Keyword Analysis, or what we have called Keyphrase Analysis for years is an extremely important part of SEO. It’s always the second stage of Analysis for us when we first work on a website. The first is obviously the Technical Analysis – Page speed, broken links etc.

For true success, the best keywords are chosen from the start but that’s not to say that these can’t be amended over time.

Our technique for this is to first ask what you think your clients would search for when looking for your products and services. However, this isn’t enough. You obviously want phrases that are searched for but don’t get too bogged down with that fact. Having relevant phrases for your business is just as important.

Capturing High Search Volumes For General Phrases

When we first work on Keyword Analysis, people almost always opt for the terms with the highest search volumes for obvious reasons. Sometimes this is ideal but a lot of the time this is not the best strategy. These can be vague and extremely competitive. A lot of the time this will bring in a large percentage of irrelevant visits.

It’s important to think of the potential visitors here and what they will expect when searching for these phrases.

Capturing Lower Search Volumes For More Specific Phrases

Wouldn’t it be better to have less visitors but ones that are actually interested in your products and services. Targeting less general phrases but those that are extremely relevant to your business can be a much better way to conduct keyword analysis. These phrases will help you compete with similar businesses which will be easier and generate visits from useful searchers that are interested in your products and services.

The Balance

The key to success with Keyword Analysis is finding the balance. Ideally you want a mixture of both General (but not too general) phrases together with more specific phrases. The general phrases are normally for the searchers that are researching companies to do business with where the more specific phrases are normally those for searchers that have already performed some research or sometimes ‘just know’ what they want.

Above all, don’t get obsessed with search volumes and make sure your keywords are relevant.

Feel free to contact us if you want help deciding on the correct keywords to target and we’ll be happy to work on this with you.

Jon Seymour: 01492 460 460 – jon@janklin.com