Keyword research is arguably the most import aspect of SEO. Selecting the most appropriate keyword phrases a website should be optimised for is ultimately the key to successful search engine marketing.

After all, if you’re not targeting the right keywords and phrases, then even the best rankings are of little value!

Selecting keywords is a balance of choosing phrases that are:

• relevant to your web site and target audience (this is essential)
• sufficiently popular search phrases to warrant targeting (i.e. people are actually using these search phrases)
• and, where possible, have a low number of competing sites.

The ideal scenario is finding a keyword phrase that is relevant to your site, often searched on, but for which there are few competing web sites.

To illustrate how to go about keyword selection, let’s look at the keyword “SEO“. This is an acronym for “search engine optimisation” if you use British spelling, as we do in New Zealand, or “search engine optimization” using the US spelling (z instead of s).

All versions are relevant to our website – so which should we target?

Whilst there’s a range of keyword research tools available but to keeps this simple we’ll limit ourselves here to the very useful Google Insights for Search tool. The great thing about this tool is that it allows you to see keyword trends over time, with the option of segmenting by country & category. This is a big advantage over many keyword research tools which generally are US centric & so don’t always provide information relevant to other English speaking markets, like New Zealand.

This difference in keyword usage is reflected below in the Google Insights for Search screen grabs. The first shows the relative popularity on a global basis of “seo”; “search engine optimisation”, & “search engine optimization”.

As you can see the keyword “seo” is the most popular by a significant margin, whereas “search engine optimisation” trails way back in 3′rd place.

Based on this it’s clear that “SEO” is a term well worth targeting. However before discounting “search engine optimisation” as a keyword to target, take a look at the Regional Interest breakdown below the main chart. As you’ll see in UK, Australia, New Zealand & Ireland the UK spelling “search engine optimisation” (blue coloured bar) is more popular than the US spelling “search engine optimization” (red coloured bar).

This is difference is further apparent when Google Insights for Search is re-run with results filtered just for New Zealand, as shown below. (Note, due to the limited NZ data for NZ the “All categories” filter has to be applied because Google doesn’t have enough data when the “Internet” category is applied).

As you can see, whilst “SEO” is still the most popular keyword, its lead is not as dominant & “search engine optimisation” is more popular than “search engine optimization”. So does this mean an SEO firm targeting a New Zealand audience should ignore “search engine optimization” & just focus trying to rank well for “SEO” & “search engine optimisation”?

No!

It’s clear that Kiwi’s are using all 3 terms & as the “Rising Searches” report shows that both “SEO” & “search engine optimization” are fast growing in popularity. (Rising searches highlight searches that have experienced significant growth in a given time period, with respect to the preceding time period). In time I wouldn’t be at all surprised if “search engine optimization” becomes more used than “search engine optimisation” by New Zealanders searching on Google.

So in this case the smart move is to do SEO optimisation for all 3 keywords with the goal of ranking well in Google for SEO, search engine optimisation, & search engine optimization.

We’re in the throes of doing SEO on our own website, so let’s see how our rankings for these keywords improve over time. Currently whilst we rank well for these terms when appended with “New Zealand”, our rankings in Google NZ for these keywords by themselves is less than stellar. As at 13 July we only rank #17 for “SEO”; #19 for “search engine optimisation” & we’re not even in the top 30 results for “search engine optimization”. 

That will change. Watch this space…

Keywords or phrases are the ‘words’ searchers type into the search engine box when they are looking for information regarding a particular topic, products, services or information. Optimising your site for the ‘right’ keywords can be the difference between a few customers and lots of customers. It’s great to rank in the number 1 position for a search phrases but if it’s not the ‘right’ search phrase (ie one people are actually using) there is virtually no benefit for you. Here are 8 tips to get you started on good quality keyword research.

1. Think outside the square and leave no stone unturned!

Make use of every source available to you for ideas – start with your own list then ask friends, colleagues and customers for their input, use suggestion tools (eg Google Suggestion Tool), your site web logs for your web traffic and if you have them the logs for the search function on your site itself will give you customized and valuable insight only you will have into exactly what your customers are searching for.

2. Relevancy is the key to success

Never try keywords that are not relevant for your site. Sure you are going to increase the traffic to your site, but will this traffic convert? NO. At best you’ll annoy your customers and at worst you’ll annoy the search engines!

3. Talk your target audience’s language

Consider the language your target audience actually uses rather than what you or others in the business might think they should search for. It’s of no benefit ranking for “jandals” if all your customers are searching for “thongs”. Likewise, there it is pointless using industry jargon if your customer does not understand these terms. Consider that most people use natural language when they search and they typically include 2-4 keywords in their search phrases.

4. Check the numbers!

There are a range of tools available online to investigate search volumes (although some are arguably better and more accurate than others). Google, Yahoo! And Microsoft all have excellent free resources for this or for a paid subscription both Keyword Discovery or Word Tracker provide excellent data.

5. Paid Search will give you a helping hand.

If you’re still not happy with the results (or need ‘real’ stats to convince a key stakeholder) a ‘trial’ pay per click campaign can be an excellent way to get real data for your local market about what people are searching on, which results they click through from and most importantly which keywords or phrases convert to paying customers!

6. Focus, focus, focus!

Once you’re at the stage of allocating words to pages remember that a page will only rank well for 1-2 key phrases. If during your research you have identified particular keywords or phrases that could have real value but you can’t seem to fit them anywhere you might want to consider developing additional pages focused specifically on these topics. Just remember to link these pages within your site structure – they should not be stand alone pages otherwise the search engines may not be able to find them or other pages on your site!

7. Revise on a regular basis.

Keyword research is not a do it once and forget it task – you will likely have to fine tune and repeat over time as markets trends emerge, terminology changes, websites are updated, new products are launched etc.

8. Practice makes perfect!

It does not have to be perfect first time – better to have your site improved from no keyword research optimisation to some optimisation rather than doing nothing until you feel you have ‘finished’. Doing the hard work at the start and regular fine-tuning of your keyword strategy will provide you with the best possible chance of driving the right kind of traffic to your website. However, if you don’t have the time available or do not feel you have skills necessary then this job should be outsourced to specialists.

By Charlotte Whiter