Where To Begin With SEO? Keywords!

If asked where to begin with SEO, I would have a one word answer: Keywords!

Whether creating a new site or optimising an existing site, keyword research is always my first step. Part of that process is, indeed, asking the questions “Why am I best?” or “What sets this site or its product apart from the rest?” Knowing what the market is looking for, in terms of search, will strongly influence everything else I do.

So if asked where I begin this process, I would start with:

1. Keyword Research – The List

Make a list of all the keywords you think someone might type into a search engine that should logically bring them to your site or one like yours. Brainstorm with colleagues, friends and family members. Better yet (assuming you have a website and traffic) ask customers what words they searched to find you or if you don’t have a website yet, ask customers what they think they would use. Look at competitors’ sites to see what terms you may have missed.


2. Keyword Research – The Numbers

Once you have your list, run them through a search term tool like Keyword Discovery’s Free Search Term Suggestion Tool. (You may eventually want to get a subscription to a service like this so that you can access longer tailed phrases and learn more about the competition for terms). Put the results into a table, or better yet, a spreadsheet, editing out terms that have little relevance to your site.

3. Keywords – The Decision

This is often the hardest part – narrowing down your list to just a few phrases – say one per page of the web site – and one to two phrases for your home page. Part of this decision, of course, has to do with whether you have the content to back up the keywords or whether you are willing to generate new content.

4. Content

For a new site, I would suggest your keyword research should guide your content. After all, if you have done your research well, you now know what your market is searching for. Create a page for each keyword phrase and write keyword rich, original and useful content. Consider having a blog as part of your site.

5. On-Site Optimisation

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here is a checklist of places where you will want to place your keywords on the page. These are not in order of any particular importance, but I have italicised those I think are most important. Place your keywords:

  • in the first few words of the title tag;
  • in an h1 tag at the top of the page;
  • in h2 and h3 tags (your longer tailed phrases are great here);
  • in the first sentence or paragraph on the page;
  • in the last sentence or paragraph on the page;
  • in bold somewhere on the page;
  • in italics somewhere on the page;
  • in the anchor text of a link from the page to another internal page;
  • in the anchor text of a link from the page to an external page (preferably that of an authority site);
  • in the anchor text of an absolute link from the home page to the page;
  • in the file names of graphics and their alt tags;
  • in the file names of pages
  • in a bulleted list

Following these steps will assist you in preparing your pages for overall search engine optimisation. Off-site SEO efforts will afford little benefit, if your on-site work doesn’t provide the proper foundation. Keywords are the mortar to bind the two efforts into a successful SEO project.