Search engine optimization (SEO) is becoming more and more popular these days as one of the best ways to get traffic.
While there are other methods to get traffic, there are at least two advantages of SEO.
The first one is it's free.
Once you rank for your target keyword, traffic will flow to your site and you don't need to spend any money for that.
The second advantage is it's stable.
The traffic level you get will be more or less the same over time.
This is different from other sources like social media traffic which is fluctuating.
With such advantages, it's clear that SEO is a favorite way to get traffic.
Unfortunately, there are many people who do SEO but don't get the results they want.
There are several possibilities why that happens, but here I would like to discuss the first mistake they might have made.
The mistake is choosing the wrong keyword.
Choosing the wrong keyword is like running to the wrong direction.
Even if you work hard, there is a good chance that you won't get the results you want.
There are two possible reasons why you choose the wrong keyword.
The first one is you choose a keyword that is too competitive.
Such a keyword may take years to rank for.
The second reason is choosing unprofitable keyword.
The keyword may be easy to rank for, but if nobody searches for it then you won't get traffic.
Or perhaps you get traffic, but it's the wrong traffic.
The traffic doesn't convert.
They don't buy your products or services.
So the first step in SEO is choosing the right keyword.
You must choose a keyword that is profitable but is within your ability to rank for.
You must choose a keyword that gives you quality traffic.
To choose the right keyword, you need to do a keyword research.
In your keyword research, you should think like your users or customers.
If you were they, what keywords would you use to search for your products and services? The obvious keywords might be too competitive, so you should be creative and find the long-tail keywords.
Relevant long-tail keywords are both profitable and relatively easy to rank for.
Once you come up with potential keywords, use keyword tools like Wordtracker to get more information about those keywords.
These tools can tell you the potential traffic of the keywords.
Next, don't forget to check your competition for the keywords.
What are the top ten sites? How good are they? Is it possible for you to beat them? Remember, your goal is to find keywords that are both profitable and conquerable.