For online marketers to boost their business, they need the right equipment for the well-being of their website. One of the best practices to kick-start and expand your business is by search engine optimization or SEO, the process of making adjustments to increase a website’s possibility of being ranked for relevant queries in the search engine results page(SERP) within Google or any other search engine.
Most website owners believe that Keyword research is the backbone of a successful SEO. To be at the top of the competition for search volume, you need to choose just the right keywords. The performance of your SEO and website traffic relies on it. Besides, you will find data that will help you determine which of your keywords are most flourishing, and which ones need more effort.
However, doing keyword research is pretty hard, and if you do it in a very wrong process, things will go downhill for your business. What makes it exceedingly difficult is the fact that search engines like Google have a regularly evolving behavior. For example, Google makes 500 to 600 algorithm changes every year, and if you can’t keep up with that pace, you will find your site in the very last spots of SERPs.
So, what do you do to avoid that?
Choose the right keywords!
Step-by-step guide for Keyword Research
Brainstorming
To have a solid understanding about the sort of data people need at each stage of their interaction with you, you need to know your niche. But if you don’t, there is a second choice for you: wear the shoes of the searchers. Think about what you would type in the search bar if you were looking for the products and services that are on your website. Think about the terms they will use. Ask yourself: “How does my audience search for these products and services?”
Answering this question is the best head-start for your research process.
Keyword Discovery
As a business owner, you probably have several keywords that you would like to rank for already. However, if you really want to get competitive, you would want more than that. How? You can use keyword research tools. Enter those keywords you have into a keyword research tool to find average monthly search volume and keywords that are related. These keyword research tools will also show you popular questions and topics for your content that you might have not noticed. Even if you definitely want to target words that your audience is searching for, in some cases, it is also more advantageous to aim for terms with lower search volume because they’re far less competitive for others.
Understanding the competition
Make a record of your foremost competitors and visit their websites to know what are their target keywords. Study their content and view their meta-tags to help distinguish the keywords they are targeting. Looking at your competitor’s target keywords will not only help you see what you could be missing but also help expand your list of keywords.
Also, you need to concentrate on your Competitive Power. Competitive Power is the measure of your site’s capacity to rank for competitive keywords, based on your past performance driving organic traffic. The higher the measurement, the more easily you can rank for more competitive keywords with your site.
Understanding the long tail keywords
The difference between head terms and long-tail keywords is that head terms are keywords phrases that are commonly shorter and more general. They are typically just one to three words long, depending on who you are talking to. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases that usually combine three or more words or phrases. This type of keyword tend to boast lower search volumes, they generally drive more valuable traffic, are typically less competitive, and simpler to rank well on. To specify your website’s product or service, choose long tail keywords. Even if head keywords are better for long-term, traffic-centric strategies, you still need long tail keywords because both, in some combination, will give the best overall outcomes.
Analyzing results
After you choose your keywords, never forget to monitor them and analyze the outcomes. There are usually trending keywords or phrases, along with new keywords your competitors may be targeting.
Also, using your keywords wherever you can is very important, too. Put your keywords into blog posts, social media posts, and your website’s content so that it will be easier for your target audience to find their way to your website.
Congrats!
Now you know how to reveal what your target audience is looking for, how to find the right keywords, and why you need to monitor them. When you earn more authority in the SERPs, you will notice that you can add even more keywords to your lists to tackle as you work on sustaining your current visibility, and then this will help you develop in new fields.
