How to Choose Relevant Keywords for SEO or Your Website

Many folks, especially owners of blogs/sites on wordpress.com, either underestimate the importance of keywords and applying them, or they don’t just know how to use keywords.

In many instances, this is quite unfortunate because the simple act of not using keywords can cut you off from a world of unlimited potential and valuable organic search engine traffic from Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

As the spiders of search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) crawl the content of web pages, they look for keywords that closely relate to or match with visitors’ search queries.

Why it’s important to research, choose, and use keywords for SEO or your website

If you have a website that specializes in a niche(s) or subject(s), if you don’t use some particular keywords/related keywords or “pointers” to your content, it would be difficult if not almost impossible to receive traffic or visitors from search engines which are usually drawn to keywords that are typed and searched by visitors!

It’s important to use keywords for your SEO or website because they can actually make a big difference in terms of increasing the potential or chances of attracting higher traffic from search engines, even long after publication.

Using keywords is crucial for a site’s success: people use keywords a lot to make search queries on search engines. Nine out of ten times, people are looking for information on/about their typed keywords. 

First, figure out your website’s theme before choosing keywords

The first thing to do before choosing keywords is figure out your website’s theme. Your theme is the main idea, thing, niche, or vision your site would represent.

Your website’s theme is the central concept of your web content and activities on the Internet. Figuring out a theme may sound simple, but it’s very important to think things through and discover or understand exactly what your site is about.

Assuming you have a site that specializes in the “best cryptocurrencies”, you need to figure out exactly what the “best cryptocurrencies” means or entails.

In addition to the site theme, also evaluate the direction you’d possibly be going with this site in the future. Would you like to continue focussing only on the best oldest cryptocurrencies, or would you like to broaden your scope and include the best new cryptocurrencies too?

It isn’t a bad idea to broaden your scope because doing it could broaden your market or reach and place you on a more profitable and popular level—money and even internet fame!

Decide whether you’ll concentrate on only the best new cryptocurrencies, or both the best new and old cryptocurrencies, or even add the unborn cryptocurrencies that are presently undergoing development.

Write down every imaginable thing you believe your site should represent or be about—and maybe also add what it should NOT represent or be about. So, for instance, if you’re creating a site about the “best cryptocurrencies”, you may like to write down things like:

• We focus on only cryptocurrencies that were created between 2008 and 2016.
• We don’t deal with cryptocurrencies that are pegged to traditional currencies.
• “Focus on” or “deal with” means we sell, buy, or allow trading.
• We allow people to swap cryptocurrencies whenever they deem it necessary.
• Etc.

Second, brainstorm for keywords

After figuring out your theme and clearly understanding what your business is precisely about, you’d be in the best position to set up a strong foundation for brainstorming relevant keywords.

In the absence of the theme, brainstorming keywords is the first and most important action required for choosing productive keywords. While brainstorming keywords, compile a list of all possibilities. Write down every potential and major keyword you think visitors will likely be using on search engines.

Here are some questions you may need to ask yourself:

• If I am a visitor, what word(s) would I type and search for to get information concerning the best cryptocurrencies?
• What do search engine keyword search results say about visitors’ search terms? Which words do regular people use when discussing or referring to the best cryptocurrencies?
• What terms do professionals or experts use when talking about the best old or new cryptocurrencies?

Third, create an outline for your keywords

After brainstorming and creating a large list of keywords that you’d potentially use, your next step would be to draft an outline using those keywords. You can start with the most general or broadest keywords at the top and break down, categorize, or subcategorize more specific subjects or areas as you go deeper.

A keyword outline for the best cryptocurrencies could look like the following list (Notice how the main keywords break down as the niche is delved into much deeper.):

     Best cryptocurrencies

     Best cryptocurrencies to mine

     Best cryptocurrencies to buy

     Best cryptocurrencies to invest

              Best cryptocurrencies to invest in 2021

                      Best cryptocurrencies to invest in March 2021

                      Best cryptocurrencies to invest in July 2021

              Best cryptocurrencies to invest in February 2022

     Best cryptocurrencies for day trading

              Best cryptocurrencies for day trading in 2021

              Best cryptocurrencies for day trading today

     Best cryptocurrencies 2017

     Best cryptocurrencies 2018

     Best cryptocurrencies 2019

     Best cryptocurrencies 2020

              Best cryptocurrencies 2021 under $1

              Best cryptocurrencies 2021 under $50

              Best cryptocurrencies 2021 under $200

              Best cryptocurrencies 2021 under $500

              Best cryptocurrencies 2021 under $1,000

The keyword in the figures below represent the above outline—a breakdown from very broad keywords/terms to more specific keywords/terms:

Figure 1: Breakdown of the keyword (best cryptocurrencies) from a broad term into more specific terms (Source: Ahrefs keyword generator)

Figure 2: Breakdown of the keyword (best cryptocurrencies) into more specific terms (Source: Google search engine)

In regard to the main keyword “best cryptocurrencies”, the keyword in the figures above represents a lot of possibilities: they represent a variety of things that people may be searching for when they’re looking for the best cryptocurrencies.

As much as you can, list as many keywords that relate to your theme and write posts or content with the keywords used appropriately and adequately within them.

The broader the keywords you choose and work with, the better your web pages would stand a chance of getting on and on top of the search results pages of search engines.

Advice: Assess your competition by conducting keyword search on search engines

After creating an outline for your keywords, it’s time to check and evaluate your competition in order to get a feel for your market(s) or niche(s) and know what you’re up against.

One of the easiest ways to know your competition is by visiting search engines, typing your brainstormed keywords, and looking up their individual search results from the first position (on top) downwards towards lesser positions. The top ten results on search engines results pages are worth evaluating for keyword ideas and content quality.

The competition for your brainstormed keywords are those websites that are occupying the top positions on search engines’ results pages. The fact that they’re topping search engines implies that they’re doing something right—creating good content and using keywords appropriately.

After identifying your competition and reading their content which is related to your brainstormed keywords, conduct thorough internet search and create quality content that is at least as good as—if not better than—that of your competition. 

When looking for information to create content, don’t search only blogs; extend your research to Google Scholar and many other publications until you find ideas to create original content that can fulfill the desires of all search queries.

Advertisement