.png)
Keyword research is the practice of researching common, industry-specific terms and phrases that are driving search traffic to search engine results pages. This is the time-tested first step in search engine optimization (SEO) for any website. The purpose of performing keyword research is to find words and phrases that users are searching for on Google and other major search engines. These terms are related to the products and services on your site. Now, more than ever, keywords have an increasing focus on searcher intent. A great deal of keyword research involves taking the time to understand your audience and the questions they are asking, then finding ways to answer those questions in your content, using a mix of keywords and phrases.
Importance of Competitor Keyword Research
Competitor Keyword research is the process of finding the keywords for your business and understanding how you are ranking or could rank for these keywords on Google.
There are so many reasons why keyword research should be at the forefront of a digital marketing campaign. Here are some of the most crucial reasons why:
Knowing your keywords helps you to understand your brand and your business. What are you selling? What are your services? If you don’t know this, identifying your keywords can help you to understand who you are.
Keyword research can tell you vital information, such as where you rank for keywords, which keywords are easy to rank for, and which keywords your competitors are ranking for.
Keyword research can tell you what people are searching for, rather than what you think they are searching for.
Search engines can only rank your website if they know what your business is. Targeting keywords on different pages of your website means Google can then rank you for those keywords.
Identifying keywords to use in blogs and outreach can drive traffic to your website.
Keyword Research Digital Marketing Strategy
Keyword research is the starting point for any digital marketing campaign, but i
t should be an ongoing process. You should frequently check your keywords and find out how you are ranking compared to your competitors. After your keyword research, create content and pages focused on those keywords. Combined with various other SEO strategies, this can help you rank and get people to find your website. Contact us for a full SEO evaluation!
Performing Keyword Research
Since you know that Google is not looking to match a string of data in a query with a string of data in a particular article, you do not need to stress about including certain keywords a minimum number of times in your piece while creating your keyword planner. Instead, you should use a keyword research tool to familiarize yourself with the topics that seem to have the most important for your target audience. Leverage BrightEdge Instant to perform extensive keyword research for your brand.
Once you have identified the topics, you can make enhancements within your content in order to show relevance to the search engine and to the user scanning the results on the SERPs. You should use your keyword in the title, H2 headings, the meta description, and occasionally throughout the content, provided it is natural in all of these instances. You should also look into including semantically similar keywords. An example of semantically similar keywords would be the phrases ‘laptop repair’ and ‘fix a broken laptop.’ This will help Google’s new semantic algorithm see your content as more related to the topic at hand. Keywords are not obsolete in modern SEO, but the best practices have changed. The cornerstone of successful keyword usage is to keep the focus on adding value and being helpful and natural while creating content around topics that you know interest your intended readers.
Is Keyword Research Important?
Keyword research is always the number-one step in the SEO process. Marketers should think of it on the same level as market research when it comes to optimizing sites and creating campaigns. As a part of your preliminary planning, it’s always a good idea to look at what competitors in the industry are analyzing keywords on their site. Using keyword tools, you can compare those to your own to determine which is more commonly searched.
If you think you need to update your content, redesign your website or want to talk more about our ongoing SEO services, let's chat! Our skilled SEO strategists at Flash First Media would be happy to help you.