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Whether business is booming or you’re going through a quiet patch, maintaining a continuous keyword strategy is crucial in making sure your content is easy to find and seen by all the right people. It’s one of several strands of SEO; a concept we’re going to be unpicking over the next five weeks in our new SEO Support Series.
Because SEO is full of complementary layers; there is no quick fix to making yourself visible in a crowded digital space.
And that’s why we’re breaking it down into five easy to digest steps, helping you to boost your traffic and connect with your target market.
Keyword research remains one of the most consistent contributors to SEO and a core tool for inbound marketing.
Essentially, keywords are the word and phrases that people search for, and those that describe what it is you are writing about. They draw a line between your content and your audience, showing you what is popular and what your readers deem important.
Keywords tend to be broken down into three different categories:
Head keywords: usually 1 or 2 words with a high search volume
Body keywords: 2 to 3 word phrases with a good search volume (neither high or low)
Long tail keywords: 4 or more words linked together with a low search volume
An SEO keywords example could translate into:
Head keywords: Website design
Body keywords: WordPress website design
Long tail keywords: Bespoke WordPress website design in Hampshire
The further you go along, the more specific your search will get.
But, how do you go about choosing a key phrase in the first place?
Step 1: Make a list of all the topics that your business taps into.
Initially, it’s all about looking inwards.
Create a list of every single subject, service or item related to your business and brand. Start wide, but be prepared to cut it right down; ideally you want to end up with 5 – 10 topic clusters that you can tailor your search ranking for.
Consider your best-selling products or services, or the topics that come up most frequently in sales conversations and pitches. Once you’ve defined your most important themes, you can then use them as the basis for your keyword research.
Step 2: Remove yourself from the conversation and think like a buyer.
You’ve looked inwards. Now it’s time to look outwards.
You need to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes; what are they searching for? What do they want to know? Where is their train of thought winding?
Play around with what they might type into Google if they wanted to find your product or service. It may help to bring other people into this step; family, friends and even past or current clients can provide a clear insight into what they might think of when they consider your offering.
Step 3: Compare this data to related search terms on Google.
Have you ever noticed the suggested search terms that pop up in the search bar when you type something into Google? Or the “searches related to” box at the bottom of the page? These aren’t just random ideas plucked out of thin air. They’re driven by actual user behaviour and are a handy, speedy way to collate immediate information about related keyword phrases.
Use the information you’ve started to build around your keywords to see what other words and phrases your ideal customers are looking for related to those topics.
This is genuine evidence of what your audience wants to find out more about. Answer that need.
Step 4: Look at what your competition is doing.
While there is nothing to say that your competitors are doing things *right*, taking a closer look at how they are utilising keywords can be a useful way to re-evaluate your own.
It’s a two pronged approach; if your competitors are ranking highly for certain keywords on your list, it’s worth putting the time and effort into maximising your own reach on those phrases. Likewise, if there are terms they aren’t targeting at all, it could offer you a brilliant opportunity to really own that space.
You could identify their keywords by reading through their content and viewing their meta tags (more on metadata in a future article!), or you could use a tool such as SEMrush to pull a report of all top keywords from any given domain.
Although you don’t want to be influenced too strongly by your competition (after all, it’s all about being unique and authentic to your own brand values), this is an important step to make sure you aren’t missing out on any major areas.
Step 5: Use a mix of keyword forms.
We highlighted the three main keyword categories earlier in the article, but it bears repeating: do not focus solely on just one category.
In fact, if anything, draw more of your attention into your long-tail keywords.
Why? Because this is where you can really niche down and mark out your ideal customer. While they tend to result in lower search volumes, they are typically less competitive and far more tailored to relevant traffic. They are therefore perfect for honing in on your specific products or services.
In a nutshell, it is the long-tail keywords that tend to lead to higher conversion rates; aka, the goal we’re all aiming for.
Step 6: Gather more keyword data through external tools.
The battle for the best keyword research tool is a topic of great debate. We’ve all got our “go to” favourites (some being free and others paid) and they all serve a huge benefit to your SEO research.
The great thing about them is they do the hard work for you. Not only will they line up all relevant keywords, but they can show you their volume, trends, competition similar keywords and associated long-tail phrases.
A few of the top keyword research tools include:
You could choose to focus on just one tool or create an amalgamation of all your findings; whatever is most resourceful and beneficial to you.
Step 7: Monitor and update your keywords regularly.
You didn’t think you were going to do all that research once and that was going to be it, did you?
Whatever your focus, you need to stay relevant.
That means factoring in the time to check in on how you’re ranking for your chosen keywords, and keeping an eye on whether people are actually still searching for them in the first place. This time can also be used to look out for any new, trending keywords that you ought to be taking advantage of.
In addition, be sure to place these keywords (note the word place, and not stuff!) into any future, relevant content such as blogs, social media content and new website content.
The more you spread this expertly curated words and phrases across your marketing platforms, the easier you’re going to make it for those potential buyers to find you.
Contact Littlebigbox today to take a more personal look at your SEO strategy. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for the rest of our SEO Support Series!
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