A strong keyword strategy is at the heart of any successful SEO project. Laser-focusing your approach isn’t just about selecting a list of high-volume words but crafting a plan that targets user intent, market trends, and competition insights. A well-formed strategy lets you reach the specific audience you want to attract while boosting your search engine rankings. In this guide, I’ll break down the essential elements of creating a keyword strategy that aligns closely with your SEO goals, including differentiating between general and specific keywords, researching your competition, and navigating the delicate balance between keywords and entities. We’ll dive into methods for choosing effective keywords, knowing when to pivot from poor choices, and harnessing cutting-edge entity-driven optimisation. By the end, you’ll have the tools to elevate your SEO project with a keyword strategy that brings precision and clarity.

General vs Specific Keywords: Finding the Right Balance

The first major decision in building a solid keyword strategy is choosing between general and specific keywords. Both have roles, but they differ significantly in attracting traffic and converting users.

• General Keywords: General keywords—like “shoes” or “coffee”—appeal to a broad audience and typically have high search volumes. However, their vague nature often means users are at various stages in the buying or discovery process. These keywords are highly competitive and can draw significant traffic, but that traffic often includes users who aren’t ready to convert. General keywords are valuable for building brand awareness and reaching wide audiences, though this often requires substantial resources.
• Specific Keywords: Also known as long-tail keywords, specific keywords offer more precision and often capture user intent more effectively. Examples include “Buy men’s leather boots in London” or “Best organic coffee beans for espresso.” While they usually have lower search volumes, these keywords are typically easier to rank for and attract users closer to taking action, making them ideal for conversion-focused strategies. Specific keywords require a deeper understanding of the user’s needs and behaviours but can yield highly targeted traffic with better conversion rates.

A strong keyword strategy may include both general and specific keywords to create a balanced approach. General terms serve as a foundation to build visibility, while specific keywords can capture highly relevant traffic, converting visitors into customers or loyal readers.

How To Find the Best Keywords for Your Project

Finding the right keywords requires both creative thinking and analytical skills. The goal is to identify keywords that reflect what users are searching for and align closely with your project’s purpose.

• Keyword Research Tools: Start with powerful keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner. These tools provide insights into search volume, competition level, and related keywords, helping you understand what words or phrases are popular within your niche. Use these tools to gather a list of keywords matching your content goals.
• Audience Insights: Understanding your audience’s needs and search intent will significantly affect your keyword selection. Identify keywords that users might search for at different stages of their journey—whether they’re looking for information, comparing options, or ready to purchase. Conduct surveys, review customer feedback, or analyse comments to reveal valuable terms or questions that could turn into keywords.
• Trends and Seasonal Keywords: Keywords fluctuate in popularity, and tracking these trends can help you capture traffic when it matters most. Use Google Trends to detect seasonal keywords or emerging phrases relevant to your industry. For example, “best summer coffee blends” might see spikes in warmer months, providing a seasonal angle to your content strategy.

Combining these methods allows you to identify a well-rounded set of keywords that fits your project goals, from attracting awareness to driving conversions.

Analysing Your Competitors’ Keyword Choices

Understanding your competition’s keyword choices is critical to crafting a winning SEO strategy. This step isn’t about copying; it’s about discovering where competitors are strong, where they fall short, and where opportunities for your project lie.

• Identify Key Competitors: Begin by identifying your main competitors—those who rank well for similar keywords. SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs offer features to analyse competitor domains, showing you their top keywords, rankings, and content.
• Evaluate Keyword Gaps: Competitor research tools allow you to compare your keywords against those of competitors, revealing “keyword gaps”—terms they rank for that you’re missing. Filling these gaps can help you cover more ground in search results. Be mindful, however, of choosing only keywords that genuinely align with your project, as not all gaps are worth pursuing.
• Look Beyond the Top Competitors: Small or niche competitors can sometimes offer valuable insights into less obvious keyword opportunities. Their more specific, long-tail keywords may be ideal if your project targets a unique audience or sub-niche. This approach can lead to keywords with lower competition but high relevance.

Analysing competitors lets you gain a clearer picture of the landscape and can help you find areas where you can impact. When done right, this research provides a wealth of information to strengthen your keyword strategy and content positioning.

Recognising and Replacing Poor Keyword Choices

Even with careful planning, some keywords won’t perform as expected. Recognising poor choices early on and making adjustments is crucial to keep your strategy on track.

• Low-Performing Keywords: If a keyword brings minimal traffic or has high bounce rates, it may not match user intent. Tools like Google Analytics can help identify these low-performing keywords, indicating when a switch may be necessary. Look for patterns that reveal why users leave quickly or fail to convert.
• Check User Intent and Relevance: A keyword might appear promising but still fall short if it doesn’t align with what your users are truly looking for. If your content doesn’t satisfy their intent—whether informational, navigational, or transactional—it’s worth re-evaluating. Test content adjustments or try variations of the original keyword that may align better with user needs.
• Explore Related Keywords: Switching to related keywords, or LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing), can improve engagement by capturing slightly different but highly relevant searches. For example, if “affordable gym memberships” underperform, “cheap fitness subscriptions” might deliver better results.

Making adjustments is a natural part of SEO. Continually analysing performance helps you adapt your keyword strategy and maintain its effectiveness.

Keywords vs Entities: The Next Level of SEO

Advanced SEO isn’t solely about keywords; entities quickly become critical to effective search optimisation. Entities represent concepts, people, places, or ideas and go beyond the simple keywords model by providing a more nuanced understanding of search queries.

• What are Entities? An entity could be anything with a unique identity—like a brand, an individual, or a product. Google increasingly uses entities to understand content and provide more relevant search results. For instance, it understands “Einstein” not just as a name but as an entity connected to science, relativity, and theoretical physics.
• Entity-Based Optimisation: Instead of focusing solely on keywords, entity-based optimisation builds content around broader, semantically related concepts. This approach can enhance your content’s relevance and authority. For instance, if you’re optimising for “digital marketing”, mentioning associated entities like “content strategy”, “SEO techniques”, and “social media platforms” can strengthen your content’s relevance.
• Using Schema Markup for Entities: Schema markup is a form of structured data that helps search engines understand the entities in your content. Adding Schema markup can improve the likelihood of achieving rich SERP results, attracting more attention and clicks. For example, if your content covers the entity “London”, the schema might include details about related landmarks, culture, or demographics.

Entities allow advanced content creators to optimise beyond traditional keywords, providing a powerful way to build authority and improve search rankings. Understanding and leveraging entities can give you an edge over competitors as search engines evolve.

Bringing It All Together

Creating a laser-focused keyword strategy requires balancing precision with adaptability. The process is about constant evaluation and optimisation, from choosing between general and specific keywords to refining based on performance. By researching competitor strategies and understanding the role of entities, your SEO project gains the depth it needs to stand out in a crowded digital landscape. With a clear and strategic approach to keywords, you’ll be well-equipped to capture relevant traffic, improve engagement, and achieve better results for your project.