Keyword optimization: The What, Why, and How

By: Anna Thursday May 30, 2019 comments Tags: keyword optimization, online marketing, seo

 

In the world of online marketing, keyword optimization is a hot topic. You've probably heard a lot about SEO and keywords, but do you understand those things? The lingo may seem so complicated that you don't even want to understand it. SEOs and keywords are forms of content advertising strategy which you can use to boost your visibility.

Good news - keyword optimization is a straightforward idea. It's not hard to understand, and it's the key to getting exponentially better results in your online marketing. 

Even better news - you can implement keyword optimization in your online marketing strategy. With a little bit of strategic forethought, you can start maximizing your online results right away. Here's your 5-minute scoop on keyword optimization:

 

What is keyword optimization?

There are two parts to keyword optimization:

1. Strategically choosing terms that are relevant to your business and that your customers are most likely to search. 2. Incorporating those terms as keywords in your paid and organic marketing to drive qualified leads to your doors.

So what does optimizing for keyword look like?

• Analyze your audience and their needs.
• Research keywords that are already used in the industry.
• Brainstorm terms that are relevant to your business.
• Choose the best keywords based off the previous.
• Create content in webpages, ads, and blogs that includes those keywords.
• Test content and keywords for click-through results.

 

At its core, keyword optimization is about centering all of your marketing and content around the things your customers want and the things you offer your customers. You want to set yourself apart from your competition and reach your customers with the terms they're already searching. This is the importance of having a content advertising strategy.

 

Why do I need keyword optimization?

So what's in it for you? Is it worth your time to analyze, research, brainstorm, choose, create, and test keywords? Here are 4 benefits of keyword optimization:

 

1. Get qualified leads.

Potential customers go to Google when they're ready to engage companies about a specific topic or item. Keyword optimizing helps you show up at the top of the list when potential customers make searches that relate to your business. Because you're reaching warm leads, those leads will be more likely to click through, stay on your landing page, and even buy your product.

 

2. Increase your ranking and visibility.

You want your business to be seen as much as possible on Google. You want potential customers to see your ads, landing pages, blogs, and dictionary definitions as much as possible. Since Google determines a webpage or ad's relevance to a search mostly through keywords, the more keyword mentions you have, the higher you'll rank in searches.

 

3. Measure your effectiveness.

Part of keyword optimization is testing. You can measure the click-through rates of different keywords to choose the best one and maximize your results. Even better, you can test keywords for new markets you may want to expand and reach. Keyword testing lets you hone your market, understand your users, and get the highest click-through rate possible.

 

4. Connect with customers.

Content that's centered around relevant keywords shows customers that you're an expert in your field. You know what you're doing and can compete with anyone in your market. Customers build trust with you because of your knowledge and expertise and are more likely to buy from you.

 

How can I implement keyword optimization?

Now you know what the deal is with keywords. But how do you actually go about keyword optimizing? Here are 4 basic steps to get started in keyword optimization. By going through these 4 steps, you are able to establish a content advertising strategy which you can use later on.

 

1. Hone in on a few keywords (not 50).

Even though you may have many services and products that you could use as keywords, it's best to start out with just a few keywords, maybe 5-10. Do the industry research and testing to figure out which ones you actually want to implement. Here are some traits of effective keywords:

• Less competitive: if every lawn care company is trying to optimize for the keyword "lawn care," it's hard to rank in the top 3 that appear on Google. Alternatively, you could optimize for "Lakeland lawn care" or "lawn mowing" or "home lawn care."
• Relevant: as a lawn company, you wouldn't want to optimize for "pool care." Even though one of your services may be trimming around pools, the term "pool care" isn't relevant to your business and would show up in searches for companies who clean pools.
• Purpose-specific: different keywords are meant to do different things:
  • Navigation keywords are most specific to your business and help customers navigate your website.
  • Info keywords explain aspects of your business, products, or services and help your customers understand and trust your business.
  • Sales keywords relate most specifically to your products and services and move customers toward a purchase.

After you've optimized for those 5-10 keywords, you can start branching out into more keywords. But remember, you always want keywords to be relevant and audience-specific.

2. Optimize ads, blogs, webpages.

Once you've chosen your keywords, start using them!

• Create ads that are centered around your keywords.
• Design landing pages that match your ads and also center around keywords.
• Write blogs that have a high keyword density.
• Organize webpages in relation to keywords, using a keyword list or dictionary system, categories and subcategories, as well as high keyword density.

 

3. Take care of the housekeeping stuff.

Content is a great way to keyword optimize, but don't forget about the back-end optimization for webpages and blogs. You should include the relevant keywords in all of the following areas:

• Tags
• Categories
• Title tag
• Internal Links
• Images (titles and descriptions)
• Meta descriptions
• URL

 

 

4. Get specific with PPC keyword optimization.

When it comes to ad campaigns, keyword optimization is essential. The same principles we've outlined here apply to pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.

However, it's even more important to do research and test keywords when you're investing in getting results! You can also get more detailed with keyword groups and specialization.

Learn more about keyword optimization for ads and PPC advertising strategies in these blogs from our friends at Wordstream!

 

Get started with keyword optimization!

We hope this blog helped you understand keyword optimizing better! Using keywords effectively in connection with successful ad strategies can explode your online marketing.

Talk to us about how we can help you take your online marketing to the next level! View our programs and services to see what strategies we use.