While doing keyword research you must follow the latest guidelines. This is in fact the most essential part for both content optimization as well as search engine optimization. What is more, if you can do it in the proper way right from the very beginning; it will also help you in your email marketing campaigns as well.
- However, this is not an easy task because you will have to choose the type of keywords that will be liked by the Google algorithm, which is essentially a software having no mind or feelings of its own.
- Making things even more complicated is the lot and continual changes that Google makes in its algorithm, of which you are mostly unaware.
In fact, over the past few years, there has been a lot of changes in the search behavior as well as in the search guidelines. This constantly evolving scenario makes choosing the right and most effective keywords much difficult.
However, you cannot do without it because if you want to have the optimal results delivered by your web pages, content, and email marketing. Therefore, it is imperative that you understand the best ways to research the most relevant and appropriate keywords and use these in the current and constantly changing environment.
About the keywords
In order to choose and use the best and most relevant keywords you must first know what these are anyway and how these are useful for your SEO efforts. Typically, the keyword is a word and phrases that:
- Implies what people are looking for and
- Describe the topics that you write about.
Is that all? Well, no. In reality, these are those specific words and phrases that typically bridge the gap between your audiences and the content you have posted. These are actually the ‘keywords’ that help the users to find you, your brand, and the product they are looking for.
About keyword research
Keyword research is ideally the practice of finding the words and phrases that most people commonly use and enter into the search engines. With proper research, you will be able to find these common words and phrases and use them for your web pages and social media, content writing, and marketing.
The importance of keyword research is vast for SEO as it affects the ranking directly. This is the deciding factor for Google when it ranks your site according to your content in the search results. Proper keyword research will help you in a lot of different ways such as:
- You will get them right
- Google will understand your content easily in a better way
- It will be easy for it comes up every time in response to a search at the right time.
Proper keyword research will also help you create a better impact and impression in the minds of the customers. These keywords will help you to find and write on topics that will easily get in their heads and solve their queries when you include your content marketing strategy.
Typically, keyword research and knowledge will help you to know:
- What your target audience is searching for
- Optimize your content and
- Deliver the right answers required by the users.
That means overall keyword research will support your content creation, marketing, and promotional activities, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and even competitive research.
When you check on the keywords of your competitors you will be able to know the type of audience they are targeting. This will help you to plan or refine your SEO strategy as well as your content strategy.
You can use a few specific tools for competitive keyword research.
Change in approach
The aim of keyword research in the past is not followed now in 2019. Now the quality of the keywords is the benchmark rather than the density though having a specific percentage of the same keyword within a page or the content is also important. Other hallmarks of keyword search today include:
- People using mobile devices and digital assistants that requires voice search
- Attempt of Google to provide immediate answers to queries via Answer Boxes
- Semantically related keywords or LSI.
Therefore, in this day the bottom line for keyword research is the words or phrases that will help you to optimize your content for the people first and then for the Google algorithm and bots.
The types of keywords
Now you must know about the different types of keywords available so that your research is better. This will be helpful to classify them. There are three major types of keywords basically such as:
- Head keywords: These are usually just a couple of words but have a very high search volume.
- Body keywords: These are word phrases that involve 2 to 3 words that have a good search volume but are neither high nor low.
- Long tail keywords: These consist of four or more words that are strung together but have a very low search volume. These keywords account for bulk web traffic.
You may also come across specific keywords such as head, modifier, and short or medium tail keywords.
The key to making the right choice is specificity. If you choose a longer phrase, the keyword will be more specific and there will be fewer search results when people type this keyword in.
The keyword intent
Lastly, you should understand the keyword intent to make the most of it for your marketing, SEO, and content creation. This will help you to get into the mind of the reader and deliver what they want exactly. There are different ways in which you can describe keyword intent. For example:
- Navigational for a particular website
- Informational for the answer to a specific question
- Investigational for information search that may lead to transaction and
- Transactional for making the users buy.
Finally, consider the keyword categories to choose the right ones. It includes keywords for competitors, comparisons, discounts, ratings, reviews, coupon codes, and sales. Choose the one according to your business.
Author’s bio:
Pete Campbell is a social media manager and has immense knowledge about email marketing and Instagram promotion. He loves to travel, write and play baseball.