There is no denying that modern consumer experiences largely include some degree of online use. In many ways, the digital marketplace is as relevant as (and in some cases more relevant than) a physical one. Whether consumers are shopping online, researching deals, looking for product reviews or trying to learn more about the product they intend to purchase, the internet has become an amazing shopping tool. As a business owner, the onus is on you to learn how best to use and leverage this tool to lead to business growth and product success.
At the top of the list of strategies to apply when seeking to thrive in the digital marketplace is investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This refers to the technique of developing online content and aspects of site building to create a great consumer experience, drive traffic and generate leads.
While your target audience is your consumer base, you will essentially find yourself trying to balance pleasing the bots and crawlers of your search engine as well. If you’ve never heard of SEO or you have no idea how to go about doing it, this may sound like more trouble than it’s worth. I assure you, it’s not.
The key to being effective in the online market is to be visible. If you aren’t on the first page of Google, or another search engine you use, then there is a very strong possibility that very few people are interacting with your business. That defeats the whole purpose of being online in the first place.
So without going in-depth into the technicalities of SEO, let’s explore one aspect of the optimization process that is relatively easy to grasp.
Keywords
These refer to search terms or cluster words that consumers are using to ask their questions and do research. High-value keywords can go a very long way when compiling online content to advertise and sell your product/service.
It is never enough to just guess the words that are being used globally concerning a particular product or service. While this may yield some results (to the extent that you’re bound to get at least one word correct), you’ll not even begin to scrape the bottom of the SEO possibilities.
With effective Keyword search tools, you’ll be well on your way to optimizing your page. While keyword search is not all there is to SEO or sufficient to land you on the first page by itself, it is a great way to start.
SEO Keyword Search tools
There are several Keyword search tools available that have a wide range of features that can help to push your business forward.
Ahrefs offers thousands of Keyword suggestions, keyword volume projections for 10 different search engines including Amazon, Google and YouTube. It matches and assigns keyword ranks to determine competition and click metrics, among many other features.
Moz is great for conducting Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) analysis as well as an in-depth keyword search. Moz targets long-tail keywords with high relevance embedded in questions and allows you to compare your site’s ranking with that of your competitor according to keyword rank.
Wordtracker offers 10 free keyword searches and allows you to familiarise yourself with its features before making a long-term commitment. Some of these features include a niche explorer which uncovers niche-specific trends, an inspection tool which allows you to compare your keyword ranking with your competition and customized global reports from any country and search engine.
The key to effective keyword use is to offer value and improve consumer experience. Randomly throwing together words that frequently appear in a search engine, is not an efficient way to use keywords. With the help of these and other tools available to simplify the SEO process, you can take your online presence to a whole new level and remain relevant in this digital world.
