Why Keyword Research is Important
Keyword research should be the foundation of your SEO strategy. Here’s what you should look for in potential keywords.
Maximizing organic SEO ranking will bring you more business. SEO may not be an exact science, but it absolutely requires a scientific approach. One of the most effective ways to boost your ranking is by posting smartly optimized original content. To do that, you’ll have to choose your keyword carefully. Today, we’ll explain why keyword research is important, and how to get started.
Why Do Keyword Research?
Simply put, your keywords should be the foundation of your SEO campaign. But you already know this. If you’ve been prioritizing organic traffic for a while now, you likely already have a list of initial keywords. These should include the products your business sells or services you provide. But for a truly competitive strategy, you’ll have to do some more research.
There will generally be too much competition for the basic keywords you come up with on your initial list. You can only get so far with low-hanging fruit. Carefully considered keywords will set you apart from the crowd and ultimately drive more business to your site.
Next, we’ll discuss the two biggest factors you should consider when researching keywords.
High Volume
SEO is all about getting search engine users to wind up on your website. With this in mind, it’s obvious why you’ll need to know what people are actually searching in order to rank well.
A fundamental component of your keyword research should be looking for high-volume search terms. There are a few easy ways to do this. One of the most familiar is simply Google’s home page. Type in your keyword and look at the suggestions. Then do the same thing but with various question words in front—‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ ‘when,’ ‘why,’ and ‘how.’ The suggestions you see will give you a good sense of what phrases are searched in high volumes. There are a few tools that do this for you, such as Answer the Public.
But just because a keyword is high-volume doesn’t mean that it will be easy to rank for. In fact, it could mean the opposite.
Low Competition
Your perfect keyword won’t just be high-volume. Ideally, it won’t have too much competition either. Some of the most commonly searched queries are simply too competitive for you to have a shot at coming out on top.
How do you find out how much competition a keyword has? There are a wide variety of tools that will tell you. But one of the simplest ways to determine this for yourself is a simple Google search. Put your keyword in quotation marks and see how many hits you get. The fewer you see, the less competition there is.
The key to finding less competitive keywords lies in the long tail. Generally speaking, the shorter and more generic the keyword, the more competition there will be. The longer the keyword, the easier it will be to rank for. But here’s the catch-22: long-tail keywords typically don’t receive as much search volume.
Still, sometimes you will hit on a keyword that is both high-volume and low competition. When you do this, you’ve stumbled upon the holy grail of keyword research. Remember this: while you want people to click on your site, you also want the content you produce to genuinely help them. Write content that answers questions insufficiently addressed by existing content, and you will understand why keyword research is important.
Contact Adventure Web Interactive Today
For more tips on how to optimize your web content and drive more traffic to your Facebook page, follow our blog. Adventure Web Interactive offers expert marketing solutions, including blog and copywriting and social media management. Take the stress of planning, posting, and plotting off of your team and contact us online or by giving us a call at (410) 788-7007. To see more information about our team and services, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
