SEO

Ways to Perfect Your Keyword Research

DigitalMaas 5 mins read
Ways to Perfect Your Keyword Research

You probably hear this term quite a lot in the world of digital marketing; content is king and distribution is queen”, which blithely implies the importance of content in the digital space. And if you would like a complete royal analogy of SEO terms, keywords are the trusted advisors to these monarchs – your Sarah Churchill to Queen Anne or Thomas Cromwell to Henry VIII.

SEO Keywords determine how your content will be found in a search engine, and there are best keyword research practices to follow to make sure that you are targeting the right audience for your content. This is especially crucial for businesses reaching out to a specific market. It is essential that keywords must always be relevant to the industry you are part of and to the crowd you are trying to pitch. Establishing the terms you will use during the early stages of your campaign is a crucial step and a priority. So, if you are new to SEO or doing an overhaul of your current strategy, here are some of techniques and important factors we want you to consider on your next keyword research:

The purpose of your content

Knowing what goal you have for content and how is it going to be consumed by your visitor is a significant first step in discovering what your keywords will be. Deciding whether your content will educate, drive social engagement, or persuade people from making a purchase will help you shape your content strategy and move it to the right direction. And from a marketing perspective, keywords play a significant role in your branding. People will always remember and associate a brand based on the search terms they used to land on your website.

Your audience

Content is more than capable of generating leads and building a strong reputation for your business. And establishing your who your target audience will be for your content can help you reach these goals fast. If you are aiming for more conversions, then you should be keen on your audience buying traits and putting effort into researching their personas and profoundly understand how they make a purchase decision. Then you can start tailoring a content strategy based on these habits and cater to the keywords they use.

Your competition

In business, competition exists to challenge you and help you thrive under high-pressure and competitive circumstances. The same principle applies in the digital space; you always want to outrank your closest competitor and be the user’s top choice in search engines. Seizing up your competition is a classic trick in the SEO books that never fails to work. Identifying your market and its major players and how they fair in SERP rankings can help you decide if you want to go the same route and directly compete for the same keywords with a high commercial intent or dig deeper and take a different approach for your digital marketing campaign.

The right tool for your keyword research

Having the right resources for your keyword research can refine your list and find out which search terms are relevant not only to your industry but also, most importantly, your content. It can also help you decide which keywords are profitable based on the valuable insights these platforms provide.

Keyword Research Tool: SEMRush

Keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner and SEMRush can simplify the entire keyword research process for you and help you find profitable opportunities for your brand through these search terms and serve them to your chosen niche.

Long Tail vs Short Tail keywords

Recognising the difference between short and long tail keywords can streamline your keyword research process. To explain this succinctly, short tail keywords are broad and more general search terms that return a high volume of results and while long tail keywords are more specific queries consisting of 3-5 words and return less volume compared to its counterpart.

Example:

Gobstoppers = Short Tail

Where to buy Gobstoppers = Long Tail

The keywords “where to buy gobstoppers” has a higher intent thus yielding non-generic results and better-targeted traffic. How to determine which type of keywords to use in your content will depend mostly on your campaign objectives. If your goal is brand awareness and you want to bring more traffic to your website, then targeting a wider audience through short tail keywords could do just that. If you’re going to attract users that could potentially convert into a customer, using long tail terms in your content can be an ideal strategy for your content marketing campaign.

Check the progress of your keywords

Continuous tracking of the performance of your keywords will help you understand your efforts and the progress of your campaign. But first, you need to understand that keyword rankings can be extremely volatile and downright frustrating especially if your chosen keywords are very broad with a high degree of competitiveness. Ranking fluctuations can be reasonable most of the time and are caused usually by minor Google updates or your competition bumping you out of your previous spot, but a drastic change can mean severe issues you need to address. It is a good practice to monitor the progress weekly and regularly check Google Search Console for website errors.

Make improvements

Success doesn’t happen overnight – this is true in most SEO campaigns, and continuous improvements are needed if you are vying for that inevitable top spot and hold on to it for as long as you can. Search engines are continually updating its algorithm to improve the user experience further and staying vigilant and adhering to these updates is a must on your strategy. The relevancy of your content also matters – searching for opportunities on how to capture the interest of your target audience and learning current trends and buying behaviours customers can also help you further your keyword ranking efforts.

Do you need help with your keyword research and content curation? DigitalMaas provides keyword research and mapping services which include in-depth analysation of your existing content to make sure you are getting targeting the right audience for your business. Get started and sign up for a free site audit today!

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