Can you give me a good checklist of keyword SEO techniques for beginners?

Yes, I can help you with the basic checklist of keyword SEO techniques, backed with some simple ideas and practical suggestions that would help novice webmasters or online business owners get well-optimized for the right keywords via handling proper in-depth keyword research. 

But before anything else, why having a solid list of SEO techniques (or at least a couple of use-proven approaches to researching keywords) is that important? Simply because identifying the right set of the main target keywords and their long-tail expressions – is the first stem in the Search Engine Optimization. And it all starts with determining exactly what you’re going to optimize for with your content, right? In other words, locating the search terms people are searching for more frequently – is the first thing to be done for your website or blog to make it rank well in the major search engines (like Google itself). Yes, it may sound quite simple. But, unfortunately, that is not the case in many respects. Anyway, I believe that the following short list of SEO techniques and practical tips to potentially winning keyword research would be useful for all beginners who have just started learning a really comprehensive study of the Search Engine Optimization. That being said, let’s delve.

Checklist of Keyword SEO Techniques and Simple Ideas to Get Started

Before anything else, we are going to start with locating the best of your potentially winning main target keywords and long-tail search terms to start optimizing for. To gauge their estimated efficiency in the relevant online search and take only must-winning ones you will want to target with your own website or blog, you will need to measure the primary factors of their performance. Ultimately, to keep everything that looks top of the line, and leave behind the rest of probably not so promising keyword options. And here are the major key factors and a short list of keyword SEO techniques to be considered when determining what you’re actually going to optimize for. So, you should take into account at least these three core factors when preparing your preliminary set of the main target keywords:

• Search Volume. It’s the first factor for you to consider when deciding what keywords need to be taken into account first and foremost. Basically, search volume can show whether people are actually using a given word for their request queries, and if so, how popular it’s currently seen among the whole potential audience you want to reach with your website or blog. In other words, the more people are searching for that word or its longer expression – the wider audience is available for your content to be found directly from Google’s organic search results.
• Competition. No need to say that when a keyword has been already used by the whole related searching community for years, it would always be really hard (if not impossible at all) for any new website or blog to plug in with it. From the viewpoint of SEO, the factor of keyword competition can help you estimate how difficult it will be to rank for a specific search term considering its current search volume, therefore measuring the very likelihood of its ranking success, as well as estimated cost of the further online promotion, for example, via PPC ads.

• Keyword Relevance. It may seem like a no-brainer, but if a given word or, for example, a specific industry-related term is frequently searched by the live users – that can be already called sufficiently relevant. Indeed, the keyword relevance itself may seem to be a quite straightforward quality, at least at first glance. Nevertheless, the thing is that sometimes it wouldn’t be purely relevant to your individual case and unique conditions around your newly launched website or blog. Put simply, how would you know that a potentially winning keyword would be completely relevant to your own prospects? So, you should be particularly cautious when estimating the relevance of each keyword you want to have on your pages – as there is actually no precise tool, checklist, or SEO techniques to measure this fully intuitive property. For example, a lot of seemingly great keyword-based descriptions will prove to be failing after all – simply because this term can prove to be very competitive, particularly in the longer run. Or, say, it has been already too much exploited by lots of companies or multitargeted businesses – that actually have no interest in your definitely narrower market niche, industry sector, or subject discussion you’re currently dealing with. Conversely, a given set of potential keyword options that look irrelevant to you (or even those, which seem to be completely unrelated) – might as well prove to become a great “first-touch” solution for starting a good relationship with your potential clients. Sometimes prospecting some secondary search terms beside the point can give you a good source of valuable insight on evaluating the actual efficiency of your pay-per-click advertising campaigns, or even taking the lead in your niche – you can simply begin optimizing a part of your content for a given keyword-based term with currently low search competition (otherwise, a so-called “hidden keyword”), which will start gaining really much in popularity among the live users after all. That’s why I recommend paying enough attention to this seemingly straightforward factor of the keyword relevance – as for me, I would never completely refuse from any seemingly irrelevant candidacies. Better keep them shelved until you will be fully capable of handling further research in greater detail. That’s it.

List of SEO Techniques and Simple Tips to Understand Your Customers

Should you have any problems during prospecting your keyword opportunities, I recommend starting with some apparent inquiry – to understand where it would be better to start, both for your business, and in general terms of the Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing. Put simply, ask yourself some of the following:

• What types of products/services and related items are your potential customers interested in?
• What common needs/problems behind the search they may be looking for?
• What type of distinguishing vocabulary, unique glossary, or industry-related jargon they are using to describe/discuss/find specific things you’re dealing with your business website or blog?
• What other tangential topics/items (probably offered by your closest niche competitors) your potential customers would be interested in, along with your own genuine sphere of online performance?

Keyword Tools and Checklist of SEO Techniques to Complete Research

Once you passed through all those early preparatory stages, it’s finally time to get down to the actual in-depth keyword research after all. So, with the initial preliminary list of potentially winning keywords (otherwise, “seed keywords”) – it’s time to go the next level of prospecting your keyword opportunities. As for me, I would recommend you to use one of the following tools to help you generate additional keyword ideas (or point something worthy that you’ve probably missed before), in line with showing you the initial raw estimates for their search volume and current competition estimate. Here they are: 

• good old Google’s Keyword Planner Tool (or Google AdWords);
• really popular Uber Suggest tool with aged trust among digital marketers;
• performing online helper tool by WordStream or SEO-oriented framework by SEMRush;
• analytical and competitive research Keyword Tool by Semalt (otherwise, Semalt Analyzer).

And remember, you’re not limited to just those list of SEO tools and techniques I’ve already outlined before. And there are a lot of other good keyword research tools available in open access on the Internet – after all, the main idea here is simply to give you a clear initial step. Later on, you will certainly want to launch more comprehensive keyword research to build even more winning list of terms and dominate the search in your target niche. I mean that you should never hesitate to run some searches time to time – as there is always a good room for you to find strong long-tail search terms which are currently not too competitive, yet still fully attractive from the viewpoint of potential gains in their search volume.

Bottom Line

Of course, you are free to take experiment with different keyword research tools and the other analytical platforms to track your primary online metrics. But when checking what your most successful competitors are actually ranking for, I recommend using Semalt Analyzer anyway. To tell the truth, this really all-round and broad online framework has become my fave helper ever – I’m using it not only to check my own business blog pages and their current progress towards the top of relevant SERPs, but to prospect proximate opportunities of my standing strategy in the Search Engine Optimization and marketing promotion. But, most importantly, I found Semalt’s Website Analyzer to be even more benefiting, namely when it comes to quickly getting some fresh competitive insight – pulled directly from my closest niche competitor websites. That way, I can stay always informed about their best findings (i.e., to consider getting some of them employed for my own business website) and, of course, the worst failures of my market rivals to be avoided at all cost, or the list of their SEO techniques that seem to be not that performing, and therefore are worth putting on hold at least for the moment.