SEO Keywords: How Better Keyword Research Gets You Better Results

Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines "speaks the same language" as its potential visitor base. In other words, you need to know how people are looking for the products, services or information that you offer, in order to make it easy for them to find you—otherwise, they'll land on one of the many other results in the SERPs.

This is why developing a list of keywords is one of the first and most important steps in any search engine optimization initiative. Because keywords are foundational for all your other SEO efforts, it's well worth the time and investment to ensure your SEO keywords are effectively organized and highly relevant to your audience.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about the "right" way to do keyword research for SEO. Read on to learn some basic best practices for SEO keyword research and management.

How Do I Find My Best SEO Keywords?

Most beginning search marketers make the same classic mistake: overreliance on third-party keyword suggestion tools. Many marketers (even those who aren't new to SEO) don't realize that their private website data (server log files and web analytics) is actually a better source of keyword suggestions.

This chart outlines some of the benefits offered by mining private data for SEO keywords:

WordStream offers an SEO keyword research tool that helps you mine your own website data to find your best, most relevant keywords—the real keywords that are already driving web traffic and conversions on your site.

Your keywords are then stored in a scalable online database that is completely private and proprietary—giving you a significant competitive advantage over other companies that are all sharing the same public keyword data.

Now That I've Got My Keywords, What Do I Do With Them?

Obviously, having a bunch of keywords in a database isn't enough. Now you need to actually do something with them to get results—search-driven traffic and conversions, that is.

SEO best practices dictate that you include relevant keywords in a number of prominent areas on your site, from the titles and body text of your pages to your URLs to your meta tags to your image file names. However, successfully optimized websites tend to have thousands or even millions of keywords. You can't very well craft a single, unique page for every one of your keywords; at the same time, you can't try to cram everything onto a handful of pages and expect to rank for every individual keyword. It just doesn't work that way!

So how does it work? The answer is keyword grouping. By dividing your keywords into small, manageable groups of related keywords, you cut your workload significantly, while still enabling the creation of targeted, specific pages.

For example, an online pet store might create one group for all its dog-related products. The next step would be to segment that group into smaller subgroups for each product (dog collars, dog beds, dog cages, etc.) and then even smaller groups for each type of product (leather dog collars, studded dog collars, personalized dog collars and so on). Now, the pet store can create a single page optimized for each small keyword group. When optimizing your web pages, keep in mind that keyword relevance is more important than keyword density.

A marketer attempting to optimize a web page for the "leather dog collars" keyword group should consider doing most if not all of the following:

• Using the keyword in the title of the page
• Using the keyword in the URL (e.g., www.online-petstore.com/dog-collars/leather)
• Using the keyword, and variations (e.g., "leather collars for dogs"), throughout the page copy
• Using the keyword in the meta tags, especially the meta description
• Using the keyword in any image file paths and in the images' alt text
• Using the keyword as the anchor text in links back to the page from elsewhere on the site

SEO is a complex undertaking and there are many other considerations for full optimization, but these are some of the basic keyword-related tasks.

WordStream software makes quick work of keyword grouping and organization. To learn more about keyword grouping with WordStream, read our Keyword Grouping Guide.

OK, I Found and Organized My Keywords—I'm All Done Now, Right?

Nope, not really. Looking at SEO keyword discovery as a one-time activity is another rookie mistake. To improve and expand—and to maintain results you're already seeing—it's vital to grow and update your keyword database on a regular basis.

Most search marketers can't or don't find the time to revisit their keyword research, but WordStream makes ongoing keyword discovery a simple part of your daily routine. A small JavaScript snippet you install on your site tracks new visitors who arrive from search and funnels the keywords they used into your SEO database.

Even better, new keywords are automatically sorted into your existing keyword groups. This means updating and organizing your research requires very little additional work on your part. Your keyword database literally grows while you sleep, so you can stay on top of new keyword opportunities and update your site accordingly to capture more search traffic.

WordStream's online SEO tools, keyword research tools and keyword analysis tools help you create more organized and relevant SEO campaigns, increasing the value of your site while boosting productivity.

Need more help with SEO and keywords?

Read our free white paper on SEO best practices for more tips and strategies.