On-Page SEO Tips
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When the internet exploded onto the global scene in the ‘90s, the way humans interact with information, each other, and the world around them changed forever. Within this maelstrom of development, Google rose above the rest, with its PageRank system revolutionizing the way information is searched for and found.
This search engine technology relies on the concept of keywords: simple, natural phrases that people ubiquitously use to search for data and interact with technology.
The impact keyword technology has had on the world is profound. Combining the power of research libraries, government databases, and powerful search algorithms, Google placed the collective knowledge of human history within the fingertips of the average person and changed the global economy forever.
The key to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and thus, the ability to harness massive energy to promote your product or website is keyword research, through which online content can be tailored and tuned to show up more effectively in search engine results.
Information Revolution
Within the Information Age, data is the new gold. A strikingly literal observation of this is Bitcoin, a digital cryptocurrency, purely made out of 1’s and 0’s, that has gone from being worth almost nothing to tens of thousands of dollars for each token.
These digital tokens represent a literal depiction of the internet – a gold mine, in which money and profit can be made on a global scale from within your home, with the only requirement being the ability to transmit, receive, and interpret data.
The key to achieving this elusive goal is SEO. This is the process of “tuning” or altering content to make it appear more frequently, efficiently, or in higher positions within search engine results.
There are many ways to do this, such as making sure that your content is accessible on mobile devices, but the core strategy of SEO involves Keyword Research, through which content can be tailored to its audience.
What is a Keyword?
Within the world of digital marketing strategy, a keyword is used to refer to the terms an average internet user or consumer types or speaks into Google during their search. If you have an understanding of these search terms, you can tailor your content to more effectively appeal to your potential demographic.
In this way, you can get a feel for the pulse of information through the search engines, and tune your content so that it is found more easily.
Once your content is within the stream of information, further techniques can be used to bring your results higher up the page, ahead of your competitors. Without an adequate understanding of keyword research, however, these SEO strategies cannot be brought to their full potential.
A full understanding of your potential client base is a critical step that will help towards envisioning what people commonly search for when they are looking for your product.
Various other ways you can brainstorm potential keywords and their relevance are:
- Search for your product on Google, and check the “People also ask” section
- Similarly, check the “Related results” section at the bottom
- Browse your website and data to list potential keywords, organizing them into themes
- Use a free website like soovle.com to generate lists of the most popular searches related to terms that you enter
- Use geolocation data to target your keyword research to specific locations you want to advertise your product, or for the country you are in
Unlocking the Keyword
Once you have compiled a list of keywords, the next step is to analyze the data and compare it to search trends and rankings. The real art of this process is to find keywords within your data that aren’t searched as much, and change them to keywords that are more commonly searched.
In this way, you can tune your content to be more easily accessible and available on search engines.
Professional SEO optimization companies provide many services that can help you compile and analyze these keywords, through the use of sophisticated technological analytical tools that can delve far deeper than surface-level analytics provided by Google.
When you are analyzing who is searching for your business, the ability to research and categorize by demographics and location will prove to be an invaluable tool in your keyword research.
Content Creation
The first step, before any of these technical steps, is to focus on the quality of your content. Proofread all of your writing and provide colorful, eye-catching graphics. Video content is another great way to raise consumer interaction and attract the attention of Google’s ranking algorithms.
The way Google ranks information is the nucleus of a billion-dollar information search industry and knowing how to interact with these algorithms is the best way to raise your online presence.
When Google evaluates information, they analyze it based on what they call EAT, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This means that they have attempted to train their algorithms to recognize not just statistics about online content, but the actual quality of the content, using machine learning, AI, and other techniques.
It’s difficult to reproduce this sort of expertise, but proper research and genuine love and passion for your content will go a long way towards fulfilling these criteria.
Heads or Tails?
While researching your keyword data and online interaction, it’s important to cover both broad, wide-spreading search terms, as well as the niche terms that relate to your business. Within the field of SEO, shorter and more generalized or widespread search terms are known as “head queries”.
So-called “tail queries” are longer, more specialized searches, such as someone searching for a particular component of an appliance, as opposed to a head query for simply “dishwasher”. These specialized tail query searches tend to have more engagement, as those who are looking for them are more likely to have a specific need to be filled.
However, head queries are much more common and are included in the results for these ubiquitous searches that are made millions of times a day can be the lifeblood of a small or struggling business.
Tuning your content to be more similar and relevant to head queries related to your keywords can help provide the boost needed to “go viral” and achieve an organic momentum of customers spreading your product or message. Once you manage to rank within the Google search results, the increased business and profits that result from it will be well worth the effort put into SEO.
The Next Step
Keyword research and other SEO professionals can more effectively help those struggling to be noticed or achieve an online presence than the average person. Their access to specialized tools and information makes them a more potent force to reckon with the complicated search engine algorithms that control the flow of information in our world.
However, anyone who maintains an online presence at all can consider these guidelines and perform basic search engine and keyword optimization techniques.
Whether you’re a hobbyist running a personal website or a billion-dollar multinational conglomerate, search engine optimization affects you daily.
Without consciously and carefully curating your content, you run the risk of being passed over by the algorithms – a one-way ticket to a dead website. With SEO keyword research, you are closer to optimizing your dreams.
