As we marketers continue to understand SEO better and stay on top of the Google Algorithm changes, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our search results and strategizing new and improved methods in getting found for specific keywords. With the power of marketing, we can utilize keyword research to help optimize your website and get you found for your services, content, or products in search results.
There are many free tools you can use to enhance your keyword research skills; you may not receive insightful data with the free tools. However, it can still give your website an extra boost that it needs, and once you uncover the type of audience searching for your content, you will be able to take your website to a whole new level.
Where Do I Start?
Keyword research is a process, and it requires a hefty amount of time to analyze search terms that fit best with your content, but before you start, you need to start asking questions and understand what your audience could be searching for. From there, you want to make a list of important and relevant topics and put them into groups.
How Do I Discover Keywords?
Once you have a set of group keywords in place, the next step is using a keyword research tool to discover seed keywords revolving around your primary keyword. SEMrush and Ahrefs are great tools to get some experience, and it is reasonably simple. Enter those keywords to the platform and let it do its job. Here you will have an opportunity to perform technical analysis and see what other sets of relative keywords and their average monthly search volume (MSV) are available to better support your research. Focus on long-tailed keywords with low keyword difficulty (KD) and pick those that will give your website a strategic advantage.
Competitor Analysis
Now, you have a good amount of keywords to implement; how do I know which of the keywords I should be using? You can either use the free tools and find out what keywords are being used with limited data or Google the keywords and see which competitor is showing up and compare their content to yours. If you noticed certain keywords with a relatively high search volume that is not visible on your competitor’s site, take advantage of the opportunity and outperform your competitor. If there are keywords that also match with your services or products, use this as an aggressive strategy and compete the keywords. Why should they get the bigger piece of the pie? Lastly, to ensure you are searching for the relevant keywords, use Google Trends and uncover keywords by season and region as you could see an upcoming trend for a specific season or find preferred terms used differently in the other areas you want to target.
If you see your website is not being found for any specific keywords in search engines, consider consulting with Boston Web Marketing and let us perform a site audit and offer SEO recommendations. Contact us today to learn more!