Why Research Keywords and Do They Still Matter?

Posted on by Marms

It’s no surprise that one of the most talked-about SEO practices is using keywords for your website. Read any SEO article, whether beginner or expert, and there will undoubtedly be a section on learning to research keywords and how important they are. But do they really still matter? How powerful are using the right keywords? For example, let’s say that you’re a brand new small business in Durham, NC, specializing in highly advanced eyewear technology. By researching keywords and understanding the right ones to target and how to use them properly, you can begin to make the most out of Durham SEO to get your website and your product to the top of search engine results. 

Why Research Keywords? 

Keyword research isn’t just about SEO. It is the essential foundation for digital marketing practices. Keywords not only determine what your business is known for. They explain where your traffic comes from and assist in organic search traffic growth. Keyword research allows you to use the right keywords, which then provides you the knowledge of what content to market and becomes the blueprint for all of your online marketing efforts. Keywords drive every decision you make and even affects everything down the line, making it more efficient as time passes. 

Without the right keywords? You can’t drive traffic. Without traffic, you don’t generate any sales, and without sales, you have zero return on investment. 

Where to Begin Keyword Research? 

  • Find out what keywords you already rank for and see who you are competing against. 
  • Pay attention to search engines, primarily the autocomplete tool, which will often show you the most popular search for any keyword. 
  • Make a list of important, relevant keywords that describe your brand, business, or product. Using the eyewear technology example, some keywords you might list could be: “smart eyewear technology,” “future eyewear technology.” 
  • Use tools like Google Analytics Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and other Keyword tools to help generate the right keywords and narrow it down. For example, think of the simple keyword ‘eyewear.’. When you search that term, you’ll see it’s prevalent and a heavily used term. However, since the keyword is such a high volume, it would be unlikely your business would generate any traffic because of such a broad keyword. You need to narrow the keyword, such as “brand name smart glasses” or “smart glasses 2021.” 
  • Learn about long-tail keywords and begin using them not just in content but also in meta-data, titles, headings, and sub-headings. 
  • Get to know your target audience and website users. Search for terms as you think they might. Understand your users’ search intent—what questions are users asking you about your product, brand, or service you provided, and how would you best answer that? 

Reasons Why Keywords Still Matter

Keywords still matter because search engines still rely on the users and their search behavior to help determine what makes a term rank. Because of this, as search engine algorithms change, evolve, and become more intelligent, SEO factors like keywords will still define search engine results page landscapes even as they continue to change. 

Keywords still matter to search engines, professionals, and beginner entrepreneurs alike. They provide clues about whom a customer base is, what they want, how to meet their needs better, and give a bullseye to draw the right customers to their content and products.  At its core, researching your keywords and using the right combination of them provides you a powerful market research tool that can benefit you, your website, and your business for many years to come. 

The Simplicity of Cloud Hosting

Posted on by Marms

Many businesses outsource the hosting of company sites due to the complex nature of this process. A simple change when it comes to a server environment could potentially crash your website, and this certainly hurts business. While most dedicated and shared hosting environments have become more comfortable to use, they still pale in comparison to cloud hosting environments. With easy to use options such as the AS400 cloud, businesses have regained control of the hosting of these websites and have little to no issues nowadays. As technology advances over time, complexity on the developer-end often creates a simpler environment for the end-user. Ease of use is undoubtedly the case for these new hosting environments that both individuals and companies can access.

Managing Cloud Dashboards

Regardless of the cloud hosting environment, your company decides to pursue, the usability of the cloud dashboards will undoubtedly be refreshing. Gone are the days of outsourcing these processes due to the complexity and not having a handle on how hosting works. From this cloud management dashboard, you will also be able to scale the amount of impact you have on the hosting environment. If the business is moving slower, feel free to scale back the amount of data you need from the cloud and reduce your monthly bill. Conversely, if your business needs more space, the opposite is possible from this dashboard also. Not being beholden to physical servers has opened the door to many possibilities in terms of hosting websites.

Manage Your Business Data Efficiently

Posted on by Marms


Storage and management of your business’s information don’t have to be a laborious chore. There is a wide range of solutions that can help you organize the essential info you need to operate. Portable hard drives, NAS systems, and data warehousing can reduce the time spent on this task.

Portable Options

If your operation is still in the growing stages, or the amount of material you need to save is not that great, portable hard drives are an excellent way to maintain essential documents. They are available in different capacities and can easily be transported to and from the workplace. Multiple workstations can also have access to a single drive when you attach them via USB to a wireless router on your network. This is suitable for a small business with a few employees.

In-House Networking

Network-attached storage is becoming popular because of its low profile and upgradable characteristics. A NAS system utilizes a central bay that is home to several individual hard drives. The drives are removable and can be swapped out when needed. When set up correctly, all users on a network can work with files. A system can also be operated remotely simply by logging in to the home network using the right credentials. Some of the attractions to this choice are that it doesn’t need an IT team to set it up and it can be configured to your specifications.

Using the Cloud

The convenience of cloud storage is unmatched when it comes to larger businesses. It is able to be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection by many people at the same time. Saved items are synced with designated devices immediately across all platforms, and compression technology allows an exceptional amount of data to be cataloged off-site. Security is also an advantage when using the cloud because of its off-site location.