MIke Iedema by MIke Iedema

SEO, in general, can be quite a daunting prospect if you're trying to promote your business and be seen by a wider audience, and one of the main things that may confuse is keywords, the words or phrases that people type when they're searching for something on the internet. Unfortunately, it's not just as simple as sticking any old word that relates to your industry into your copy. If you want results, then you're going to have to do your due diligence. Whether you're struggling to rank on search engines, or you're getting the visitors, but they're not converting, it could well be because of these keywords. Here are some tips for choosing keywords that convert, and integrating them into your wider search engine optimization strategy.

Be Specific

The internet is a huge place, and it's easy for your website to get lost among the countless others offering similar services. It's going to be a losing battle to try and rank for generic, one-word keywords that get millions of searches daily. The world-famous companies with huge marketing budgets will be dominating these, and even if you somehow made it to the first page of google and got more traffic, it wouldn't necessarily mean more conversions. If you want people to buy, sign up, or whatever else, you're going to have to use more specific keywords.

That is where long tail keywords come in handy. These are made up of more than one word (key phrases), so they won't get as many searches, but the actual searches will be more targeted, which allows you to plan accordingly. For example, if you're an online flower store, then "flowers" is much too general, whereas "online flower delivery" might be more successful. You could further refine your keywords by adding your location. If you're in New York, then someone searching "online flower delivery NYC" is looking for something specific, and if you can catch these people with your keywords, then you're much more likely to convert.

Understand User Intent

User intent is linked to specificity in some ways since more specific search queries reveal a lot about what the searcher wants. If you want your site to be visible to users who want to buy, then your use of keywords has got to reflect this. For instance, the more vague, one-word search terms are more likely people just browsing, and not ready to buy. Long tail keywords are much better in this respect, but even within this more specific niche, you've still got to consider user intent. You could focus your long tail keywords on only finding information, whereas you probably want visitors to buy. The words "buy," "cheap," and "for sale" leave little doubt that the person searching intends to make a purchase. You might not get as much traffic with these keywords, but it's better to have 10 conversions from 50 visitors than five conversions from 1,000 visitors.

Make Sure Keywords Align With Your Content

Even if you've chosen the perfect long tail keywords for your particular niche, and you've ensured that you're funneling users who want to buy, your website itself still has to convince them. A large part of this comes down to your content, and the landing page in general; more specifically, it's how you use the keywords within it. If your keywords relate to buying a product or signing up for a service, then your content has got to make this clear, through your CTAs (calls-to-action). If a visitor lands on a page having searched for "buy X," then they'll expect to be able to do so via that page. You know they want to make a purchase, so tailor your content and page layout, and the conversions will come. Just try and avoid "keyword stuffing," which involves inserting too many keywords into the copy at the expense of the user experience and readability.

Give it a Go

Ultimately, if you want to find successful keywords that will convert, you've got to do some serious research. Use keyword tools, analyze competitors and do whatever it takes to inform yourself. It's important that you keep the above SEO-related points in mind, though, if you want to see great results. While the actual phrases will differ based on your situation, the principle will remain the same. Specific long tail keywords that consider the intent of the user, coupled with good landing page content that aligns with your keywords, will go a long way towards a healthy bottom line and a successful search engine optimization strategy.


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