Keyword Research & Analysis
It is vital to fully research the keywords/search terms that will drive traffic to your website before progressing too far with on-site and off-site SEO because the right keyword research is the solid foundation on which every SEO campaign should be built.
The right keywords are the ones that will lead the right visitors to your site – visitors interested in your product or service and with a high buying intent. The aim of every good digital marketing campaign is not just to find any visitors but those most likely to buy.
It is all too easy to find an internet marketing campaign that increases visits but those visits are primarily people simply seeking information and not intent on buying. So there needs to be a careful balance between creating useful, engaging content that builds trust between your business and potential customers and the content that leads to the completion of your business goal – whether that is the purchase of a product or service, email sign-up, registering for a newsletter or any other relevant action.
Without the relevant keywords and search terms any subsequent SEO efforts will be diluted or even wasted.
Finding the right keywords
Various software tools can be used to research different keyword/search term combinations and view the estimated traffic volumes for each one. The choice of keywords should balance terms with high search volumes (often as a long-term target), medium and low search volumes, which are often easier to rank highly for.
These low volume search terms are often referred to as “long-tail” keywords as they tend to be very much more specific, and longer, phrase-type searches.
So a primary set of keywords is established for which a website can achieve a high ranking. These are not always the most competitive keywords, but those most likely to increase visitor numbers to the website and which will be most likely to convert into sales or leads.
Once you have the initial draft of your keyword list you will need to assign each group of closely related keywords to a target landing page on your website. Bear in mind that you may need to create new pages or alter existing pages so that each Keyword Group has a distinct and unique landing page that can be optimised for that Keyword Group.
We are SEO Specialists and can identify the right keywords to drive more customers to your website. Find out how…
5 Steps To Creating Keyword Groups
Step 1: Idea Creation (“Brainstorming”)
Talk with friends, family and colleagues to find an initial list of search terms that potential customers might use. Include some 2-3 word phrases and also longer terms such as “How to find the right keywords”. Think about problems your products or services solve for your customers and consider those pain points when devising your initial list.
Step 2: Search active forums
If you can find forums relevant to your business you can check what the hot topics, problems and common questions are within your industry. You can then provide answers to those issues within a blog post and extend your online presence so that potential customers get to know about your business.
Step 3: Search social media
Search on social media using hashtags to find discussions relevant to your business. Check out what the well-known social media influencers in your market are talking about. What are their problems and pain points? Can you solve them with your products or services. Consider emotive search terms where relevant.
Step 4: Google’s Keyword Planner Tool
Add all your keywords, from the brainstorming, forum and social media searches (and anything else you can think of) to Google’s Keyword Planner tool. Let it do it’s work and come up with even more ideas for your keyword research and analysis. Check search volumes for all the terms on your list – for most businesses (but not all) any keywords with a search volume less than 100 can be eliminated from the list.
Step 5: People Also Asked / Related Questions
Whenever you enter a search onto Google you will see a list of similar or related queries under the heading “People Also Asked” or “Related Questions”. These queries are always worth considering as they often individually have low search volumes per month (and are, therefore, less competitive) but combined they can generate significant amounts of organic traffic. There are keyword research tools such as AlsoAsked that can help you identify more keywords of this type that might be relevant to your business. It’s important for this step to consider cumulative search volumes over a range of related keywords rather than individual keyword search volumes.
Some or even most of the keywords we’d like to use are really competitive. And we are in an industry with a lot of long established companies with recognisable brands. How can we find keywords that are actually relevant but that we have a chance of ranking for?
There are plenty of businesses in the same position but there are definitely ways to challenge the well-known brand names. Two ways are:
Good Luck!
Surely the concept of a “keyword” is no longer relevant with more of SEO being focused on content marketing? Aren’t long search phrases becoming the norm
It really depends Millton on the industry and the level of competition, but definitely we are moving our research and analysis away from “traditional” keywords (2 – 5 words) towards much more specific and much longer search phrases for some of our SEO campaigns. That approach has proved useful for small companies competing with well-known brands in competitive markets.