A keyword just like its name is a key to unlocking the words that are used for search engine optimization. Understanding and finding such keywords refer to keyword research. In layman’s terms, keyword research is the practice to find specific words or keywords that people use to search for certain products. For instance, while searching for naturally produced products, one can use keywords like organic, natural, biological, and so on. Finding such words for search engine optimization is called keyword research.
Importance
SEO is a practice to get your name on top of search results. This is done with use of keywords. Keywords are embedded in content such as blogs that help to highlight the blog on top of every search result. This can only be successfully done with proper knowledge of which keywords to use. That’s why keyword research plays a significant role in search engine optimization. It helps to research and build a perfect keyword strategy for SEO.
Key Elements on how to perform Keyword Research
Specified Search Results
One can only get good search results with the use of keyword strategy for SEO if the keywords are specific to what you need to entail. Because the keyword is not just a single word, mostly it’s a well-matched combination of different words forming a phrase or short sentence. For instance, when one looks for a real estate agent, they mostly also add the location they’re looking for. Instead of searching for ‘Real Estate Agent’ one will prefer ‘Real Estate Agent in Paschim Vihar, New Delhi’.
Do the maths
There are certain terms that are used more in comparison to others while searching for a specific niche. Every industry has its own keywords that can be used in search engine optimization. Understand the market and then look for the most used keywords specific to your brand or services. Take this example, when someone is looking to buy inexpensive flight tickets, one might not search with the word inexpensive, most will use cheap but both have the same meaning. So the search becomes ‘where to book cheap flight tickets’ while your keyword phrase is ‘cheap flight ticket’.
Use Research Tools
A major element of a good keyword strategy is to use a great research tool. Research tools help you to understand what keywords are being used in which industry and how often. This helps to focus your research on specific products or services you need keywords for.
Long Tail Variants of Keyword Research
There are exactly two kinds of keywords, short tail, and long tail.
Short tail keywords comprise a maximum of two words. For instance, ‘good games’ is a short tail keyword to search for games that are good. But no one looks for just good games. Games are supposed to be played by some age group, say children. Long-tail keyword variants come in handy here. Since these are specific to the search result one is looking for. A long tail variant for the keyword ‘good games’ will be ‘good games for children’ or ‘good games for 2-6 kids’.
Long tail variants of keywords are helpful in targeting specific markets and/or audiences. That’s why long-tail keywords make a better keyword strategy for SEO.
Keyword Difficulty Analysis
When you’ve found the right keywords, it’s also important to see the competition. Some keywords are put to too much use that it doesn’t affect the search engine like one hopes for. Some keywords are used too low to even put in an effort. This process is called keyword difficulty analysis where one looks for specific keywords with no overuse but also not too little use. This is a major aspect that affects the use of appropriate keywords or commands to look for more because none are perfect. While some say a 70% difficulty of keywords is acceptable, try to keep it as low as possible. Keyword difficulty analysis is usually done by various tools that provide statistics to generate a perfect keyword strategy for SEO.
Creating a Keyword Strategy for SEO
With the use of the tips given above, it becomes easy to create a keyword strategy. But it’s still not done. While the proper keywords are essential, it is also as important to understand the product, the industry, and the target audience to form keywords. But how exactly do these pointers help?
The Product: Each product or service has a specified market. Without understanding the market, it is nearly impossible to create a working keyword strategy. So, first understand the product, its qualities, and what makes it stand out from the competition.
The Industry: Every product belongs to a specific industry. Understanding the industry will prove beneficial in finding appropriate keywords.
The Target Audience: It’s the people you want to sell your product or services to. The major aspects are age and gender. But some other aspects can also play a role based on products. Such as, essential oils for hair products can be catered to anyone with any hair-related problems like hair fall or dandruff.
Ways to fast-track keyword research
One way to fast-track keyword research is by creating a keyword page. While doing research and analysis, put it down in a file with all the statistics that follow. This will help to analyze the keywords and choose the ones best suited for the requirements.
Another is to always use Keyword Research Tools. As said earlier, research tools come in handy for finding the keywords filtered with the target audience. These are also beneficial in completing the keyword difficulty analysis proactively and speeding up the process of SEO keyword research.
Lastly, hire a professional marketing firm that understands the importance of keyword research and knows how to use tools for the benefit.