users will be much more interested in consulting it because they will find a match with their search. You must therefore insert them in your pages, but without abusing them, otherwise you risk being penalized by Google robots and driving visitors away, thus reducing traffic to your website.
You may ask yourself, but how do I do it then? All you have to do is find a keyword or an expression that perfectly synthesizes the information sought by the user. You can then proceed to optimize the titles and descriptions. Let’s start with headlines as in the case of newspaper articles, they are the ones that are responsible for attracting the reader’s attention. They also determine your position in the search results: if they contain keywords, you will be even more successful. As for the descriptions, which correspond to the overview of your content, they must be eye-catching. Their role is not as important as titles, but they can improve the click rate.
4. What are the long tail keywords?
“The long tail is an SEO technique that consists in creating more text on a page by adding words called long tail words, i.e. more specific words around the lexical field of the page” (Source : optimiz.me)
This technique consists of starting with the choice of certain very generic and often used words, on which it is therefore difficult to position oneself well and then add other terms that are always related to your content. Indeed, this type of keywords is characterized by 3 very important elements: the first is very generic and on which there is a lot of competition, i.e. it is very widespread and common, the second which is a little less generic and on which there is minor competition compared to the first, finally, the third which is extremely specific and less sought-after compared to the other two elements. It is a good practice to work with long tail keywords because they will give you more visibility on a larger number of words.
Here is an example: if you are a company that offers “office furniture”, you should not only choose these two words, as they are widely used, and it will therefore be difficult for you to rank well in search engines. All you have to do is add information that will make you stand out from your competitors in the many search results, such as “office furniture Belgium” or even better “eco-friendly office furniture Belgium”.
The choice of this type of keywords allows you on the one hand to have more visibility in the search results. On the other hand, it gives you access to a more qualified public and therefore really interested in what you offer. As in the example, you can add information relating to your geographical location which will define you as the best choice in the vicinity of the area where the person doing the search is located.
“Long-tail queries often have a higher conversion rate than general terms.” (source : bruceclay.com)
You will have therefore understood that there are many reasons why keywords are very important in the structure of your natural referencing but also to improve your website itself. This is why it is important to know that they can change according to the evolution of their notoriety. It is then important that you periodically monitor the effects of the keywords on which you have chosen to position yourself because it is not only once you have established them that they will not change: if you see that they are not too successful, it would be better that you opt for other terms. They may also change as a result of an expansion or reduction in the services you offer. The most important thing is that when you update your website, you have to do the same with your keywords, or even do it more often for them because they are really crucial!
We hope that this lecture has allowed you to discover aspects of web referencing of which you were not aware and above all that you have understood how keywords are important for your online visibility. Did you know how important the choice and use of keywords were? Do you plan to re-examine the content of your website according to the keywords that are most relevant to your sector? If you have any questions, comments or experiences to share on this subject, please do not hesitate to put them in comments.
Pingback: Why has blogging become a necessity? - Bees Boost
Pingback: SEO: 5 Chrome extensions to boost your ranking on Google - Bees Boost