Keyword research has always been the foundation of every SEO project. However, the emphasis on keyword research has declined recently, maybe due to a newly acquired focus on social media :(
But here’s the thing, keyword research is still hugely important! Whether you’re posting content on Twitter, Facebook, or your own blog, keyword research should influence the words you choose if you want to maximize your impact.
Done well, keyword research provides great insights into the mind of your customer and builds a solid base for huge search engine traffic. Plus, so many of today’s digital marketers neglect the practice so the information can provide a major advantage to those who do are willing to do a thorough job.
To make yourself findable, you need to anticipate what your customers will be searching for.
The queries people are using to look for your product or service can and should impact the content and structure of your site.
Another bonus to keyword research, it can help you discover common questions (that you can then answer), help you decide which words are best to describe your product/service, and even reveal the best way to categorize products.
One way to find questions:
Use Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools). In order to access the tool, you’ll need to sign in to the service with a Google Account (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en), add your website property, and then go through a few simple steps to verify that you own the domain you added.
Once you have Search Console setup you’ll be able to see a wide variety of data about your domain, including a set of the search queries that people have used to find your site.
Note: It may take some time for data to populate, and there may not be much available if your site is new.
The Search Analytics Report is where you can find the queries that bring up your site in Google’s results. You can download that report into a spreadsheet-friendly format and then open it up in Excel or Google Sheets. From there, here’s a little trick you can try:
Filter the “queries” column for the word “how” (or other question words). Now you can see the kind of information people are looking for and can potentially tailor content to them. It’s like a big brainstorming session with all of your customers, courtesy of Google.
Understanding Keywords
Search engine marketers tend to look at the keywords people use from a few angles:
Volume - How often do people search for this word or phrase?
Intent - What’s the likely motivation behind the search?
Competition - How much authority do the main competitors have?
The above chart illustrates keyword search volume distribution. The high volume ‘head’ terms are on the left. ‘Body’ terms make up the mid-range, followed by a huge set of ‘long-tail’ terms at the end.
The most commonly used keywords, typically referred to as ‘head’ terms, tend to be simple one or two word queries like “insurance”, “sports cars”, or “Miley Cyrus”. They may get millions of searches per month, but they don’t convey much in the way of intent, and ranking for them can incredibly difficult.
On the other hand, there are cases where pursuing head terms makes sense. “Car insurance” for example, gets millions of searches per month. If you were a national car insurance company, you’d want to rank for that.
Keywords that fall into the mid-range in terms of search volume tend to be the most profitable in terms of cost to rank vs. volume and value of traffic received. They tend to be more specific, 2-3 word phrases and get at least a couple thousand searches per month.
The keywords that fall along the long-tail of search volume distribution are also very important, even though each keyword accounts for just a small amount of traffic.
Building up a large body of content can provide a lot of long-tail traffic. Sites like Wikipedia receive massive amounts of long-tail traffic because their sites are so large. However, be aware that Google has instituted penalties to weed out sites who try to exploit the long-tail with “thin” content (i.e. lots and lots of short, low quality articles).
AuthorityLabs Now Provided Keyword Research
In the old days Google Analytics allowed us to see which keywords were sending traffic to your site, but most of that data isn't provided anymore. AuthorityLabs created a tool to give you back some of that data, “Now Provided Keywords”.
We will dig into the process in detail later, but they combine rankings, Google Analytics data, volume, and competition data to highlight important keyword opportunities. You can then track these keywords to see where you and/or your competition ranks in the SERPs for these keywords. If your competition is ranking for certain keywords perhaps you should to.
Search intent can be broken down into three main categories:
Navigational - Instead of navigating directly to a web address, many people just type it into the search bar (which is generally right there when they open their browser) and then expect the search engine to take them there. So someone searching for “facebook.com” is conducting a navigational search. They just want to go to facebook.com.
Informational - These are keywords people use when they’re looking to learn or research something. In many cases, the informational intent is clear (i.e. “average home prices in Arizona”, “movie times 90210”, “how to change oil Ford Focus”). People searching for those terms just want to know something.
Transactional - These keywords come into play when people are looking to purchase or otherwise acquire something. The most obvious may look like “buy Apple laptop” or “homes for sale Costa Rica”. Not all transactional searches are quite so direct, but still convey the intent to engage with a business (i.e. “dentist, Atlanta”, “Honda dealership”, “backpacking equipment”).
Of course, you have to watch out for keywords whose intent is unclear. Someone who searches for “therapy practice” could be looking for a therapist, or planning to open a therapy practice. Someone searching for “real estate Florida” might be looking to buy a property in the state, assess the market there, become an agent, or any number of other options. “Homes for sale Orlando Florida” has much clearer intent.
Fortunately, search engines themselves spend an incredible amount of time and money trying to figure out search intent. We can use the results they provide for a particular search as a guide to what they think most people who use that keyword are looking for.
The shorthand method for evaluating keywords:
Either check the search volume with Google Keyword Planner or ask yourself if the keyword is most likely a head keyword (motorcycles), body keyword (motorcycles for sale), or long-tail keyword (used motorcycles for sale Arizona).
Next, do a search for the keyword in question to evaluate the intent of the keyword and its potential commercial value. Look at the results that appear for the search. Are they mostly informational or transactional? Either of those is probably more valuable than a purely navigational search, but of course transactional searches are where the money is at.
While you’re looking at the organic results, check out the competition. If all the sites listed are big, well-known brands, you might have a hard time getting your site into the mix.
Finally, are there ads showing on the results page? If so, that’s a good sign that your keyword has commercial value.
At the outset of your research you’ll develop a “seed” list of keywords and then expand from there. Using your seed list, think about variations, synonyms, and other alternatives.
Go beyond just the words people might use to describe your product and into the things they might use it for or need to go with it. You want to pursue all of the avenues that potential buyers might take to get to your product.
Starting Your List
Probably the easiest place to start your keyword list is with the keywords that you would use to search for your own site. If you were trying to find the product or service you provide, what would you search for?
Let’s use motorcycles as an example. At the top of your list you’re going to have the obvious head terms: “motorcycle” and “motorcycles”. From there you can branch out in a number of different ways:
motorcycle repair
motorcycle helmets
motorcycle training
motorcycle gear
motorcycle parts
motorcycle insurance
motorcycle maintenance
motorcycle mechanic
motorcycle tours
motorcycle rentals
The Google Keyword Research Tool (part of Google AdWords) can help with this process. To access the tool you’ll need to have a Google AdWords account, but it’s free to set one up if you don’t already. https://www.google.com/adwords/
The data Google provides is directional, not exact, and it tends to steer people towards a normalized list of more commercial searches. That’s not always a bad thing, but something to be aware of. There are a lot of things that people actually search for that just won’t show up in the tool’s recommendations.
You’ll want to identify more than just commercial keywords so that you can reach potential customers while they’re in the consideration phase of the buying process.
For example, people might search for different motorcycle brand names, bike types, and customer ratings, before they search for something with clear commercial intent like “buy motorcycle austin tx”.
Ultimately, the keywords you want to focus in on are not too general, but not too specific. General keywords get more traffic, but they lack clarity of intent and tend to be very competitive. That makes them hard to rank for, and even if you do rank, the traffic you get will most likely bounce because you aren’t providing whatever it is the searcher actually had in mind. On the other hand, very specific keywords may not get enough traffic to make it worth your time to optimize for them.
In order to gather a truly effective list, you’ll need to cast a wide net.
An important consideration: People searching for your product may not refer to it in the same way that you do (or that your marketing department wants them to).
A good example of this is when companies post their open positions online and refer to them as “employment opportunities”. Almost no one searches for “nurse employment opportunities”. Instead, they search for “nurse jobs”.
If you want them to find you, use the words the people use.
Another tip: Look out for regional differences.
Some parts of the country, or the world, refer to the same items using different words. For example, during the keyword research phase of a search engine advertising campaign the vacuum company Dirt Devil realized that in the Southern US, people call vacuum cleaners, “sweepers”. They needed to create ads for “sweeper” related keywords as well as the “vacuum” related words they were already targeting.
With that, it is time to start building your list. In our next email we will discuss how to prioritize the keywords you have gathered.
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