How Keywords Work

Before we dive into keyword strategies and their importance, let us explain what keywords. In a nutshell, these are words or phrases people use to look up information on Google, Bing, and other search engines. For example, suppose you’re looking for a great Chinese restaurant. You can use the keywords or phrases, “Chinese restaurant near me” “Best Chinese food in my area” or simply, “Chinese food.” 

When you type in any of these, the search engine matches your query with the most relevant content. So, if you want users to end up on your website or blog, you must ensure that your page ranks well on that keyword or phrase. However, determining these keywords can be daunting tasks, and even established companies or experienced marketers make mistakes sometimes. This is where a keyword strategy comes in to ensure a systematic approach to keyword research. 

What Is a Keyword Strategy?

Most people undervalue the work of a digital strategist. They believe that a keyword strategy ends at finding a few terms they can add to their local SEO or website content. On the contrary, it involves every decision you make based on your research and adapt it to all your digital channels, landing pages, and website design. These keywords will be part of every content you post on your website, including product descriptions, Alt tags, URL, blog posts, and business profile. The purpose of developing the strategy is to help you effectively target keywords in the long term. 

Importance of a Keyword Strategy and Ways to Improve It

Search engines like Google consider several factors when deciding which website gets to rise to the top of query results and generate organic traffic. This process mainly involves crawling and indexing, in which a spider systematically browses the web for new or updated content. If your content does not contain the right keywords, the search engine simply won’t rank your site higher. To improve search engine results, you need to improve your keyword strategy, and here are some ways to do that:

• Regularly updating your content with relevant keywords
• Target specific keywords on different landing pages
• Segment your audience and provide special content for each
• Add audio and video content

How to Build a Killer Keyword Strategy?

To build a killer keyword strategy, you’ll require plenty of insights, which you can use to make better decisions. Devising a strategy is not too different from starting a business from scratch. You have to look at yourself, your product, and your competitor. Here are the main steps in building a solid strategy for your business:

1.    Self Assessment

The first step in building a keyword strategy involves looking at yourself and your business. You need to assess what you’re doing, your vision, mission, and goals, and your value proposition. Ask yourself why anyone should visit your website? With better insights into your business, you’ll waste little time and effort before you achieve your objectives. This way, you can create more relevant keywords that promise better click-through rates. 

2.    Study Your Audience

Once you’ve done a self-assessment, you need to study your audience’s search intent. In simple words, you need to determine what users are searching to visit your website. Are visitors looking for information or products? If the keywords or phrases they’re using suggest an interest in purchasing something, you can use this to your advantage, especially if you’re offering similar products. 

3.    Keyword Research

You’d be surprised by the number of keywords that can potentially apply to your website or local SEO. By doing research, you can get great insights into all the possible keywords you can use based on user searches. The next step is to develop content for those users featuring those keywords. 

4.    Spy on Competitors

If you’re developing a new keyword strategy, the best way to start sometimes is by looking at what your competitors are doing. You can use several tools, such as Alexa and Google Analytics, to determine what keywords they’re using, how well the keywords are performing, and what type of content are they using it in. With this information, you can improve on their strategy or use what you like. 

5.    Don’t Forget About Low-Volume Keywords

Ask any savvy digital marketer, and they’d tell you just how important low-volume keywords, especially for small businesses with a modest budget. If you’re one of them, there’s no way you can target high-volume keywords consistently, and even if you do, you won’t be able to make it to the first or second page of organic results. Low-volume keywords can get you to the top faster, depending on your SEO execution and budget. 

6.    Try Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are generally low in volume compared to more popular ones. Even though they’re not as competitive, they can still give you a chance to improve rankings and conversion rates. These keywords are more specific, which can mean that users using these phrases in their queries are more serious than others. However, finding them is trickier than finding shorter keywords. 

7.    Don’t Take Your Eyes Off Data

As a marketer looking to develop or execute a keyword strategy, you must ensure you consistently analyze before and after data to pick up on small changes and make adjustments accordingly. For example, the COVID-19 brought about several new target keywords for organizations that had to shift from business as usual. For example, restaurants had to adapt to a delivery model, meaning they had to shift their keyword strategy to include key phrases like “Chinese restaurants delivering in my area”. Tools like Google Analytics and Alexa can come in extremely handy when you’re dealing with changing data. 

Conclusion

Your keyword strategy can make or break your online success. With so much on the line, businesses can’t afford to take it lightly anymore, especially during COVID-19 when millions of businesses are moving online. This is why professional intervention is necessary to ensure your overall digital strategy is fruitful.

Whether you’re looking to develop a keyword strategy for local SEO or revamp your overall branding with website design, social media, and messenger marketing, we recommend visiting Antares Systems. If you require more information regarding our services, contact us right away.