You have your niche and topic figured out, but is that enough? If you’re trying to get traffic to your website, you need to know the right words to use. Before you put a single word on the page, you have to do some keyword research. It’s the single most important step in writing online. Did your eyes just glaze over? Relax, it’s not that complicated.
If you’re selling a specific type of product or service, you have a list of keywords at the ready.If not, the first thing to do is decide which words searchers are most likely to use in a search. You’re going to need pretty big list keywords to begin with, as you’ll be whittling it down as you go. It sounds easy, but you’ll quickly learn that it’s not.
A quick way to see what’s popular is to start typing a word or phrase into the Google search bar. If you see a drop down menu with suggestions, these are likely suspects to begin researching.
Wondering where to go to begin? You can load those potential keywords into the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool to learn what keywords get the most search traffic and how much competition there is for each word or phrase. If you’re running Google Adsense on your site, the keyword tool can even tell you the average cost per click, search trends and other relevant metrics.The goal is to come away with at least 10-20 keywords that you think you’ll be able to rank for.
As you get more serious about driving traffic to your site, you’ll probably want to download a premium keyword tool to get more in-depth information. By using a premium keyword tool, you can gain an advantage over your competition by learning about the on page SEO practices of the websites you’re hoping to outrank.
Always research both singular and plural keywords and phrases. You may not see a big difference between “pet medication” and “pet medications”, but to Google the difference is huge. The screen shot below is straight from the keyword tool.
Using the Google Keyword Tool For Keyword Research
If your website happens to be based on pet medications, you’ll obviously be trying to rank for all of these keywords, but with a little bit of keyword research, you’ve just learned which ones to really focus on.
If you want to learn more about writing for the web, check our DIY Web Content section. We’re constantly adding new articles about keyword research, basic SEO practices and tips for success in your web content.
