Your website ranking and traffic is a direct result of how you select and optimize your website keywords. So how do you select keywords with targeted traffic?
There are four steps you need to consider.
Step 1: 7 tips for selecting your keywords
【TIP1】Starting with the products or services your company provides, list all the keywords related to your products and services.
【TIP2】Analyse competitor websites and check the source code of their homepages. Usually, keywords are deployed in the tag for title, keywords, and meta description.
【TIP3】If you have traffic statistics tools (such as Baidu statistics, or other statistical tools) on your site, check your site's traffic statistics and see which keywords your visitors are using to find your website.
【TIP4】Check the keyword information provided by Baidu Index. There are two practical tools in Baidu Index: “趋势研究” Trend Analysis helps you to analyse the trend of keyword search volume.
"需求图谱" Demand Map helps you analyse the user needs related to the keyword, which you can use to extend the keywords.
【TIP5】Pay attention to recommended keywords on the dropdown in the Baidu search bar as well as the bottom of the SERP. Those are the keywords being searched quite often as well.
Example of recommended keywords on the dropdown in the Baidu search bar.
Example of recommended keywords at the bottom of Baidu SERP
【TIP6】If your company has used paid search ads in China with a Baidu paid search account, then you can leverage the Baidu backend tool “关键词规划师” (keywords planner) to expand more keywords based on existing roots.
【TIP7】Use the keyword extend function of webmaster tools to explore more related long tail keywords based on existing roots.
Step 2:Keyword screening
Before you can optimise the keywords you have, the next step is to sort them out because some will not be suitable for your needs.
Keywords should not be too broad or too narrow
Broad keywords cause high competition and high cost of optimisation. Even if we optimise the keyword ranking to the first page of the SERP, the conversion rate is usually still quite low because the needs of users searching for that keywords vary greatly.
On the other hand, a keyword that is too accurate is not a good option either, because it brings potentially low traffic.
The choice of keywords needs to consider both search volume and targeted needs. You could use a combination of the keywords; for example, focus keyword + targeted needs word to increases the likelihood of reaching a greater target audience.
Select those keywords user is actually using for search
You and your employees are very familiar with your company’s own products and services so It’s easy to take for granted that those are the keywords being searched for by search engine users. However, users may think in different way. So, when screening keywords, ask people outside the company to see what keywords they would use to search for the kinds of products or services you offer.
Select keywords with high search volume but low competition
The most efficient keywords are those that have fewer competing pages and high search volume. Some keywords have intense competition and you need spend a lot of money to improve the ranking. Sometimes, though, not many people actually search for that keyword.
Step 3: Keyword competitiveness analysis
Understanding the search volume of keywords is just the starting point. The more important thing is to know is the competition level.
Compare the number of keyword search results
Generally speaking, the more search results, the greater the competition level. You then need to rely on more high-quality content and inbound links for the website optimisation.
What is a good result when it comes to China SEO search results? A search result around 500 thousand means low competition level, 1 million is medium-low, 3 million is medium, 5 million is high and more than 10 million means intensive competition.
Check if there are famous/large-scale website sites or Baidu’s own websites on the keyword search result page
If the top search results for the keywords are all from news portals (such as Tencent, Sina), big vertical websites or Baidu’s websites such as Baidu Baike/Wenku, then the competition level for that keyword is high.
Analyse keyword search volume
You can check the keyword search volume by using Baidu Index. Theoretically, more search volume means high level competition. However, some keywords may have a large search volume but low competition.
Currently, some SEO analysis tools or the Sinorbis platform can effectively evaluate the keyword competition level based on search volume, keyword ranking and number of keyword search results. This will help you to more easily define your keywords optimisation strategy.
Step 4:Keyword optimisation
To optimise the more valuable keywords for the website to improve the organic search ranking and traffic, you need to analyse and modify the website source code, structure, content and look at inbound links. It’s a complex process that requires a long-term maintenance process.
Without an in-house team, there are two ways you can do this:
Ask a professional China SEO agency to provide Chinese search engine SEO. The advantage of this is that the service is very comprehensive, but of course, the cost is higher.
You can also use intelligent SEO tools such as Sinorbis platform to crawl the keywords ranking, search results and website page details for targeted keywords. For the targeted keywords page, the Sinorbis platform is able to provide recommendations for SEO optimisation.
Website technology developers only need to revise the website accordingly. After completing the basic SEO optimisation, you might then find a professional SEO company to offer more comprehensive and advanced SEO optimisation recommendations.
It’s an ongoing journey and continuous efforts are needed for website SEO optimisation, only if you selected most effective keywords, then you are able to improve the organic search traffic and ranking step by step.
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