Keyword research is essential for your SEO strategy – that is no longer debatable. It is not just about ranking highly for keywords, but also about ranking highly for “good” keywords. This is where keyword research comes in as it will help optimize your marketing strategy.
What is it all about?
Keyword research is the process in which you sift through all the keywords out there to find the most relevant for your site which to bring in the highest traffic with the lowest competition.
What can Keyword Research do for you?
1. Generate traffic – The best indicator that a keyword is good is if it has a lot of traffic. This can be measured by “average monthly volume” (AMV). It’s a no-brainer that keywords with a higher search volume will drive more traffic to your site.
2. Avoid competition – The goal here is to find the keywords with the lowest competition; one way you can gauge this is by using Google’s Keyword Planner. This doesn’t specifically show competition but shows the relative interest of advertisers which is a good indicator of a keyword’s competitiveness.
SEO difficulty is also something to keep in mind as it is best to target keywords that you have a high chance of ranking for. A site like KWFinder gives keywords a difficulty score out of 100, letting you know which keywords to pursue and which to avoid.
3. Understand the competition – It is worth remembering that search results also show adverts and related questions before the organic results, so even ranking in the first place can leave you halfway down the page. A tool like Ahrefs can show you how the results will be displayed. However, people tend to trust organic searches more, so you don’t need to worry too much about all the filler results.
Understanding which keywords your competitors are using is very useful as you can see who they are targeting and the type of content they’re creating.
4. Target high converting keywords – There are two types of keywords, Head Keywords (with one or two words) and Long Tail Keywords (with three or more words). Long Tail Keywords are preferable as they will have less competition, are more relevant for your site and better target search intent.
5. Generate content – You may come across keywords that are great, but just not relevant enough for your site. You should still hang on to them as they can be used to inspire future content.
6. Target new keywords – Most Keyword tools will offer you related keywords when you do your research; this can be a great way to expand your keyword list and give you more chances of finding keywords with high AMV and low competition.
7. Understand trends – This can shape your content strategy as knowing when a keyword’s AMV peaks can tell you when the best time to post is.
And there you have it, all the reasons keyword research needs to be a priority. It’s not just about the quantity of keywords, but the quality of the ones you choose. This is also an ongoing process, so stay on top of your keyword research, and the results will speak for themselves.