July 25, 2017

What makes a good SEO keyword list?

July 25, 2017

What makes a good SEO keyword list?

What makes a good SEO keyword list?

When starting an SEO campaign, whether it is long term or short term, you must start with identifying your goals. For SEO these will most likely centre around improving your websites keyword rankings on Google. Often when working with clients we find that they want to go for the very competitive and often broad terms, which while would add some value is not the best strategy.Broad vs TargetedWorking with a large number of clients in a large number of markets, we have a lot of experience when it comes to researching keywords and getting the best results. More often than not a typical company will have a budget they need to work with for their SEO campaign. What this means is that our job is to deliver a keyword list that can get results, give ROI and also meet the outlined budget.With keywords we can see that the broader a keyword is, the more search volume it will have but also the less targeted it will be. For example if we choose the keyword 'home builder' for a client. While this will have a large amount of search volume, it is not really relevant or effective if the Perth based home builder starts getting enquiries from Sydney or Melbourne. So we would say a sensible option would be to include 'Perth' in the keyword i.e. 'home builder perth' - this will have a much lower search volume but it will be really well targeted traffic.Primary vs SecondaryOnce we start working with a client we will start to see they have a list of keywords they see as their 'primary' keywords - think of these as their main services. Then they will have what we call 'secondary keywords'. These might be slightly less priority services or products they sell or they might still be related to their core services, but the search terms themselves are less competitive and a bit more specific / longer. An example would be if the home builder we just discussed was offering 'single storey home builds in Perth'. A longer phrase like this is still really relevant but it is less competitive and therefore easier to gain SEO rankings.What we would want to see in a good keyword list is a solid selection of primary and secondary keywords. The main reason for this is that we can then gain both short term results for the client and work clearly towards longer term SEO goals. The majority of people know SEO takes some time, and an effective keyword strategy should work to meet several goals and cover multiple services in most cases.Of course all SEO strategies are different, however the vast majority fit the above outline when it comes to keyword research. If you would like to discuss this further, contact the Bang Digital team today.