Bob Bentz, one of the chosen SEO experts & President at Purplegator, responded:
“We usually ask the client to provide us with up to 7 keywords each in a gold, silver, and bronze category, so 21 total.
Keep in mind that these are just top level keywords. After we’ve spent a few months optimizing for these keywords, there is an opportunity to target long tail keywords that may have less search volume, but do have significant opportunity due to less competition. Blog posts and backlinks to articles focusing on long tail keywords work wonders for less competitive keywords.
You can’t possibly take all of the keywords that the site ranks in the top 100 for and try to optimize all of them. You would make little progress and wouldn’t get any sleep. Moreover, clients tend to be impatient when it comes to SEO so looking to optimize a smaller number allows them and us to zero in on those that we have the best chance to move up in the SERPs.”
How Many Keywords Should You Monitor?
Probably the biggest question, when it comes to keyword tracking, is how many keywords to monitor? SEOs need to find that sweet spot where they are tracking the important terms and not getting overwhelmed by the volume. A few pieces of research and some expert opinions should shed some light on how to decide the right number of keywords to track for optimal SEO performance.
Typical Ranges from the Nozzle Study
According to Nozzle, a study indicated that a majority of SEOs track an average of 20 to 30keywords to track per client, said Bob Bentz, a key figure in SEO strategy. This range is always recommended because it can allow one to target a few high priority target keywords while not overburdening the SEO process with an extreme number of test variables. You have a small set of keywords to monitor, whereby you’re able to focus your attention with regard to performance and make the necessary changes rather than spreading resources too wide.
The Gold-Silver-Bronze Approach
Another good option for organizing target keywords is to divide them into primary, secondary, and tertiary categories, or gold, silver, and bronze, respectively. A setup like this will help the SEOs decide upon which keywords to monitor. By starting with the gold level keywords to track which are those that have the highest search volume and have a potential to drive traffic you start off with what can bring in the most immediate benefit. Once Gold keywords are optimized, you will then go ahead and optimize for silver and bronze level keywords which are usually longer tail keywords to track.
The Gold-Silver-Bronze method will help you avoid the trap of spreading your focus too thin across all keywords. You can focus on a few target keywords where you might efficiently optimize your content and SEO strategies, before expanding to monitoring a wider set of terms.
The Role of Long-Tail Keywords
The most significant parts of any keyword tracking strategy are including long-tail keywords to monitor. While these normally constitute the lower search volume, they are highly specific to the product and yield higher conversion rates. Long-tail target keywords ensure that tracking phrases will be what audiences are actually looking for thus, they can convert into leads or sales.
Inclusion of long-tail keywords to track in your SEO strategy supplements the work you will be doing while optimizing for bigger, monitored high-traffic keywords. As you optimize your content with target keywords in a larger category, the long-tail helps you to reach deeper and capture traffic within niche segments of that topic. It also tends to be less competitive, and with these long-tail keywords to monitor, you will have the added advantage of ranking sooner.
Factors Influencing the Number of Keywords Monitored
How many keywords to track is determined by several factors, which could be business objectives, budget constraints, industry competition and website size.
Client Objectives and Budget
The Keyword tracking would directly depend on the objectives and budget that a client would have. This means that while a client with wider business goals or a bigger marketing budget may go ahead to monitor a larger set of target keywords for better reach, the smaller businesses or those with very limited resources should stick with fewer keywords to monitor, focusing on high-conversion terms and long-tail keywords to track.
Industry and Competition
In highly competitive niches, the requirement for more keywords to monitor goes up. Considering the fact that too many businesses target the same terms for their searches, SEO efforts should be focused on a wider range of target keywords for better visibility. That means, with more keywords to track, catching more varieties of searches is most likely to happen, which gives an opportunity for tremendous success in competitive markets.
Website Size and Scope
How many keywords to use is also dependent on the size of the website. With so many product pages, services on offer, or blog topics specifically addressing particular websites, it isn’t possible to avoid more keywords to track. While large websites may have to track hundreds of target keywords across a lot of categories, small sites may have to track 10–20 high impact keywords they need to monitor.
Tool Capabilities and Limits
Different SEO tools are designed to handle different capabilities and constraints. Some SEO tools allow you to track hundreds of keywords to monitor, though some are limited by the plan you are on. When assessing keyword tracking tools, you want to take into consideration the tool’s ability to handle large numbers of target keywords and its cost. You need to choose the one that fits your objectives in line with your budgetary estimates, that you may not overload your resources.
Balancing Quantity and Quality in Keyword Monitoring
When determining how many keywords to track, a fine balance exists between quality and quantity. You would never like your strategy to get clogged with so many keywords such that it puts you into a state of analysis paralysis, where you are overwhelmed by data with little ability to act effectively. High quality target keywords aligned with business goals will more than likely drive the best return on investment.
Avoiding Overload
Too many keywords to monitor, make the SEO efforts suffer. You may track hundreds of keywords, which sometimes get out of hand, to keep up with the data and make effective optimization efforts. With smaller target keywords, the focus brings much needed clarity and direction, while making very specific changes to the website or content. The goal is to avoid getting overwhelmed and focus on what truly drives SEO success.
Prioritizing for Progress
SEO expert Bob Bentz added that instead of acquiring more keywords, a company should invest their resources in high impact target keywords. In this way, a company can go far ahead, having less to track and give the required attention to each term. One can also invest time in optimizing just a few keywords and scale up to more keywords for tracking with much better results.
Incremental Expansion
More importantly, while improving SEO performance, it is during this phase that the number of keywords to track should start growing, too. Begin with just a few target keywords until your optimization strategy yields results and gradually scale up the tracking effort thereafter. This way, each set of keywords to monitor is prioritized and optimized effectively before moving on to the next group.
How to Determine the Right Number of Keywords for Your Website
There is no one size fits all in understanding how many keywords to keep track of. Knowing this requires quite a bit of precision while considering business goals, the competition found within an industry, and site architecture.
Assessing Goals and Priorities
Start with aligning your keyword selection to the short term and long term objectives of the business. Target keywords should be selected according to their probability to create traffic and convert leads to be able to support marketing goals. By analyzing what your website aims to achieve whether that’s gaining brand visibility or converting visitors into customers you can better determine how many keywords to track.
Analyzing Search Intent and Opportunity
But when determining how many keywords to monitor, consider the search intent behind each term. Prioritize keywords to track that offer achievable rankings and a significant opportunity to impact your bottom line. In general, the best keywords to monitor closely are those with high search volume that also relate well with user intent.
Collaborating with Clients
Involving clients in choosing keywords is a good way to connect their expectations with your SEO strategy. Discuss with a client which target keywords are of more importance for them and make sure the keywords to monitor reflect their business priorities. In such a way, you will definitely track the most relevant keywords to monitor and stand aligned with the client’s goals.
Conclusion
Finding a balance in keyword monitoring is an art that will assure success in SEO. Tracking proper numbers of keywords to monitor allows targeting high-impact terms without being overwhelmed. The Gold-Silver-Bronze approach, put together with proper consideration for customer objectives, competition, and website size, will help optimize keyword tracking strategies.
Evaluate your current keyword tracking strategy and experiment with new approaches to determine how many keywords to monitor effectively for your website’s success. Have you found a method that works well for tracking keywords? Share your experiences and insights about keyword tracking in the comments below!
Did you know that almost 80% of online stores are using at least one tool for marketing automation for ecommerce. These tools have completely transformed
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Did you know that almost 80% of online stores are using at least one tool for marketing automation for ecommerce. These tools have completely transformed...
Behavioral marketing is an approach based on consumer data and insights that delivers more personalized marketing messages. It analyzes customer behaviors...
