Keyword Research: The Basics

KEYWORD RESEARCH: THE BASICS -2014 GATHER Collect short-tail words that are distinct to your line of business. These seed keywords will be the base of your keyword research. INTERNALLY EXTERNALLY PRODUCTS & SERVICES Look into your own business. The products and services you offer are a great place to start when looking for seed keywords. SOURCE CODE Your direct competitors don't have to be your enemies. Their website has keyword tags, title tags, and desription tags that are literally a treasure chest of keywords. SUBPAGES SUBPAGES Look into your business's existing website. The headers of your website's subpages are possible keywords. Look at the surface level of your competitor's website. The headers of their website's subpages are possible keywords that you might have overlooked. QUANTITY QUALITY To a reasonable extent, quan- tity is your main priority in the early phases of research. Keep all the words you find because they may turn out to be very valuable. When gathering, quality of words does not matter as much. However, in the latter phases of your research, quality has a more dominant role. GATHER MORE Gather more keywords, branching out from your already-gathered existing seed keywords. MODIFIERS Modifier lists will help to organize the longer tail keywords you come across when branching out from your seed keywords. Modifiers are words used in combination with your seed keyword that create sub-categories and long tail keywords, changing the semantic of a search. LOCATION NEGATIVE KEYWORDS Search modifiers with a loca- Search modifiers that are words you do not want to be associated with. tion intent. BUYING ORGANIC USE Search modifiers with an intent to actually purchase a product. Negative keywords serve to avoid being found in for organic searches something you aren't rele- vant to. This includes not being found for services you don't offer. INFORMATIONAL Search modifiers with informa- tional inquiry on something as opposed pruchase. PPC USE to intent for Negative keywords will save you ad dollars on prospects that aren't quali- fied for your business and its services or products. 3 FILTER Evaluate and filter your keywords to determine which are keepers. Keyword tools and measures are vital to helping you pick quality out of the quantity. THE RUBRIC FILTERS A good measure of the quality of a keyword is a com- parison of its search volume and competitiveness in context to your industry. The tools you use to measure the effectiveness of a keyword for your SEM and SEO needs are up to you. These are a couple of the most popular industry tools. SEMRUSH GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER COMPETITIVENESS How many competitors are bidding or trying to rank for a certain term. SEARCH VOLUME MOZ KEYWORD DIFFICULTY TOOL How many searchers are inquiring about a specific term or query; the amount of search KEYWORDSPY traffic. BUCKETS Bucket your keywords by categorizing them into larger groups based on their searcher intent or broader rele- vance. SEARCHER INTENT AWARENESS CONSIDERATION BUYING BROAD RELEVANCE BRAND TERMS COMPETITOR TERMS LONG TAIL TERMS THE BALANCE Generally, having a balance of short and long tailed keywords are the most optimal to have. However, the perfect- balance really depends on your specific SEM and SEO needs. SHORT TAIL LONG TAIL Useful for targeting searchers with informational intent. Useful for targeting searchers with buying intent MONITOR Your keywords are now ready, but the keyword research process isn't completely finished. Periodically, you should be updating ineffective keywords and and if pos- sible adding more optimal ones. ill ADDING KEYWORDS Repeat the keyword research process when you are adding new keywords. However, certain steps may not be necessary, depending on your circumstanc- es. UPDATING KEYWORDS Refer back to phase 3 when monitoring your existing keywords. Evaluate your primary keywords for outdatedness as some words may need to be removed or replaced. FINISH powered by search 2N B: