From SEO to digital ads to hashtags, knowing what keywords are relevant to your business is vital in growing your organic growth, ensuring your ads are showing correctly, and that your brand is repeatedly appearing in front of your ideal audience. There are different techniques and tools you can use to conduct your research, but understanding what these are and which one will work best for your brand is important. The first thing you need to do is have a solid foundation of your business and audience. Knowing the answers to your ideal customer’s questions will help you craft keywords that will keep you high in the SERP ranking, your PPC ads showing, and the right traffic going to your website. Here are some tips to take your keyword research to the next level.
- Don’t be afraid to use a research tool. There are several paid tools and services you can use, but Google provides a variety of tools that can help you for free. Using Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Google Search Console are great resources for understanding search volumes, and trends, and gaining valuable insights into your website’s performance to see what keywords are working, and which ones aren’t.
- See what your competitors are doing. Doing a competitor analysis can be beneficial to your research. Seeing what keywords your competitors are using can help you fine-tune your approach. You can see what they are ranking for but you’re not, and what keywords they’re missing that you can capitalize on.
- Crowdsourcing can be a very valuable tool. Now, we don’t mean gathering 100 of your closest friends and asking how they would search for you. Go to forums like Reddit, or even just start a search on Google and see what autocomplete options you see. These are typically the most searched words or phrases. Also, look at the “People also ask” results. Seeing what people are asking when it’s related to your product or service is key to a strong keyword strategy.
- Use long tail keywords for a more specific search result. A long tail keyword is normally 3-5 words long and has a clear intent. So instead of just searching for “marketing agency” (short tail keyword) you might search for “marketing agency for social media management” (long tail keyword). These specific phrases will typically have lower search volume, but a higher conversion rate. This is a way to attract high-quality leads.
- Create high-quality content to rank for difficult keywords. Every industry has keywords that have high competition. Creating content that proves you’re an industry expert, and know what you’re talking about around those keywords will help you increase your organic search results.
- You need to have a good understanding of user intent. Understanding the purpose of keywords and phrases and if users are searching for information, to make a purchase, or to solve a problem is important. Tailoring your content and keyword strategy accordingly will help you increase your chances for a user to convert.
- Optimizing your keywords for voice search is important too. With virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google, voice searching is becoming more and more popular. When people use voice searches, they will use a more conversational phrase that caters to voice searches. Make sure you have content and keywords that are optimized for voice search.
Effective keyword research is the cornerstone of a successful digital marketing strategy. It’s also something that you can’t just do once and forget about it. It’s important to always stay on top of keyword research to ensure your brand is always at the top of user’s search results. If you are looking for help with your keyword research, SEO, or PPC ads, reach out to Hexcode Marketing today. We’re ready to dive into your keyword research and catapult your brand to the top.