How can you Create an Effective Keyword Strategy for SEO?

Keywords are words and phrases that people use when searching for relevant information, products, or services on search engines. Keywords help brands understand the terms their audiences are using when searching for specific topics. As a result, it helps brands develop an effective keyword strategy to boost their website’s search rankings for relevant search queries. In this regard, you can hire an SEO Agency in Ontario to develop effective keyword strategies for your website.

Types of Keywords

Before we discuss the steps to develop a keyword strategy to boost your website’s organic search rankings, let’s discuss some of the significant keyword types you can include in your SEO strategy.

• Seed keywords – Seed keywords are the basis of keyword research. They are short-tail keywords with one or two words that describe a topic broadly.
• Informational keywords – The search intent of these keywords is to look for information.
• Navigational keywords – The search intent of these keywords is to look for a specific website or page. Usually, they are related to branded searches.
• Commercial keywords – The search intent of these keywords is that the buyers are interested in buying a product or service and are looking for more detailed information.
• Transactional keywords – The search intent of these keywords is to purchase a product or opt for a service.
• Long-tail keywords – These are specific keyphrases with usually low search volumes.
• Branded keywords – These keywords include the name of a brand.

How do you use keywords on individual web pages to improve your organic ranking?

Placing keywords strategically throughout the web page helps optimize it and boost its organic rankings on SERP for relevant queries. The following are critical areas on a web page where you must place your selected keywords.

• URL – It is the address of a web page. URLs should be unique for each page. You must include target keywords in the URL to helps search engines and audiences understand what your page is about.
• Metadata – Include target keywords in Meta title/ Title tags and Meta descriptions. They will appear on the search results and help audiences understand the context of individual web pages.
• Heading and Subheading – You should also include targeted keywords in the headings and subheadings of individual web pages.
• Body of the content – You should also optimize the content on individual web pages by including relevant keywords throughout the body of the content.
• Image alt attributes – Adding relevant keywords to image alt attributes help them rank high for image searches. It further can help drive relevant traffic to your website.

 6 steps to develop an effective keyword strategy for SEO

The following steps can help develop an effective keyword strategy for your website to boost its organic search rankings and traffic.

Identify your goals

The first step to developing an effective keyword strategy is to determine your business goals. Aligning your marketing goals with your business goals is crucial for the success of your marketing campaign. Based on your marketing goals, you can plan your keyword strategies accordingly. For instance, if you want to rank on the first page of the SERP, you can target low-competition keywords. Similarly, if you want to grow website traffic, targeting broad-match keywords might help. Further, if you want to increase sales, you can target transactional keywords and add links to relevant pages to boost sales and conversion. However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to developing keyword strategies. You need to consistently monitor the performance of your strategy and modify and optimize the campaign to improve results. You can also hire SEO services in Ontario to develop customized keyword strategies for your website.

Assess your current performance

You need to assess your current performance to identify opportunities and areas of improvement. In this regard, evaluate the following aspects.

• Review existing content – Analyze your existing content using tools such as Google Analytics. It will help you understand the type of content your audiences prefer and which aspect needs improvement. Further, you can perform content gap analysis to identify content opportunities and create fresh pieces of content accordingly.
• Analyze keyword performance – Identify the keywords for which your website is currently ranking. Further, performing a content gap analysis can also help identify keyword opportunities. It further will help you plan your keyword strategy accordingly.
• SEO audit – Perform technical, on-page, and off-page SEO audit to identify areas of improvement. It is a crucial step to develop further SEO strategies accordingly.

Keyword research

Keyword research is the most critical step in developing effective keyword strategies. It involves identifying relevant keywords that your target audiences use to search for businesses similar to yours. Analyzing the search intent behind different keywords can help you determine the right way to use them to target specific segments of audiences. It further helps you achieve your marketing goals and, thereby, your business goals in the long run.

Competitor research

After finding relevant keywords for your business, it is critical to research competitors as well. By analyzing their marketing strategies and identifying the keywords they are ranking for, you can optimize your keyword strategies accordingly.

Implementing keyword strategy

Once you have created the list of keywords you want to rank for in search engines, it’s time to implement your strategies accordingly. In this regard, perform the following actions

• Create fresh content – Based on the keyword and content opportunities you identified, create and publish fresh pieces of content accordingly.
• Optimize old content – Analyze your existing content to determine whether they are optimized with relevant keywords. If not, it’s time to optimize them by placing relevant keywords in strategic positions.

Track, measure, and modify

You cannot implement your keyword strategies for once and forget about it. Over time, you have to review your strategies, analyze the results, and modify the strategies to improve results. For instance, you may determine to explore new keyword opportunities or focus on a specific set of keywords for some time, etc.

Therefore, by implementing all these steps, you can develop effective keyword strategies for your business. HireH Consulting, an SEO Agency in Ontario, can perform keyword research and competitor analysis and develop effective strategies to boost your website’s organic search rankings for relevant keywords. Get in touch with our SEO experts and boost your website’s performance on SERP.