If you want to rank higher on search engines and attract more visitors to your website, you need to have SEO keyword strategies. A keyword strategy is a plan that outlines the keywords that you want to target with your content, how to research them, and how to use them effectively on your website.

A keyword strategy is not just a list of words that you think are relevant to your topic. It is a comprehensive and holistic approach that considers your audience, your goals, your competitors, and your niche. A keyword strategy helps you to create content that matches the search intent of your potential customers, and that provides value and solutions to their problems.

Remember Keyword Strategy is next step after keyword research, if you don’t know anything about keyword research we recommend you to read – SEO Keyword Research: What, How and Why

In this blog post, we will explain what a keyword strategy is, why you need one, and how to create one for your website. We will also share some tips and tools that can help you with your keyword research and optimization.

What is a Keyword Strategy?

A keyword strategy is a document that contains every decision you make based on the keywords you want to rank for, both now and in the future. It includes:

• The main keywords that describe your website’s topic, products, or services.
• The long-tail keywords that are more specific and less competitive than the main keywords.
• The semantic keywords that are related to the main and long-tail keywords, and that help Google understand the context and meaning of your content.
• The negative keywords that are irrelevant or harmful to your website, and that you want to exclude from your campaigns.
• The keyword research methods and tools that you use to find and analyse the best keywords for your website.
• The keyword mapping process that assigns the keywords to the relevant pages and sections of your website.
• The keyword optimization techniques that you apply to your content, titles, meta descriptions, URLs, headings, images, links, and other elements of your website.
• The keyword tracking and analysis tools that you use to measure the performance and effectiveness of your keyword strategy.

A SEO keyword strategy is not a one-time task. It is an ongoing process that requires regular updates and revisions based on the changes in the market, the search behaviour of your audience, and the algorithm updates of Google.

Why Do You Need a Keyword Strategy?

Keyword strategy is essential for any website that wants to achieve online success. Here are some of the benefits of having a keyword strategies:

• It helps you to understand your audience better. By researching the keywords that they use to search for information, products, or services related to your niche, you can learn more about their needs, preferences, pain points, and expectations. This can help you to create content that resonates with them and converts them into loyal customers.
• It helps you to stand out from the competition. By finding and targeting the keywords that have high search volume but low competition, you can rank higher on search engines and drive more organic traffic to your website. You can also identify the gaps and opportunities in the market that your competitors are missing or ignoring, and use them to your advantage.
• It helps you to optimize your website for SEO. By using the keywords strategically on your website, you can improve its relevance, authority, and user experience. This can boost your rankings on search engines and increase your visibility and credibility online.
• It helps you to achieve your goals. By aligning your keyword strategy with your business objectives, you can create content that supports your marketing funnel and guides your visitors through their journey from awareness to action. You can also track and measure the results of your SEO keyword strategy and adjust it accordingly to maximise its impact.

How to Create a Keyword Strategy for Your Website

Creating a keyword strategy for your website involves four main steps:

• Define Your Goals
• Research Your Keywords
• Map Your Keywords
• Optimize Your Keywords

Let’s look at each step in more detail.

1. Define Your Goals

The first step of creating a keyword strategy is to define what you want to achieve with your website. Your goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Some examples of SMART goals are:

•  Increase organic traffic by 50% in six months.

•  Generate 100 leads per month from SEO.

•  Boost conversions by 10% in three months.

•  Reduce bounce rate by 15% in one month.

Your goals should also be aligned with your business objectives and target audience. For example, if you are selling shoes online, your goal might be to increase sales by 20% in one year. To achieve this goal, you need to know who your ideal customers are, what kind of shoes they are looking for, what problems they have with their current shoes, what motivates them to buy new shoes, etc.

Once you have defined your goals, you can use them as a guide for your keyword research and optimization.

2. Research Your Keywords

The second step of creating a keyword strategy is to research the keywords that are relevant to your website, your goals, and your audience. There are many methods and tools that you can use to find and analyze the best keywords for your website, such as:

Brainstorming

You can start by brainstorming the main keywords that describe your website’s topic, products, or services. For example, if you are selling shoes online, some of the main keywords might be: shoes, sneakers, boots, sandals, etc. You can also ask yourself some questions to generate more ideas, such as: What are the benefits of your products or services? What are the features of your products or services? What are the problems that your products or services solve? What are the common questions that your customers have?

Keyword Tools 

You can use keyword tools to expand your list of keywords and find more variations, synonyms, and related terms. Some of the popular keyword tools are: Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, Moz Keyword Explorer, SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, etc. These tools can help you to find the search volume, competition, difficulty, and trends of the keywords. They can also suggest long-tail keywords that are more specific and less competitive than the main keywords.

Read more – Top 10 Free Keyword Research Tools

Competitor Analysis 

You can also research the keywords that your competitors are ranking for and using on their websites. This can help you to discover new opportunities and gaps in the market that you can exploit. You can use tools like SEMrush Domain Overview, Ahrefs Site Explorer, Moz Link Explorer, etc. to find and analyze the keywords of your competitors.

Read more – 5 Step Expert’s Process To Find Competitor’s Keywords

Semantic Analysis 

You can also research the semantic keywords that are related to your main and long-tail keywords. Semantic keywords are words or phrases that have a similar meaning or context to your keywords. They help Google to understand the topic and intent of your content better. For example, if your main keyword is “shoes”, some of the semantic keywords might be: footwear, trainers, heels, flats, etc. You can use tools like LSIGraph, AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked.com, etc. to find and generate semantic keywords.

After researching your keywords, you have a list of potential keywords that you can use for your website. However, not all of them will be suitable or effective for your website. You need to filter and prioritize them based on some criteria, such as:

Relevance 

The keywords should be relevant to your website’s topic, products, or services. They should also match the search intent of your audience. Search intent is the goal or purpose behind a search query. There are four main types of search intent: informational (the user wants to learn something), navigational (the user wants to find a specific website), transactional (the user wants to buy something), and commercial (the user wants to compare different options before buying). For example, if your goal is to sell shoes online, you should focus on the keywords that have a transactional or commercial intent, such as “buy shoes online”, “best shoes for running”, “shoes discount code”, etc.

Volume

The keywords should have a high enough search volume to drive enough traffic to your website. Search volume is the average number of times a keyword is searched per month. However, you should not rely on search volume alone. Sometimes, a keyword with a low search volume might have a high conversion rate or a high value for your business. For example, if you are selling shoes online, a keyword like “red leather shoes size 9” might have a low search volume but a high conversion rate because it is very specific and indicates a strong purchase intent.

Competition

The keywords should have a low enough competition level to rank higher on search engines. Competition level is the difficulty or effort required to rank for a keyword. It is influenced by factors such as the number and quality of other websites that are targeting the same keyword, the authority and popularity of those websites, the relevance and optimization of their content, etc. You can use tools like Moz Keyword Difficulty Score, SEMrush Keyword Difficulty Score,

Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Score etc to estimate the competition level of a keyword.

You can also use Google Search to see how many results are returned for a keyword and who are your main competitors.

Value 

The keywords should have a high enough value for your business to achieve your goals. Value is the potential return or profit that you can get from ranking for a keyword. It is influenced by factors such as the

• conversion rate
• the customer lifetime value
• the average order value, etc.

You can use tools like Google Analytics,

• Google Search Console
• SEMrush Traffic Analytics, etc.

to measure the value of your keywords. You should aim to find and target the keywords that have a high relevance,

Volume, Value, and low competition. These are the keywords that can bring you the most traffic, conversions, and revenue for your website.

3. Map Your Keywords

The third step of creating a keyword strategy is to map your keywords to the relevant pages and sections of your website. Keyword mapping is the process of assigning the keywords to the content that you want to create or optimize for your website.

Keyword mapping helps you to:

• Organise your keywords and content in a logical and structured way.
• Avoid keyword cannibalization, which is when two or more pages of your website compete for the same keyword and dilute each other’s ranking potential.
• Create a clear and consistent user journey and navigation for your website.
• Optimize your content for SEO and user experience.

To map your keywords, you need to:

Create a list of all the pages and sections of your website, such as the homepage, the product pages, the blog posts, the landing pages, etc.

Categorise your keywords into groups based on their topic, intent, and similarity. For example, if you are selling shoes online, you might have groups like: shoes, sneakers, boots, sandals, etc.

Assign one main keyword and several secondary keywords to each page or section of your website. The main keyword should be the most relevant and important keyword for that page or section. The secondary keywords should be the variations, synonyms, or related terms of the main keyword. For example, if you have a product page for sneakers, you might assign “sneakers” as the main keyword and “trainers”, “running shoes”, “athletic shoes”, etc. as the secondary keywords.

Create a spreadsheet or a document that shows the keyword mapping for your website. You can use tools like Google Sheets, Excel, Word, etc. to create and manage your keyword mapping.

Here is an example of a keyword mapping for a website that sells shoes online:

Page	Main Keyword	Secondary Keywords
Homepage	shoes	footwear, shoe store, shoe shop
Product Category Page: Sneakers	sneakers	trainers, running shoes, athletic shoes
Product Category Page: Boots	boots	ankle boots, knee-high boots, winter boots
Product Category Page: Sandals	sandals	flip-flops, slides, wedges
Product Page: Nike Air Max 90	Nike Air Max 90	Nike sneakers, Air Max 90 shoes, Nike Air Max 90 review
Product Page: Timberland Classic 6 Inch Boot	Timberland Classic 6 Inch Boot	Timberland boots, Classic 6 Inch Boot, Timberland Classic 6 Inch Boot review
Product Page: Birkenstock Arizona Sandal	Birkenstock Arizona Sandal	Birkenstock sandals, Arizona Sandal, Birkenstock Arizona Sandal review

Landing Page:

Get 10% Off Your First Order |get 10% off your first order|shoe discount code, shoe coupon code, shoe deal|

4. Optimize Your Keywords

The fourth and final step of creating a keyword strategy is to optimize your keywords on your website. Keyword optimization is the process of using the keywords strategically on your website’s content,

• Titles
• Meta Descriptions
• Url
• Headings
• Images
• Links

Keyword optimisation helps you to:

•  Improve the relevance and quality of your content for both search engines and users.

•  Increase the authority and popularity of your website online.

•  Enhance the user experience and engagement on your website.

•  Boost your rankings on search engines and drive more organic traffic to your website.

To optimize your keywords, you need to:

•  Use the main keyword in the title tag of each page or section of your website. The title tag is the clickable headline that appears on search engine results pages (SERPs). It should be concise, clear, catchy, and include the main keyword as close to the beginning as possible.

For example,

if you have a product page for Nike Air Max 90, you might use this title tag:

“Nike Air Max 90 – Buy Online at your Brand Name”

Use the main keyword and the secondary keywords in the image alt text of each page or section of your website. The image alt text is the text that describes what an image is about. It helps search engines and users who cannot see or load the images to understand their content and purpose. It should be descriptive, accurate, and include the keywords that are relevant to the image and the page.

For example,

if you have an image of Nike Air Max 90 on your product page, you might use this image alt text:

“Nike Air Max 90 sneakers in white color with red details”

Use the main keyword and the secondary keywords in the internal links of each page or section of your website. Internal links are links that connect one page or section of your website to another page or section of your website. They help search engines and users to navigate your website easily and to discover more relevant content. They should be descriptive, Relevant, and include the keywords that describe the destination page or section. 

For example,

• If you have a blog post about how to choose the right shoes for your feet, you might use these internal links:
• If you are looking for shoes that offer comfort, style, and performance, check out our collection of sneakers.
• If you are looking for shoes that are suitable for winter, check out our collection of boots.
• If you are looking for shoes that are perfect for summer, check out our collection of sandals.

Conclusion

Creating a keyword strategy for your website is not a difficult task, but it requires some planning, research, and optimization. A keyword strategy can help you to attract more visitors to your website, to provide them with valuable and relevant content, and to convert them into loyal customers.

If you follow the steps that we have outlined in this blog post, you will be able to create a keyword strategy that works for your website, your goals, and your audience. You will also be able to rank higher on search engines and beat your competitors.

However, if you feel overwhelmed or confused by the process of creating a keyword strategy, you don’t have to do it alone. You can always rely on us at Web Zodiac. We are a team of professionals who can help you with everything related to keyword strategy, from keyword research to keyword optimization.

We have the experience, the skills, and the tools to help you create keyword strategies that will boost your online presence and performance. We can also help you with other aspects of your website, such as web design and development, content marketing, SEO services, and more.

So, what are you waiting for? Contact us today and let us help you create keyword strategies that will take your website to the next level.