Google keeps you on your toes!
Don’t you think so?
It makes frequent changes to it’s ranking algorithms. For some websites, it is a tiny tug of war that has ended but, for some, it can literally prove disastrous affecting the SERPs badly. However, one thing that has remained in control for most of the inbound marketers to optimize their website is the “Keyword Research”.
Though choosing keyword could be a daunting task for most of the content creators and SEO’s, each one of them has their own approach towards finding keywords. But, before you begin your keyword research it is necessary to answer three important questions:
Who you are? Who your customers are? What is your ultimate goal?
Know Your Purpose
When you are to hit a certain customer base, it is important that you understand why you are doing this. People generally bypass this process but, this helps to bridge the gap between what you want and what your audience wants.
Alas! Knowing your purpose paves the way for a successful online promotion. It helps to cultivate an online community for your customers.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is typically based on actual search terms that people enter in the search bar. It should form the basis for any online marketing campaign.
Satisfying users and search engines
It is important to develop an understanding of the market you are targeting specifically, and keyword research should be done accordingly. It’s a great way to craft a curated content that satisfies both the users and the search engines.
What, Which, and How should be kept in mind
Unleash the power of keywords as it helps in understanding the demand for your content and services in the online market. It actually gives you specific search data based on the search pattern. You are advised to emphasize more on the three questions:
What is being searched the most?
How many people are searching online?
Which is the preferred format, the information is requested?
Keyword Research is such a fun!
Yes, it’s absolutely true!
Once you get acquainted with the search pattern of the general public then, you can begin your keyword research to hone the insights that would help you build successful online campaigns. Believe it or not, your virtual voyage is surely going to be adventurous and a lot more fun.
So, welcome to the world of strategic keyword research!
Five Fold Path of Keyword Research to Attain the Online Grandiose
Now that you know what keyword research is all about, it’s time to understand a step by step approach for keyword research. You might have come across thousands of blogs on the internet that give you instructions regarding professional keyword research. However, that doesn’t mean all are wrong but, here is certainly a different rather a sapient approach towards finding keywords.
Your keywords research will depend on the following:
1. Type of website considering the number of pages, content quality, and authority.
2. Your ultimate goal considering the exposure, traffic, branding, leads, and sales.
3. Availability of resources, and the budget.
4. Type of industry and level of competition in the market.
So, taking a different route than usual, here are the steps that can improve your search traffic:
1. Build Your Ground
Start off your keyword research with finding seed keywords as these form the foundation of the whole process of keyword research. It helps you identify your customer base that defines your niche. Moreover, it lessens the burden of brainstorming as to how your product will be searched.
For instance, you will soon be launching your online store with Apple accessories. Then, what would be your seed keywords? The first keywords that come to mind are :
Apple accessories, Gadgets for Apple, Apple add ons.
2. Talk One Idea, Breath One Idea, Sleep One Idea
After that, you have worked on your seed keywords, generate keyword ideas and find the best match for the keywords. That’s when you break the ice and come up with a list of relevant keywords. However, there are different ways to do this:
You own a website then, it might be ranking on Google for a few keywords. See online what keywords your website is already ranking for. You can do it with the help of “search analytics” in the Google search console. It would be a great start for sure!
Find what keywords your competitors are ranking for, chances are that they have already done keyword research part for you. You will just cherry pick the best ones for your own website. You can use Ahrefs Site Explorer and browse the ones that your competitors are ranking for.
If you aspire to be the leader in your niche market, then you have to put in some extra effort. Find the keywords that none of your competitors are targeting. You are advised to make use of keyword research tools such as:
http://soovle.com/
https://ubersuggest.io/
http://answerthepublic.com/
3. Sort the Wheat From the Husk
When you are into execution then, you find yourself caught up in a dilemma as to which keywords to shortlist. During the process, you come across thousands of keywords and that’s when you need a bunch of keyword research tools to shortlist the best keywords. Understand the keyword matrices to uncover the competitive research advantage.
Keyword matrices consider the following:
1. Search volume of the keywords
2. Clicks and amount of traffic that you get on your website
3. Traffic potential for long tail keywords
4. Gauging keyword difficulty through generating quality backlinks
The commercial intent of keywords that is CPC
4. Sometimes Groupism is Not a Bad Practice At All!
A Are you ready with your list of keywords?
After that you have worked on different keyword matches and generated a list of keyword ideas then you need to group the best ones based on the keyword matrices. Keywords are grouped with the objective of giving them a definite structure.
Now the question is: How do you bring that structure?
B. Group by Main Topic
With the intent of structuring your keyword list, you need to find keywords that are contextually related to your main topic. Target these keywords with a single page under the main topic or your parent topic. You don’t need to create a different page for these keywords rather you target them through the single post by mapping them to different website pages.
C. Know the Searchers Intent
After you have grouped the related keywords under the parent topic and have directed to different pages of your website, you have to understand the searcher’s intent. Keep check of the search query that reveals the searcher’s expectations. The best way to start with this is to Google it and see what comes on at the top.
D. Which Keywords Drive the Best ROI?
Now that you know the intent of the searcher, try to figure out which intent drives ROI for your business. Here you are mainly concerned with the search traffic and brand awareness. So, you need to consider keywords that fetch tons of visitors to your website.
5. Know the Difference Between “Important” and “Urgent”
Prioritizing your keywords is the final step in the process of keyword research. Here are some important questions that you need to consider while you are generating keyword ideas, understanding the keyword matrix and finally grouping them. Let’s begin with the interrogation:
What is the approximate traffic a group of keywords would drive?
What is the level of competition and how to rank them?
What are the resources required to build a competitive page and promote it?
What is the conversion rate and what is the estimated ROI of the potential search traffic?
Always remember, that search result is the prerequisite but the best ROI is what matters at the end.
Take Home Notes
This was the process that was quite different from the usual but, lays the foundation for the procedure that can be universally applicable for most of the websites.
