(This blog post is part of a blog series: “Search Engine Optimization for Beginners.”)

Stop and think for a second: Let’s say that you need a new pair of Reebok Classics, and you want to order them on Reebok.com. What exactly are you typing into that Google search bar? “Reebok Classics”? “New Reeboks”? “Tennis shoes”? These search terms are known as keywords (or keyphrases), and are the basis of any SEO campaign.

Keywords are the words that your target customers are Googling when they are looking for information about or to buy products and services like yours. It’s the search engines’ job to connect these keywords with related websites and it is your job, as a search engine optimizer to make sure the search engines are doing their job (to the benefit of your website, of course). “Keyphrases” is just another way to say keyword phrases, or terms that are searched consisting of more than one word.

The first step in fulfilling this somewhat confusingly-explained system of jobs is determining what keywords your potential customers are using. This process is called keyword research, and it’s what this entire chapter is about.

Choosing between keywords and phrases

You should use both. When people make searches in search engines, most often they type in two-word phrases: three-word phrases are the most common after that, one-word terms are after that, four-word phrases after that, and from there, searches become fewer with each word added.

Some search engine optimizers believe that optimizing content for longer, more specific keyphrases is the most effective strategy (for example: optimizing for “navy blue Reebok Classics Nylon in the United States”). While keyphrases such as this are associated with less search pages and do yield faster, more relevant traffic, optimizing for these phrases is significantly more difficult. Furthermore, properly implementing link building strategies oftentimes makes the difference in effectiveness between keywords and keyphrases obsolete. Let’s work smarter, not harder.

Considering everything

There are dozens of things that play a part in the effectiveness of a keyword in SEO. The most important, however, is finding keywords that cater to targeted traffic. Targeted traffic are the people who visit your website because they are interested in purchasing or reading the products or information you offer. A keyword “converts” when a customer uses it in a search, is directed to your website, and ends up finding and purchasing a product or service you offer. Obviously, those are the keywords you want.

When you’re considering the effectiveness of a particular keyword, be sure to consider searcher intent. It’s not enough for a keyword to simply be related to your website; it also has to be a keyword that someone would use when they are ready to buy your product, read your blog post, subscribe to your RSS feed, or whatever it is you want them to do.

Take this scenario for example: let’s say that you manage a website that sells daguerreotypes. For those of you who do not know what a daguerreotype is, you will do best Googling the singular term “daguerreotype,” in that your searcher intent is to find details about or an image of a daguerreotype. However, those of you who have now been reminded of their unique photography collection and wish to purchase a daguerreotype will do best Googling the plural term “daguerreotypes,” or something more specific such as “1970s daguerreotypes.” But, why?

Most of us, when using a search engine, subconsciously form questions in our head related to the answers we are looking for. Yet, we simplify our questions into keywords and phrases when we are typing them into a search bar. You must understand, as a search engine optimizer, that there are different keywords (or at least keyword forms) that are used for the question “what is a daguerreotype?” than are used for the question “where can I buy daguerreotypes?”

Starting your research

Keyword research starts with a list. Open up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (using this software will come in handy down the road) and list all words that you think cater to targeted traffic. I’m serious, open up that spreadsheet and start listing.

For your reading pleasure and SEO benefit, I have put together a few bullets that will help you brainstorm:

• Ask your friends and coworkers what search terms they might use to find your website. You will be surprised what you hear (and how bad some of your friends are at Googling).
• Include both singular and plural forms of keywords. This is useful only if both forms have desirable searcher intent (do not make me start barking about daguerreotypes again).
• Consider split, merged, and hyphenated words. Google knows the difference between “fifty five dollar bills,” and “fifty-five dollar bills.” Include them both if they are both relevant.
• Utilize location. If local search traffic is important to your business, than be sure to target it by using your city name or state.

Some search engine optimizers will advise clients to capitalize on misspellings. Google treats all spellings, correct and incorrect, as words and some can yield relatively effective SEO. For example, Googling the term “playright” yields 3,740,000 results. Did all of these website managers skip spelling class too often, or are they trying to improve their search results? Generally, I do not suggest optimizing for misspelled words unless you have no other choice.

Also, be careful of overdoing it with synonyms when finalizing your initial list. All search engines use a relatively comprehensive and accurate thesaurus during indexing and ranking and you may be wasting prime SEO space on your website. As a general rule, find half-a-dozen core terms and stick with them.

Using technology

At this point, you should have a long list of brainstormed human-made keywords and phrases. Now, we are going to call upon technological assistance.

There are tons of expensive downloadable programs out there that hold “the key to keyword selection” or that will “give you a top rank in a matter of days.” Do not listen to them. With a little bit of elbow grease and some computer savvy, you can cook up the perfect SEO recipe with your own keywords being the main ingredient (that metaphor took me a while).

• First, type your core keywords into the Google search bar. A drop-down menu will automatically display with a list of related commonly searched terms. This is a great way to have Google do your SEO work for you, while gaining a better understanding of what your target audience is searching.
• Google Adwords: Keyword Tool will be your new best friend. At this point, the only thing we are going to use the program for is growing your keyword list. Type your core keywords into the content box, correctly type the letters from the captcha, and press enter. The keyword tool will provide you with dozens of related search terms. Disregard all of the information about monthly searches and competition; we will talk about that later in the chapter. For now, add all the terms you want to your list.

Spying on your competition

All good search engine optimizers are Internet spies. Like all marketers, we must keep a close eye on the competition, learn from their mistakes, and, most importantly, learn from their successes.

Your primary competition is any website that ranks in the top 10 of results pages of keywords you are optimizing for. Type in your core keywords, and list the URLs of the top 3 or 4 websites you see. Using Google Adwords: Keyword Tool again enter your competitors URL into the content box labeled “Website.” Correctly type the letters from the captcha and watch Google work! The program will list all the keywords that your competitors are using, and allow you to take what you like. (Isn’t SEO fun?)

Calculating the Keyword Efficiency Index

Narrowing down your list of keywords is the next step. Using the Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI) we can systematically rank the keywords you’ve chosen based on relevance and potential.

You want to optimize content using keywords that are searched often and are not used by a lot of other websites. Furthermore, you want keywords that are relevant. The KEI combines all of these factors into one numeric value using the following formula: KEI = ((4-R) ÷ 3) x (SV² ÷ C) 

• Variable “R” represents Relevance, or how relevant the keywords is
• Variable “SV” is Search Volume, and represents the number of global monthly searches
• And “C” is Competition, and represents the number of web pages are associated with a keyword

Use your Excel spreadsheet; add columns for Relevance, Search Volume, Competition, and KEI. The next few steps take some time:

• First, rate the relevance of each column in the Relevance column. The most relevant keywords (those with good searcher intent) should be rated a “1.” Rate not-so-relevant keywords with a “3,” and give keywords a “2” if you’re not sure. As a general note, you will not be optimizing for any keywords that do not have a Relevance rating of “1.”
• Thus, you can go ahead and delete all keywords with a low Relevance rating.
• Copy your keyword list and paste it into the content box of Google Adwords: Keyword Tool. Remember the information you disregarded earlier? This is when it comes in handy.
• Fill in the number under “Global Monthly Searches” in the Search Volume column of your Excel spreadsheet. When you calculate the KEI, local monthly searches are obsolete.
• The last step before calculating the KEI is distinguishing how many pages are associated with each keyword. To do this, type all of your keywords into a Google search bar and press enter (yes, one at a time). Directly underneath the search bar will be a line of text listing the total number of pages shown. This number is your Competition factor for the keyword you searched.

At this point, you are ready to calculate your Keyword Efficiency Index. The easiest way is to use the formula bar of your spreadsheet. (Your formula should look something like this “=((4-C4)/3)*((D4^2)/F4),” with column C being Relevance, column D being global monthly searches, and column F being Competition.)

Type in the formula for your first keyword and press enter. The number that you will see (unless your formula is incorrectly formatted) is the KEI for that first keyword. Left-click and hold the bottom right corner of the cell displaying the KEI and drag down the entire column. The Keyword Efficiency Index should display for all keywords.

As a general rule, any KEI over 100 has excellent potential.

Creating your first ranking report

An important aspect of any project campaign is tracking your success. When it comes to SEO, the key performance indicator is your rank in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Whether you already have a website or you are planning on creating one (kudos to you for researching SEO beforehand), it is a good idea to track how well you are ranking.

Rankingcheck.com, a free online ranking program, will do all the work for you, though it will take a bit of time:

• Visit Rankingcheck.com and start by entering your website URL into the top content box. The program will search this address in major engines to determine your rank.
• Next, enter your keywords to specify what SERPs you want the program to search. You will want to check all the keywords you are planning on optimizing for.
• Be sure that all of the search engines are checked, and click “Check Ranking.” This could take as long as 30 seconds depending on how low you rank.
• After the information is found, Rankingcheck.com will present you with your websites rank in the SERPs you entered (using your keywords).
• Add these initial rank values to your spreadsheet. These numbers are your first ranking report.

It is important to note that if the program lists your websites ranking as “N/A” it does not necessarily mean that the search engines do not have your website indexed. While this is certainly a possibility, the more likely reason is that you do not rank in the top 100. (Rankingcheck.com does to calculate any rankings above 100.) Do not be alarmed, you will soon work your way up the rankings.

That’s all you get for today! Be sure to visit again tomorrow for the next portion of “Search Engine Optimization for Beginners.”

Related posts:

1. Part 1 of 7 – SEO for Beginners: Understanding what Search Engine Optimization is About
2. Search Engine Optimization: Why Keyphrases are Better Than Keywords
3. Search Engine Optimization: Why Keyword Density is No Longer Important