Successfully marketing your business's products and services requires making sure the right people see them. SEO keywords play a significant role in making sure people who search for terms relevant to your brand can find your website and your content. Here is an overview of how to choose SEO keywords that work for your business and why investing time into learning about this process matters.

Why Is Keyword Research Important?

Knowing what information your target audience is already searching for is vital in setting up your website and social media pages to make your business as easy to find as possible. Using keyword research to determine the specific terms people who may be interested in your brand are frequently searching for provides a wide range of insights into what people want to know. This is an essential step to getting the SEO rankings you want for your business.

Elements of Keyword Research

The specific details of Google's SEO algorithm are constantly changing, but rankings are generally based on your keywords' relevance, authority, and volume.

Relevance

Relevant keywords match the intent of your target audience's searches and queries. Some keywords may fit into more than one field, and Google considers how well each option helps your searchers find the right resource for information when determining SEO rankings.

Authority

Although your keyword choices give you a certain amount of control over where your website appears in your target audience's search results, Google also considers the overall authority of a domain when determining SEO rankings. Websites and social media pages belonging to official organizations that are seen as leaders in your field tend to automatically be given top search result positions, which means that competing with these websites will likely be difficult if Google does not consider you an authoritative source.

Volume

SEO rankings matter most with keywords your target audience is searching for. A keyword's monthly search volume, or MSV, lets you know approximately how many people are searching for a particular term each month. At Hubbard Cincinnati, we can use this information to help you choose keywords for which more people are searching.

How to Find and Choose Keywords for Your Website

Several sources can help you find keywords that might make sense for your websites, such as Google's Keyword Planner and Google Trends. Once you create a list of potential keywords that might work well when it comes to bringing in the results you want, several strategies can help you choose the ones that are the most likely to be successful.

Use Google Keyword Planner to Cut Down Your Keyword List

Narrowing your list of potential keywords down to a handful that is the most relevant is far more effective than keyword stuffing. Google prioritizes content that naturally incorporates a few top keywords over those that attempt to squeeze in as many variations of the same keyword as possible.

Google's Keyword Planner is a helpful tool that can help you estimate how much site traffic each keyword you are considering using is likely to receive. This way, you can prioritize the keywords that predict the best results and cross the ones that may not give you quite as much traffic off your list.

Check the Monthly Search Volume (MSV) for the Keywords You've Chosen

A keyword's MSV estimates the number of people that are searching for that term each month to help you assess which topics are getting the most traction across Google and other search engines. Determining which keywords on your list have the highest MSV is a helpful step when it comes to making sure your content includes the most important keywords. You can use Google Trends or a similar program to search for relevant keywords with the highest MSV.

See How Competitors Are Ranking for These Keywords

Digging into what keywords your competitors are using and how well they work for them can help you modify your SEO strategy to get ahead of your competition. Your competitors may have a slightly different approach than you do, and they may not have chosen their keywords as carefully as we can do for you; however, using their current results as a starting point for determining what keywords have the most potential for your business can give you the most substantial initial results.

Many members of your target audience will not look past the first page of search results, so any similar result from another company you can outperform will improve your brand's overall visibility and reputation.

Why Hiring SEO Experts Leads to Successful Campaigns

Google's SEO algorithms are constantly changing, so working with an expert can be a much more successful option than attempting to understand how to get the best possible results on your own. Even the best marketing campaigns are unlikely to succeed if you cannot get them in front of your target audience. Choosing the right SEO expert gives your business a partner that can efficiently test a wide range of techniques to determine the best possible keywords for each piece of content on your website.

At Hubbard Cincinnati, not only are we here to help you create an SEO strategy that works for your business, but we are also Premier Google Partners. This partnership allows us to pass along insights from Google directly to you and your business.

Contact us to learn more about how we do keyword research and why it matters, or to get started today!

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