Smart devices are pathways to an unending stream of information. By merely entering a simple query on search engine platforms, you get to find answers to what you’re looking for. Queries inputted on search engines, to a large extent, are keywords.
Keywords offer a deep dive into what people are searching for online. And businesses use keywords to position their brand in front of their target audience. It all starts with a robust keyword research process. And if it is done right, keywords will help you:
But what is the keyword research process? Well, here’s what you need to know.
A thorough keyword research process involves:
You’ve got to look out for keywords that are highly relevant to your brand. When compared to other keywords, your preferred keywords should have higher monthly search queries. Being on Google’s first page for a keyword that is not sought after by people is of no gain.
There is a need to integrate variations of your preferred keywords into your marketing strategy. These keyword variants vary slightly from a given keyword. For instance, people who are searching for “used cars for sale” can also use variants like “second-hand vehicles for sale” or other related search terms. Aside from keyword variants, you should consider integrating abbreviations into the mix.
If you’ve been around for some time, you’d agree that generic, broad keywords are difficult to rank. And it’s largely due to the competitive landscape of the marketplace.
If you desire to generate large conversions with less competition, you have to consider using long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords typically have long phrases and it draws less competition than one or two-word phrases.
Let’s say you’re in the business-to-business (B2B) industry and your focus keyword is “lead generation“, you have to consider expanding it to “B2B lead generation strategies” or “B2B lead generation”. By expanding your keyword, you’d most likely attract a more qualified audience, and will possibly generate a higher clickthrough rate for the expanded keywords.
Long-tail keywords don’t eliminate the possibility of being found for short-tail keywords. Depending on how good your overall search engine optimization (SEO) is, you’ll also be found for short-tail keywords.
Words like “the”, “to”, and “and” are usually ignored by search engine platforms. Let’s say your keyword phrase is “lead generation in B2B marketing”, you’ll most likely be found for “B2B lead generation” and “lead generation marketing“.
Search engine platforms ignore punctuation. Therefore, “pay-per-click” is seen as “pay per click”, while “e-mail” is seen as “email”.
A search engine platform like Google knows the difference between “color” and “colour”, and it knows that the difference is dependent on the localization of the content. As a rule, you have to use the spelling that aligns with your geographic region.
Keyword clustering is arguably the best way of discovering new keyword ideas in your industry. In keyword clustering, the focus is on building a group of semantically linked keywords. There is less emphasis on one targeted keyword.
Keyword clustering is a group of keywords that target people with similar search intent. For instance, if you search for the keyword “shoes”, you’d get results like shoes women, shoes Nike, or shoe store near me.
Here are the kinds of keyword clustering.
In soft clustering, a data point can be incorporated into multiple clusters all at once. Data points in keyword research could be keywords or phrases. In other words, a keyword in soft clustering could easily match multiple searches of equivalent phrases or keywords and also match other related searches.
For instance, if you’re managing a men’s shoes shop, you could create a group of keywords such that people who search for men’s shoes, walking shoes, or jogging shoes will see your ads. Soft clustering is also known as fuzzy clustering.
A data point belongs to a single cluster in hard clustering. That is, the keyword will match multiple searches for the same keyword in the exact match.
For instance, if you’re running an ad for women’s shoes, you can create a group of keywords such that your ads will appear for anyone who searches for women’s shoes or women’s shoes for sale. For your ads to be triggered, the keyword “women’s shoes” has to be present.
Search engines have evolved to the point where they put keyword synonyms and context into consideration, and web pages are ranked not just for single keywords, but for groups of keywords. Therefore, incorporating keyword clustering into your marketing strategy is a sure way to boost your website’s SEO strategy.
With the birth of Google’s Hummingbird Algorithm in 2013, the search platform began focusing more on topics, and search intent. And that led to the rise of keyword clustering.
If you want to rank high and generate more traffic, then you need to focus on targeting a range of phrases and keywords — and not just a single keyword. This strategy will also help you to grow your website reach and gain more visibility in the marketplace.
Keyword clustering helps you gain a better understanding of how to create extensive content for your business. More quality content translates to better user experience (UX).
A thorough keyword research process is the first step to keyword clustering. Conduct a thorough review of your brand, company, or website and figure out who your target audience is. What are they looking for? You should also consider performing competitor research to figure out the keywords your competitors are ranking for.
After gathering your keywords, you need to categorize them into groups. You can either categorize your keywords manually or with tools. Manually grouping of keywords is usually done with a spreadsheet. You get to analyze and figure out the most important keywords, the ones that are most frequently searched for, and categorize them.
If you opt to create keyword clusters using tools, then you need to consider tools like:
You can choose to use either the free or paid versions of these tools.
After gathering and grouping your keywords, you need to integrate them into your web content. To do that, you should consider revamping old content with fresh keyword clusters or creating fresh content from scratch. The fresh content has to target your keyword clusters.
What’s more, you can boost your overall SEO by integrating keywords into elements like headers, alt-text, and meta-data.
Gathering keywords is good. But to get the most out of your keyword research process, you need to analyze your keywords to figure out the ones that are a good fit for your business.
Here are easy steps to help you analyze your keywords.
Google operator is made up of symbols and words that help boost your search results. The tool focuses on specific keywords while ignoring others. This way, the user gets to experience a more improved experience while using Google.
Choosing the right list of keywords can help you position your ads in front of the right people. Your keyword list should cover terms potential customers are using whilst making search queries on Google. To start building a robust list of keywords, you need to consider the following:
Good keyword research helps you identify relevant niche keywords that have a large search volume. This way, you get to create quality content that addresses the needs of your target audience. When it comes to discovering relevant niche keywords, you should consider tools like the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner is the ideal fit for professionals who desire unmatched value and unprecedented productivity during their keyword research process. Compared to other software in the market, the PPCexpo tool offers unique features that will help you get the most from your marketing efforts.
With the PPCexpo Keyword Planner, you get to figure out the right keywords that will help you generate massive traffic and high conversion for your product or service offering. You get to also know what it takes to rank for your preferred keywords. Metrics like volume and bidding range are showcased on the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
Therefore, if you are looking for how to rank for some keywords, the PPCexpo Keyword Planner is the right tool for you.
Let’s say you’re searching for “Used Car for Sale”, you’d get to see the search volume of the keyword in the Google search box. Similar keywords with their volume, high and low bids are shown on the right side of your screen.
Ranking for long-tail keywords is easy. Since fewer websites compete for these categories of keywords, you’d have a much better chance of appearing on Google’s first page. The more specific (and longer) a search term is, the easier it is to rank for it.
Generating traffic for long-tail keywords is not difficult. After all, the internet is a global village, and there are people who will be interested in your target long-tail keyword. Regardless of what your niche keyword is, you’re sure to draw lots of traffic to your website. You can take it a step further by focusing on a group of long-tail keywords.
People who are drawn to long-tail keywords are typically quality traffic — and you’re sure of recording a high conversion rate for these keywords. To find long-tail keywords, you’d need tools like the PPCexpo Keyword Planner. The image below shows what the user-interface looks like.
Search intent is the motive behind every online query. Before coming online to do searches, the customers must have had something in mind. Nowadays, you need to properly address the customer’s questions as you optimize for the keyword.
You need to look out for keywords that generate clicks and lead to conversions without generating enough impressions. Those categories of keywords are the best. If you’re running a campaign that’s similar to your previous campaigns, then such data would come in handy.
To analyze the keyword performance, you need a tool like the PPC Signal tool. The tool performs keyword analysis by using a data-driven approach. Here’s what the dashboard looks like.
From the image above, you’d see that the tool offers insight into your campaign. When you click on the keyword filter, you will get the information displayed as a signal. To explore your signal, you have to click the Explore button.
To explore your data, you have to click the Explore button.
As you can see that your impressions and clicks are trending upwards but your conversions are going down. It means your keywords used might not be matching with landing page content which is not provoking customers to make conversions.
For this what you can do you can find relevant high intent keywords so that you may remain free from loss of your efforts and money.
Here are easy ways of targeting keywords in a niche.
Use multiple sources to get the keyword, if your keyword research tool like PPCexpo Keyword Planner suggest you more keywords related to your main keyword, you can short list that too that match with high search intent too then use them.
If you are goal is create brand awareness then those keywords which are related to informational intent but if your goal is conversion then make sure your keywords with buy intent should be on high priority.
Your keywords should be:
Competitor keywords are keywords your competitors are targeting. These keywords help them boost their rankings and generate more traffic in the marketplace. If you target competitor keywords, you’d most likely appear on search engine result pages (SERPs) with your competitors.
Keyword research is a sure way to discover the right keywords to target. It also helps you dive into the minds of your audience. This way, you get to know what they’re searching for, and possibly produce content that solves their problems.
Insights gotten from the keyword research process helps you develop a more robust SEO strategy. And if you want a good tool that will help you along the way, then you have to consider the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
With the PPCexpo Keyword Planner, you get to identify the right keywords that would help you generate high traffic and boost your conversion rate.
Now you know all there is to know about the keyword research process, how would you analyze the keywords in your niche?
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