SEO Basics: Keyword Research Made Easy

When it comes to optimizing your website for search engines, knowing the best keywords for your brand is critical. But sometimes the process of researching your keywords can get out of hand.
A keyword, or keyword phrase, is an easy way of referring to the queries people type into the search bars of their favorite engines. As a website owner, you want to know which keywords your customers are searching for so that you can use SEO best practices to optimize your site for them and improve your chances of appearing in the natural search results for these queries.
Say, for instance, that you run a pet-grooming business in Bloomington, Ill. You want your website to appear at the top of Google's list for the keyword phrase "pet grooming Bloomington, Ill."
You might have already read about the importance of things like keyword competition or keyword search volume when conducting your keyword research. But forget all of that for a moment. The only keywords you need to worry about when you're starting out are the keywords your customers are actually typing in to their search engines.
There are a few different ways you can find these keywords:

• Use your customer research knowledge. Nobody knows your market better than you do. Instead of relying on a third-party keyword generating tool, start writing out a list of all the different keyword variations your customers might be searching for. Following our previous example, a pet grooming keyword list might include "pet haircut Bloomington, Ill," "dog grooming Bloomington, Ill" and "pet grooming Ill."
• Look in Google Analytics. If you have Google Analytics installed on your website, log in and head over to the "Traffic Sources" menu. There, you'll be able to separate your organic search visitors and see a list of the keywords they used to get to your website. Unfortunately, a large number of your results will come up as "Not Provided" (thanks to anonymous browsers and Google's proprietary reasons), but add the phrases that you do see to your growing keyword list. You can also find similar information in your Google Webmaster Tools account.
• Leverage Google's "Related Searches". You can also head over to Google and conduct searches for each of the individual keywords you've come up with to this point. Then scroll down to the bottom of the results. There, you should see a separate section where Google lists other keywords that are related to your original phrase. If any of these keywords are relevant to your business, they deserve a place on your keyword list.

Once you have an initial keyword list compiled, you can start thinking about keyword search volume and keyword competition. Head over to the Google Adwords Keyword Planner, which recently replaced the External Keyword Tool. You'll need a Google Adwords account to access the tool, but you should be able create an account without funding it right away. Alternatively, if you prefer to use another keyword tool, such as Wordtracker (plans start at $69 per month) to research search volume, use that one instead.
Once in the Google Adwords Keyword Planner, select the option labeled "Enter or upload keywords to see how they perform" and paste your list into the text box that appears. Modify the targeting options if necessary and then click the "Get search volume" button.
The screen that appears will give you a rough estimate of the average number of monthly searches each keyword receives and how competitive Google thinks the phrase is. There's no hard and fast rule about the minimum number of monthly searches you should aim for, as your threshold will be determined by the size of your audience and the profit margins of your products.
For example, if your market is small and your website only receives an average of 1,000 visitors per month, a keyword with a monthly search volume of 100 visitors could be quite lucrative. But if you're serving a larger market and operate on miniscule profit margins, it might not be worth your time to optimize your site for keywords with less than 3,000 to 5,000 average monthly searches.
Search competition is similarly subjective. If you're in a competitive market, you might not have a choice but to target tough keywords. At the same time, just because a keyword has low competition doesn't mean you should optimize your site for it -- especially if it isn't well-targeted to your customers.
If you're struggling to get started with keyword research, I recommend not worrying too much about either one of these metrics. Start by tailoring your sites to the keyword phrases your visitors are mostly likely to use to find your site, assuming that their Keyword Planner results show at least a few monthly searches. Only after you've cut your teeth on these introductory phrases should you start to worry about metrics-driven keyword research.

Here We Go Again: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Hummingbird, Google's Latest Update

You might have heard that Google recently released the biggest change to its search algorithm in many years. It's called Hummingbird. It allows Google to handle "conversational search," meaning it can quickly parse entire questions and complex queries. It also means that entrepreneurs will need to make some adjustments to their online publishing strategies.
Since Google's Penguin and Panda algorithm updates had many business owners and webmasters scrambling, you might wonder what kind of change Hummingbird will bring. Here's a brief rundown on what entrepreneurs need to know about this important algorithm update.
What Hummingbird changed: People tend to speak their search queries when they're on-the-go, using mobile devices. As such, Hummingbird is an indication that Google is embracing the rapidly growing number of mobile users, which is predicted to overtake desktop usage within the next two years, according to a report from Morgan Stanley.
Hummingbird also presents a major change from Google's old methods of looking only at individual keywords. Prior to Hummingbird, Google would ignore certain words in search queries. Now Google considers each word in the query to get a better understanding of the intent. The importance of longtail keywords has increased tremendously as a result of Hummingbird.
Google Hummingbird got its name because it's "precise and fast," according to Amit Singhal, senior vice president and software engineer at Google. During an interview with Search Engine Land editor Danny Sullivan, Singhal was reported to have said that there has not been such a major algorithm update since 2001. "Our algorithm had to go through some fundamental rethinking of how we are going to keep our results relevant," Singhal said.
How Hummingbird works: Hummingbird uses Google's Knowledge Graph, which was introduced last year. The Knowledge Graph allows the search engine to better understand the relationship between concepts instead of individual keywords. Using this, Hummingbird was designed to focus on the meaning behind the words instead of just the words themselves. This allows webpages that match the meaning of a query to rank better than a page that matches just a few words.
While the new algorithm was introduced more than a month ago, most casual Google users probably haven't noticed a difference.
According to Singhal via a blog post, by using Hummingbird, Google will be able to answer queries that don't have simple answers. If asked, "Tell me about impressionist artists," Google search will be able to return a "broad set of appropriate facts" when using a mobile device.
The addition of the Knowledge Graph also allows Google to better understand follow-up questions. If you asked the Google search application for "pictures of the Washington Monument" and then offered the follow-up question, "How tall is it?" the search engine will know that you are asking for the height of the Washington Monument.
As Google continues to improve the Hummingbird algorithm, it will be able to answer more complex questions. This capability will become increasingly necessary as users shift toward spoken "natural language" queries that are input via mobile devices.
What business owners and webmasters should do differently: There are at least a couple of things entrepreneurs need to consider.
Be mobile-friendly. First, make sure your website is as mobile-friendly as it can be. Use large fonts (which are easier to read on small screens), attention-grabbing images and videos that are the proper size for mobile. Like all content, your mobile content should have a clear and concise purpose.
Some websites can be improved from a mobile perspective by using responsive web design, which causes your website layout to automatically adjust based on the device with which the reader accesses it. Optimizing the layout based on the device provides a better user experience, making it easier for your users to navigate your website, access your content and purchase your products or services.
Implement a value-focused content strategy. Google Hummingbird shows that Google has improved its ability to understand the meanings of questions instead of individual keywords. Content that answers specific questions will become more important when ranking with Hummingbird.
This means adding more blog entries and pages to your website which help answer questions that your target audience is looking to have answered. Offering high-quality analysis and expertise on a specific topic makes for a great start to a successful content strategy. Engaging content such as trivia, giveaways, and contests help build loyalty, virality, and interest, which can amplify your content marketing efforts.