One way to increase blog traffic (an important step on the path to making your blog a success) is to do something that is called “keyword research”. Let’s begin with the basics:
What is a keyword?
A keyword is just a word – or group of words – used by people to search the internet. The only thing that makes a keyword different from any other kind of word is that a keyword is used by people to search. So the words “a”, “and”, “or” and “the” are so “generic” that they represent the rare exception to the rule. They are real “words” that aren’t “keywords”.
Other words, such as “dog” or “cup” or “toy” are all words that can be considered to be “keywords”. For example, hundreds of thousands of people will type in “dog toy” into the search engine each day to search for – you guessed it – dog toys.
If you’re a blog owner with a blog about dogs, then you need to know what keywords people are typing into the search engines to find information about dogs and of course, dog toys.
Some blog owners think “keyword research” involves going to Google, typing in the keyword of choice and then clicking “search”. Actually, this is the exact OPPOSITE of keyword research. Typing in your keyword into the search engines shows you the number of RESULTS for the keyword. It doesn’t show you how many people are actually SEARCHING for that keyword combination.
Keyword research means using tools which enable to you “spy” on the words people are actually typing into the search engines to find what they’re seeking.
There are many free tools which will help you do keyword research. If you’re using a self hosted Wordpress blog, there’s a great plug created by Semvironmant called post keyword research.
This fabulous plug in puts the Google Keyword Tool (plus two other keyword tools) at your “fingertips” so you can easily research which word (and combination of words) people are actually using to find information.
When you begin to regularly use the words people are using to search (keywords) in your post title as well as in your post content, you’ll be amazed at the effect onyour blog traffic. When you make a habit of using popular keywords in blog post titles and content, you’ll soon begin to see an increase in blog traffic – just by spending a few minutes doing keyword research.
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