This final step of keyword research requires you to analyze your data and determine a list of 25 - 50 keywords that you are going to actively focus on achieving rankings for on search engine page results.
Think of your website as a garden and your keywords as your seeds that will grow into bountiful produce. Easier keywords will grow faster than Medium and Hard keywords!
( Yes, this is my actual garden!! Please click to enlarge)
The first step in creating a garden is tilling the soil (creating your website structure) and the next is determining what you are going to plant (your keywords). Like any successful garden, you will have to regularly maintain and water it to achieve optimal results. Tips and advice for maintaining your keyword garden will be explained in detail in a future post on E-Commerce Inbound Marketing -- so be sure to check back often!
Below are the final steps to complete your keyword research:
1. Open your excel spreadsheet of your keyword list and sort the data based on the column Keyword Difficulty. You will want to sort your data from the lowest percentage to the highest. The lower the percentage, the more likely you are able to achieve a first Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
2. Pick 10 - 15 keywords or keyword phrases in the range between 0% and 35%. These keywords are going to be labeled your Easier Keywords to achieve rankings for, so you will want to put a great deal of focus and care picking these. Make sure that these keywords or keyword phrases are highly relevant to your business and you are comfortable with your selection. You are going to be using these keywords alot on all your content throughout your website.
3. Pick 5 -10 keywords or keyword phrases in the range between 35% and 50%. These keywords are going to be labeled your Medium Keyword to achieve rankings for in search engines. These keywords are harder to obtain than the Easier Keywords, and more than likely will be a bit broader. You will not immediately rank for these keywords. It may even take 6 months to a year or more to achieve viable rankings for these Medium Keywords, but starting your focus now will lead to quicker growth.
4. Pick 1 -5 keywords or keyword phrases in the range between 50% and 70%. You do not want to go over 70% because you realistically have no chance of ranking for these keywords without several years of intense link building and other SEO practices. You will even have a hard time ranking for the ones you select. This is the cold reality of search engine optimization. The realm of internet searches is a fierce field and only the strong survive! So why are you even picking 1-5 of these hard to rank for keywords? Because you want to plant the seeds for these keywords and keyword phrases so in a couple of years, after you have successfully maintained your your SEO garden and produced several years worth of delicious keyword rankings, you will eventually start to see these keywords sprout and your garden expand exponentially!
Congratulations!! You have now completed your SEO Keyword Research and have an optimized list of keywords that you will use in making your website achieve high SERP'S!!
Check back to E-Commerce Inbound Marketing Blog or Subscribe to the RSS Feed to be on the look out for a future article detailing strategies and advice on how to implement your keywords for optimal success.
As promised, here is a short and sweet step by step guide on how to do Keyword Research for SEO:
CLICK HERE TO VISIT STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON KEYWORD RESEARCH FOR SEO.
Again, be sure to check back to the E-Commerce Inbound Marketing Blog often for tips and tricks on how to utilize your keywords for search engine success!!
