Keyword research is absolutely essential if you’re doing paid search, but it can also be a great tool for organically boosting your search engine rankings. A keyword strategy can help you create content that attracts people to your site and converts them into paying customers. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Start with what your audience needs. As always, the first step is to get into your customers’ minds. Think about your buyer personas, what they need, and what problems they need to solve. Write a list of words and phrases you would search in their situation. Search those terms yourself and see what comes up. Check out Google’s suggested searches to see related topics.
- Use a keyword tool to get data on the words you have and find new ones. Different keyword tools do different things, but you should be able to see search volume, competitiveness, and related words no matter which tool you choose. Play around with several tools to see which one(s) suit your needs. Google’s keyword planner is free if you have an Adsense account. Moz’s Keyword Explorer is loaded with features, but it’s pricey. Wordstream’s Free Keyword Research Tool is both free and good. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of choices; which one is best depends on your unique needs and goals.
- Focus on volume and competitiveness levels that makes sense. To decide what keywords you want to rank for, you must weigh volume (how many people are searching that word) against competitiveness (how many companies are trying to rank for it). You need enough people to be searching for it to be worth your while, but not so many that you can’t compete with larger companies. Basically, if the volume is too low, no one will find your site by searching; if it’s too high, it will be extremely hard to stand out. The perfect balance for you will depend on other factors that influence rankings, such as how long your website has been around, how much traffic it already gets, and how much authority it is perceived to have. It also depends on your overall business plan and marketing goals. When you’re starting out and trying to establish authority, a good strategy may be to use keywords with less competition. An oft-cited (anecdotal) sweet spot is 500-25,000 searches a month, but, again, there’s no one approach that will work best for everyone.
- Keep seasonal fluctuations mind. If you sell Halloween costumes, the search volumes for your words will not be the same in May as they are in October. Plan your research in a way that makes sense with your sales cycles.
- Check out the competition. If you search the keyword you want to rank for and the first page of search results has Amazon, Target, and Walmart, you’re probably going after too popular a term that you’re not going to be able to rank for. Think realistically about the competition for your words. You can still rank on page one, but you’re probably going to need a different word or phrase to do so. And while you’re on a keyword planning site, don’t forget to type in the URLs of your real world competitors and see what words they’re ranking for.
- Consider keywords in terms of the buyer’s journey. Provide what your customer needsat the time they’re making the search. Someone searching for “restaurants near me” is ready to buy a meal, and should land on a page where they can actually make a purchase. That page is where those keywords should appear. Someone searching for “benefits of therapy” is trying to make a decision about whether to go to therapy. They should land on good content that establishes you as an authority and provides education and comfort. Match your keywords to the content most likely to help the person searching with what they’re trying to do in the moment.
- Whatever your keyword strategy, content is king. Remember, the most important thing you can do to organically boost your search rankings is provide interesting and useful content to your target audience. Your keyword research will help you generate ideas about what your audience needs to know. One great place to find ideas for content is Answer the public. Membership is pricey, but you can use it for free a few times a day. Type in a keyword you want to rank for and it will show you what questions the public is asking about it. Writing posts that answer these questions is a great way to bring in more traffic.
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