1. How to optimise

According to Samuel (2013) there are many ways to increase SEO via optimising keywords like researching consumers usage of keywords. Since the website-owner, may be using the wrong keywords, thus researching what keywords and associated keywords are used, will increase SEO. This can be done by Google Trend and Google Keywords Planner they provide associated, trends and data on keywords, which optimises keywords thus increasing SEO. (Samuel, 2013)

What to do:

• Research trends and keywords usage by Google Keywords Planner, Google Trends and WordTracker
• Follow Google’s Guidelines
• Keywords in meta description, title and H1-3.
• Optimise Meta tags

 Blog post with critical analysis on how to chose the right keywords. Read more.

Video by Ahrefs Digital Marketing expert with 46k subscribers. Demonstrating how to use Google Trends and finding  timeless keywords. 

2. What to avoid

Gudivada, Rao and Paris (2015) highlight the risk of overusing keywords, since that is seen as Spamdexing. Spamdexing refers to websites using unethical practice for high ranking like keyword-stuffing. Websites are using keywords in pages that are not relevant and overusing keywords which Google is fighting against with algorithms. However, SEO is getting harder, since algorithms are developing and becoming more complex such as Semantic Indexing that calculates the relevance of websites off the whole content and keywords. Thus, the risk of only focusing on optimising keywords will not ensure high ranking, keywords optimisation is only a part of increasing SEO. (Gudivada, Rao and Paris, 2015)

Article by Dave Chaffey with 21 tips to improve SEO including other practices than keywords. Read more.

Akay et al (2018) argue that Google measure websites relevance based on the keywords and algorithmizes analysis to see if the keywords are relevant to the search, thus websites using irrelevant keyword will have a low ranking. Futhermore, keywords are measured in the distance there is between keywords such as cooking websites mentions recipes and similar keywords quite close to each other, that makes the content more reliable. The risk of having too many keywords close to each other is that Google will see it as Spamdexing if they are used too many times.

(Gudivada, Rao and Paris, 2015) (Akay et al., 2018)

What to do:

• No Spamdexing
• Avoid irrelevant keywords
• Stay up to date on algorithms
• Avoid distance between keywords

3. Clustering

Clustering is grouping a sematic core of keywords based on the keywords characteristics. (Akay et al., 2018)

What to do:

1. Important, frequent and competitive keywords that are general, such as Beauty salon in Brighton
2. Then general name of product or service but not to specific such as Hairdressers service.
3. Then the specific keywords for the product/service such as: Acrylic nails.

(Akay et al., 2018)

Spread out the different groups of keywords to optimise SEO. Akay et al (2018) argue that a good website-owner will use all three categories of clustering. Furthermore, clustering eliminates irrelevant keywords (Akay et al., 2018). Berman and Katona (2013) argue that the best SEO strategy is having high SEO on general keywords. However, it is dangerous to only focus on general keywords since they are competitive.

Remember to:

• Have clustering keywords
• Use general, specific and geographical keywords, such as Dresses near me.

4. Long-tail

50% use three or more words states Murray (2012). Short-tail keywords contains 1-3 keywords and have lower probability of conversion since it is so general and competitive. Whereas long-tail include more than three keywords, have high conversion, low risk and low competition since it is very specific its more likely that the consumer find what they want. Nevertheless, long-tail has lower search volume which leads to the risk of low visits. Even though short-tail is used more by website-owners according to Smart Insight (2018),  it is extremely risky due to the competitiveness, thus many who focus on short-tail have low SEO. (Skiera, Eckert and Hinz, 2010) (Smart Insight, 2018)

Skiera, Eckert and Hinz (2010) argue that using long-tail with too many keywords will result in low ranking. Some campaigns had over 1000 keywords in their reseach, nevertheless the study showed the risk of too many keywords is them being irrelevant or Spamdexing. Skiera, Eckert and Hinz (2010) research showed that campaigns using long-tail but with less keywords such as 100 had on average 88.57% of all searches and 81.40% of all clicks. Even though, having high SEO on short-tail keywords is great, but the majority are large corporations or website-owners that can afford expensive SEO copywriters, thus it is less likely to be successful in short-tail keywords as a new/small website. Whereas long-tail keywords are cost-effective and give faster results.  Smart Insight (2018) argue that one could spend years focusing on getting highest rank for “Women’s Shoes”, where one can get high rank for “Red Sports Shoes For Women” in a couple weeks. Overall, the risk of long-tail is keyword-stuffing, in other words, Spamdexing.

(Anderson, 2006)

Video critically identifying long-tail SEO VS short-tail and their advantages and disadvantages.

What to do:

Long-tail keywords are the best option for a new website. Since it has lower volume they are less competitive and therefore are beneficial to focus on for SEO strategies.

1. Study competitors
2. Know main keywords
3. Decide long-tail keywords
4. Track keywords effectiveness regularly. A blog post by the huge website Moz with 5 best practices on analysing and tracking keywords effectiveness.  Read more.

5. Abbreviations

Huge risk in not researching abbreviations and trends in keywords, such as cities: Bars in NY, but website has keywords for New York. (Fiorini and Lipsky, 2012)

What to do: 

• Research terms that the target market uses and different segment.
• Use Keywords Planner and WordTracker
• Track keywords effectiveness (see image below)
• Analyse and apply results
• Up to date in trends and changes

(Fiorini and Lipsky, 2012)

Bibliography

Ads.google.com. (2019). Choose the Right Keywords with Our Research Tools – Google Ads. [online] Available at: https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Akay, O., Kalashnikova, A., Kalashnikov, I. and Golubeva, A. (2018). Towards Question on Linguistic Approach to Search Engine Optimization: Clustering, Collocation, Grams. SHS Web of Conferences, 50, p.01023.

Anderson, C. (2006) The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. Hyperion: New York.

Berman, R. and Katona, Z. (2013). The Role of Search Engine Optimization in Search Marketing. Marketing Science, 32(4), pp.644-651.

Fiorini, P. and Lipsky, L. (2012). Search marketing traffic and performance models. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 34(6), pp.517-526.

Fishkin, R. (2019). SEO: The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization from Moz. [online] Moz. Available at: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/measuring-and-tracking-success [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Google Trends. (2019). Google Trends. [online] Available at: https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Gudivada, V., Rao, D. and Paris, J. (2015). Understanding Search-Engine Optimization. Computer, 48(10), pp.43-52.

Litsa, T., Kenyon, J., Rogerson, R., Kosaka, K. and Alonso, J. (2019). A quick and easy guide to meta tags in SEO – Search Engine Watch. [online] Search Engine Watch. Available at: https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/04/04/a-quick-and-easy-guide-to-meta-tags-in-seo/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Murray, J. (2012). The changing trends in search. [online] Experian. Available at: http://www.experian.com/blogs/hitwise-uk/2012/08/09/the-changing-trends-in-search-in-2012. [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].

OptinMonster. (2019). Keyword Research 101: How to Choose the Right Keywords for SEO. [online] Available at: https://optinmonster.com/keyword-research-101-how-to-choose-the-right-terms-for-google/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Samuel, S. (2013). Search engine optimisation to improve your visibility online. In Practice, 35(6), pp.346-349.

Skiera, B., Eckert, J. and Hinz, O. (2010). An analysis of the importance of the long tail in search engine marketing. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 9(6), pp.488-494.

Smart Insights. (2018). Long-tail Keyword Research Strategy to improve your SEO. [online] Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-strategy/long-tail-keyword-research-strategy-to-improve-your-seo/ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].

Smart Insights. (2019). Simple SEO techniques | Smart Insights. [online] Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-strategy/simple-seo-techniques/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Support.google.com. (2019). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide – Search Console Help, Google Guidelines. [online] Available at: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

Wordtracker. (2019). wordtracker. [online] Available at: https://www.wordtracker.com/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

YouTube. (2019). How to use Google Trends to Find Sizzling Hot Topic Ideas. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=612&v=wJxwrsBloho [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

YouTube. (2019). Short Tail Vs Long Tail Keywords – Which Should You Be Using? | SEO Tips. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrJ4YKjdS_g&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].

YouTube. (2019). The Major META Tags for SEO – Title, Meta Description, and Keywords Tag. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z4OcfYVuQA [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].