Keyword Research and On-Page SEO

Search engine optimization consists of two general elements – on page and off page optimization. Off page optimization consists of blogging, link building, and social media presence and is generally considered the more labor-intensive aspect on an ongoing basis. On the other hand, on page optimization usually requires more work up front and with ongoing on page SEO you can continue to increase the number of keywords you target. This ongoing keyword driven content develop will help provide an increase in the number of visitors that find your website through search results.

On Page SEO

Ideally, SEO should be a consideration when establishing your website. Doing so will provide you with the opportunity to ensure that your web pages are set up properly and are ready to go. However, it is still possible to conduct effective SEO on an existing site. You will want to start with keyword research, followed by on page optimization, and culminating in continued content creation and link building.

Keyword Research

The keywords you use in your SEO campaign are critically important. By targeting the right keywords you can enjoy a relatively competitor free market but with considerable traffic to aim for. In contrast, using inappropriate or overly competitive keywords will lead to a constant struggle and extreme difficulty in receiving decent traffic levels for your website.

On Page Content Optimization

The content of your pages should be geared towards the keywords that are researched. This means using the keywords in your title, meta and header tags while also introducing the keywords to your page text. There are other areas, too, where you should include keywords such as alt, description, and title tags for multimedia content. Your content should not only be written for the benefit of search engines though because your visitors will require good quality, well written content, to persuade them to use your services, buy your products, or click your links.

Every SEO campaign begins with well-thought-out keyword research analysis. Focus on wrong keywords and it may take several months to get back on track, leave alone the Herculean task of re-optimizing hundreds of wrongly optimized pages. So how do you zero-in on the right keywords or keyword-combinations?

But what if you really want to do your own keyword-research? They are definitely some good ways of doing it.

Target “Long Tail” keywords

“Long tail keywords” is one of the critical concepts of Keyword Research, SEO and Digital Marketing. Instead of targeting specific keywords, you target groups of words that your customers may use to look for your services on a search engine. So if you are a lawyer, along with targeting the search term “lawyer”, which is a highly competitive search term, you will also want to target long tail expressions like “tax lawyer” or “tax lawyer large company Colorado”. Getting on the first page of Google for “lawyer” is extremely difficulty, but you can, with the right effort, get good rankings for long-tail search terms.

Create different pages for different keywords

It seems more work but it has greater benefits. Optimizing a page for say 10 keywords is a highly difficult task to achieve even for a veteran SEO expert. Let different pages focus on sets of 2-3 keywords; this not only narrows and focuses your efforts, it also helps you to re-orient the page in case by mistake you chose wrong keywords. It also sends a strong message to the search engines that you have targeted content pages on your website.

Do your keyword research on an ongoing basis

Trends keep changing, and new competitor pop up almost everyday. Don’t feel smug and think your keyword SEO is over once you have reached the first page. You need to keep a constant vigil. Keep researching for new keywords and key expressions people are using to find your website, and then optimize your pages for those terms. Keep re-tweaking your pages to sustain your position.

Free Keyword Research Resources

• Google Insights
• Hitwise
• Keycompete
• SEMRush
• Google Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Compete Search Analytics
• Wordtracker
• Freeppc Spy
• Spyfu
• SEOBooks

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