For most of us typing ‘keywords’ or ‘key phrases’ into the Search Engine boxes is still the primary way of finding relevant info to our online queries - lately we do have ‘voice searches’ on the menu too…
But nevertheless, the idea is to seek help from the Search Engine, who then, list out and rank the most appropriate websites for us providing answers, based on our search queries.
The websites, as we know, are displayed on Search Engines Result Pages (SERPs) which are hundreds of pages long, but frankly, we don’t even bother clicking on to the next page.
In fact, we will mostly stick to the first page and if we don’t like what we find in the first ten results perform another keyword search – maybe a ‘long-tail keyword’ this time, just to be more specific.
Now, from a brand’s perspective or a marketer’s point of view, this massive data of search queries is a ‘goldmine’ when it comes to understanding the needs, problems, behavior and pain-points of potential customers. It aids in building the content strategy or the overall Inbound Marketing Strategy.
Ranking for the right keywords in your industry specific niches is key to the Search Marketing field. The higher a brand or a website is able to position itself in Search Engine Rankings –preferably on the first page – the bigger its chances of attracting huge amounts of ‘organic traffic’ to its webpages.
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Here are some crucial insights that revolve around with Keyword Research:
1. KEYWORD RESEARCH - Foundation for SEO
As you know, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is basically the practice of building your websites and the inbound links to your site, to rank high.
The rationale here is to increase your visibility in the search engines for the keywords or search queries posted by the users. The higher you rank, the better the possibility of increasing the organic searches to your site. And the most common way to do this is to place appropriate ‘Keywords’ in your content to boost the relevancy of your site in reference to a given search query.
The primary step would be to use Keyword Tools or Keyword Planners to find keywords and key phrases that your target market frequently uses to search for information on the internet.
Once you have these, you can then tailor your on-page SEO around these selected keywords, helping your website climb in the Google or other search engine rankings system. Thus attracting more traffic, and more importantly the ‘right’ traffic.
2. GOOGLE ALGORITHMS - Influence Search Results
For SEOs and Content Marketers the worst nightmare is to find your search traffic dried up. Once a gushing of relentless river flow to a mere trickle overnight.
The culprit here could be an algorithm updates made by a search provided. Google is known to change its search algorithm up to 600 times each year. Though many are minor changes, occasionally Google rolls out a major algorithm update, such as Google Panda and Google Penguin which affect search results significantly.
As per Neil Patel the word algorithm refers to the logic-based, step-by-step procedure for solving a particular problem. In the case of a search engine, the problem is how to find the most relevant webpages for this particular set of keywords (or search terms). An 'algorithm' is how Google finds, ranks, and returns the relevant results.
Google Panda and Penguin have been instrumental in penalising sites with Black-hat SEO practices like ‘keyword-stuffing’ and ‘link-planting’. Dedicated to rewarding sites with white-hat SEO practices, and offering spikes in organic traffic and improved ranking.
SEOs and Search Marketers are always on the lookout for new Google Algorithm updates, as it gives a clearer picture about shifts in page rankings and website traffic; and helps improve Search Engine Optimisation.
Google's next algorithm RankBrain.
3. SEMANTIC SEARCH – Beyond Keywords.
Semantic search is basically a methodology which uses a wide variety of information (resources) rather than just keywords to deliver search results.
Crowd.com defines it this way: In short, the purpose of semantic search is to go beyond the ‘static’ dictionary meaning of a word or phrase to understand the intent of a searcher’s query within a specific context. By learning from past results and creating links between entities, a search engine might then be able to deduce the answer to a searcher’s query, rather than provide ten blue links that may or may not provide the correct answer.
It is that ‘search intelligence’ which opened the possibilities of conversational searches. A breakthrough that helped machines understand that ‘hot dog’ is a sausage based snack and not a grilled pug. 
This breakthrough was brought about by Google Hummingbird Update in 2013. The goal was to match the individual keywords in the search phrase, but to make sense of the whole sentence or conversation.
The Hummingbird widened the lens beyond the confines of keywords to making sense of semantic factors - interpreting ‘conversational’ language and the intent of the search query, rather than just matching series of keywords.
4. Keyword Research Tools
The most popular and free keyword tool to help you find your targeted keywords is the Google Keyword Planner. Gael Breton from Authority Hacker says, “No matter how many fancy keyword tools there are out there, the keywords planner gives you the trends and allows you to enter landing pages (from your competitors) to extract high volume relevant keywords.
Other popular tools in the market are: SEMRush, Market Samurai, Buzzsumo and MozPro. If you can find your way around, these tools can help find your ‘key’ list of keywords for your SEO or any content marketing campaign.
If you’re looking for an all-rounder product, something that takes care of your entire marketing automation. From keyword researches, SEO tools, Blogging, Analytics and other relevent aspects of Inbound Marketing, HubSpot Marketing Software, does the trick seamlessly.
Final Thoughts…
Keyword Research is an integral step in improving a site’s SEO and organic traffic. Once you’ve completed your keyword prep and amassed your target list of keywords, you need to integrate those words into your writing. and always avoid alerting Google Algorithms to your site by creating ‘spammy’ looking content.
Tips to help create your Keywords list:
- Think about your business in respect to what you do, hone in on your keywords.
- Have a look at words or questions you often get asked
- When writing your web content use keywords in your heading when possible
- Ensure the keywords appear, not only in your heading, but in the content or body of your work
- Don't over use, ensure the keywords are relevent, don't just slap them into your content
- Try not to use keywords with too high of a ranking, for example; a word like 'Sales' is so widely used it's not worth using.
Now get busy, you've a bit of work to do!
If you would like more help with keywords or want to discussed anything covered today we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
