To invite or generate organic traffic to a website, multiple factors dictate its intensity, which in turn helps a business with an online presence. Besides, top search engines like Google are changing their algorithms constantly, which every website needs to comply with to stay up the rankings and have healthy traffic.
However, amidst all the changes and turmoil, keywords have always been a constant factor in attracting organic traffic. Keywords are the gateway to mark your website as reliable and highlight them for better rankings with search engines. Nevertheless, using keywords is a very strategic move. Much research and analysis goes behind using the right keywords at the right place.
Importance of Keyword Research
Since keywords are the baseline of inviting more traffic, researching the use of them becomes equally essential. Depending on the content, a keyword needs to target a specific group of viewers. This way Google or similar search engines recommend your content for relevant search queries.
Besides direct organic traffic, the keyword research process also helps with inbound traffic. Generating inbound traffic using target keywords essentially means creating content with context to what people want to know or search for.
Given the importance of keyword research, the very task is quite challenging. One needs to develop the right strategy besides researching for keywords to use them right. Here we have formulated certain pro tips that can help you with the keyword research process.
Tips to Conduct Keyword Research
Seed Keywords are necessary
Seed keywords are target and niche-specific keywords. They define the entire content creation process and allow businesses to detect their competitors online. As a result, the weightage of seed keywords is immense.
More often than not when you would want to generate long-tail keywords, the online systems would ask for seed keywords. The best way to brainstorm seed keywords is by identifying the business itself, the products or services you sell would help you generate the best seed keywords that are specific to your business only.
Usually, people tend to confuse seed keywords with target keywords. As the name suggests, seed keywords are the base for forming more necessary and relevant keywords.
Keep an eye on the Competitors
Usually, websites that are new to the SEO sector tend to panic about finding the keywords they need that would eventually help them get a better search engine ranking. In such a case, a good rule of thumb is to research the keywords used by your competitors.
Here you would need to search with the relevant keywords on Google. Target the websites that are shown first with a higher ranking. Identify the keywords used there, and use them accordingly in your content.
However, in certain cases, you would find that the keywords you use for searching for competition do not match at all and hold no relevance to your case. In that scenario, it is best to search with even more specific keywords and find the best possible option. Once you continue repeating the process, you will come up with a good list of seed keywords to work with.
Make Use of the Technology Available
Manually scouting for keywords can not only take alot of time but also be extremely inefficient. Thus, it’s necessary to use the right keyword research tools. Whether it’s SEMRush, AHref or Ubersuggests, there are a ton of free and paid options you can try.
All you need to do is input a relevant seed keyword and the tools will generate various keywords that you can use in your content. The tools would search the possibly relevant keywords from the plethora within their database and suggest the ones that actually work.
GKP or Google Keyword Planner is the most sought-after and preferred tool for generating keywords. It is a completely free tool and can generate powerful target keywords that can be implemented for SEO techniques. Given that more than 34% of the keywords searched are four or more words long, using such tools can be a great boost.
Search Volume Matters
It is extremely important to understand the search volume of a certain keyword that you intend to use in your content. It tells you about the number of times a particular keyword has been searched over a particular period on average. Given that more than 90% of target keywords are searched less than ten times a month, it is important to carry out your keyword research process with mindfulness.
There are certain parameters that you should keep in mind about the search volume metric:
- Search volume tells us about the number of searches made with that keyword and not the number of people who searched it. It might so happen that the same person searches for the same keyword over and over. In that case, every search counts.
- Search volume is not related to the rank. However, the one keyword driving your ranks would never account for more than 30% of the contribution.
- The search volume metric is always calculated based on 12 months. Even though only one month contributes, the average would be out of a complete year.
- Search volume metrics can be based on a global scale as well as an area-specific metric. Depending upon your requirement, you need to analyze the same.
Keep Search Intent in Mind
The search intent of the user is an extremely important parameter that you should keep in mind if you want heavier organic traffic. As the name suggests, search intent refers to the core reason why a user is searching for a particular topic.
There might be different reasons for searching about a particular topic. Two of the most common intents are either to gather knowledge about a particular topic or to purchase a product or service. Depending upon the topic, you would need to strategically use the keywords for the users to find the best results.
Conclusion
Keywords play an important role in shaping the SEO journey for a particular website. Whether your business is local or global, new or old, you need a strategic SEO partner like O+ who specializes in keyword research. Why? For a simple fact that keywords are the pillars on which organic growth strategies are made. Trust in experienced search engine optimizers to unlock your website’s full potential.
FAQs
- What keywords should be used for local SEO?
Local keywords focus mostly on the location of the product or service. Hence, they should be area-specific, targeted, and relevant.
- What is an easy way to find relevant keywords?
With the use of keyword-generating tools, you can easily find and generate relevant keywords. All you need to do is input the topic of your content and keywords will be auto-generated.
