Many, many SEO professional consistently assert that SEO is “all about link building” – the truth is, they are absolutely spot on, it is all about link building. However, while the actual process of obtaining results in search demands some form of link building strategy, there is a number of things you can do prior to even thinking about link building to ensure your campaign’s success. When I say a number of things, I’m essentially referring to keyword research.
Keyword Research is the process of sourcing search terms which drive a consistent number of searches per month, and collating these terms into a document.
The basic process of keyword research is best done by utilising some industry tools, namely the Google Keyword Tool – using this tool, you can essentially retrieve search volume on any particular term you wish to specify (It’s outside this scope of this blog post to explain this point, however always select “Exact” when using the keyword tool for SEO purposes).
When using this tool always accept that it’s a little bit stupid – you almost need to hold its hand and don’t ever rely on it to hand you the search terms you need to target. As such, the best approach is usually to brainstorm ideas prior to even looking at the tool.
When pulling together terms, try to ensure you are accounting for every variation – for example, if you opt to target the term “hotels in New York”, also look for the search term around the singular variation e.g. “Hotel in New York” as well as other variations too e.g. “Hotel New York”, “Hotels New York”, “New York Hotel” and so on.
When you have built up your base of terms, simply paste them into the Google Keyword Tool and download the corresponding .CSV sheet. Import these terms into a new Excel document and use the VLOOKUP function to pair search volume terms to the keywords you have brainstormed (the keyword tool will bring back many additional suggestions too).
Once you have done this, you’ve completed the first stage of keyword research – now you need to focus on expanding it out as far as possible.
David Johnson is a Search Professional at Clickwork Media – please visit Clickwork Media for more information on link building services and SEO training solutions.