Do you have your own website that isn’t doing to well in the search results?

The basic principles of search engine optimisation are also the fundamentals of having a great website that is useful and relevant.  If you are considering paying a Search Engine Optimisation Company to optimise your site you should consider doing the basics your self first. That is why we are writing this quick and simple Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimisation Guide. The guide will consist of 5 easy steps that will help you bring out the best in your website.

Step 1 – Keyword Research

Keyword research starts with you understanding your audience. If you are selling wine, then think like your customers and what they would type to find your product. Don’t think too generic like just the term “wine” as these keywords will be too competitive when starting out. Think of the types of wines, brands or other attributes about the wines you sell that a prospective buyer might type in and start creating a list.

Once you have a list you can use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find out how competitive that particular keyword is. The keyword tool will also suggest different variations or similar keywords that might be relevant to you.  I have included a great video which shows you how to use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

The results shown in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is for Google AdWords, but it is a still a good indicator of how competetive the natural search results will be. You should pick keywords that get a reasonable amount of visits but is not too competitive.

Now after you have used the tool to analyse your list of keywords, you should have added new keywords that you didn’t think of that were not too competitive and removed keywords that were too competitive. Keep this list along with the information about them from the Keyword tool and it is the foundation for the rest of your DIY SEO project!

That’s all for Step 1 of our DIY SEO Guide. Please don’t rush this step, because choosing the right keywords will determine the success of your website.

Stay tuned for our next post and next step in our Do-It-Yourself SEO Guide: Step 2 – Review your content