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So what are keywords in the context of SEO? SEO Montreal Expert Explains
They’re simply just words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for. For example, if you were shopping for running shoes, you might search for keywords like “men’s running shoes” or simply just “running shoes.”
Now, keywords are actually super-important in SEO because it sets the entire foundation for search engine optimization. The basic goal of SEO is to rank your pages for keywords that your target audience or customers are searching for. If you’re not ranking for keywords that actually get searched, then your SEO efforts are kind of meaningless. And that’s just in the US. So keyword research is the process of finding keywords that people are inputting into search engines. There are more lessons and courses available to find on our professional SEO Montreal Website.
So how do you actually choose keywords that are worth targeting?
Let’s run through a checklist that should help you choose keywords effectively.
The first thing to check is if your keyword has search demand. Search demand represents the volume of monthly searches made for a keyword. And this is measurable with a keyword metric that we call “search volume.” For example, the query, “km to miles” gets searched around 478,000 times per month in the US alone. But 80% of searches go without a click to a page. That’s because Google has a handy calculator here that’ll solve the searcher’s problem. So search volume alone can actually be a bit misleading. Which is why it’s worth looking at the second checkpoint which is to check the traffic potential of the topic. Traffic potential represents the total search traffic you could get if you were to rank at the top of Google for your keyword. So while you may be optimizing your pages for a main keyword, your page will likely rank for hundreds or even thousands of other relevant keywords. Because of that, the monthly search traffic potential of the topic “SEO checklist” is actually higher than its monthly search volume. This is what makes traffic potential a much more reliable metric than search volume. The way you determine traffic potential is by looking at how much traffic the top-ranking pages are getting. If you want to keep learning about SEO and how keywords work, check our Blog. If you want professional services, visit our SEO Services Page.
Now, choosing keywords based on metrics alone is not a good idea which is why the rest of the checkpoints are meant to ground you. The next point on our checklist is to assess the business potential of the keyword or topic. Business potential simply represents the value a keyword has to your business. And “value” really comes down to your niche as well as your business model. So an easy way to do this is by assigning scores between 1-3 to keywords you’re researching. The higher the number, the more important the topic is to your business. So let’s say you have a site about golf. And the way you make money is by selling used golf clubs. Bringing this back to business potential, that means topics where you can organically recommend products to visitors would hold the highest business value. For example, people searching for something like “buy used golf clubs” are likely ready to make a purchase here and now. So in my books, this would have a business value of 3. Now, a keyword like “best golf clubs” would also be relevant to your site. To learn more about Website design and SEO Montreal, click the link to learn more.
People are likely ready to make a purchase soon but just don’t know which clubs to buy. But it’s actually quite easy to plug your products because for the golf clubs you recommend, you can easily link back to your product pages, leading visitors closer to making a purchase. So I’d give this a business value of 2. Now, a keyword like “what is a handicap in golf” would be really tough to organically recommend your products. So remember with our professional SEO advice from our team in Montreal to remember that you should choose a bunch of keywords from the categories 1-3 so you can get a broad audience and gain more traffic to your e commerce website. To check out our e marketing strategies and SEO Montreal Services, click here.
But nevertheless, it’s a way to attract relevant traffic to your site. So I’d give this a business value of 1 so these would hold the lowest priority. Anything that has a score of 0 is probably worth ignoring because it’s not going to impact your bottom line. So something like “happy gilmore review” would have a business value of 0 because it has nothing to do with your business other than the fact that it’s a fantastic movie about golf.
