The second part of our SEO Liverpool blog on existing site keyword research. Have a look at part 1 before you go ahead with information contained in this post.
Creating The Definitive Keyword List
Firstly, all keyword lists are working documents! Your keyword list will give you Google search data based on the previous months searches, but is that the everything? What if you’re business is effected by a seasonal uplift or worse a downshift. You need to be aware of error margins, not just the ‘exact’ versus ‘broad match’ search. I’m thinking more about the dreaded vanity searches (People checking their own results in Google and therefore compromising data).
Tip 1 – Basically, you should revisit this as a working document every quarter and more so if your products or services are seasonal.
Secondly, from the previous keyword list, drill deep, pick up all the keywords based around the services or brand (you won’t need them all but you should have data on them).
Thirdly, break the list up dependent on search volume and prioritise it – I like to colour code. You should then have a list with the following columns….
- Keyword – Your selected keyword
- Local, National or Worldwide Searches – Local has a geo-specific element, e.g. Liverpool. National is Google.co.uk properties.
- Related Page – Insert the actual page URL to which the keyword is appropriate e.g. www.mysite/Camera
- Blogs – How many internal blogposts have you placed this keyword in?
- Links – How many links have you built using this keyword as anchor text (the actual keyword as a link)?
Choose 3 main keywords for each page of your site and two ancillary (keywords that will generate revenue and competition isn’t that high). If you have more then you need create different pages to reflect them.
Note… if you have lots of great keywords with good volumes, you need to have pages that relate to the product. If you don’t, you should build more webpages. Keywords need to be naturally reflected in the content!
Working example.
www.mysite/Camera –
- buying cameras,
- cheap cameras,
- expensive cameras.
www.mysite/Camera/Cannon –
- Cannon cameras,
- cheap Cannon cameras,
- expensive Cannon cameras.
www.mysite/Camera/Cannon/DX432 –
- Cannon dx432,
- Cheap DX432 camera,
- DX432 camera accessories.
If you sell this product, have just one page, but have search data for lots of keywords that would generate sales… build more pages and incorporate them!
Recap
We now have our keyword list – prioritised by search volume, competitiveness and colour coded. This is broken down by product/service and the URL of your related webpage. Once you have this list you can create a competitor analysis. You’ll be able to gauge exactly who you’re competing against and if you’re smart, evaluate why they’re in the top positions and how you can overtake… but that’s for another post.