Many people talk about keywords and how they can be associated with your website, but what does this mean, and how is this done? This post will guide you to be more strategic about your website content and the traffic your site receives from search.
Definition and value
Keywords in this context are words or phrases that people enter into Google when they are trying to find a helpful website or answer to a question.
Keyword research is done to identify the specific words or phrases that people commonly search for on Google so that you can strategically select which you want to target.
Performing keyword research helps your website appear in more relevant search results. A relevant search result for your website is one that connects information you are presenting with a target audience that is searching for it.
If Google thinks your website is the best match for a keyword or phrase, your website will appear, or rank, first. The higher your website ranks, the more traffic you can get to visit your website! Thus, the value of keyword research is more relevant visitors to your website.
Performing keyword research
Brainstorm potential keywords
For our example today, let's imagine you manage a departmental website.
The first step to performing keyword research is to put yourself in your target audience's shoes - so put your Crocs in sport mode and start thinking like a prospective college student. Make a list of as many keywords as you can that would be relevant to your website.
- Statistics degree
- Statistics major
- Statistics minor
- What does a statistician do?
- Which college has the best program for statistics?
- Should I major in statistics?
- Jobs with a b.s. in statistics
- Salary of statisticians
- Is a statistics minor useful?
- Can I major in statistics if I got a D in math?
You get the picture.
Once you have your initial list, it is a good idea to test each keyword or phrase by searching for it in Google and reviewing the search engine results page (SERP). This process is sometimes called "search listening". It can tell you what type of content is ranking for these searches already (i.e., videos, other university websites or program pages, university careers pages, third-party career pages, etc.). This information will come in handy later when you begin optimizing your content. It is also a great way to add more keywords to your list! Check out what happens when I search for "Is a statistics minor useful?"
Often, you'll get a "People also ask" section. For this search, I see:
- Is statistics a useful minor?
- Is a minor in applied statistics good?
- Is a statistics degree useful?
- Is Statistics a good minor for CS?
Most of these are great options to add to your potential keyword list, and you now have a better idea of your audience's thought process as they search. You can also review the SERP for other related searches and take note of anything that might be useful for your website content and keyword list.
Rank and organize your keywords
To ensure you're not spending time on unrealistic keywords, the next thing you'll want to do is prioritize your keywords based on those that provide the best opportunity for your website. This is often measured through search volume, difficulty, and search intent.
Search volume - the average number of times this keyword is searched in a month (AMSV). For example, if a keyword only has 10 AMSV, you should spend less time trying to rank for it.
Difficulty - how hard it is to rank for a keyword on a scale of 1-100. The higher the difficulty, the harder it will be to rank for the keyword. Smaller websites with less authority will have a more challenging time ranking for a keyword than more prominent sites.
Search intent - what searchers are trying to accomplish with this search. Intent can be navigational, informational, commercial, or transactional. Search intent is an important criterion because it lets you know whether or not your content is a match to answer the searcher's intent. Suppose you notice that most of your keywords fall under the same intent category, but you don't have a lot of great content on your site to fill that search. In that case, you need to construct more strategic content on your website that appeals to your audience and their goals.
You can use a free online service like the SEMRush.com keyword overview tool to find this data. After creating your free account, open the tool and type in the keyword you are researching. A dashboard like the image below will appear. The SEMRush keyword overview tool tells me that targeting a "statistics minor" keyword could result in a monthly search volume of 590 searchers from the U.S. It has a difficulty rating of 50%, and searchers are looking for information about the keyword and potentially looking to make a decision on whether that is a product or service they are interested in.
Note: SEMRush provides a great tutorial for beginners trying to navigate their platform. Skip to Building a keyword list + what to consider for more on the keyword overview tool.
Create a keyword map
Keep track of all your keywords and their ranking progress with a keyword map. Assign pages on your website to specific keywords that you hope to rank for along with their average monthly search volume, searcher's intent, difficulty score, and other notes you may need when optimizing content. Create a table or Excel document to keep track of your keyword efforts.
Avoid mapping multiple pages to the same keyword. This is known as keyword cannibalization because your pages could begin to compete against each other in the SERP. If this happens, your pages will not get as many impressions or clicks, which are both important factors in Googles ranking algorithm, and could result in worsened rankings. Instead, try optimizing the pages into one more robust piece of content for your visitors.
| Keyword | AMSV | Intent | Difficulty | Listening Notes | Target URLs | Current URL Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics degree | 590 | Informational Commercial | 50 | answer questions like what can i do with, what you need to know | /undergraduate-major | not ranked |
| Statistics major | 1k | Informational | 55 | /undergraduate-major | 28 | |
| Statistics minor | 480 | Informational | 28 | top ranking pages are short-med length - 500 words or less | /undergraduate-minor | 38 |
Note that the paid version of SEMRush allows you to see what your current URL rank is for a specific keyword. This can be helpful when deciding which keywords to pursue if your strategy focuses on keywords that your website already has a head start on. If you want this info, send your keyword list to websupport@iastate.edu and we can support you!
Optimize and create new content
Once your keyword map is complete and you have prioritized which keywords will have the highest impact on your website, you can begin optimizing the target URLs. Back in the keyword listening section of this post, we mentioned taking note of what type of content is already ranking for the keyword. This knowledge is imperative for optimizing your content because Google is giving you the answer to what it thinks is the best result for the keyword. Take this information and put your own spin on it! Ultimately, Google will show the best content to the searcher, so your goal is to be better than what's already there.
Dos and don'ts of optimizing
Do create new quality content that will fill any gaps the keyword research may have revealed on your website that will help you rank for popular keywords.
Do have your content reviewed by an expert in your field to provide suggestions and feedback on how to make the information more accurate or realistic.
Do continuously monitor your rankings and progress. Optimizing content and forgetting about it means you can't learn what does and doesn't work for your target audience.
Don't try to rank for keywords by adding them to your content in as many places as possible. This doesn't work, and Google will catch on.
Don't target the same keyword with multiple pages on your website; you'll lose visitors in the long run.
Don't optimize for keywords that you don't stand much chance ranking for. It's important to be strategic about the keywords you select and finding the right balance between search volume and difficulty is key!
Improving your website through optimization can be a slow process, but as long as you optimize with your target audience's best intentions in mind you'll start to see a return on your timely investment!
Reach out to the CALS/LAS Web Team by emailing websupport@iastate.edu with questions or for support in your keyword journey. We're here to help!