Keyword research is a simple process, yet many people overcomplicate it and take a lot more time than necessary to find the right keywords to target on their websites. Here are 13 tips that will help to streamline the keyword research process.
1. Stop relying on your own logic
One of the most common keyword research problems is people’s tendency to rely on their own logic and guess at keywords rather than explore all of the data that’s available.
2. Notice the difference between spoken and written word
Rather than targeting the same descriptive terms as your competitors, think of the keywords your customers use when they talk to you.
3. Explore keywords related to specific seasons
If appropriate for your industry, consider exploring keywords related to specific seasons.
4. Explore acronyms
Look for commonly used acronyms in your industry to access unexplored data that your competitors are probably ignoring.
5. Give searchers what they are looking for
Rather than putting your objectives first, give searchers the valuable content they are looking for when they search for particular keywords.
6. Determine what your customers really want
Most people focus on the keywords themselves, but it’s best to look at the big picture by determining not just what keywords users are searching for, but what the intent is behind those keywords.
7. Focus on less competitive keywords
Unless you have a huge marketing budget, you’re probably not going to be able to rank for highly competitive keywords, like “credit cards,” “mortgage” or “auto insurance.” Instead, focus on less competitive keywords, such as keywords related to your geographic location.
8. Continue performing keyword research
In online marketing, change is inevitable. Even after your site’s launch, you’ll have to perform keyword research periodically to ensure that your content keeps up with current trends in your industry.
9. Use social media data
Social media and SEO are becoming intertwined, so it’s vital to take social media data into consideration when performing keyword research for your site. Use sites like Social Mention and Topsy to monitor the use of keywords in social media and determine which ones are the most popular.
10. Avoid industry jargon
The goal of keyword research is to generate traffic from visitors who are interested in your products and services. But just because they’re interested in your offerings doesn’t mean they understand all of your industry’s terminology! Don’t go overboard with industry jargon and technical terms because your target audience may not understand them.
11. Don’t copy your competitors
Don’t target the same keywords your competitors are using – there’s a good chance that they aren’t even using the best ones! Dig around to find the high traffic, low competition keywords your competitors are likely to overlook.
12. Use Google’s auto-suggest feature
In the past, it was necessary to use keyword research tools to find keywords to target. Nowadays, you can just type words into Google’s search bar to find keywords that people are searching for.
13. Check the page rank, backlinks, and domain age of competing pages
Google page rank and the quality and quantity of backlinks are some factors that indicate how important a website is. Furthermore, the higher a site’s domain age, the more authoritative it is considered to be. If all of the pages that rank on the first page of results for a target keyword have a high page rank, tons of high quality links, and a high domain age, you may want to look for less competitive keywords to target.