What is a Keyword Strategy?
If you’ve never ordered an article from WordHound before, pull up a chaise longue and let us show you how it typically works. First, you’ll get in touch with us: simple. Then we’ll get to know your business a little, and learn more about exactly what you want from us: also simple. Next, we’ll ask you about your keyword strategy. Now, this isn’t supposed to be a stumper, but it’s a question that’s often met with the chirping of crickets, tumbleweed, and occasionally a single glistening tear. ‘What’s a keyword strategy?’ ‘Do I have one?’ ‘Am I supposed to have one?’. Don’t worry!
If you’ve never given a second thought to developing a keyword strategy, we’re going to clear everything up for you, and we’ll even share a simple trick for generating a strategy with absolutely no effort at all. (Feel free to just skip to the end, because that trick is obviously going to be: “Ask us to do it.”)
Keyword Strategy Approaches
Over the years we’ve been working in content creation, we’ve seen it all. (Or at least 90% of it – sometimes we avert our eyes.) But when it comes to keywords, approaches tend to fall into one of two categories. Let’s take a look at what usually happens…
1. The ‘Aaaaargh’ Approach
This is exactly what it sounds like. When we ask if a client has any keywords they want incorporated into their content, the client’s mind generates a quickfire, on-the-spot list in an instant. In some cases these keywords will match customer search behaviours, which means a webpage will rank for common search terms entered by the target audience. At other times, though, what businesses think their customers are searching for, and what their customers are actually searching for, are two very different things. For ranking, it’s not a great approach.
2. The Meticulously Planned Approach
This approach is entirely the opposite. When we ask a client if they’ve thought of any keywords, they’ll send a structured and organised list of well-researched keywords based on search volume, performance, and competitor behaviours. These keywords will have been selected to match the relevant search terms entered by potential audiences, so that Google has what it needs to connect the content with the right people. Ideally, the list will include both short tail keywords and long tail keywords, especially with Google’s shift towards semantics and an aim to derive greater meaning from search terms. Don’t cry though – we haven’t finished explaining yet.
As we can see, the meticulously planned approach is better tailored towards improving ranking. So how can businesses create an effective keyword strategy to boost visibility of their WordHound content?
Generating a Keyword Strategy
Every business is different, which means there’s no right or wrong way to create a keyword strategy that will work for you. But what we can do is break down the process into three bite-size chunks of ‘find’, ‘organise’, and ‘apply’, which can make it easier to identify the most relevant keywords for your industry.
Find
To make it easy for your audience to find your content, it’s important to know what terms they’re searching for. While Keyword Tool has a rather uninspired name, it’s actually one of the best ways to gain insight into your target audience’s online behaviours. It uses Google autocomplete to look at entered text, and show you which phrases are commonly associated with your primary keywords. By taking a look at search volume, you can identify suitable keywords for your article and optimise your content.
Organise
When you’ve researched your keywords, you’re probably going to find that you’ve got quite a few. Should you include them all? Probably not. Google gets angry when content is written solely for SEO, without any attempt to deliver value to readers (and yes, it can tell!). So organising and filtering keywords is the best approach. Wordstream, which works with Facebook and Google ad campaigns, is fantastic for keyword organisation. And there are lots of other keyword research tools, too.
Apply
Applying keywords to your content isn’t quite as easy as just popping a few high volume searches into your article. Firstly, you’ll want to consider variations, especially long tail variations if you’re keen to attract local customers. For example, if you sell plants in London, you’re going to want ‘plants in London’ in there somewhere. It’s more effective than plain old ‘plants’. Secondly, you’ll want to think links. Could it be worthwhile making your keywords into anchor text, to boost click-throughs and conversions?
Stress-Free Keyword Strategies
Effective? Absolutely. Easy? Not always. There’s a lot more to good SEO than many businesses realise. The sunlit uplands of optimisation are wonderful, though the journey can be full of hazards and confusing stuff. But there is a way to create a top notch keyword strategy without all the fuss and confusion. So what’s the big secret? We are.
If you don’t know what your customers are searching for, we can help. Don’t know how to find keywords relevant to your business? We do. If you don’t know how to incorporate keywords into your content, guess what – we do! Leave it with us, and we’ll create and deliver optimised content tailored to attract and engage with your customers. It will be on-time, perfectly written, and delivering your own brand message.
