With the continually changing Google algorithms, it can be tricky to gain an advantage over your competitors online. However, even though the tools are continually evolving, the approach stays the same. It always comes back to this: if you create high-quality content that your audience reads, you will improve your prominence in Google results. The best way to accomplish this is by conducting thorough keyword research. Here are some excellent ways to make sure that your website is on point with SEO optimization.
Analyze Your Current Content
The best way to conceptualize the idea of a keyword is to carefully look at your website and determine what kind of audience you are trying to attract and what your ideal reader is looking for. Take some time to go back through all of the content on your website and sort them into vague lists. The idea is to create various content buckets that a majority of your blog posts and content will fit into.
Create Keyword Lists
Once you've determined your content buckets, you can look through them to identify specific keywords. Look for the words and phrases that you would like rank highly in the search engines. While this isn't supposed to be a be all end all list of the keywords you can use, but rather a way for you to clearly identify the obvious ones.
Use Both Short Tail and Long Tail Keywords
Some keywords are easier to rank than others. The cheaper and easier keywords are long tail keywords. These are the keywords that are associated with much less traffic than the short tail keywords. Short tail keywords are more popular and more frequently searched. There are many tools on the web that you can use to help you determine the two different types of keywords; these include Google Adwords, Keyword Tool, and others.
Utilize Tools to Get a Good Spread
To get a good keyword spread, you want to utilize tools like Topsy and Buzzsumo, or others like it on the web. You can use Topsy to uncover the convoluted and confusing work of social media keywords. It allows you to page through the recent history of keywords on social media to identify trends. Buzzsumo helps you to create comprehensive keyword lists that will help you compete with your competitors.
No matter how many times Google updates their algorithms, utilizing these tips can help you remain at the front of the pack and drive more traffic to your site.