Every online purchase begins with a few words typed into a search box.

Keyword research is one of the most valuable, important, and high return activities in the search marketing industry. Being able to rank for the proper keywords can make or break your entire website. Knowing what keywords to target starts with keyword research.

Keyword research isn’t just about getting people to your site, but also making sure you get the right type of visitors.

The Secret Weapon of Keyword Research

There are secret weapons in SEO. One of the most valuable is Google AdWords Keyword Planner. AdWords is the advertising system used by Google. The Keyword Planner is free for anyone to use. (There is now some limit to the keyword tool’s ability if you don’t have an active AdWords account, so keep this in mind).

Prior to using this tool, you need to create a general list of 5 to 10 keywords and phrases related to the website. For example, for a personal injury attorney you could use: personal injury, personal injury law, personal injury lawyer, etc.

Generating your Keyword List is a multi-step process, but a crucial one for SEO success. The steps of this include:

• Create a Google AdWords account (https://www.google.com/adwords/)
• Choose the “Keyword Planner” tool
• Click “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category”
• Navigate to “Targeting” and choose the geographic area you want to target (you can choose zip code, metro area, state, country, and multiple locations)
• Use your raw list of 5-10 keywords for the initial search; put the words in the first box (it is best to leave all other fields blank)

At this point, you have a list generated.

Deciphering Your Keyword List

In the report generated you receive a listing of words Google deems related to your root list. The report provides a bar graph of the search volumes, which spans over the previous 12 months.

Other notable items on the list include:

• Ad Groups – provides insights on keyword association and helps you figure out keyword relevance.
• Monthly Searches – How many times an exact keyword has been searched.
• Competition – Is it a competitive keyword?
• Suggested Bid – Typically only needed if you are planning on running an AdWords campaign.

As you scroll through the list, take note of the averages. It is a good idea to target keywords that receive a large number of searches monthly.

Build Your Spreadsheet

You can add keyword groups to your own spreadsheet by clicking the “Add to Plan” and create your keyword list. Once finished, you can download the entire sheet.

Don’t just try to target the keywords with the highest search numbers. You need to find keywords that have a combination of high volume, a higher suggested starting bid, and a higher competition value. These are referred to as “money words” and convert into better sales than other terms.

#3 Make Your Website Google Friendly with On-page SEO

If you want your website to rank on Google for a specific keyword, you have to master two essential components:

• On-page SEO

Here, you can learn more about on-page SEO, which is 50% of an effective strategy.

What is On-Page SEO?

This refers to optimizing the structure of your page in a way that makes it easier for web crawlers to find the keywords you have targeted.

When discussing on-page SEO, there are some factors that are more important than others.

The Process of On-Page SEO Success

If search engines are unable to find your site, you can optimize all day long but you will never appear. If you use a content management system like WordPress, you can easily check to see if your website is crawlable by just logging into the portal and choosing “Privacy” under the “Settings” tab. Make sure the “Allow search engines to index this site” option is selected beneath the “Site Visibility” heading.

If you don’t use WordPress, you can use Google Webmaster tools to see if the site is being crawled. To find this information simply click “Health” and then choose “Crawl Stats” to determine if the site is being actively crawled and how often the crawling is taking place.

There are several parts of your web page that have to be optimized for success. Here, you can learn about each one.

The Body

You need to include the selected keyword(s) in the body of your content at a minimum four times. If necessary, rearrange the keywords so they fit naturally in the text. Awkward wording can demote your site on Google.

Make sure to write content that is at least 50 words; however, the longer the content the better (as long as it is valuable and not gibberish).

If you put too many instances of the keyword in the document, this not only hurts readability but also your rankings. Try to keep all your content written for your readers but “tweaked” for the search engines.

Images

If you use images, make sure that the keywords are added to the alt tag. Also, make sure you name the image so that it matches your keywords.

Page Title

This is what appears in the tab of the web browser used. If you hover over the tab, it should show the entire page title. The best way to create a page title is to use the following format:

Make sure whatever you create is enticing. After all, what’s the point of a top spot in the search engines if no one is clicking on it?

The Meta Description

This is what you see under your page’s title in the search results. Meta descriptions should be 156 characters and include your targeted keyword.

H1 Tag

The h1 tag is different from title tags. It is important to include the keywords in this and putting them as close to the front as possible. Try to use the keyword only once in the h1 tag.

If you use WordPress, the h1 tag is the default page title. You don’t have to do anything special here.

URL

At the absolute least, include the target keyword in your URL slug, for example:

• keywordvariation.com/keyword

On-page SEO techniques are crucial to overall search engine success. Keep this in mind when creating your web pages.