For those unaware, a significant factor in SEO is the ‘keyword’. When a user enters a query into Google, the search engine will analyse the intent based on the keywords, using an algorithm to match those keywords with their vast database of website information.
But harnessing the right keywords for your business can be difficult. The content generated in your website design might be full of quality, but if you settle on average, irrelevant keywords, then the chances are users won’t find it.
With this in mind, we’re going to give you 10 good techniques for effective keyword research, ensuring your SEO campaign has the best chance for success.
Know Your Audience
Before you even look into keywords, it’s essential that you understand your target audience. Even beyond your amassed data, you need to put yourself in their headspace and think clearly about what they might type into Google to find you. This includes analysing the demographic, their needs, preferences, and their behaviours.
Figure Out Search Intent
As well as this, you should be looking to figure out search intent. There are various types of search intent, including informational, transactional, and navigational, so try to sort potential queries into the right categories, and tailor your keywords accordingly.
Use the Right Tools
Once you have a few ideas of what your customers might be looking for, you need to implement various keyword research tools to help streamline the process – tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Moz Keyword Explorer, and SEMRush. If you want your keyword strategy to be optimised and effective, you can’t hope to do it without the right equipment.
Do Your Competitor Analysis
To give you some more ideas, it’s always a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing and analyse their own keywords to identify gaps and opportunities. Look for keywords that rank highly for them, and pay attention to their current blog themes, search volume, and keyword complexity.
But Don’t Get Too Competitive
Following on from this point, however, it’s important not to get too competitive if you’re an SME up against bigger organisations. You can bet your bottom dollar that the bigger companies have a more wide-ranging and expensive SEO campaign, which is going to be incredibly hard to compete against if you’re on a smaller budget – but the situation is not unworkable. All you have to do is search for long-tail keywords that can be less competitive, but still drive the targeted market. These are the keywords that your competitors are missing out on and can allow you to throw a spanner in the works.
Keep it Local – If Possible
You should also try to keep it local. If you’re a business working in Oxford, for example, you should target your keywords to the local market as much as possible, using the tools mentioned earlier to conduct local research and understand local sentiments.
Keep it Seasonal
Once you have the right keywords at your disposal, you shouldn’t keep them static. If you want to continually draw in customers, you need to latch onto seasonal trends and optimise your content to keep it relevant.
Track Your Progress
Speaking of keeping things moving, keyword research isn’t something that happens once and then is never repeated. If you want to stand out in the market and triumph over competitors, you need to instigate ongoing keyword research, with continual tracking, monitoring of keyword performance, and refinement of the strategy over time.
Insert Keywords Effectively
When it comes to actually inserting those keywords, you need to do so properly. Don’t be happy to slot them in your content at every available opportunity – instead, sprinkle your keywords naturally throughout the body of your content, with particular emphasis on the first few paragraphs. Over-optimisation is a real thing that can harm readability and lead to penalties from Google, so keep it cool and don’t go overboard!
Ensure Content Is Your Key Priority
Lastly, remember that good content is the key priority. Just as Google will take into account keywords, it will also take into account quality, depth, information, and how engaging your content is. There is such a thing as too much content and too many keywords. In this way, you should always create good, streamlined content with the user in mind, and not the algorithm. As the world of SEO progresses and more people jump on board, this is only going to become more crucial.
