The Need For Effective Keyword Research – A Foundation For SEO
Keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy, so whether you are just starting with search engine optimisation for your website, or looking to refine an existing plan, learning how to conduct effective keyword research is critical for driving your organic traffic and boosting your visibility in the search engines results pages, primarily Google.
Keyword research helps you to identify the search terms that your target audience is using to find products and services that you sell, or information that they need.
When keyword research is conducted correctly, it allows you to help understand user intent, this is where you can analyse keywords, which gives you an insight into what users are looking for, their pain points and their requirements.
It can help you to increase organic traffic, by focusing on the relevant keywords which can help your website to rank higher in the search engine results pages, which can help lead to increased visibility in the search engines and ultimately more traffic, leads and enquiries.
Effective keyword research can also help to improve your conversion rates, as proper keyword targeting can attract visitors who are much more likely to convert into leads or customers for your business, as they are finding exactly what they have just searched for.
It also helps you as a business to stay competitive, by researching keywords that your competitors are currently ranking for and helps to give you a competitive edge by targeting the same keyword or uncovering opportunities that your competitors may have even missed.
The first step in keyword research is to identify the keywords that you want to rank for.
These are basic terms closely related to your business industry or website. For example, Builders in Bromley, or Solicitors in Dublin.
You should then analyse your competitors and check what keywords your competitors are ranking for at the moment. This is always an interesting exercise!
This analysis can often provide you with valuable insight into your competitor’s SEO strategy and can also help to identify gaps, which can enable you to outrank them in the search engine results pages.
This process will also help you to identify high-value keywords that you should target as part of your SEO strategy.
There are many tools available to help you do this, like SEMRush, some of these are free and some of them are paid for, however, working with an agency like Altitude Internet gives you access to all of these capabilities in-house.
As a search engine optimisation specialist, our core service is helping clients to rank organically in the search engines results pages.
We spend circa £100,000 per year on software and reporting tools which enable us to provide transparent and valuable information to our clients, including detailed competitor analysis and keyword ranking reports.
As an SEO agency, if we were working with you as part of an intensive strategy, we would undertake the above process for you as part of the SEO onboarding process.
Moving back to keyword research for a moment:
We would recommend focusing on a combination of short tail, medium tail and long tail keywords, High-volume competitive keywords are tempting but may be super tough to rank for, whereas longer tail keywords are often more valuable for targeted marketing, and research shows these kinds of keywords, whilst lower in volume are more likely to convert.
We have recently written a blog on conversion rate optimisation which you may find interesting also.
Longer tail keywords tend to have lower competition and can attract more valuable people who are further along in the overall buying process.
As part of the keyword research, we would also assess user search intent.
We believe search falls into a few different categories, informational, navigational, transactional and commercial investigation-type keywords.
Informational keywords are where users are looking for information, not necessarily a product or service, for example, how to do something themselves.
Navigational users are trying to navigate to a specific website, for example, Gymshark or Nike.
Transactional users are intending to make a purchase, for example, to add something to the basket and to check out.
Finally, commercial investigation users are researching products or services before making a purchase decision, for example, they already have some knowledge about your product or service but are seeking to broaden their knowledge before making a buying decision.
We also need to evaluate keyword difficulty, because some keywords will be easier to rank than others.
Again, this is something that we could help with, helping you to choose and prioritise the important keywords for your business.
Once the keyword research is complete, we would then put together a detailed content strategy to help build out the content on your website focusing on these keywords, along with the on-site optimisations and then tracking, reporting, monitoring and regular updates.
Keyword research is a fundamental aspect of any successful SEO strategy, and you must identify the correct keywords for your business before commencing the SEO journey.
Keyword research is not a one-time task, it is an ongoing process that needs regular refinement and analysis to adapt to changes in search trends and user behaviour and also to reflect what your competitors may or may not be doing.
We do appreciate that this can sometimes sound like a bewildering list of things to worry about, but don’t worry if you are looking for an SEO agency to take this weight off of your shoulders, we have a complete “done for you” service which includes keyword research, link building, on-site optimisations and content writing, all of which come together as the perfect recipe for improving your organic rankings.
If you would like to find more information about how we can help your business get found online please click the link below to schedule a call with an SEO specialist and to see how we can help you drive more traffic, leads and enquiries.
https://altitudeinternet.com/contact/
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