How to Choose Effective Keywords for Your Online Marketing Strategy

I like to think of the keywords used in an online marketing strategy like I do the lights in my house. When I walk into a room and flip the switch, I expect the lights to come on—I only notice if they don’t work—and proper keyword selection and implementation functions in much the same way.

Think of a quality website you’re familiar with: when you read the content on a page, you get a general grasp of what the content is about, but you don’t notice the website beating you over the head with a keyword over and over again. Inversely, that same content isn’t so vague and random that you can’t figure out what’s going on. This doesn’t happen by accident; not only is the content well written (a related topic, but one for another day), but it is done with specific keywords in mind. And just like the average user can read content and realize what it’s about, search engines can as well.

The keywords your site uses to represent itself to search engines and end users is similar to what someone might say in an elevator speech: it’s just a short summary of who you are, but it’s a short summary of what your audience wants to hear.

Make no mistake: you never want to misrepresent your website. Google is much, much too smart to be tricked by that, at least not for long, and when they figure out that you’ve been misleading them, they will penalize you. What we do want to do, however, is choose keywords that are both the best representation of what your website (or a particular page) is about, as well as what your potential visitors most want to search for. I love basketball, so we’ll use it as a bad example.

Let’s say we’ve launched a new website that covers local high school basketball games. A keyword phrase like “basketball game” would be perfectly applicable from a content standpoint, but people that search for that term might be looking for rules to the game, their local professional team, or even a drinking game to play while their favorite team is on TV. We wouldn’t know unless we looked at the search results to see what search engines deem as relatable.

Another thing to consider along with that keyword phrase is the possibility that the competition may be too high, especially for a website like ours that is just starting out. We are looking for terms directly related to the content and subject of our website, terms that people are searching for, and terms at a competition level that we can realistically compete against. For that reason, I might be more interested in search terms that also represent a geographic area, such as “high school basketball scores Flint MI.” This is a very specific phrase and would bring along with it a very, very specific type of visitor, one that would be interested in what our website provides.

Let’s sum up some of what we’ve gone over with some easy-to-remember bullet points:

1. Always make sure your keywords are representative of your site’s content and goal.
2. Make sure that when your keywords appear on the page, they appear naturally. No spamming!
3. Be specific. This is especially important if your website is just starting out. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big one.
4. Multi-word phrases are better than a single word. The majority of search terms used online are at least three words.
5. Be creative! There are almost always more keyword phrases out there to consider, and if you’ve thought of it, chances are some of your potential visitors have as well.

Author Bio:

Michael Tracy has been advising clients and writing ad copy in the SEO industry for over 4 years. He just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English, and he promises not to correct your grammar if you don’t correct his. Michael’s an avid basketball scholar and Lakers fanatic.

About Wildnet Technologies:

Wildnet Technologies is a leading India-based provider of comprehensive SEO India services. The company has presence in a host of countries all around the world. It has been offering its SEO services to some of the most leading, reputed and respected organizations which are located all around the world.

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