How To Do Keyword Research – The Right Way!
When it comes to SEO, keyword research should be at the top of your checklist. If you aren’t familiar with the term already, keyword research is the process of looking for specific words or terms that people would enter into the search engines. These terms are used for the purpose of SEO and help boost your website up to the 1st page of the search results. When you carry out keyword research, you’ll find out what your target audience is searching for and what phrases your competitors are using. To carry out keyword research effectively, there are a few steps that need to be covered.
Make A List Of Topics
The first step in keyword research is thinking of the topics you want to rank for. When doing this, you will usually focus on important services/products your business offer and these will be used for the keywords later on. If they’re not based on products or services, then you might want to think about what topics occur most in sales conversations or it might be a new service you are introducing. Once you have a few topics to focus on, it’s time to start putting them into keywords.
Fill With Keywords
With your topics, you now need to turn these into keywords that are suitable for SEO purposes. Keywords are very specific and will be used to target your required audience. To help you create the keywords, you would start off by brainstorming specific phrases based around the topics you have chosen earlier. For example, if one of your topics was Marketing, your keywords would relate to what people would search for regarding this topic. Things like Social Media, Email Marketing, Digital Marketing etc. You’re basically detailing the topic into specific keywords. The key with a keyword or key phrases is that it needs to be short and simple but still make sense. It might even be that detailed that it includes a location too.
Research Search Terms
If you are struggling to think of keywords, a good thing to do is try researching for the terms that relate to your topics. Head over to Google.com and look at the related search terms that show up at the bottom of the page when you type in a specific keyword/phrase. The suggestions at the bottom of the page will give you an idea on what people have been searching for and this will help you to decide what your keywords should be.
See Competitors Ranking
Keywords are adaptable for each company and if your competitors are ranking for a specific keyword, then it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to rank for the same thing too. However, doing a bit of competitor research is beneficial as it allows you to see what keywords they are trying to rank for and see if it is working. This research will also provide some help to you when deciding what to include in your keyword campaign. There are two ways you can carry out competitor research, you can search specific terms manually and see who appears at the top or you can use a system such as SMErush which allows you to run a variety of reports that displays the keywords for a specific domain. Either way, you can find out what your competitors are doing and see if it can fit in with your keyword plan.
Starting Your Plan
Now you have all the advice you need, you’re ready to go ahead with your keyword campaign. If you need more information, head over to our website or call one of our experts on 01925 552050.