How to find and add keywords to your website (2024)

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SEO Services, DIY SEO

UPDATE: This keyword article was first published on 1 November 2018 and updated 27 July 2022.

Many business owners are told that they need to use keywords on their websites to improve their organic search engine ranking. Unfortunately, some either don’t know why this is important or don’t know how to do it to get the rankingsthat will bring in customers naturally.

In this article, we’re going to define what keywords are. Then I’ll show you how to select keywords and add them to your site in a way that doesn’t seem forced.

First do keyword research

How to find and add keywords to your website (1)

Let’s start by making sure we are on the same page with our definition of keywords.

The easiest way to think of them is that they are the words and phrases your prospective clients type into a search engine such as Google or Bing as they’re trying to find businesses like yours. If you want your website to show up when they search, you’ll need to add these words and phrases to your website.

Search engines match what people are searching for with websites that contain those terms.

The first step is to identify the keywords that you can use to improve your search ranking. You should know that most people don’t look beyond Page 1 of search listings, so that’s where your business needs to appear. Page 2 or 3 just won’t cut it.

Using keyword tools

To start the keyword process, grab the URLs — https://ca.godaddy.com for example — of your competitors and paste them into SEMrush.

The goal here is to find the most popular pages on your competitors’ websites — in other words, the pages that get the most visitors. Especially if they’ve been at this for a bit, they’ve probably picked keywords that are working well, so we can piggyback off their keyword research.

How to find and add keywords to your website (2)

Next, take those same URLs and put them in Ahrefsto see how many links each of these pages have. Link-building is hard, so by finding out which one of your competitors’ pages have the fewest links, you know where to start your efforts. The keywords used on these pages are ones your competitors are leaving open.

If you start out by going after their highest-ranking pages with many inbound links, it’s like planning to run a marathon with no preparation.

By starting with the pages your competitors are not focused on, you can build your organic search authority.

Another great tool is Google Search Console. This tool will give you a report on all the keywords that your website is currently ranking for — right down to where you appear in the search results. As long as these keywords are in the area you’re trying to grow, keep putting effort into increasing your ranking for them. If you haven’t already added these words to the page elements listed below, do it now.

It’s so much easier to raise your ranking for a page that is already on Page 1 of search results than to take a page from page 10 and get it on Page 1.

Editor’s note: No time to do keyword research and optimisation yourself? Let the experts at GoDaddy do it for you. 80% of clients who follow their advice achieve Page 1 rankings within six months.

How to add keywords to your site

How to find and add keywords to your website (3)

Once you have some keywords chosen, it’s time to add them to the individual pages on your site. If your keyword is “industrial electrician” then you should add this to:

  • The page headline and title tag.
  • The first paragraph of text on the page.
  • One subhead.
  • The body text (roughly once for every 100 words).
  • The page URL (e.g. https://www.gov.mb.ca/wd/apprenticeship/discover/mbtrades/industrialelect.html).
  • Meta descriptions.

When you add images to your site, you should make sure that the ALT text for them contain your keywords. A content management system like WordPress makes this easy by providing a place to add ALT text for every image you add to the site.

Making audio and video files visible to search engines

For any content that is not text-based, it’s essential to include a text version.

Text is the only thing that a search engine can ‘read’ as it looks at your website.

If you have a bunch of audio on your website and no text to go alongside it, the content is invisible to search engines.

Likewise, if you videos on your site, make sure that you provide a text-based summary of the material. Include the keywords and phrases that pertain to the video in the summary, so it shows up in search results. Remember, if your content is not text-based, then you have no content unless you add some text to it for search engines to read.

How to write keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions

As mentioned above, it’s not enough for you to find good keywords for your website. You have to add them to your:

  • Website titles
  • On-page content
  • Meta descriptions

The next time Google crawls your website, it will make note of the keywords and (hopefully) start sending people looking for those topics to your website.

If you want to get more mileage out of your keywords, here are some tips:

  • Use primary keywords in your titles and URL slug – The title of your article or page should use the same keyword as the URL for the page. This will immediately tell search engines what the page is about and allow thesearch engines to index your new web page properly.
  • Always use secondary keywords in the H2 and H3 titles – Headlines on web pages come in different sizes, with the H1 size reserved for the main headline. When you’re writing the H2 and H3 titles — the secondary and tertiary headlines — always ensure that you’re adding additional keywords to these titles. Search engines will scan the H2 and H3 titles for more information about the page and pick up any keywords they find.
  • Use keyword phrases throughout your on-page content – As you’re writing the text for your page, try to add the keywords naturally. For example, if you were creating a page about ‘shoes for running,’ you could use a sentence like “Here’s our top 10 list of the best shoes for running.” When the search engines next crawl your website, they’ll add these words to their list for your site.
  • Always write your keywords near the top of the page – As you’re writing the text for your page, always make sure that you write your primary keyword within the first 200 words on the page. This will ensure that the search engine will see your primary keywords during its initial crawl of your page, allowing your website to rank quickly for the primary keywords.
  • Avoid being spammy and keyword stuffing – While you want your website to rank for the keywords that you’ve placed on the web page, you don’t want to overdo it. Search engines hate when website owners add too many of the same keywords to their website (keyword stuffing) to manipulate the search engines into ranking their website high.

Beef up your content

One effective way to build authority for your keywords is to create more content with those words in it.

As you get questions from your customers, answer them by adding frequently asked questions (FAQs) or blog posts to your site. Be sure to work the keywords you’re trying to rank for into the text. Choosing to leverage the questions of your customers can be a great content strategy— one that works for both customers and search engines.

I tell my clients that if they get a question three times, they need to write about it so they start to show up in organic search results for that topic.

Answering the question can also head off customer support requests because they can find the answer themselves.

If you’re using GoDaddy’s Website Builder, it will review your site and optimize it for easy scanning by search engines. Plus it makes adding a blogto your site as easy as a few clicks.

Related: Learn how to blog in 5 simple steps

Bring in more leads through your website

Search engines and organic search rankings provide an excellent channel for your business to bring in customers. ByHow to find and add keywords to your website (4) spending some time looking at your competitors and finding the green fields of keywords that they aren’t effectively targeting, you can build a strategy to start bringing in new clients.

By spending just a bit of extra time as you create content — articles, blog posts, videos — you can ensure that all are working as hard for you as they can. Adding a bit of extra text that includes your keywords to your site will help you with your search rankings. Going back to older content that’s ranking well and adding your new keywords to it will help lend authority to your site.

Keyword research and development doesn’t take a huge effort. A bit of work consistently on your keywords will reap rewards for your business over the long term.

Leighton Burley contributed to this post.

Finding keywords for your website – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

In this section, we’ll answer some of the FAQs about finding keywords and adding those keywords to your website.

Here are some of the top FAQs about website keywords:

What are keywords in SEO?

Keywords are the words and phrases people use when looking online for a particular website, service, news article or product. It’s important to use keywords on your website because it allows your website to show up for relevant search queries.

For example, if you were looking to purchase a pair of shoes, you may use a term like “men’s shoes” or “women’s shoe size 8” in an attempt to find the product that you’re looking to purchase.

If you were looking to find a local business to build a deck, you might use a term like “deck builder near me” or “construction company” to find a business that can solve your problem.

What are the types of keywords?

In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), there are nine types of keywords that you can use for your website. These types of keywords are:

Each of these types of keywords has its own strengths and weaknesses and can enhance your SEO efforts when used correctly.

Related: Local SEO for Canadian businesses

What are short-tail keywords?

The term ‘short-tail keywords’ refers to the use of a very broad keyword and doesn’t consist of more than three words used to create the keyword. Short-tail keywords are quite broad, so there’s a lot of search volume, making them popular to target.

For example, if you’re looking to purchase shoes, you may use a short-tail keyword such as ‘brown shoes’ or ‘men’s leather shoes’ to find a pair of shoes you are willing to purchase.

What are long-tail keywords?

The term ‘long-tail keywords’ refers to keywords that use three or more words to specify what the user is searching for.

The long-tail keywords often have less search traffic because they are very specific, but they’ll have a higher conversion rate because the user knows what they’re looking for.

For example, if you’re looking to purchase shoes, you may type in a long-tail search term such as “men’s leather shoes size 11,” or ‘women’s high heels size 8,” or “best shoes for running long distances.”

As you can see, the user knows exactly what they’re searching for when they use long-tail keywords and are more likely to buy when they find the product or service they’re searching for.

What are good keywords?

You’ll need to target good keywords to compete in the online world. The best keywords to target for your website will be based on several factors such as:

  • Search volume
  • Relevance
  • Competition
  • Domain authority

When you’re finding keywords to target, you’ll want to ensure that the keywords have high search volume; otherwise, you won’t get much website traffic once your website ranks for the search term.

A keyword with 1000-10,000 in monthly traffic is a good bet if you are hoping to attract organic (free) traffic. Anything above that is likely to require paid ads to be successful.

Once you’ve found search terms with adequate search volume, you’ll want to ensure that the search terms are relevant to your website. If the search terms are irrelevant to your website, you’ll have a hard time ranking for those search terms and have a low conversion rate from the website traffic that comes from those keywords.

After you’ve found relevant keywords with search volume, you’ll need to analyze how difficult it is to rank for those keywords. If your competitors are already ranking for those search terms, you’ll need to ensure that your website has good domain authority (DA) so you can compete for the exact keywords.

Domain authority is a search engine score used to determine how powerful a website is and how likely it is for that website to rank for a given search term. You’ll want to ensure that your website has similar or higher domain authority to your competition if you’re going to outrank their website for keywords they rank for.

When you’re searching for good keywords for your website, always eliminate keywords that:

  • Have no search volume
  • Are irrelevant to your website

You can target difficult keywords to rank for, as long as you continue to build your website’s domain authority so that one day you can rank for those keywords.

What is search ranking, and why is it important?

Search ranking refers to a website’s position within the Search Engine’s Results Page (SERPs). You’ll need to focus on many factors if you want your website to rank higher on SERPs.

Your website needs to rank higher on SERPs because it will gain more visibility and increase website traffic from ranking higher on SERPs. With the increased traffic, you’ll have a higher chance of converting website traffic into customers for your products, services or organization.

What is organic search?

Organic search refers to website traffic that comes through unpaid search results. The search results positions cannot be purchased like pay-per-click (PPC) ads (these are the listings tagged with the word “AD”).

Organic search traffic is also one of the sources of website traffic that marketers focus on because once you succeed, you’ll get long-term traffic that is genuinely interested in your website and what you offer.

Image by:Ayrus Hill on Unsplash

How to find and add keywords to your website (2024)

FAQs

How do I find the right keywords for my website? ›

Here's how to do it in four simple steps:
  1. Find keywords with search traffic potential.
  2. Make sure you create content that aligns with search intent.
  3. Make sure the keyword has “business potential”
  4. Make sure you can rank for the keyword.
4 Nov 2021

What is the easiest way to find keywords? ›

How to Find Easy Keywords That You Can Actually Rank For: A Guide for Startups and Small Businesses
  1. Step 1: Set Your Goals. ...
  2. Step 2: Decide Which Topics to Focus On. ...
  3. Step 3: Find Keywords with Search Volume. ...
  4. Step 4: Assess the Competition to Find Easy to Rank Keywords. ...
  5. Step 5: Consider User Intent. ...
  6. Step 6: Content Clusters.
15 Jun 2021

How do you come up with keywords? ›

5 tips for Helping You Choose the right keywords
  1. Think like a customer. Identify your target audience and put yourself into the shoes of a customer when you create your initial list of keywords. ...
  2. Study the competition. ...
  3. Understand the long tail keyword. ...
  4. Use keyword research tools. ...
  5. Analyze the results.

What is keywords example? ›

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they're looking for. For example, if you were looking to buy a new jacket, you might type something like “mens leather jacket” into Google. Even though that phrase consists of more than one word, it's still a keyword.

What are website keywords? ›

A keyword, or a focus keyword as some call it, is a word that describes the content on your page or post best. It's the search term that you want to rank for with a certain page. So when people search for that keyword or phrase in Google or other search engines, they should find that page on your website.

What are the 4 types of keywords? ›

When researching to discover a user's intentions behind making a search, we can classify all keywords into four main categories of intent: commercial, transactional, informational, and navigational. We're going to identify what these types are with a short breakdown of each type.

How difficult is keyword search? ›

That is why, to calculate Keyword Difficulty, we analyze the search results for a keyword and look at the number of referring domains the top 10 ranking pages have. In simple terms, the more referring domains across the top ranking pages, the higher the Keyword Difficulty.

How do Beginners find low competition keywords? ›

Use the Google Search bar to find keywords

The goal: find low competition keywords that are relevant to the product or page I'm trying to promote at that point in time. Once I find them, I write blog posts about these keywords and link back to the target pages from the blog posts.

What is a keyword strategy? ›

A keyword strategy contains every decision you take based upon your findings in your keyword research project, whether it's about the content you're planning to write or how you are going to track the results in Analytics. Keyword strategy is about how you want to target those keywords, now and in the future.

Which keywords are best to target in SEO? ›

Long tail keywords are long (usually 4+ word) terms that searchers use in Google and other search engines. And they tend to have a lower keyword difficulty compared to 1-3 word “head terms”. So for people that are new to SEO, long tails are usually the best keywords to start with.

How do I find my niche keywords? ›

1- Google Trends

Google Trends is a free service offered by Google that can help you find niche keywords related to your business or area of interest. The main advantage of using Google Trends is the huge amount of data it has - over time, it gathers billions of search queries from all around the world.

Where do I find SEO keywords? ›

Using WordStream for SEO Keyword Research

The Free Keyword Tool is primarily a tool used for finding and analyzing PPC keywords. That said, many of our customers and readers use the Free Keyword Tool for SEO keyword research as well.

How do I research keywords for free? ›

The best free keyword research tools in 2022
  1. Moz Keyword Explorer for the best all-around free SEO keyword research tool.
  2. Google Keyword Planner for researching paid keywords.
  3. Semrush for advanced SEO professionals.
  4. QuestionDB for finding question-based keywords.
  5. Jaaxy for affiliate marketers.
10 Jul 2022

How can I do SEO for free? ›

Best free on-page optimization tools
  1. Rank Math Plugin. Rank Math is a WordPress plugin that helps you optimize your website content. ...
  2. Yoast SEO Plugin. ...
  3. Google Trends. ...
  4. Ahrefs Keyword Generator. ...
  5. Ubersuggest. ...
  6. Google Search Console. ...
  7. Bing Webmaster Tools. ...
  8. Google Analytics.
22 Dec 2020

How many keywords can I use for my website? ›

It's easier for pages to rank if they focus on one topic, so you should focus on two or three primary keywords per page that are reworded variations. Targeting four or more keywords is difficult because there is limited space in the title and meta description tags to target them.

Can a keyword be two words? ›

2. Keywords should ideally be phrases of 2-4 words; single word keywords are acceptable, but they may lead to many false matches. 3. Keywords should contain words and phrases that suggest what the topic is about.

How do keywords help SEO? ›

SEO keywords range from single words to complex phrases and are used to inform website content to increase relevant organic search traffic. Your audience uses them when searching for something related to your brand.

What are SEO keywords? ›

In terms of SEO, they're the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called "search queries." If you boil everything on your page — all the images, video, copy, etc. — down to simple words and phrases, those are your primary keywords.

Do keywords still matter for SEO? ›

In 2021, keywords are still important and useful in SEO, but they aren't the most important factor. This is because SEO is far more complex than putting keywords on a page. Also, because SEO is always changing with search engines continuously updating algorithms, marketers need to change how they are using keywords.

Why is keyword important? ›

Keywords are important because they tell search engines about the content of your website's page. “Keyword” is also a term that's used to refer to the words and phrases that people enter into a search engine to find information that they're looking for.

How do you grow SEO organically? ›

10 Tips to Increase Your Organic Page Ranking
  1. Check your current search ranking. ...
  2. Define a keyword list. ...
  3. Optimise pages for personas first, search engines second. ...
  4. Quality copy always wins. ...
  5. Create cornerstone pages. ...
  6. Optimize those page titles. ...
  7. Spruce up your meta descriptions. ...
  8. Use your ALT tags wisely.
11 Nov 2019

How do I find organic keywords? ›

How to Find Organic Keywords. Google Analytics is a way to find organic keywords that drive traffic to your website. Google Search Console is another way to find organic keywords your site is ranking for, the number of impressions each keyword receives, the click-through rate, and the average ranking position.

How much does it cost to do SEO? ›

Average SEO costs are $100-$250 an hour for US SEO agencies. SEO costs often range from $2,500 – $10,000 per month for US agencies. The average SEO plan costs $2819 per month (per Ahrefs) Overseas SEO companies may charge $10-$50 an hour.

What are three principles of SEO? ›

7 SEO Principles Bloggers Must Remember
  • Make sure your pages link to each other so your link equity is spread out. ...
  • Flatten your blog. ...
  • Nofollow links to sites with which you don't want/need to share link equity. ...
  • Noindex pages that must be on your site, but do not need to rank. ...
  • Delete old articles that don't rank.

What kind of keywords should I use? ›

Determining what keywords you should use is all about finding a balance between: Keywords related to your business, products, and services. Keywords your audience searches most online. Keywords with maximum ranking and conversion potential.

What is a high value keyword? ›

High Value Keywords

Some keywords have high commercial intent, meaning that they are more likely to drive a purchase. As an example, you can see here that the keyword “personal injury lawyer” has an estimated CPC value of $110! That means advertisers are willing to pay $110 every time someone clicks their ad.

What is a good SEO difficulty? ›

KDS Between 30% and 70% - Moderate Difficulty Keywords

These will usually have good search volumes (hence the difficulty), but not so much competition that it's not feasible. Thus, these are your best best when it comes to selecting the right keywords as you have a realistic chance to compete for these.

What is paid difficulty in SEO? ›

Paid difficulty score - Google Keyword Competition

It measures how much competition there is for ads targeting a particular search term. When people are paying for ads, it means the keyword is worth money to people and could indicate more competition in organic search too.

Which word is most searched on Google? ›

Top Searched Keywords: Lists of the Most Popular Google Search Terms across Categories
Most Searched Words on Google
RankKeywordSearch Volume
1Facebook2,147,483,647
2Youtube1,680,000,000
3Google923,000,000
8 more rows

Where can I find high ranking keywords? ›

To find ranking keywords for your site or a competitors site using Keyword Explorer, follow these steps:
  1. Type in your website URL into Keyword Explorer.
  2. Select the country where you audience is based.
  3. Click the Analyze button.
  4. You'll see Top Ranking Keywords.
  5. Click Ranking Keywords on the left panel to view more keywords.

Which keywords have more traffic? ›

When looking for the best SEO keywords that will provide you with the most traffic, it's best to use long tail keywords. This is because short tail keywords target a mass audience while long tail keywords target a niche demographic.

Where do I find SEO keywords? ›

8 free keyword research tools for SEO (that beat their paid...
  • Rank Tracker. To find the most ample list of keyword variations and analyze their SEO profitability. ...
  • Google Search Console. ...
  • Google Ads Keyword Planner. ...
  • AnswerThePublic. ...
  • Keyword Tool Dominator. ...
  • Google Trends. ...
  • Google Correlate. ...
  • Keywords Everywhere.
18 Jun 2019

How many keywords should I use for SEO? ›

It's easier for pages to rank if they focus on one topic, so you should focus on two or three primary keywords per page that are reworded variations. Targeting four or more keywords is difficult because there is limited space in the title and meta description tags to target them.

What is keywords example? ›

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they're looking for. For example, if you were looking to buy a new jacket, you might type something like “mens leather jacket” into Google. Even though that phrase consists of more than one word, it's still a keyword.

What are SEO keywords? ›

In terms of SEO, they're the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called "search queries." If you boil everything on your page — all the images, video, copy, etc. — down to simple words and phrases, those are your primary keywords.

What are the 4 types of keywords? ›

When researching to discover a user's intentions behind making a search, we can classify all keywords into four main categories of intent: commercial, transactional, informational, and navigational. We're going to identify what these types are with a short breakdown of each type.

How do I find my niche keywords? ›

1- Google Trends

Google Trends is a free service offered by Google that can help you find niche keywords related to your business or area of interest. The main advantage of using Google Trends is the huge amount of data it has - over time, it gathers billions of search queries from all around the world.

Which keywords are best to target in SEO? ›

Long tail keywords are long (usually 4+ word) terms that searchers use in Google and other search engines. And they tend to have a lower keyword difficulty compared to 1-3 word “head terms”. So for people that are new to SEO, long tails are usually the best keywords to start with.

How do I increase organic keywords? ›

10 Tips to Increase Your Organic Page Ranking
  1. Check your current search ranking. ...
  2. Define a keyword list. ...
  3. Optimise pages for personas first, search engines second. ...
  4. Quality copy always wins. ...
  5. Create cornerstone pages. ...
  6. Optimize those page titles. ...
  7. Spruce up your meta descriptions. ...
  8. Use your ALT tags wisely.
11 Nov 2019

How many times should I use a keyword? ›

Generally speaking, many SEO professionals agree that a keyword should not appear more than once per 200 words of copy. This means that for every 200 words of copy on a webpage, a given keyword should not appear more than once.

What is the best keyword density? ›

What is good keyword density? While there are no hard and fast rules for keyword density beyond always-relevant "don't keyword stuff" advice, many SEOs recommend using approximately 1-2 keyword for every 100 words of copy. That factors in to about 1-2% keyword density.

What are keywords for a website? ›

A keyword, or a focus keyword as some call it, is a word that describes the content on your page or post best. It's the search term that you want to rank for with a certain page. So when people search for that keyword or phrase in Google or other search engines, they should find that page on your website.

Can a keyword be two words? ›

2. Keywords should ideally be phrases of 2-4 words; single word keywords are acceptable, but they may lead to many false matches. 3. Keywords should contain words and phrases that suggest what the topic is about.

How do keywords help SEO? ›

SEO keywords range from single words to complex phrases and are used to inform website content to increase relevant organic search traffic. Your audience uses them when searching for something related to your brand.

What are the most popular keywords? ›

The winner of most popular keyword is Facebook, with over 1,102,800,000 searches per month. This is closely followed by YouTube, Amazon, and the weather, or "weather" for short.

How do I do keyword research for free? ›

Free keyword research tools
  1. Keyword Surfer.
  2. AnswerThePublic.
  3. Keyword Sheeter.
  4. Keyworddit.
  5. QuestionDB.
  6. Ahrefs Keyword Generator.
  7. SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool.
  8. Ubersuggest.

How SEO works step by step? ›

To understand the process you have to create a plan, have a strategy, and know all the steps in the process.
  1. Audit. The Process. ...
  2. Technical SEO. The Process. ...
  3. Keyword Research. The Process. ...
  4. Location Demographics. The Process. ...
  5. Content Strategy. The Process. ...
  6. Content Writing & Editing. The Process. ...
  7. Ranking. The Process.
21 Apr 2022

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