Finding the right keywords for your web pages

Choosing the right keywords

Now that you're familiar with the basics of SEO (check out SEO 101 if you're not!), it's time to start building content and raising traffic to your pages.  In order to do this most effectively, you should target content that is most searched for, and that is not too competitive, at least in the beginning.  Why?  If you try to target "seo," which plenty of people search for as you can probably imagine, you will have slim chances of breaking into the top 10, much less get the #1 spot.  It's best to start with more specific, less competitive phrases such as "guru of search" to begin building your traffic base, and then work your way up from there.  You'll notice that with time, your more specific pages about, in this example, "guru of search," will contribute to your overall ranking for more general phrases such as "seo."  Also keep in mind the content hierarchy that was discussed in SEO 101.  You can use the pyramid hierarchy discussed in SEO 101 to help support your content internally and thereby raise your search rankings simply by organizing your content better.

How do i know what people are searching for?

In order to find out what people are searching for, you'll need to sign up for one of several keyword research services.  These services gather keyword data from various sources and offer an overall impression of what is being searched for.  Note that none of these sources are as accurate as they claim, as often data is skewed by external factors that don't necessarily reflect real human searches.  But for the most part, on a relative basis you should be able to get a good idea of which keyphrases are searched for more than others.

Which keyword research services should i use?

We've done the research, and out of all the keyword services out there here's the top two:

Keyword Discovery -- Trellian's Keyword Discovery compiles keyword search statistics from over 180 search engines world wide, giving you access to one of the most extensive keyword databases out there.  From industry keywords, seasonal search trends, keyword density analysis and more, Keyword Discovery proves to be one of the most comprehensive and reliable keyword research tools.

Word Tracker - The other top keyword research service.  Word Tracker taps into different databases, providing slightly different results.  Combined with Keyword Discovery, you'll be able to optimize and target your keyword research campaigns to a high degree. 

Note that if you're just starting out subscribing to only one of these services will suffice, although we recommend Keyword Discovery as it integrates better with Keywords Analyzer, described below.

Analyzing your keyword research results

Once you've gotten lists of keywords to use in your search campaign from Keyword Discovery and Word Tracker, you'll need a tool to analyze them.  Out of all the keyword analysis tools, we feel the most complete and accessible one is Keywords Analyzer. 

Keywords Analyzer - Keywords Analyzer provides SEO analysis of each keyword in your research list - this means you'll not only see how many times a keyphrase is being searched for, but how strong is your competition for these keywords?  In other words, how difficult will it be to rank highly for that keyphrase?  The SEO analysis looks at fundamental elements (see SEO 101) of competitor's keyphrase pages and lets you know how well optimized they are.  This, in combination with the overall number of results in search engines, will give you a good idea of how competitive your keyphrase is.

Keywords Analyzer also allows you to brainstorm on keywords, coming up with new, effective low-competition combinations that may not have occured to you.  The software is compabitle with Keyword Discovery described above (it used to also be compatible with Word Tracker, but Word Tracker doesn't appear to be handing out API keys anymore).  You'll simply need to plugin your Keyword Discovery account login information and Keywords Analyzer will be able to integrate your keyword research data into your analyses.

Next up: effective link building

Now that you've got your site code optimized (it's ready to be sourced and indexed by spiders), and you have a good idea of what people in your industry are searching for and what keyphrases (groupings of keywords) you might optimize your content for, it's time to start writing the content and raising your rankings.  Read our article on effective link building to get started.