Choosing Keywords - SEO Basics: Writing Essentials Nine

When I did not know much about "SEO basics", the very term would give me jitters. But now I realize that it is a fancy word for something you can easily do. I have put together a SEO basics guide and slideshow, to select good keywords. You may want to keep the slide-show open in another tab for reference.

Please DON'T lose your unique style and overuse the keywords. SEO basics are meant to help you and not take over your writing. SEO basics can't get you hits if good research/content is missing.

How to choose Keywords?

A) SEO basics -Image 1: Open Google AdWords Keyword Tool :
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

B) SEO basics - Image 2: Select-'English' and 'All Countries and Territories'. Enter your article-subject (Mine is Angora rabbit ), fill in the characters below it and click 'Get Keyword Ideas' button.

C) SEO basics - Image 3: A list of popular keywords will be displayed. Notice the second red-highlighted box. We will change the settings of 'Global Monthly Search Volume' and 'Match Type'=Broad, in the next step.

D) SEO basics - Image 4: Select 'Match Type' as 'Exact'. Click on 'Global Monthly Search Volume' to sort in descending order.

E) SEO basics - Image 5: Google AdWords Keyword Tool gives a list of 'Additional keywords to be considered' too.

F) Critical step to choose keywords: There is no hard and fast rule here. Logic will guide the way. From Steps D) and E):

1- Note the most relevant keywords (per your subject), having at least 1000 hits under 'Global Monthly Search Volume' column.

2- Notice 'Advertiser Competition' (second column). Eliminate keywords that have high 'Advertiser Competition' (Green bar is full/almost full and white portion is less).

Let us assume that at this point you have 6 keywords.

G) SEO basics -Image 6: Open Google.com homepage: http://www.google.com/

For each of the 6 keywords, enter the keyword in QUOTATION MARKS and then click 'Google Search'. ( I searched for "angora rabbit".)

H) SEO basics - Image 7: For each of the 6 keywords, note the total number of results that you obtain for the search.

We get 107,000 results for "angora rabbit". Thus, 107,000 web-pages have the term Angora rabbit in them. 107,000 is the 'Competition' for 'Angora rabbit'.

I) Final calculation: For all the 6 keywords you have selected, calculate:

('Competition')/('Global Monthly Search Volume' and'Match'=Exact)

For "angora rabbit" it is (107,000)/ (18,100)= 5.91

I generally use keywords that give a value less than 50. Out of those 6 keywords, further reduce the number of keywords. I normally use 3.

J) Using the Keyword in your Article: Choose and use 1 main keyword from your final keywords list.

- The title. - The article description.

- The first sentence of the body. - The first and last paragraphs.

- Sprinkled in the body. Keep the keyword density between 3-4.5 percent. No more.

- Sprinkle the other 2-3 keywords you have selected in the body too.

Once you get a hang of this, SEO basic keywords research will not take you more than 5-7 minutes. It is not complicated at all. SEO makes your article more accessible to the world outside this site and so, it may take some time to show results. Good luck!

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