With the increase in web usage and Internet connectivity, demand for blogging also increased. All the Bloggers and Webmasters want their blog to appear in the first page of Google Search results.With increasing demand for blogging, chances to appear top in search results decreases hence many bloggers try to apply Search Engine Optimization to their blog to get good results. One of the important steps in applying SEO to blog is Keyword Research. In this article, I'l show you how actually Keyword Research should be performed to get effective results.
What are Keywords?
All regular bloggers will definitely know what keywords are, but for people who don't know what keywords are.. here is the answer. Keywords are the words which are used by the people while searching in search engines like Google, Bing, DuckduckGo etc.Keywords play huge role in On page optimization.Why Keywords are Important?
Search Engines like Google perform the search functions depending upon the matches occurred with the keywords entered by the user. However page rank, blog loading time, blog bounce rate and many other factors impact the results that are displayed for the user.
Keyword Research Tools
There are many keyword research tools available in the Internet but the best one is Google Keyword Planner tool which is a free tool provided by Google. This tool provides the number of searches done for a particular keyword in a month (globally and locally). Using this information you can estimate the amount of traffic you can bring to your blog/website from search engines.
Alternative Tools for Keyword Research (Other than Google Keyword Planner):
Note: I recommend you to use Google Keyword Planner because it is better when compared to other keyword research tools and even I'm using it.
How to do Keyword Research and Analysis?
Step 1: Go to Google Keyword Planner.
Step 2: Enter the Keyword that you wanted to know about (local and global searches)
For Example, If you want to check the number of searches for "Facebook Tricks" keyword.
Step 3: Enter the keyword and hit search. Once you hit the search button, you will get all the similar keywords and their local and global searches. The search is a broad search which includes keywords like "Facebook","facebook hacking tricks","facebook tricks and secrets","Cool Facebook Tricks" etc.
Note: You can check number of searches for a particular keyword within a specific country and desired language also.
Which Keyword should we choose?
- It is always better to choose keywords with low competition. Once you get the local and global searches of a keyword, Go to Google and check the results of the keywords in Google search results.
- If you find many popular blogs/websites with that selected keywords are ranking high in Google then it is better to avoid such type of keywords, if your blog is new or if your blog is not having much traffic from Google.
Where to use Keywords?
Some of the best places to use keywords are: In blog Post Title, In post Description, In URL, In Search Description , In Heading Tags.
Using Keywords in Blog Post Title:
The title of the post has huge impact on the traffic that you get. Include the Keywords in the title of the blog post.(Note: Do not stuff the keywords in the blog post, if you do so Google may identify your post as Spam and it may penalize your blog.)
Using Keywords in Blog Post:
Though blog post title is deciding factor to increase blog traffic, Content is also equally important so try to use as many keywords as possible in the blog post.In general the keyword density should not exceed 4% (i.e. up to 4% of the text content can be keywords, but don't stuff the keywords in the post meaninglessly because it may harm your site). To avoid harm from the recent Google Updates, it is better to write the posts with 700-1000 words.
Using Keywords in URL:
We can create a Permalink while posting the article. It can be used only once (i.e. you cannot edit the permalink once it is created) so, try to fill the URL with keywords instead of prepositions and conjunctions.
Using Keywords in Search Description:
As all the search engines analyze the content of the meta tags(search description), it is better to include few keywords in the search description as well.
Using Keywords in Heading Tags:
It is better to use proper Keywords in heading tags (<H1>,<H2>,<H3>) in your post.
Conclusion:
Keyword Research plays an important role in Search Engine Ranking, but do not over use the keywords as it may harm your blog. Keywords should be included naturally while writing the blog post.I can assure you that with proper keyword usage and writing quality posts, you can increase your blog traffic easily!
