How do I find and choose the right keywords?
My team has started producing content. We also have a website. I own an art gallery and I want to find the right keywords to use so I can start making better use of the content and drive more traffic to our website for events. I have little knowledge on SEO though and I'm unsure of how to get started. What are my options? Thank you!
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Nov 20, 2015
Zoe, try using this guide to do it yourself or have someone from your team do it for you
http://www.sunitabiddu.com/step-by-step-priority-keyword-research
Sep 18, 2015
Hello Zoe, everyone starting a new project, business encounter the same concerns, but easy fix, just keep this in mind every business has a min. of 50 keywords they can use to attract business, you have to chose and it is usually through trial and error process, example if Oil paints is your main display then Use keywords that clearly are descriptive for attracting Oil panting lovers etc. You have enormous amount of options, just don't get lost in them as many do. Nor does it cost a lot of money to do this so do not get trapped into paying high price, you can even do this yourself with Google and the products/service they offer very lower price and will work magic for you. Hope this helps somewhat.
Sep 18, 2015
I am sure that my colleagues have answered this well. The biggest to do is get help to make it happen properly. Be careful you don't try to do too much on your own. Thus is field that you have said you don't know well- so don't try to do it yourself - you are in the Art business- so don't try to do something you are not an expert in.
Sep 18, 2015
I use a program called Market Samurai for all my keyword research and competition analysis. It's worth its weight in gold because you need three things for a good keyword. 1) it has to have at least 50 searches a day, 2) low competition values "less than 100,000) webpages that use it, and 3) a CDI above $1 which shows someone actually purchased something using that keyword. I hope this helps!
Sep 18, 2015
Go to various search engines like Google or Youtube. punch in key words you think would work. When you start seeing competitors that are getting 50,000...1,000,000 hits for that key word, that's what you want to use. If that key word is only getting 150..200 hits its not a good one. Try key phrases that start with "How To..." they seem to work best
Sep 18, 2015
I would suggest not just using a program generated "word ideas" spinner. When you are looking for keywords, you have to have already conceptualized your main ideas for your image and know your target markets. Once you have done some market research about your intended customers and you have your own idea for how you want to present your product, then start with naming the keywords. Keyword program spinners can be useful at that point in time to find words that you can choose appropriately.
Sep 16, 2015
Your Keywords will be what you actually do or are selling or offering. As you state you own an "art gallery" then the key words would be "art gallery" or "art gallery (with the name of your business/gallery). For your website ranking, you need to get your header tags "H1" correct as this is what Google looks at, I recommend using your gallery name along with the words art gallery. Google webmaster tools is very useful and helpful as it will detect errors on your site.
Sep 16, 2015
Get a keyword analyzer and use it to review your competition and complementary businesses. Also, remember that keywords are relevant to the platform you are promoting on i.e. YouTube is different than Google.
And don't forget to add "intention" words like "cheapest price, best deal, etc.," these show the searcher is interested in buying.
Last but not least, keywords aren't as powerful as you might think if you are trying to rank via SEO.
Sep 16, 2015
Zoe,
This is a summary of our 'How to do keyword research' article and hope it will answer your question and help you find the right keyword for your Art Gallery website!
Before thinking of keyword research, you should first think of what you want to write about (pick an article/page topic, ie: Pablo Picasso paintings). Then I look at the article and search for the keyword(s) I might want to target.
Then using either Google's Keyword Planner, or other free available tools online, research the keywords on your list. Don't worry about the competition column for now but just focus on choosing the right keyword(s) you want to bring traffic to your site.
Even though the 'Suggested bid' column is for Adwords advertisers, it is something worth looking at because it will give you an idea of whether the keyword can be monetized or not and the higher the bid, the more lucrative the traffic should be.
Our Recommendations (Grab a cup of coffee before reading)
1. Remember to write for your visitors first, and search engines second! What we mean by that is you need to focus on providing your visitors with the quality content they expect after clicking on Google (or any of their favorite search engine) search result page (SERP).
2. Focus on long tail keywords instead of just root keywords. And if you are targeting an area (your location), you can add your location in the keyword to make it easier to rank for local SEO.
3. Once you have the keyword (remember, only focus on one keyword, and one keyword only on a page (however, you can use a synonym for your chosen keyword), you will need to research your competition and see what keywords are they targeting, what problems their site has and that you should avoid, look at how the title page is written, look for any mistakes (grammar, typos, and so on) they made so you don't make the same mistake.
4. Use your keyword once, or twice at the most - This will depend on whether your article has enough verbiage to call for using the keyword multiple times, or your article suffers from the 'Thin Content' syndrome.
5. Use an image, or two, and make sure that you name your image accordingly using your targeted keyword. Don't forget to choose proper Alt-tag for your image (you should use the keyword in there too. One more thing, don't forget to optimize your image for speed (make your image file size smaller) before you upload.
If you learn from their mistakes and turn that into a benefit, you can easily out rank them.
Is there more to choosing the right keyword? Yes I but did not want elaborate on the subject because I might reach the max. word limit!
Good luck Zoe and don't forget that there are a lot of people here willing to help you with an advice, or two!
P.S. - The URL of your website would make it even easier to help you with your keyword research (and possibly get a free link back to your site)!
Sep 16, 2015
PersonallyI use a software package that not only finds the keywords but also creates a report on the SEO competition (there's no point in trying to beat the big boys), finds content for me to curate and promote using high PR backlinks/pingbacks.
Google adwords is fine, but it doesn't help you identify any niches and that is where you score big time, by finding the right phrases and keyword strings that are being searched for but not covered by the big boys. Invest some money into a package that will help you and provide real information and not just potential exploitable keywords.
Sep 15, 2015
The info submitted so far is fine for a general approach, but you need to go further if you want to maximize your time and effort. The tools are much more helpful with the right approach.
Your keywords are what you want to be found for. This includes your site as a whole and what each individual page needs to be found for. They are partially based on what people type in to find what you are offering, but having related and sematic terms is part of doing it more completely. If you don't include some of the 'fringe' keywords, your site is not as robust and complete as a trusted source. It's easier and less time-consuming to focus just on what you want and that's as far as many sites go.
So you have the search terms people are typing in at the basic level - especially when they aren't quite sure what they need to type in they usually/eventually drill down into "long-tail" terms that can be 4, 5 or more words - a phrase or almost as a short sentence.
Aside from what you want to be found for and what people will actually type in, you want to consider competing sites and those that are already ranking for those terms. How strongly are they ranked and can you beat them? In what time frame and with how much effort?
Do you want to spend time/money chasing terms that other sites are too far ahead on for you to see results in a reasonable amount of time?
Another important question I have clients consider is the monetary value of any given search term. This is also why you need to monitor and measure your conversions.
Do you want to go after terms that produce low dollar sales or high dollar sales?
Which of those sales lead to a longer relationship where your customers/clients buy even more? Which are short-term and less profitable? Lifetime customer value is a huge issue to consider in various aspects of your marketing - online or offline.
What can you create content for on an ongoing basis? What would you struggle to create content for? The quantity and quality of your content and consistently adding more each day/week/month is important to growing your rankings and relationship-building. But this ties into your content creation strategy, too. So your overall approach should be very connected to the various aspect of what you need to be doing - not just a simple approach to "choosing the right keywords".
This is a much stronger and differentiating strategy than what most people even consider, much less can confront and do. And it will help keep you from wasting time and money on content that produces less results. It's not the easy answer, but it's the most effective and profitable one.
Sep 15, 2015
Like everyone else has mentioned, the Google Adwords Keyword tool is a great tool to use. I'm less familiar with other options but I bet there's a bunch of other great ones to use. And another thing you can do is type a keyword into Google and see what they suggest. Depending on the keyword depth, these can help you find popular keywords.
You can also think about keywords subjectively. e.g. If you were to search, how would you phrase something? As a content-producer, you want keywords that have a nice mix of popularity and relatively low competition.
Sep 15, 2015
Keyword research is intense! It involves so much work. When Google stopped showing keyword search results in Google analytics many keyword analysts didn't know what to do. That's because they were not real keyword analysts.
Keyword research involves spying on competitor sites and dissecting "all" their keywords. Imagine doing this on five competitor sites and each site having thousands of keywords, including dissecting their paid ads. Then, organizing, ranking and strategic planning for each keyword. This takes hours of detailed work and only the best SEO companies have this skill set.
Keyword research involves knowing and researching your audience.
Keyword research involves researching the industry.
Keyword research involves researching trends.
There are some good tools mentioned by others here like Moz and SemRush, but the best tool is Spyfu. These tools are used by keyword experts. You will never get full and accurate keyword research with "free" keyword tools.
One of the best features Spyfu offers is that they have video tutorials that show you how to do keyword discovery, as well as other videos.
Hope this helps.
Sep 15, 2015
Hi Zoe,
You can use Google Adword keyword planner, semrush free tool to have a better keyword idea for your website. As you have mentioned that your team has started producing content, that would be good if you share your content approach, so that I can better explain you on using the right keyword strategy within your content
Thanks,
Daljeet
Sep 15, 2015
There are few points you should be looking at to get the perfect keyword for your business.
→ Use keyword planner
→ Give few example keywords related to your business
→ Give your competitor page URL in google keyword planner to get appropriate keywords
→ Get keywords from google auto suggestion
→ At the bottom of google and at the right hand section in Bing search results you can see related searches these also will help
If you are still worried about keyword research and SEO handling, you can mail us at (info@sparxitsolutions.com). Our experts will help you on this
Good Day,
Sep 14, 2015
You say you have little knowledge on SEO but you are hitting the nail on the head for where to start, so kudos on that! Regarding finding the right keywords, you first need to have a Google Adwords account (even if you don't spend any money on SEM/Pay Per Click). Google used to offer their keyword planner but now require you to use it only thru the Adwords account. Below are my notes on how to access everything as well as another site to check out. I have also put a link to a webinar for a company we handle the marketing for that was produced by a renowned SEO expert. Hope this helps!
> Sign into Google Adwords
> Tools
> Keyword Planner
> Under "Find New Keywords" click on "Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category
Notes:
I can search words or phrases
I can type in the website and it'll give me suggestions
I can type in the type of product and it'll give me suggestions
I can adjust targeting (location is most important if I want to localize findings)
Another Keyword Tool:
http://keywordtool.io/
Stephan Spencer Webinar:
www.shweiki.com/blog/2015/02/keyword-research-seo-purposes
Sep 14, 2015
Joseph & Stuart both gave good solid answers to this query...I really liked IMO Mirza's answer as you are trying to influence Google to recognize a website and or page for a keyword or phrase.
Writing such unique relevant quality content is something of a task best left to professionals whom are familiar with both keyword research and semantic knowledge.
Sep 14, 2015
Like others, I would recommend using Google's Keyword Planner. Instead of low competition, I would recommend a combination of low and medium competition. Sometimes, when keywords have low competition, it's because no one searches them, so pay close attention to the number of searches each keyword gets. You'll also want to use long tail keywords that are more specific, since you are more likely to get visitors who have an interest in your type of business. Also use keywords on each page related to the content on that page, don't try to get every page ranked for every keyword. I wanted to recommend a couple of keywords for you to try, but your profile doesn't specify the name of your art gallery or a website URL.
There is one other thing you need to know. Selecting your keywords, and using them in the content and tags on your website is only the beginning. There's a lot more to SEO. Like Stuart said, if you are not familiar enough with SEO, you might be better off hiring someone, although I think he just said it because he wants you to hire his company. If you do decide to hire someone, be careful. There are a lot of companies who would love to have a client like you so they can tell you anything and take your money. Do some research so you know what questions to ask, and have an idea of what the answers should be.
Sep 14, 2015
Keyword planner in short. I would like to say that, google is master in this industry so use google, work for google, gain from google. Repeat google.
Feel free to ask more
Cheers!