The Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Keyword Research

Are you frustrated that your website is not getting enough traffic? Do you rely more on costly paid advertising just to get more visitors to your website?

If so, then your SEO strategy is probably not up to the mark. Even if you put the right content out there, you’ll still need to optimize it according to certain keywords. Good keyword research will help you develop an effective SEO strategy and improve your website’s organic traffic.

So, what is keyword research and how can it help with SEO? Read on to find out!

(Not ready to get into the technical stuff? Get help from an expert SEO services provider near you!)

 

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are specific words or terms that are used to describe the topic of a certain text. Think of a keyword as a single word or phrase that tells you what the text is about. Keywords are often used in the search engine context and they may tell you what the central focus of a certain webpage is.

In other words, keywords help search engines ‘read’ your web pages more effectively. This is necessary for the search engine to deliver relevant results.

Without keywords, the internet would be a complete mess.

Imagine searching for a new laptop and getting results for children’s toys!

To prevent this from happening, search engines often rank webpages according to specific keywords. It also helps people find exactly what they are looking for online.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

So, why is it important to do keyword research? Can’t you just optimize your web pages according to your product or service?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Keyword research helps identify which keywords have the highest search volume, which keywords are trending, and which keywords are likely to generate quality leads. After all, the goal of SEO is to bring in more customers to your website, right?

Keyword research also prevents you from targeting the wrong keyword. For example, if you are selling laptops and optimizing your article for the keyword 'silver laptop', then it's unlikely you'll get many visitors. However, if you optimize your web pages for a more popular keyword like 'gaming laptop' or 'HD laptops', then you'll likely get more traffic.

This is why keyword research plays an important role in optimizing your website.

Knowing which keywords can convert takes considerable skill, which is why you should have an expert SEO service provider handle it for you.

How to do Effective Keyword Research?

You may have heard the term 'prior preparation prevents poor performance' and the same is true for SEO. While you may be tempted to start posting content right away, you should first spend enough time finding the right keywords to optimize for.

If you have outsourced your SEO to a professional SEO agency in the UK, then they will probably spend more time doing keyword research than actually optimizing the content.

So how can you perfect your keyword research strategy? Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Look at Keyword Search Volume

If you are doing SEO, it’s probably because you want more website traffic. This is why you should always look at the keyword’s search volume when selecting the best keywords. Ranking your website against keywords with higher search volume will mean that more people are likely to visit your site.

It may sound obvious, but you’ll be surprised to know that very few websites are optimized for keywords with a high search volume.

Before selecting a keyword think about your SEO goals. Do you simply want to rank on Google’s first page, or do you want to improve your website’s traffic?

If you have an expert SEO services provider, then they will target popular keywords to increase your website's traffic.

2. Understand User Intent

Ever wonder why user intent is important in SEO? Take the following example:

What is the difference between someone who searches for ‘emergency plumber near me’ and one who searches for ‘how to fix a leaky tap’? Both might have the same problem, but one is actually looking for plumbing services.

If you were a plumbing company, which keyword would you optimize your website for?

Knowing what the user intends to do plays an important role in helping you choose the right keywords. Before choosing a keyword, try and link it to the user intent. This may require you to look at things from the customers’ perspective.

You can also get an idea by typing a term in Google and looking at the search suggestions that pop-up. The FAQ section on Google is also an effective indicator of user intent.

3. Use a Keyword Research Tool

Nowadays, you can find software for everything. Thanks to automation technology, you can now use keyword research tools to automate your keyword suggestions. Keyword research tools can give you valuable insights into a keyword’s search volume, popularity, relevance, etc.

Some tools may even give you suggestions for LSI keywords to accompany a primary keyword!

While there are free versions available, having a paid keyword research tool will give you access to more insights to boost your SEO performance.

However, remember that many of your competitors might be using the same tools, which leaves you with little competitive advantage. A better strategy would be to hire an expert SEO services provider to do thorough keyword research.

4. Target Keywords with Less Competition

Sometimes the smart way is to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing. Many popular keywords have such high competition that your chances of appearing on the first or even second page are quite slim.

So how do you compete with the big brands on these popular keywords?

The answer is you don’t. Unless you have the best digital agency in the UK handling your SEO, you don’t stand a chance to rank on generic keywords. Not unless you are willing to pump all your business’s funds into SEO.

A better strategy is to target keywords with high user intent and lower search volume. You can even target LSI or long-form keywords as these have less competition. For example, you can easily rank for ‘best touchscreen HD laptops’, but to rank for ‘best laptop’s’ is almost impossible.

Be smart about your keyword selection and you’ll start noticing more success with your SEO.

So next time you are looking to improve your SEO, try and go back to the basics. Doing effective keyword research can be difficult, which is why having an expert SEO service provider is necessary.

So, can’t seem to get further than Google’s third or fourth page, maybe it’s time to change your keyword research strategy.

 

By VROX Content Team - 18 Nov 2021