Keyword research is the process of identifying and analysing the specific words and phrases that people use when searching for information online. It is an essential part of search engine optimization (SEO) because it helps you understand what your target audience is searching for and allows you to optimise your website’s content accordingly. By conducting keyword research, you can identify high-potential keywords that have a good search volume and relatively low competition. This information can then be used to optimise your website’s content, meta tags, and other elements to improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site. Choosing the right keywords for your website involves considering factors such as relevance, search volume, competition, and user intent. It’s important to regularly conduct keyword research to stay updated with the latest trends and changes in search behaviour.
Why Keywords Are Important
Keyword research helps you find the best keywords to target and provides insights into your target audience’s Google searches. This informs content and marketing strategies, attracting more traffic. In the inbound methodology, content should align with what people want to discover, rather than what you want to tell them.
Marketing Trend
Keyword research is important for understanding marketing trends and creating content that matches what your audience is looking for.
More Traffic
Identifying the best fitting keywords for your content is crucial for improving your search engine rankings and attracting more traffic to your website. When you use relevant keywords that align with what people are searching for, search engines are more likely to rank your content higher in their results. This means that when users search for those keywords, they are more likely to find and click on your website. By optimising your content with the right keywords, you can increase your visibility and drive more organic traffic to your site.
Customer Acquisition
If your business has valuable content for other professionals, you can meet their needs and guide them through the buyer journey. Research popular keywords and address the questions your audience wants answers to. This will help you provide a call to action that leads them from awareness to purchase.
Keywords vs. Topics
Keyword research is still an important process in SEO, despite the evolving nature of the field. While keywords themselves may not hold as much weight in ranking well, understanding the intent behind those keywords is crucial. By conducting keyword research, you can gain insights into the topics people are interested in and how popular they are among your audience. This allows you to organise your content into relevant topics and determine which keywords to target. In essence, keyword research helps you align your content with the interests and needs of your target audience.
Relevancy
Google ranks content based on its relevance to the search query and the search intent of the users. Search intent refers to the underlying purpose or goal behind a search query. To rank well, your content needs to align with the search intent and provide the best value compared to other content available. If your content fails to meet the searchers’ needs or is of lesser value, it is less likely to rank higher in Google’s search results. Google aims to deliver the most relevant and valuable content to its users, so creating high-quality, relevant content is crucial for ranking success.
Authoritative
Google values authoritative sources and gives them more weight in search rankings. To become authoritative, you should focus on creating informative content for your website and promote it to earn social signals and backlinks. If you are not seen as authoritative in your industry or if the search engine results pages (SERPs) are dominated by well-established sources like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic, it may be more challenging to rank unless your content is exceptional. It’s important to strive for exceptional content and work towards building your authority in order to improve your chances of ranking higher in Google’s search results.
Volume
Ranking on the first page for a keyword is important, but it doesn’t guarantee traffic if nobody searches for that keyword. It’s similar to setting up a shop in a ghost town where there are no potential customers. The volume of searches for a keyword is measured by its monthly search volume (MSV), which indicates how many times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences. It’s crucial to target keywords with a significant search volume to ensure that your website attracts a substantial amount of traffic. By focusing on keywords with higher MSV, you increase the chances of driving more visitors to your site and reaching a larger audience.
How to choose relevant keywords for your SEO strategy
Keyword research is a crucial step in developing a successful online presence. It involves identifying the search terms that your target audience is using to find products or services like yours. By understanding these keywords, you can optimise your website and content to improve your visibility in search engine results.
1. Conduct keyword research to create a list of keywords.
To start picking the right keywords, you need to create a list of keyword ideas using keyword research. You can use a free keyword research tool like Keyword Surfer to speed up this process and find related keywords. Simply install the Chrome extension, enter your main keyword into Google, and you’ll see additional data on the search results page, including monthly search volume and traffic insights for each result.
2. Determine the keyword’s business value.
The business value of a keyword is determined by its relevance to your business and products/services. It’s pointless to publish posts that aren’t related to your business, even if they’re easy to rank for. To determine a keyword’s business potential, ask if your customers would be interested in it. Choose keywords that are a natural fit for your business and have high business potential for your target audience. Not all keywords are equal in business value, so prioritize those that are more directly aligned with your offerings.
3. Analyse keyword competition
Assessing the difficulty of ranking for a keyword is important to determine if it’s worth pursuing. Surfer provides a keyword difficulty score as a measurable metric in their Keyword Research tool, which is based on your website’s authority for that keyword. To find the keyword difficulty, enter your target keyword and country, and use the search bar to narrow down the most appropriate keyword phrase. The Keyword Research tool will show the relative keyword difficulty on a scale of easy-medium-hard, and provide a list of related keywords to include in your article. It’s important to remember that keyword difficulty should be used as a guideline, and to also target semantically related keyword phrases to demonstrate website authority.
4. Analyze the traffic possibilities
High search volume for a keyword doesn’t always translate to the most traffic for your web pages. Zero-click searches, where Google provides a quick answer to a query without the user having to click on a website, are becoming increasingly common. Surfer’s Keyword Research tool displays the potential traffic you can expect from a keyword cluster, in addition to keyword difficulty and search volume. Use the Total Traffic metric to choose the right keywords for SEO based on expected visitors to your pages. Don’t disregard keywords with zero search volume as they may still be popular, but use your judgment and research to determine their potential.
5. Specify keyword search intent
Identifying the search intent behind a keyword is important in creating content that satisfies a user’s search. The four types of search intent are informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. Knowing the search intent will help in creating the appropriate content for the chosen topic. It’s best to tap into successful existing content before writing a new article. The SERPs display the most successful pages on top, making it easier to identify the blog post type that Google prefers. The Keyword Research tool uses seed keywords to interpret SERP rankings and label keyword search intent. Inserting the right keywords and tracking a keyword list in an article can take time and effort, so using a content optimization editor like Surfer Content Editor is an easier option.
Conclusion:
The aim of selecting appropriate keyword terms for your brand is to connect with your target market and offer them useful content, goods, or services, not only to improve your search engine position. The link between your brand and potential buyers is created through keywords. At WOWIT, we know the power of keywords in the digital world, have the expertise and tools to help you maximise your potential. Let WOWIT find and utilise the keywords that will take your brand to new levels of online success. Don’t allow you research and SEO services to improve your brand’s online presence and provide significant results, get in touch with us as soon as possible.
