SEO Raleigh NC is a vital tool and is a necessary item to consider when developing your business's online presence. SEO stands for search engine optimization and refers to the methods and devices that a company can employ in order to appear higher up on a search engine query. It goes without saying that those top positions are priceless to a company, as most people immediately follow the first results rather than digging through millions of links to find the most optimal. So what are some of the best ways to optimize your position within a search engine? One of the premier methods is utilizing keywords. Moz, a dedicated SEO learning center, defines keywords, “as words and phrases that a searcher enters into a search engine.” Employment of keywords goes far beyond just simply having a few that are associated with your webpage.

Using Long Tail Keywords

It’s a common thought that it would be best to target words that could appear in a variety of searches. For example, while having SEO as a keyword could theoretically lead to your company appearing in searches such as ‘SEO Raleigh NC’ and ‘Best SEO principles 2021’, it is more likely to be buried by a mountain of other search results and web pages that also have any mention of SEO. A practice that can be exceptionally useful, especially for smaller businesses, is using long-tail keywords. So instead of your keyword being SEO and hoping you appear in the searches, your key phrase would actually be ‘SEO Raleigh NC’. An article posted on LinkedIn describes this practice wonderfully, by illustrating that around 70% of all web searches are long-tail searches. Being able to reliably appear in long-tail searches can help build company reputability and can lead to more appearances in the top spots for those coveted head keywords as well.

Using Keywords to Gauge Competition

Something that may come off as a shock is that keyword usage is able to be found for any webpages, not just one you own. This means that it is possible to gauge competition on particular keywords before employing them for your own business. Sites such as Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer (amongst others) are great tools for this kind of keyword analysis. Being able to decide which important keywords you want to compete for and which ones you can get a head start on is a definitive competitive advantage, especially when considering SEO and ranking higher than your peers.

Keywords Provide Demographic Information

One of the most under-the-radar aspects of keywords in regards to SEO is that the words people search provide valuable information about the demographic. If you use a long-tail keyword like ‘Safest family vehicle 2021’ and notice that your site gets a lot of traffic from that particular long-tail phrase, you can now infer more information about your demographic. You can make an educated guess that the people frequenting your site are new families, likely middle class (since they are shopping for new vehicles), and prone to worry or at the very least are safety-conscious. All of this information can be used to refine your keywords to try and focus in on your most popular demographic and move higher up on search engines for head searches like ‘safe cars’.

Keyword Usage for SEO Raleigh NC | Red Shark Digital

In conclusion, keyword usage is an integral part of SEO strategy development and maintenance. Using keywords to gauge competitors’ success as well as their plan of attack, using a combination of head keywords and long-tail keywords to appear in more searches, and using keywords to develop a better understanding of demographics are all great opportunities for company growth and development. Learn more about SEO Raleigh NC by visiting Red Shark Digital and start helping your company appear in more searches!