3 Essential Criteria For Choosing The Best SEO Keywords

October 24, 2011 on 6:22 pm | In SEO | 14 Comments

Many business owners say they want to do SEO. Far fewer understand the right keywords to target.

I hear you say, “That’s what SEO companies are for”, but sometimes the last person you want to leave this decision to, is your SEO company. That’s because many SEO companies may suggest keywords that are easily attainable (in order to make themselves look good). Or they may simply slip into “order taking mode” and quote on the keywords you specify, without advising on the suitability of your suggestions.

This article explains the 3 essential criteria for choosing the most productive (read: highest ROI) keywords for your search engine optimisation activities.

Here they are:

Traffic Volume: is the keyword searched frequently, or are you (and your SEO company!) the only people searching for it? This can be estimated using the Google Keyword Tool (among many others).
Conversion Rate: what percentage of searchers on this term make a desired action on your website (opt in, enquire, buy, donate etc.)? This can be determined by first running paid search campaigns for the same keywords and tracking conversion.
Competition: low competition is better (obviously!) There are a number of ways to determine keyword competition. My fave is the SEOmoz Pro Keyword Difficulty Tool. It returns a percentage difficulty. Two seemingly similar terms may have very different levels of competition. Sometimes there’s a reason for this. Other times, it’s an anomaly you can exploit.

The Perfect Keyword

The Perfect Keyword is a keyword with a tonne of search volume, a high conversion rate, and low competition. Unfortunately, the perfect keyword is unlikely to exist in the real world, because juicy keywords are normally the object of intense competition.

However, it is possible to identify certain keywords with a more optimal mix of factors than others. For example, the following types of keywords can yield profitable results:

Moderate volume, High conversion, Moderate Competition
Low Volume, High Conversion, Low Competition

Beware of SEO companies who recommend going after “phantom keywords” like this:

Very Low Volume, ??? Conversion, Very Low Competition

We’ve seen SEO companies recommend and optimise for keywords in the form: “affordable widget suppliers Australia”.

Yes, it’s possible to get for #1 for that term. It’s just not going to matter a damn to your bottom line.

When starting an SEO program, it’s important to play a game you can win (by going after keywords you have a hope of ranking for in the short to medium term), but it’s also important you target keywords that will add value once you achieve high rankings.

The 3 Essential Criteria will help in your decision.

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