Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to finalize the keywords for SEO?
-
Hi,
I use the following method for keyword research:
- Create a long raw list of keywords.
- Use Google AdWords Keyword tool to find monthly searches.
- Find raw competition.
- Find direct competition (via allinanchor: search operator)
- Calculate KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index)
- Calculate KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index)
Is there any other (better) way to execute the keyword research? Or is finalizing/selecting the keywords only on the basis of monthly searches sufficient? In short, how to select the best keywords from a long list?
Thanks & Regards
-
Hi Shailendra,
It sounds like your off to a pretty good start, but there are a couple other things you should consider including. KEI and KOI might give you a rough idea of the competition, but they don't really tell you how difficult it will be to rank for those keywords.
I'd run your keywords through Moz's Keyword Difficulty Tool which gives each keyword a score between 1 and 100 based on the Page Authority and Domain Authority of the top ten results. Using this tool can help you weed out keywords that your site simply isn't strong enough to compete on.
Another option (if you have a little money to spend) is to run a small AdWords campaign and see which keywords have the highest conversion rate. This will help you identify keywords that don't necessarily have a ton of monthly searches but can help your website reach its ultimate goals.
Hope this helps!
Tim
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do I do keyword research when search volume is unknown
Hi Mozzers! I do a lot of work in niche areas, and one issue I often confront in keyword research is unknown search volume. That is, I'll be doing keyword research in Keyword Explorer or Gooogle Search Console, and for the most relevant keywords, I find either very low search volumes, null search volumes, or "Data not available." How do I make good keyword planning decisions when I can't find good data for search volume? Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Andy
Keyword Research | | AndyKubrin0 -
Apostrophes impact on SEO
I have a question about the use of Apostrohes in the text of your site for your keyword. Most of the info I have found says in most cases it does not matter, but it depends. Most of the info about this issue I have found is a few years old. I am leaning towards not using it at all to make it easier for everyone writing for the website to always do it the same way. Here is an example: Lawyer’s Lawyers' Lawyers Does it matter if I use the apostrophe?
Keyword Research | | fersu0 -
Is my SEO company a scam?
Hello, I am rather new to online marketing and because of this employ an SEO company to help with improving my ranking. They have now been working with me for around 6 months and I have not seen an increase in the traffic to my site - in fact it is at it all time low. Yesterday I only had 4 visitors for example. They keep ensuring me it will take time, and show me reports on how my keywords are ranking, and some appear to be doing okay, but I would have thought traffic would have improved by now. Why I am a little suspicious of this company is they only seem to be doing back linking. They have done very little, if anything, with on-page optimisation, so much so that I tried to do this all myself following Moz guidelines etc. But even this has seen very little improvement. I would have thought that as a paid SEO company, they may see that something is clearly not working. Perhaps the wrong keywords? Suggest a different tactic? I write blogs posts, am social media active but feeling very discourage with it all as seeing very little results. I continuously hear about scams and get new emails every day saying "we have analysed your site and all these things are wrong... pay us $XXX and we will get you traffic" but who can you trust and how can you find an affordable way to gain traffic as a very small business. Would be great to get feedback from anyone who may know what is going on. Thanks Astrid
Keyword Research | | Lilala_Kids0 -
Bulk keyword competition tool?
The SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty tool is great, but the 5 keyword limit is too small. I need a tool that will allow checking the organic competition level of 100's of keywords (to help in selecting blog topics). Anyone know of such a tool?
Keyword Research | | AdamThompson1 -
No KWs to target and SEO value
Hello, I'm writing some on-going Q&A type blog posts and perform KW research for each post; however, there are a few where the question is not a popular topic at all and because of this, there are no KWs to target. I've checked a few sources. The question needs to be answered and i'm trying to get as much SEO value as i can. Just wondering how have you gone about this? Just answer the question and it will naturally target the long tail?
Keyword Research | | ShaneO0 -
Adding qualifiers to keywords?
I know that it's worth adding qualifiers to high value keywords to create long-tail variations which will later have the potential to rank well for the main keyword as well... My questions is, how important is it that the newly-formed keyword/phrase also be evaluated for search volume? E.g. "tips for job interviews" has a high search volume, but scores 72 in the Keyword Difficulty tool - quite high. I would therefore be tempted to create a "10 tips for job interviews" articles or something similar, yet THIS particular phrase is searched for <10 times per month... If there are not any easy-to-find qualifiers that also create a well-searched for keyword/phrase, is it still worth adding them?
Keyword Research | | staingurus0 -
Keyword Research (dash or no dash)
I have a client that has been optimizing for "print and apply" for the past 5 months. Yesterday they decided it was more grammatically correct to use "print-and-apply." There question to me was "is this going to effect our SEO?" So... I checked the difficulty using the keyword analysis tool, both keywords had the same broad/exact adwords traffic as well as difficulty percentage. When reviewing the top 25 listings for each keyword it looks like the same sites rank in the SERPs between 1-8 and then after that it is completely different. So, is there a better keyword to target? Are these two keywords different enough to truly have separate search results?
Keyword Research | | kchandler
The top 8 results didn't even target "print-and-apply" in there content or title tags... Thanks for the input/discussion - Kyle0 -
How can i track keywords history
i need to keep a record for all keywords history , is there any way that we can track keywords history so we can compare each week with the previous weeks ?
Keyword Research | | omarfk0