[Search Engine Optimization] 02. Keywords

On-Site SEO
Keyword research is the first step in SEO
- High quality content helps customers to find you
- Keywords are the glue between how the search engine finds and classifies your content and how potential customers find you
- Keyword research helps inform what you should write about and it is a first step towards making your content discoverable

Head and tail keywords

Head keyword (about 30%): 
A popular keyword with large search volume
Head terms are often competitive to rank for in search results.

Tail keyword (about 70%): 
A unique or less popular set of keywords that tend to be longer and have lower search volume.
Tail terms are often less competitive to rank for in the search results.
-> more specific

-> balancing head and tail keywords is important.
-> Align the use of branded and non-branded keywords with the different stages of the customer journey

Branded and Non-branded keywords
Branded Keywords: 
keywords that contain your comapnies name

Non-branded keywords: 
Keywords that do not contain your companies name

Keyword Strategy: 
Use mix of branded, non-branded, tail and head keywords at appropriate stages throughout the customer buying journey

Step1: Keyword Discovery
- Organize an initial list of keywords in the med keyword lists
- Align the keywords with your customer prsona

Google Keyword Planner (Free)https://adwords.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/

Moz Keyword Explorer https://moz.com/products/pro/keyword-explorer

SEMrush Keyword Research (Paid)https://www.semrush.com/features/keyword-research/

Keyword Tool http://keywordtool.io/

Wordstream (Free) http://www.wordstream.com/keywords

Step2: Evaluating and focusing keyword list
- Evaluate and optimize your list for:
Volume
Difficulty
Opportunity

- Target keywords with high potential - combination of high volume, low difficulty and high opportunity(aggregated metric provided by Moz, keyword explorer)

*Understanding SEO:
https://moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo
* Google's SERP feature:
https://moz.com/learn/seo/serp-features