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Everything you need to know about keywords

In our recent article on errors you need to avoid in optimizing your website, we talked about keyword overload in your content. Keywords are very important for your SEO optimization and that is why we decided to dedicate a full article on this subject: how to find the best keywords for your business and how to use them (and how not to overuse them!!)

A fundamental step of SEO optimization is choosing your keywords. Your keywords will be (at least, hopefully), present everywhere: social media content, on your website, and even on your business cards. Your keywords define you as a company and will help your potential customers find you more easily.

YOUR KEYWORDS

Your keywords should have several of the following characteristics:

  • Relevant

  • Competitive

  • Related to your activity sector

  • Composed of several words (or one powerful word)

Keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to increase traffic to your website, so, choose keywords according to your target audience, asking yourself the following question: What will my potential customers type to find my business on Google?

STEPS

# 1 Define your keywords

Defining your words as well as key phrases is the first step. Take a sheet of paper and write down all the words that come to mind when you think of your business. Repeat this exercise several times, thinking about your customers, because ultimately, they are the # 1 factor in deciding your keywords.

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# 2 Use the keywords correctly

When you find  your keywords, it's time to use them. Add them in your content, without stacking them on top of each other. Do not forget that search engines will penalize you if they think your texts are just a mountain of keywords. Even if it is robots who ultimately decide your position on Google, keep in mind that you are addressing humans first.

# 3 Evaluate the results

How to evaluate if your keywords are working in your customers' searches? There are several tools to help you. One of the most common is Google Trends: a tool to check the frequency of keywords on search engines as well as synonyms that might work 'better' depending on certain criteria, for example your location or the age of your target audience.

GOOGLE TRENDS

Google trends is a free tool that can be very useful for the SEO of your website, especially when you are writing content from scratch. It's quite simple, you can search for keywords to see their popularity and  frequency in the search engines. The tool also allows you to narrow down the results by region or language and it is updated daily.  For example, following a high-profile event, we can see a big change in the results of certain words or research keywords. Knowing what the visitors of your website type when they search something on Google is a competitive advantage in terms of digital strategy.

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Google Trends is a great tool to:​

  • Search keywords in order to improve the SEO of your website’s content.
  • To get a list of the most popular related words
  • Determine exactly what your visitors type when searching on Google, according to geographic location and language.

Ready to get started?

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