Target SEO keywords are absolutely essential for any SEO strategy. Although throughout time the effects of keywords have evolved, they remain a staple in your business’s online presence. The relevancy of keywords can shift as your website develops and so it is important that you adapt your strategies in order to keep ranking high!
This blog aims to offer you 10 steps for finding the best target SEO keywords.
First off, let’s start by delving into the importance of keywords, what they are and why we need them.
The Importance Of Target SEO Keywords
Finding the relevant target SEO keywords relevant to your business provides you with valuable insights into what your target audience is actually searching for in Google.
Understanding what your target audience wants to see allows you to navigate content marketing strategies. Targeting the relevant search queries makes your site more likely to attract traffic.
So we know that target SEO keywords are important for traffic growth, relevancy and authority of your website, but how do we go about finding the best ones?
10 Steps For Finding The Best Target SEO Keywords
Target SEO keywords can be a minefield, particularly difficult to navigate, especially when there are so many different types of keywords!
These simple 10 steps will enable you to find the best target SEO keywords for your website. 
Step One: Get To Know Your Niche.
What sets you apart from your competitors? Finding out as many details as possible about your niche is one of the first and most important steps in this process. Not only for finding relevant keywords but for your SEO strategy as a whole.
By understanding where you stand in your industry, you are better equipped on what search queries to target.
It’s important to understand the difference between what you want to rank for and what you actually rank for on Google. By gaining a better understanding of what your target audience is looking for – by studying competitors and the wider industry – you become more able to build a successful keyword strategy.
Step Two: Define Your Goals
Defining your end goal is vital to any plan. Understanding who you are as a brand and what your mission is will allow you to navigate your SEO efforts as a whole.
Providing a direction will allow you to clearly segment the content marketing funnel and in turn lean content toward the correct keywords which will gain the right traffic.
Step Three: Topic Buckets
Now you can see the bigger picture, understand the wider industry and end goals for your brand or business, it is time to break it right down. Breaking down your goals into specific topic buckets can help you form a wider range of keywords.
For example; if you’re an e-commerce store, break it right down to the products you intend to sell.
Scaling it right back to smaller topics means you will reach a wider audience with your keywords.
Step Four: Seed Keywords
Now you’ve broken the brand down into particular topics, it’s time to convert these ideas into seed keywords. These are the actual queries that people search for on Google (or any search engine!)
Seed keywords become the foundation for your keyword research.
Step Five: Use Keyword Research Tools
There are particular tools online that can help you find these keywords, now you have found seed keywords. Finding semantics and long-tail keywords is essential for gaining a wider perspective for your content and SEO strategy.
Keyword tools such as SEMrush, Google Ads or Moz are a great place to start.
Step Six: Study The Search Intent
Search intent refers to the reason why people search for a specific term. Understanding people’s search habits allow you to better understand your target audience and better pitch your keyword strategy.
Step Seven: Long Tail Keywords
These keywords refer to those more descriptive keywords that are 4 words or more. The opposite of seed keywords. Long tail keywords make it easier to match to your target audience’s search intent.
A long-tail keyword such as “Where is the best SEO agency” as opposed to “SEO agency” is likely to attract a more relevant audience and will likely result in a higher conversion rate.
Step Eight: Competitor Analysis
Delving deeper into our competitors and finding which keywords they are ranking for and the amount of traffic they receive.
The better you understand your industry, the better results you will gain for your SEO. This allows you also to understand the competitiveness of different keywords and identify those that may be too difficult to rank.
Step Nine: Converting Keywords Into Page Titles
Now it’s time to embed these keywords into your website. Good SEO practice indicates a keyword per page.
Choosing one keyword per page and converting it into powerful page titles is the best way of making Google notice you and rank higher for your chosen keywords!
Step Ten: Using Semantics In Your Content
Keywords shouldn’t end at page titles. Finding related keywords, otherwise referred to as semantics and embedding them in your content is just another signal to search engines that your website is relevant and authoritative.
Keywords being embedded into your copy on the relevant pages is a brilliant way of maintaining a high-ranking position.
Get In Touch
Need some hand-holding with these steps? Want us to do it for you? At GrowTraffic we can help!
Call us today on 0161 706 0012 or drop us a line at info@growtraffic.co.uk
