What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the task of analyzing what search terms people will enter into a search engine that could lead them to your product or service, or your competitors, and is always the first step in utilizing search engine optimization. Keyword research will determine, among other things, the keyword difficulty, help to broaden the number of keywords to target, and learn how many queries.
How important is keyword research?
It is critical as it is the road map to search engine optimization as well as the content on the website. Keyword research is vital in formulating a plan to create content. The content on the website shouldn’t be about what you want to tell your audience. The content needs to be about what the audience wants to know or find. It doesn’t matter if you are writing a blog with hundreds of articles or a one page informational website offering a service or one simple product. What you glean from the research tells you what keywords to focus on for titles of pages or articles, descriptions of products, how to attribute images, and myriad other important factors.
For SEO, it is the first step. A good SEO agency will do their own keyword research and then consult with the client so they can add any ideas. No one knows your business better than you so your input is important. This is where it starts. Without it, everyone is wasting their time and your money.
How to research keywords?
You have to think about user intent. You have to get inside the thinking of the people who you want to visit your website. If you only focus on your industry slang then you could be missing out on the uneducated customer. The customer that really needs guidance to make a purchase or a decision. Industry terminology is acceptable to show your expertise but there are always a handful of keywords that will drive traffic to your website that your competition may not have targeted.
The first step is to make a list of search terms and relevant topics to your website. Do a Google search for those keywords and topics and take note of what websites are coming up on the first page of Google. Add to the list any other topical terms or phrases that they are using in their descriptions of their website and products. The list can be as long as you want but you should have at least eight or ten keywords. If not, start again.
Next, find an online tool that will help you assess the list. Louisville SEO Strategies uses ahrefs but there are a number of free tools available. SEMRush and Spyfu offer free but limited help with keyword research. These tools should add to your list. Your goal is to use these tools to narrow down the list. You want the keywords that still get some volume in search but have low to mid difficulty to rank. Take the shortened list and use it for titles of pages, descriptions, attributes for images…etc. Weave the rest of the list into the content on your website. Don’t keyword stuff. It has to make sense and feel natural. The keywords should also be used for social media marketing. Mix them in.
This list is just the beginning for SEO. When you decide to hire a SEO company, you can test their mettle by asking for their list of keywords and comparing. Their list doesn’t have to match perfectly but if it is way off, you should be skeptical.
Keyword research can feel like an overwhelming task. It does take practice and experience to do it the right way. Call us at 502-383-2124 for a free website consultation so that we can compare keywords.