SEO Introduction

The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on: The level of competition you’re up against. Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what’s currently ranking.

Build up your site with keywords in mind

• Check each URL. Ensure that it includes the target keyword for that page. Keep it short and sweet. It’s good practice to include your keyword in the SEO title and meta description, too, although this doesn’t directly affect your search results.

• What’s the title of your page? It should include the target keyword, but avoid keyword stuffing as that can actually hurt your SEO. The same goes for the text body of your site.

• If you have any outbound links, check their domain authority. High-ranking outbound links can help boost your page’s rank.

• Include graphics on your page. Nice images keep your visitors around longer and counteract high bounce rates (people abandoning your page as soon as they arrive) which can hurt your SEO.

• Optimize your images. Place the target keyword in each ALT description. Make sure the image you’ve uploaded has been saved with the target keywords in the filename itself, too.

• Include social media share buttons. How easy is it for your visitors to share your content on social media right now? Can content be shared with a single click? If not, add a plugin with social share buttons. When readers share your content, this gives you decent backlinks to your site and boosts SEO all around.

Know your target audience

Traditionally, getting to know your target audience involves determining their age, sex, geographic location and their needs (also known as pain points). These pain points are what you want to focus on, as they will determine what keywords and types of content resonate with your audience.

How do you discover these pain points? Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and consider what they’d do if they had a question. (Hint: They’d probably Google it.)

Understand keyword research and planning

Once you understand your target audience and their pain points, you’ll have a better idea of which keywords to target. Your customers probably use different terms to refer to your products and/or services than your colleagues and industry leaders, so keep this in mind when brainstorming keywords. Look for phrases that are searched for in a more casual, human way—rather than a jargon-loaded way.