With millions of websites competing for rankings on the same industry as your business, how do you ensure your products and services stand out? With a strategic search engine optimization (SEO) plan for your website, you will undoubtedly notice the change in website visibility, traffic, and interactions. Before creating a SEO plan for your site, take the time to understand a few important best practices.
Knowing Your Audience Before They Know You
Understanding your audience(s) is vital before embarking on keyword research. Not every potential visitor knows exactly what to search for or what can help them, so grasping the characteristics of your audience is essential. Be sure to:
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Identify demographics such as age, gender, location, and interests
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Understand challenges that your business, institution or organization may be trying to resolve
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Gather analytics for the search queries relating to your business or institution
Starting with Seed Keywords
Seed keywords are simple terms relating to your industry. They help kickstart your research by providing a basis for generating more specific keywords. For example, if your focus is on personal finance, seed keywords could include “savings” or “investment.”
Once you have your seed keywords, you can use them to discover long-tail variations that can improve your chances of ranking for more specific queries. Some of these seed keywords and longer variations can be found with tools such as Google Keyword Planner, MOZ Keyword Explorer or SEMrush. They can provide insights into search volumes, competition, and related keywords. These tools will help you identify popular search terms and variations, guiding your content creation process.
Understanding Search Intent
Now that you’ve gathered the best details about your prospects and the important keywords you want to work from, search intent is crucial. Search intent often aids search optimization into four groups of prospects which interestingly align with the sales funnel:
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Informational Intent: These are users who are looking for more guidance and answers to questions in their searches. This will put them at an earlier stage of their journey to learn more about products and services that your business may be in. You will notice these search queries if they look similar to the following: “how to choose the best savings account” or “what are the benefits of refinancing a car loan.” You can then attract prospects to your business by providing blog posts, guides, and FAQ page content. These informational articles would allow them to discover not only the answer to their questions, but also provide them potential products and services you offer.
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Navigational Intent: These are prospects that have a clear idea about the products, services and even the brand, that they are interested in. You may notice some of their searches by the specifics included: “Wells Fargo checking account” or “Chase savings account rates.” In this case, it would be important to have all website information easily accessible for them to gain access to.
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Commercial Intent: This is when prospects know what they’re looking for and have an idea on what they want. Now they’re comparing their options between products or by company, especially with loans and savings accounts. For house hunters, most of their search queries would include phrases like “compare mortgage rates” and “best mortgage lenders near me.” These types of intent can easily be included in the website’s content.
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Transactional Intent: This usually is the end for a prospect’s search, where they are ready to make a purchase or submit an application. Their searches are characterized by actionable phrases such as: “apply for a home loan now” or “get pre-approved for a mortgage.” Searches like this would want to focus on the application, contact pages, and product pages of your website.
Incorporating Local Keywords
With the growing emphasis on local businesses and products, you could rank higher in search results by incorporating location-based keywords naturally into your content. This is especially true when a business has multiple locations, where you may need to include specifics such as city or regional phrases.
Additionally, setting up a Google My Business account can improve the chances of appearing in local searches. A highly recommended option for businesses with multiple locations is to include this content within the site footer. This section is great to list your business locations and key services and link to relevant pages for more information about these topics.
Enhancing Keywords
Once you’ve identified your target keywords, it’s time to optimize your content:
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Include keywords naturally: Use keywords within headings and the page body
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Optimize meta tags: Include some primary keywords within your meta tag titles and descriptions
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Use alt text for images: Incorporate keywords in the alt text of images on the page
Other things to keep your mind on are long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific phrases that often times have much lower search volumes but higher conversion rates. For example, instead of just “credit cards,” consider optimizing your page for “low interest credit cards.”
You can also stay updated with industry trends with tools like Google Trends to help identify rising topics and changes in search behavior. By including your content with relevant trends, you can capture traffic and audience engagement at its peak.
Adjusting Your Approach Regularly
Search engine optimization and keyword research will need to be closely monitored and adjusted over time. Tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console are created to monitor your website’s performance and important data. Some data that you will need to report on would be organic traffic, bounce rates, and average time on page. You can use this to refine your search engine optimization strategy and make content adjustments.
Prioritizing Keyword Optimization
Effective keyword research is the backbone of successful content writing and website search engine ranking. By understanding your audiences, utilizing the right tools, focusing on search intent, and continuously monitoring trends, you can create content that not only ranks well but also provides real value to your prospects. Implement these SEO best practices to enhance your keyword research process and watch your organic traffic grow.
If you think you need to update your content, redesign your website or want to talk more about our ongoing SEO services, lets chat! Our skilled SEO strategists would be happy to help you.