Keyword Research is at the Heart of any SEO campaign

Before you start any SEO campaign, it’s imperative that you target and optimise for the right keywords related to your products and services.

Keyword research is carried out to ensure individual pages on your site are targeting the most relevant, higher volume search phrases, to capture as much relevant organic traffic as possible via higher rankings and click-through rate.

This includes selecting keywords that are regularly being searched, the search volume which also implies interest around your target audience and how competitive those keywords are against the competition.

It's not just about writing for SEO

It's about providing value and answering users questions.

Before you start optimising your content around your target keywords, the goal is to produce high-quality content first. This means, targeting other related terms to understand your content on a deeper level.

Understand the intent of your keywords (informational, shopping, navigational)

Analyse search trends, look at the search results of these keywords and see what type of content is ranking.

Research other keyword similarities to incorporate into your keyword strategy

How I do keyword research

With Google limiting access to keyword data showing “Not Provided” in Google Analytics back in 2013. Keyword research has become more complex than ever when researching what users are searching for.

I use various methods to discover what terms your users are seeking. I’ll then map out your pages with many different keyword variations, then I’ll monitor progress and make consistent tweaks to improve organic performance. 

Keyword Research and Onsite Optimisation

Search Demand

Is there a demand for your products and services? Just because one relevant keyword drives more traffic than another doesn’t mean it’s a better term to target. Consider whether this traffic helps you achieve your goals.

User Intent

What’s the user’s intent behind their search? Will they take a desired next step, be it sign up for a newsletter or make a purchase? Long-tail keywords with lower search volume often convert better.

Competition

How hard will it be to rank for this keyword? How authoritative and trusted are the domains/brands you’re trying to outrank? What other sites rank for your keywords, are there big brands in your industry that rank? What about paid advertising like shopping boxes?

Profitability

The end game for SEO isn’t really about organic traffic numbers and rankings, it’s about increasing revenue. Which keywords have the highest margins?

Objective

You need to consider what are the expectations and goals for each keyword. Do you want to drive users to a blog post, signup forms to convert leads or a product page to make a sale?

Relevance & Scalability

Are your highly-profitable keywords mapped to a single URL? Is there more room to target other related keywords that could impact other keyword variations on the page? URL mapping is created to make sure other pages aren’t targeting the same keyword.

Useful Resources

Moz – The Beginners Guide to Keyword Research 

If you want to learn more about keyword research, then the beginner’s guide to keyword research is a great resource that you can use when optimising your site. It’s recently been updated for 2019. 

Google Keyword Planner 

Google’s very own keyword planner will help you choose the right keywords, provide search volume and other data metrics making sure the keywords you’re targeting have good commercial intent. 

Google Trends 

Google Trends allows you to enter search terms (even comparing multiple terms at once) and see its relative popularity over some time. The data for most terms stretches back to 2004, so you can get a complete picture for a keyword term’s entire lifespan. 

SEMrush Keyword Tool

I use this tool to gather further keyword insights, find other related terms (long-tail terms) and access competitors, trends, and analyse data for both Mobile and Desktop devices. 

FAQs About Keyword Research

Before I begin optimising your site, I first map out your website to get a birds-eye view of what keywords you’re currently ranking for and if there are further opportunities to improve your keyword targeting.

To do this, I use many different tools both paid and free to see what people are searching for, review the competition, what the search intent is like and if there’s an opportunity for local queries and featured snippets.

Instead of trying to rank for broad terms like “solicitor” which is not only very competitive and has high search volume, the search intent isn’t necessarily as targeted as for example “personal injury solicitors manchester”

Though longer-tail keywords do have less search volume, they are more likely to convert better because users know exactly what they’re searching for. 

Sound Good?

Keyword research takes a lot of extensive research to understand what your customers are searching for. Targeting the wrong keywords can cost you a lot of money if no one coverts.

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Sound Good?

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