Keywords are extremely important, both for SEM, SEO and Social Media. These are the terms that users enter into search engines to find information.
In our previous post we focused on the keyword analysis process . In this post, we will focus on various aspects of this analysis: what are the objectives, some key concepts in keyword research and what tools can we use.
Let's not forget that keywords are the set of characters with which the user performs a search. If when doing a search we put “boots” or “high boots”, it is about two keywords or two different keywords.
The content is closely related to the keywords. It is significant to consider when writing content if someone will search for the information, how they could search for it, what is the best title for SEO and if the content contributes something to the SEO strategy that we want to follow.
Good keywords related to our content imply an effective presence in search engines.
Motivation and objectives
Let's first think about the motivation and goals of keyword research for our business.
What is the keyword research process?
Keyword research shows where organic traffic is coming from, but keywords aren't just SEO. Keyword research influences all digital marketing activities. Hence, the importance of being careful in the process.
What will we do with the list of keywords, the result of our search? They will be useful for the creation of posts , pages, landing pages and articles for the benefit of SEO. However, the research can be used for SEM strategies, for example. Another example would be correctly bookmarking a video on YouTube or finding content to write. Also to name boards on Pinterest , create SlideShare and even name a Fan Page. As we will indicate later, it is a constant process.
Why should we do a keyword analysis before creating content?
We can position ourselves in searches with a lot of potential. We focus our efforts on creating content on really effective keywords. In the keyword search process, we will find themes that can be addressed in the creation of content.
Good keyword research will help you:
- Understand and reach your audience.
- Find new relevant topics.
- Get quality leads.
- Increase sales.
- Create brand recognition.
- Improve your advertising campaigns and get more clicks and impressions.
Keyword research should be an ongoing activity
It is necessary to constantly review the keywords we use.
- The keywords change, since there are multiple ways to say the same thing, and the trends or the way of expressing themselves according to which target audience varies.
- Your audience grows and evolves, the way users use search engines, too.
- Search engines also evolve, algorithms are complicated to better understand the content and user intentions, and it is necessary to adapt.
- You need to keep improving your content to make it relevant to users.
Some important concepts of keyword research
There are several important aspects that need to be considered.
Keyword volume
It is significant to know the difference between keywords with high search volume and keywords with low search volume, the latter are called Long Tail and those with high search volume are called generic keywords.
Generic keywords have a high search volume. For this reason, the competition is greater. In general, the positioning process for searches such as “shoes”, “food”, “games” is slower. Because they are such generic terms, the effectiveness in many cases is not the best.
Compound Long Tail keywords have a lower search volume than generic keywords. The competition is less. The effectiveness in the positioning process is greater, and it is easier to see the results. The keywords “waterproof shoes”, “organic food in Tenerife” or “board games for children” would belong to the Long Tail category.
Ranking on a generic word is much more difficult than ranking on a Long Tail term. This does not mean that a generic is more effective, on the contrary, many of the common cases of success in SEO are based on strategies focused on positioning first in Long Tail and then in generics.
Advertising trends
It's important to analyze advertising trends and tell us about ad history, that is, if our keywords have been used in a paid search.
We must take into account all the domains that are bidding for the keyword that we analyze and that have carried out a paid campaign in the last 12 months.
The analytics tools allow you to see the amount of ad traffic, your ad price, and the total number of ads for a particular keyword.
Adaptation of the texts according to the keywords
It is essential that the content is specific, since the results in Google for two very similar keywords can be very different.
We must plant ourselves writing specific articles with a URL for each objective. Once we have selected a list with all the keywords that we can find in tools like the SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool, it would be a mistake to try to include them all in the same URL or article. It is more advantageous to divide them into categories and apply them according to the theme of the post.
In this way we make sure that each article covers a different search intention and that Google will be able to position them perfectly in each of them.
Competitor analysis
We may think we know all the players in the competition. In a deeper analysis based on the data, we can find competitors that we were not evaluating or analyze the weight of the competitors according to the different products or keywords.
The tools that currently exist allow you to analyze the keywords used by the competition, the landing pages that have the highest traffic and the ads with their corresponding keywords in each brand.
Geographical areas are also important to consider. By analyzing the data we can look for all kinds of intersections between geographical areas, brands, keywords used, advertisements, etc.
Using alerts that allow us to detect a significant change in the search engine positioning criteria or a sudden change in the trend of keywords will allow us to detect opportunities and apply strategy changes, since the keyword selection process is a constant activity.
Keyword Research Tools
We list a list of tools which generate keyword ideas that we will use to create content.
Keywordtool.io
It is a free tool that can generate more than 700 keywords related to a search. You have the option to search in the suggestions of YouTube, Bing and in the app store. This is one of the best tools for this process, and it has an extremely intuitive user experience.
Soovle.com
This basic tool is suitable for searching for generic terms and shows suggestions for a search on different sites such as: Amazon, YouTube, Wikipedia, among others.
KWFinder.com
This tool provides us with more information: monthly search volume, approximate cost per click, among other data related to a keyword or niche.
It is something very simple but very important. The suggestion system in Google Search recommends related keywords from a search. Observing the suggestions that appear when we type a keyword gives us a lot of information.
After doing a search on Google, a list of searches related to the keyword we entered appears at the bottom of the results page.
Ubersuggest.org
This simple tool generates a huge number of keywords, all from the Google Search suggestion tool. UberSuggest uses a peculiar alphabetical system, suggesting words related to a particular search, first starting with keyword plus letter A, then keyword + letter B and so on.
Topic research
Topic research is a simple but effective tool that will help you generate popular topics, subheadings, and ideas to include in your content.
With this tool, you can detect trending topics and generate ideas for catchy content and headlines very easily.
Keyword Magic Tool
With this great tool you can analyze keywords in depth and create a useful list.
It allows you to explore niches and find Long Tail keywords grouped according to specific topics.
Google Keyword Planner
This tool allows you to make a filter based on the number of monthly searches that a certain keyword has. This tool gives us an estimated value of the cost per click for Google Ads and a level of competition, also for SEM. This is important if we are interested in Google Ads. We can create a filter by language or country. This tool also provides many ideas to generate content.
Google Analytics
In the Google Analytics (GA) platform, there is the option: Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization > Queries. You can see how many times we have appeared in certain searches (Impressions). To use this function, it is necessary to link Google Webmaster Tools with Google Analytics.
SEMrush
It allows us to do a complete keyword ranking analysis, as well as competitor analysis, custom reports and SEO auditing. In the keyword search option, we can find related words that give us new ideas.
Thanks to the tools you choose, you will get a list of target keywords. We have to be realists. It is not possible to position them all in the first place. Focus on those in which you consider it more realistic to unseat the competition.
View the keyword research process as ongoing. You have to be aware of changes in trends and algorithms.
Keep your list of keywords in mind in all of your company's posts across channels.
At PGR, we carry out SEO consultancies, especially focused on B2B companies in the ICT Sector that want to improve their positioning in search engines with the aim of generating qualified Leads.
