In this day and age, SEO makes one of the most important marketing venues in existence. You see, according to recent stats, Google performs 99,000 searches each and every second. The chances are that if your future customers are going to discover your brand, they are going to do that by typing relevant keywords into their preferred search engine (most likely Google). The goal of keyword research is to understand the language and queries that your target audience uses, enabling you to create content that aligns with their search intent.
So, investing in this area makes more than a prudent choice for the rest of 2024. But, in order for your SEO efforts to take off, you will need those keywords that will effectively serve as a bridge between you and clients looking for your services, and put your brand at the top of the SERP:
Well, let us take a look then how you can perform effective keyword research to narrow them down.
Single out the topics relevant to your company
In other words, you will need to answer the questions like who are you, what is your field of work, and, what’s most important, what sets you apart from your direct competitors. When you are done with this corporate soul searching you will have a much better idea about your brand’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and be able to put these qualities into simple phrases that are suitable for web search. So, instead of ‘car repairs’, you can try ‘AI car diagnostics.’ Or instead of ‘pet food’ you can focus on competitive pricing and instead roll with something like ‘discounted pet care products.’
Put yourself into the shoes of your customers
The keywords that describe your products or services are not always the phrases your future clients will use during their search. That is why, when narrowing down the keywords you will use for optimization you need to think of what we like to call the search intent. These users’ intentions can be broadly organized into three groups:
- Looking for information
- Looking for a specific website or type of website
- Looking for a specific product or service to perform the transaction
Researching keywords with these intents in mind can go a long way in making your efforts align closer to end users. Also, you need to keep in mind the growing relevance of voice search. Make sure that some of the phrases are conversational and match the spoken language.
Focus on long-tail keywords
Unlike exact (short-tail) keywords that explain your services in only a couple of words and usually very broad strokes, long-tail keywords are more descriptive and aim for a much more limited crowd. Why should you then make them your focus? Well, carefully selected long-tail keywords also feature much lower competition and have stronger conversion potential. Also, they do a much better job of capturing the nuances of search intent we have mentioned above. So, although you are limiting search volume, you are earning stronger performance and opening doors to the voice search market.
Use the benefits of localization
This is especially important for small and medium businesses that usually operate in limited local markets. People looking for such services usually include some sort of geographic designations that can range from regions to neighborhoods. So try to leverage the local lingo and keywords that use locations and keep in mind they don’t always form full sentences. Working with professional link building services from target areas will prove to be of great help. They usually have a very good gist of local markets and know how to translate local preferences into keywords suitable for optimization.
Conduct thorough competitor analysis
This move will not only help get a good grasp of good keyword practices but also outline new venues you can exploit. To do that, you will need to use some of the SEO tools like WordStream, Google Keyword Planner, Spyfu, and Ahrefs Site Explorer. All these mentions have their unique pros and cons, so it would be a good idea to spend some time on research before you commit to any specific platform. But when you have the right tool for the job, make the list of all SERP competitors, try to understand their clients, and either compete for high-performing keywords or look for eventual gaps.
Keep an eye on the keyword performance
Last but not least, we would like to remind you that keyword research is a perpetual process and that keyword trends tend to change incredibly fast. So, while you are devising your keyword strategies you also need to think about the KPIs that will indicate how well they are performing and tools you are going to use for monitoring. Also, keep track of the latest industry trends as well as user-generated content like social media posts and reviews since they give a great insight into the global zeitgeist. All these resources will help you to constantly refine, optimize, and improve your keyword game.
Wrapping-up
We hope these couple of suggestions will give you a better idea about how to make your future keyword research more fruitful, effective, and insightful. Keywords make the backbone of the entire SEO industry and failing to optimize for the phrases that will actually resonate with your intended audience will undermine all other procedures you are going to perform in later stages. So, spend enough time looking for your unique values, gaps overlooked by competitors, and the ways your future clients perform web searches. All these efforts will pay off more than handsomely further down the road.
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