Companies spend a lot of time researching the right related keywords, coming up with a whole new subset. Things don’t have to be this hard. Your related keywords could be right on your doorstep.
Often, your related keywords will be an extension of your main keyword’s topic. For example, if you sell computer hardware, one of your main keywords could be ‘computer parts’. Related keywords for this could be ‘computer spares’ and ’second hand computer’. Before you go too far with discovering these new sets of keywords you could use, it’s a good idea to examine things a little closer to home by rearranging your existing keywords.
There are some very common methods users use when altering their searches slightly, including word reordering and adding or removing punctuation and words. There are quite a few more sophisticated ways users modify their searches. You can talk to our experts at SEO Consult about your keyword options when you’re designing your keyword list.
Cutting words off
Users frequently change words through abbreviation or stemming. ‘Stemming’ is when a word is cut down to its basic component, like reducing ‘dancing’ to ‘dance’. When users stem they are trying to cover all bases. Conversely, users often abbreviate words because they know that the search engine is smart enough to know what they mean. In either case, a website that includes the full and foreshortened versions of the keywords is more likely to appear higher in the search engine results pages.
The long and short of it: substrings and superstrings
Users are increasing their awareness of how the search engines work, and substrings are a symptom of this. Perhaps this is due to users getting used to Google’s predictive text in the search box. With the confidence that the search engine is able to predict what they want, users will shorten their queries to the first few words, like ‘is there danger Florida’ instead of ‘is there danger in Florida of cyclones’. This is a substring. Superstrings of words are also used, with users typing in a very specific query of six or more words. This long-tail search needs to be taken into account.
Don’t overlook your acronyms
Anyone involved in the SEO world is all too familiar with acronyms. The search engine optimisation industry is full of acronyms, and the experts know that all of them have to be expanded upon. The same goes for your site. Regardless of how common the acronym is, if it’s one of your keywords, you should include its full version too. The same goes for the opposite direction. If your industry or business occasionally uses an acronym, you should ensure that acronym is included among your related keywords.
Keep your domain in mind
Users will also type in your domain. Sometimes it’s because they’re trying to find out if your site’s trustworthy, and sometimes it’s because they can’t be bothered typing it into the browser direct. Your domain is covered, of course, but the shortened versions might not be. It can be a smart idea to include shortened versions of your site address as keywords.
