What is of crucial importance in search engine optimization is quality content. Search visibility is a high priority for most brands to the extent that SEO providers have started rebranding themselves as “content marketing” companies.
When it comes to having a well-optimized online Web presence that’s visible to search engines, content is all that matters— more specifically written content. Please bear in mind that search engines can only crawl, index and comprehend text — not images, visuals, videos, photos, podcasts and any other type of graphic or multimedia content.
Strong, robust and optimized written copy is the most crucial part of any SEO efforts. Before the tagline or headline is written, the first venture into the heart of search optimization by identifying the right keywords your target audience is likely to use when searching for your website, articles, blog entries, etc.
The right approach to the keyword research process is to brainstorm a list of the words and phrases your target audience might use to find your site or business.
You have to be specific and not think of broad terms. Do not use words like ‘Gown’. Focus instead on “nightgown” or “wedding gown” or “evening gown”.” It can be helpful to ask your employees and other stakeholders what terms come to their mind.
Once the basic list is ready, the next step is to decide seriously how useful these words/phrases are. That’s where keyword research tools come in very handy. In fact, both Google and Bing offer free keyword research tools.
By running the optimised list of proposed keywords through a online keyword research tool, you’ll come to know how many viewers are really conducting searches for a given word, how many of those searches actually get converted, and other useful analytical information. These tools can also make you aware of synonyms.
The tools will help narrow down the choices to a final list of keywords. Note them in a spreadsheet that helps you to visualize at a glance each word or phrase’s conversion rate, search volume, and other useful information. This list will facilitate in your knowing the most important words/phrases for your content.
The ideal keywords are the ones that have strong relevance, high search volume, and very low competition.
Once you’ve determined which keywords to target, for an overall content marketing initiative, it’s time to build quality content around those words.
Bear in mind that online search engines reward high-quality, the original content more than any other parameter.