Hawaii SEO – The Common Keyword Types (Part 2)

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In Hawaii SEO – The Common Keyword Types (Part 1), I already introduced to you a few of the most commonly used keywords. Today, I will further elaborate the other keywords you can incorporate to your content.

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The Phase-Based Keywords

  • The world of search is a journey. That’s why people start an online search in the first because they are in the quest for something.
  • You might want to set up keywords that will help your potential customers in their journey. In this section, there are different categories.
  • For a brand-centric site, you might want to consider the awareness, consideration, conversion, retention stage. However, for a customer-centric website, there’s the unaware, problem aware, solution aware, brand aware stage. Whatever your website is, the main point here is to assist them in their navigation, inform them of potential solutions, and convince them to transact with your website.

Here are some examples:

  • Let’s focus on the customer based model for this scenario.
    • Unaware: uses computer
    • Problem aware: encounters a malware and had problems with the computer
    • Solution aware: discovers there are anti-malware programs to prevent this problem
    • Brand aware: stumbles upon Malwarebytes

Global and Local

First, let us discuss what a local keyword is. It could mean any of the following:

  • The searcher is looking for something near his current location.  This could be things such as “car rental near me” or “hotel accommodation in Hawaii”. Perhaps, it could also be a hungry customer asking for something like “What time does In-N-Out Burger close?”.
  • The searcher is in a specific location and would like to learn about something. For example, when someone searches for “biggest steak in Texas” could be a local search because there’s a possibility that the searcher looking for The Big Texan Steak Ranch, which is in Amarillo, TX. Why? Because Texas is known for its barbeques, burgers, and steaks.

Here are some examples:

  • Local: Whataburger locations in Abilene, TX
  • Global: Is Whataburger the best fast food burger?

The Audience Type Keywords

  • There are also keywords that cater to a specific audience. The ‘who is searching’ can also be detrimental to the search. Just look at the Google search results and ask whether who the target audience is. If Google gives you what you WANT, then you are part of the target audience.

Here are some examples:

Evergreen and Topical

  • Evergreen keywords are timeless. Whether it is 5 years from now or 10 years ago, the topic is still relevant. However, topical keywords are terms that are seasonal.
  • For instance, the 2020 NBA schedule or Christmas gift ideas may only refer to this year. The following year, there will be another set of schedule or another set of gift ideas.
  • Mostly, people prefer to produce more evergreen content since it is a long-term investment. There’s still value for that content even after many years. On the other hand, topical content may have a short duration, but it gives you immediate gratification  – the views and interactions are immediately received.

Here are some examples:

  • Evergreen: most common grammar mistakes
  • Topical: CBS fall 2020 TV schedule

Read more of the keyword-related articles on: What Are SEO Keywords, Where to Put SEO Keywords, and More Keyword Research Tools That Aren’t From Google. Since you know what keyword types are, learn How to Conduct Your Keyword Research next.

Hawaii SEO – The Common Keyword Types (Part 1)

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What Are SEO Keywords? and Why SEO Keywords Are Important? have already been discussed. Also, the topic on Where to Put SEO Keywords? is already done. Now, I want to discuss with you the different types of keywords and some examples. This is to help you in effectively conducting your website’s keyword search.

Choose your words tiles

Branded and Non-branded

  • Branded search contains a specific brand. Meanwhile, the non-branded terms contains the generic terms related to the keyword.
  • Moreover, branded keywords include brand names, parent companies, business acronyms, and anything to do with the brand. On the other hand, the non-branded keywords often relate to a businness campaign or a customer issue.
  • Generally, the branded keywords give a website its highest converting traffic since the search has already made up his/her mind. There is an intent to specifically search for the product.

Here are some examples:

  • Costco, Target, or Walmart (Branded) vs discount retailers (Unbranded)
  • Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, or Boston Celtics (Branded) vs famous basketball teams (Unbranded)
  • Asus, Dell, or HP (Branded) vs best laptops for students (Unbranded)

Seed and Page-Specific

  • Seed words are your set of initial keywords, and these are the words that you start with. Like a flowering plant, it initially starts as a seed. Meanwhile, the page-specific keywords are the fruits of your growing plants. These are the keywords that you discovered later in the process. As the name suggests, page-specific keywords are only good or suitable for specific pages and not the entire site.

Examples for Macy’s:

  • Seed: Shop Fashion Clothing and Accessories
  • Page-specific: Women’s Clothing, Jewelry, Watches

Head and Long-Tail

  • The head are the terms with the highest number of searches, and the long-tail only has a low number of searches. This is because the long-tail keywords are very specific. The terms in the middle are referred to as the chunky middle or the torso.
  • New searches on Google are mostly considered  long-tail queries. So, how to differentiate the two?

The Main Difference

  •  Head Keywords
    • High search volume, but low in terms of conversion
    • Few words needed, but the competition is high
    • Applicable for top-tier web pages because of the user’s multiple search intents
  • Long-tail Keywords
    • Low search volume, but the competition is NOT stiff. Thus, it is easy to rank for these keywords.
    • High converting traffic because the user search for specific words.
    • Since it has a specific search intent, it meant for singular web pages.

Here are some examples:

  • Head: Taylor Swift
  • Long-tail: What is name of Taylor Swift’s pet cat?

Primary and Secondary

  • Primary keywords, also referred as the targeted or  focus keywords, are the integral keywords in a page.
  • On the other hand, the secondary, known as the tertiary or supporting keywords, are the other keywords related to what you are targeting for. Secondary keywords do not have a high priority compared to the primary words.
  • Additionally, the secondary keywords serve as the long-tail base in order to give the primary keyword a much needed boost.

Here are some examples for a men’s clothing product page:

  • Primary: Hoodies and Sweatshirts
  • Secondary: free shipping, exclusive design, customized hoodie

More will be discussed on The Common Keyword Types (Part 2)

Hawaii Website Design – Important Web Pages When Making a Website

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When making a website for the first time, you might be wondering what should be seen on your website. One of the most important thing you can do is to create a plan and outline what every page should be about. This will help you keep track of the information you want to share to your visitors.

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Here are some of the most important pages to put on your website:

  1. Home Page

Your home page is the first thing your audience see when they visit your website. You have to make sure that your home page can provide a brief overview of the products/services you can offer to your customers.

  1. Products / Services

Since your home page has already given your customers a brief overview what your website can offer, it’s best to have a separate products/services page. On this page, it’s helpful if you write as much information about each product as possible. Make sure that the information you put out is enticing to the customers so that they will be persuaded.

  1. About Us

Just like your products/services page, your About Us page should also give out detailed information about your business as well. This is an essential page that will tell your customer about who you are and why they should buy your products, services and/or trust your organization. It can also be useful to include details of any awards you may have won.

  1. Contact Information Page

It’s important to have a separate contact page that includes all of your contact information such as phone number, email, and even social media links. This will encourage your audience to leave questions or comments.

RELATED: 5 Strategic Places to Put Contact Forms for More Leads

  1. Blog

Adding a blog on your website is also essential if you want to draw in more customers. Usually, blogs are updated daily or weekly. This feature can be entertaining for you audience as it will keep them updated on latest news about your products/services.

RELATED: Why Is Having a Blog Important for Your Website?

  1. Search My Website Feature

There are instances when some visitors may not know exactly what they want, however if you add a search function on your website, they can easily type in a word or a phrase and search for it right away. This is like having an own mini search engine but it just searches your website, not the entire Internet.

  1. Events Calendar

If you are running a restaurant website or the like, this is where you can feature dates of any special activities that you’re hosting. Aside from special events, you can also list here your own recurring events or if your restaurant has private event options. An events calendar page is a great way to encourage your guests to engage more with your business.

  1. Testimonials/Reviews

This is one of the most important things to include especially if you are running a business-oriented website. This will help potential customers decide whether they will buy your product or avail your services. Just make sure the testimonials/reviews are real. Back it up by providing details about the person who posted the review.

In summary, these are just some of the things you can add to your website. Hopefully these things will help you create a better website. If you are interested, check out What A Successful Website Needs.

Hawaii SEO – Where to Put SEO Keywords

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Since we’ve already established Why SEO Keywords Are Important, I am now going to talk about where you can put SEO keywords. Before anything else, SEO keywords are terms you add to your content to improve your website’s rankings on search engine results. If you want to know more about SEO keywords, refer to the link below.

READ MORE: What Are SEO Keywords?

Moving on, here are some areas where you can put SEO keywords:

  1. Page Titles

A part of technical SEO is optimizing page titles. This is also a good starting point when using SEO keywords.

One of the best practices when you are writing a page title is to add your target SEO keywords or key phrases at the start of your page title. This will seem more relevant to your audience. It is also a good thing. By doing so, your page title won’t get cut off in mobile SERPs, which often happens on small screens.

  1. Meta Descriptions

The second important area where you can put SEO keywords is the meta description. This is the second thing that shows up on search results. Even though the meta description is no longer a direct ranking factor, it can still help Google determine if your content is relevant to what the user is looking for.

It’s important to use the correct keywords on your meta description because it can also influence the searcher’s decision on whether to click through from a search result to see the full content on your website or not.

  1. Subheadings

Subheadings will give your readers’ eyes somewhere to pause. Aside from making your content scannable, it can also help your visitors decide if your content is highly relevant to their needs. Make sure to use keywords in at least a couple of subheadings.

  1. Content

Your content is perhaps the most important place where you should optimize the use of SEO keywords. This is mainly because content is one of the top SEO ranking factors. Just make sure you are doing it right because poor keyword usage can lead to poor search engine rankings. Avoid keyword stuffing because this can be pretty hard to read for potential visitors.

To avoid keyword stuffing, the first thing you can do is to use your main keyword in the first few sentences or at least within the first paragraph of your content. Next, use different variations of the keyword throughout your content.

Rather than putting the exact keyword every single time, it’s best to include latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords too.

  1. Images

Images serve as another way for people to locate your content since images are indexed. Aside from that, it can also aid those searchers who have disabilities.

You can insert SEO keywords in image titles. This will then reflect as little pieces of text that pop up when a user hovers his/her mouse over an image. You can also add it in alt text. The best practice for using alt text with images is to make it descriptive; don’t just simply use the keyword.

Now that you know certain areas where you can insert SEO keywords, you might want to check out 4 Keyword Research Tools From Google and More Keyword Research Tools That Aren’t From Google. To know more about SEO keywords, read The Common Keyword Types (Part 1) and The Common Keyword Types (Part 2).

Hawaii SEO

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Hawaii SEO – More Keyword Research Tools That Aren’t From Google

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Last time, I shared with you 4 Keyword Research Tools From Google that can help you in keyword research. Just a recap, keyword research is an important part of the SEO process. Professionals use keyword research to find search terms that users type into search engines when they are looking for products, services, and information. For a more in-depth explanation of what keyword research is all about, refer to What Are SEO Keywords?

person holding black android smartphone

Moving forward, I will discuss more keyword research tools that aren’t from Google that you can use for your website. If you want to know more about these keyword research tools, read more below:

  1. Keyword Tool

First on the list is Keyword Tool. It’s the best platform to start with when you are still a beginner in keyword research. Keyword Tool is very much like Google Keyword Planner.

Keyword Tool is free for the first 750+ keywords and it’s extremely easy to use.

  1. Ubersuggest

In order to conquer the world of SEO, Ubersuggest can help you. All you need to do is input your domain name and it will give you insights about your content. Eventually, you find ways to improve them and stand out from the crowd.

  1. Wordstream

Another keyword research tool you can use is Wordstream. It is an amazing alternative to AdWords Keyword Tool or Google Keyword Tool. Wordstream aims to provide accurate and extensive keyword suggestions.

WordStream‘s Free Keyword Tool can give hundreds of highly relevant keyword results for free.

  1. Keyword.io

Keyword.io has free to use tools that generates insight by collecting data from third parties. It provides you with a comprehensive list of accurate and relevant keyword suggestions to help improve your content.

To be able to connect better with your target audience, try using Keyword.io as your keyword research tool.

  1. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic was built for PR professionals so that they can showcase and measure the impact of their works. It offers instant, raw search insights of potential customers. By knowing your customers’ insights, you will be able to create better and useful content, products, and services.

You can use AnswerThePublic to add more creativity, insight, and validation to your content strategies.

  1. Seed Keywords

Seed Keywords is a very simple keyword research tool created by Red Evolution, a UK-based inbound marketing agency. It’s best in providing great keyword ideas when you’re still starting out. It can also teach you what search terms you can optimize. The list of keywords you get from Seed Keywords can then be used as part of your SEO work.

Just like every other tool on this list, Seed Keywords is also free to use.

As a conclusion, keyword research is a truly important SEO process (see: Why SEO Keywords Are Important). There are still lots of keyword research tools you can find in the SEO marketplace but make sure you check out the six free keyword research tools above to know what will work best. Remember that free keyword tools are good when you’re just starting out. However, if your site starts to grow, you will need to invest on paid tools in order for you to keep up with your fierce competitors.

Hawaii SEO – 4 Keyword Research Tools From Google

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Previously, I discussed about Why SEO Keywords Are Important when you are running a website. Today, I will share with you keyword research tools from Google that you can use for free. If you don’t know what SEO keywords are, read more HERE.

Moving forward, here are the keyword research tools from Google that you can use for your website:

  1. Google

Probably the most powerful keyword research tool to ever exist is Google. It has an autocomplete feature that generates incalculable number of keyword ideas. However, Google is only the tip of the iceberg when you use it for keyword research. This multinational technology company offers various other tools that can help you in keyword research, which I will discuss in the later part.

When it comes to understanding search intent, Google is your best friend. So, don’t overlook Google as a keyword research tool. After all, keyword research is not just finding keywords. It’s also about understanding the people who are searching for them and what they really want to see.

  1. Google Search Console

The Google Search Console helps you in tracking your website’s performance in organic search. In other words, it shows you data about the keywords that you already rank for. When you use it for your website’s analytics and such, you can actually get a lot of useful insights from Google Search Console.

For example, your click-through rate (CTR) is low even though you rank high on search results. This may be because your page is less appealing than others.  You can usually fix this by improving things like title tag or meta description.

RELATED: Page Titles and Meta Descriptions Optimization Tips

  1. Google Keyword Planner

Another tool from Google is the Google Keyword Planner. Now, this is a simple option since it only has few basic features. However, even if it lacks the sense of functionality, Google Keyword Planner is still one of the most accurate sources of keyword data on the market. All the data gathered directly comes from Google and the results can also integrate well with AdSense monetization.

If you are running a business-oriented website, it’s best to use Google Keyword Planner. It is free to use so you don’t have to worry about additional costs at all.

  1. Google Trends

Google Trends aims to analyze the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across different regions and languages all over the world. It uses graphs to compare the search volume of various queries over time.

Through its search trends feature, you will be able to identify the keywords you will need to add to your website’s content. By adding trending keywords to your content, your website traffic will significantly rise. When this happens, it helps boost your website ranking on the Google search engine results page (SERP). With Google Trends, you will know the search terms that are increasing in popularity. Make sure to check it from time to time as these keywords might be beneficial to you.

In conclusion, Google can really help you and your website in so many ways. You just have to make the most out of it. Next, I will share more keyword research tools you can use that aren’t from Google. Read How to Conduct Your Keyword Research? if you want to know how exactly you can use the tools I’ve mentioned above.

Hawaii SEO – Why SEO Keywords Are Important

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For some people, they might think “keywords are dead”, but it is actually not. The thing that is dead is the old way of tracking them. So, in short, keywords are very much alive. It is still an essential element in SEO. If you want to know what exactly SEO keywords are, refer to What Are SEO Keywords?

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You might be wondering, “why are SEO keywords important?“. Keywords matter for several reasons, but two of the biggest reasons are: they act like “bullseye” towards which marketers can direct their content and they serve as clues to who people are and what they need. By incorporating these keywords, you are allowing yourself to do better in meeting your audience’s needs. Moreover, here are more reasons why SEO keywords are important:

It’s A Powerful Market Research Tool

Since it is considered as a powerful market research tool, it can be leveraged in various ways, not just solely informing website content. To be able to get the most out of these keywords, you must look beyond the obvious. Try to know the literal translation and pick up on tacit clues to obtain the true intent of every keyword.

Keywords Act Like Bullseyes

Through keywords, you have focus. Use this focus to appeal to everyone so that you won’t be empty-handed. When you check out Google Search Console‘s search query data, you will see that it’s never just about one certain keyword. However, it’s important to have a primary keyword for each page to give you the right direction and perspective. This will also help you attract the right audience.

Increases Website Visibility

One of the reasons why SEO keywords are important is because it increases the visibility of a website or web-page. For example, when an Internet user searches for an information, the search engine will match the keywords in the search with those used in the content of the website.  This will then reflect the redirect link of a website in the list of search results. In other words, these keywords or keyphrases help in raising the visibility of a website on the Internet.

Increased Traffic

When there is increased visibility, there’s a possibility that your website has increased traffic as well. As a search engine produces results on the basis of keywords itself, the keywords you used play an essential role in redirecting the Internet masses or traffic towards your website. If your website’s content has the correct keywords in it then the redirect link to your website would reflect on the search engine results. When users click on the redirect link, this will then redirect the traffic towards your website.

Keywords Affect Your Website’s Ranking

Even if you have high-quality content, you will not rank high in search engine results if you don’t use appropriate and relevant keywords on your published content. This is why you have to make sure that you add keywords in the right places.

To sum it all up, using the correct and relevant keywords will benefit you in more ways than one. Aside from associating your content with your marketing strategy, you can also form deeper and more significant connections with your customers. I also wrote Where to Put SEO Keywords if you are unsure where to insert keywords. On the other hand, if you are still confused about SEO, read All About SEO.

Hawaii SEO – What Are SEO Keywords?

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What are SEO Keywords?

One of the first and most important steps in any search engine optimization initiative is to create a list of keywords. When it comes to creating a successful search marketing campaign, you have to understand the correlation between SEO and keywords. The keywords you use are highly significant for all other SEO efforts. To ensure that your SEO keywords are effective, it’s best to invest your time and effort in creating highly relevant SEO keywords or keyphrases.

READ: Why Your Website Needs SEO (Part 1)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is optimizing your web pages to have better rankings in search results pages (SERPs). When you do SEO, you will encounter keywords. These keywords are part of the whole SEO process. SEO keywords are words and/or phrases that will describe what your content is all about. By adding SEO keywords to your web content, you are making it possible for people to find your website through search engines.

When you add SEO keywords or keyphrases to your online content, you are boosting your search engine rankings. It usually ranges from single words to complex phrases. Aside from boosting search engine rankings, it also aims to increase relevant, organic search traffic.

If SEO keywords are researched and optimized effectively, it will act as a channel that will connect your target audience to your website. You have to make sure that your chosen keywords are functioning and relevant to your content. You also need to know how people look for products, services, or information. SEO keywords will make it easier for customers to find your website because you rank higher than your competitors.

Getting Started with SEO Keywords

For you to be able to find the right keywords to include on your web page, you have to do keyword research. Like I mentioned earlier, the use of keywords will help search engines like Google and Bing to assign correct search rankings. Through keyword research, you can also create content around the terms that you know you audience is searching for.

If you don’t want to end up competing with your own content when it comes to search rankings, one of the best things you can do is to focus each content on a different keyword or keyphrase. In other words, avoid using the same keyword more than once.

For you to be able to create effective SEO keywords, the first thing you can do is to think of the possible terms your potential customers might be looking for. Next, you can search for related terms on Google. By scrolling to the bottom part of the search results page, you will see what other things people searched for. Last but not the least, use Google Analytics and/or Google Search Console to discover the keywords that people used to discover your website.

READ: Why Your Website Needs SEO (Part 2)

In conclusion, SEO keywords are really helpful on improving SEO for existing content and in creating new content as well. However, do not solely focus on keywords. Also make sure that your overall content is readable and understandable. If you want to know the importance of SEO keywords, read more on Why SEO Keywords Are Important.

Hawaii SEO – Page Titles and Meta Descriptions Optimization Tips

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At this point, you probably know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you haven’t catch up on my post on All About SEO, and I also talked about Why Your Website Needs SEO.

In that intro post, I discussed that in SEO, there subcategories such as: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. For today, I will only focus on the page title and meta description optimization tips. There are other on-page SEO tips, and I will discuss that on .

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Through these different factors, it’s how search engines understand the flow of your website. With these applied, search engines — like Google — are able to interpret your website and rank it accordingly.

Once you understand the inner workings of SEO is important in acquiring better search engine rankings. So, let’s now discuss on how to improve page titles and meta descriptions.

PAGE TITLES

What does the audience see first? Once people do a search, they see in the search results page are the page titles of the different websites. Basically, it’s the first visible thing on your website.

Ideally, you want to incorporate keywords in your post titles. By adding relevant keywords, you can help your posts rank higher in the Google search results.

HERE ARE TIPS IN WRITING SEO-OPTIMIZED POST TITLES

  • As much as possible, place the chosen keywords at the beginning of your title.
  • Post titles should be around 65 characters including the spaces.
  • Add your brand at the title, and use (|) to separate keyword phrases.
  • The phrases mentioned above should be short and concise.
  • Finally, post titles should be able to concretely summarize the content of the page.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE POST TITLES?

In WordPress, to make it easier for you to edit your post titles, you have to have the Yoast SEO plugin activated.

Once it is installed, you have to navigate to the bottom portion of the Add New Post page. By the end of the text editor, next to the word count indicator, there you will usually find the Yoast SEO section.

In that specific box, you will the Google preview of your post. Yes, you will actually see how your post will appear in the Google search results. If you don’t like what you see, you can click on the Edit Snippet button to make modification. Then, type your preferred title on the SEO Title section.

META DESCRIPTIONS

Just to make it clear, meta descriptions do not influence the search engine rankings directly. However, meta descriptions help increase the chances of people clicking your website in the search results page.

As I said, people see the page titles first. Then, just below that are the meta descriptions. Both factors are essential to work. If you ignore the meta description section, Google will choose for you. It is still best that you control what is displayed.

HERE ARE TIPS IN WRITING META DESCRIPTIONS

  • Think of your meta description as a 140-character tweet. Maximum would be around 160 characters including the spaces.
  • Summarize your content in a short tweet by using descriptive words.
  • Each post or page should have its own meta description.
  • Another tip is to add a call to action button in order to encourage people to like.
  • Ignite the curiosity of your readers and pique their interests.

HOW TO ADD META DESCRIPTIONS?

Just the same with the post titles; you have to have the Yoast SEO plugin activated. Move to the Yoast SEO section, which is usually add the bottom part of your Add New Post page. Click on the Edit Snippet button to modify the meta description, and then, type your preferred description in the space provided.