For the best brand coverage, search engine marketing takes a two-pronged approach: but what is keyword research and how does this fit into our strategy?
You’re no doubt aware of the two (broadly speaking) ways your brand can appear in Google – via organic search (unpaid) and via paid search. The former we can do with search engine optimisation, while the latter we can do by setting up campaigns and bidding on certain terms.
The thing that links them both? Keyword research.
Why do we carry out keyword research?
Keyword research works best when you’re using both a paid and organic approach, as one can complement the other. We want our brand to appear in the search results when our customers search certain terms – let’s say, “how to create the perfect beehive”.
If we’re selling hairspray, we might think this a good topic to approach, and therefore a good query. Keyword research helps us to determine three things:
- What users are searching for
- How many users are searching for these phrases
- How competitive these searches are.
We can also use keyword research to find out what our competitors are doing, and to identify any gaps in our content. Once we know what users are searching for, we can create content incorporating these keywords that answers their questions.
Tools for better keyword research
Google can help you carry out research with its free Keyword Planner service. This can suggest terms to target based on your industry, and give you rough estimates on how much it would cost to advertise for these terms.
However, while it’s great for paid search, it’s far more difficult to use Keyword Planner’s insights for organic reach. In this case, you’re better off speaking to an SEO expert.
In addition to Keyword Planner, you can also use:
- Kwfinder – perfect for finding less competitive, niche terms
- Moz – generate keyword lists and get search volumes
- Ahrefs – analyse topics and click-through rates
- SEMRush – measure organic performance and analyse competitors
The benefit of using tools is that they’re unbiased. You could run your own Google searches and see what comes up, but the results will be tailored to you – based on your location and other personal data.
You can also use them to analyse your competitors and see where they’re doing well. Find a competitor’s page that ranks well for a keyword, then redo it, but better!
Understanding the relevance of keywords
Your target keywords must be nothing if not relevant. While it might be tempting to go after a term that has thousands of searches, how relevant is it to your site? You need to understand a user’s intent when they type a keyword into a search engine. By reviewing Google’s top results for a keyword, you can get a good idea of what a user is looking for.
Top tip: Spending hours to try and rank your content for keywords that aren’t exactly what the user is looking for, is a waste of time and resources. Similarly, if you’re doing this with paid search, you could waste money bidding for irrelevant terms that won’t lead to conversions.
Tools like the above are great for looking at trends in search volume, and guiding both paid and organic strategies.
Get a better ROI with keyword research
Now we’ve answered “what is keyword research?”, put it into practice! Use the tools above to find the best keywords for your business. Remember that the keywords you choose to include in your ads or content need to be relevant first and foremost! Then look for higher search volumes and lower competition. When it comes to ranking organically in Google, you’ll be able to rank for more competitive keywords by improving your SEO.
We can help you to create a broad keyword strategy that encapsulates all user intentions, and it doesn’t cost as much as you might think. For great ROI on paid and organic search, contact beefound.agency today.
