Dive into the heart of SEO with a magnifying glass—welcome to the world of keyword research. Keyword research is the compass that guides your SEO strategy, building a path for your marketing efforts.
For many Jr SEOs, it is a commonly overlooked or incorrectly done process. So, if you’re ready to stop playing darts in the dark and start building a ranking strategy on data, let’s talk about the science of keyword research for search engine optimization.
The very first step in any SEO campaign is completing a substantial amount of well thought out Keyword Research. Keyword Research is looking deeply at what search phrases you would like your website to be found for in a Google search, then systematically choosing which keywords to go after.
True keyword research takes time and diligence and an understanding of the metrics of the keywords you are looking at.
In many instances, what you THINK you want your website to be found by, and what can generate the most money are two very different things! Although in digging in there are many metrics to weigh, we are going to describe some of the main factors in keyword research.
The additional search engine ranking features (beyond the traditional blue links) that may appear for a search query can significantly dilute your traffic, even if you have a high ranking. As an example, if you were wanting to rank a roofing company that is located in New Orleans LA, you will first want to see exactly what searches pull a Google Map Pack (some call it a Local Pack or even Snack Pack) in the results.
These search terms will be the easiest to rank for as you are only competing with the other local roofers. Anytime Google thinks that the user is looking for a local business, they will display a Map Pack near the top of the results.
An example of searches that pull a Map Pack for a roofer would be:
Although the Google Map Pack and Google Shopping are the most obvious changes in how Google displays search results, there are many SERP features and any of them can dilute your search traffic for a particular keyword.
Depending on the query and your personal history, Google may show any of the below SERP Features:
Google may show multiple SERP Features for a specific query. As mentioned before, the more SERP Features on the page, the more diluted any specific result is. The traditional 10 blue links get pushed further and further down the page.
You may make a strategic decision to try and rank for a specific SERP feature, but keep in mind: Many of the SERP features provide the “answer” to the query without the need to click through to your website.
The point is this…you NEED to know which SERP features show for each keyword in deciding your path forward.
One big thing is simply the number of times a particular keyword is typed into Google. This one is a no-brainer as it doesn’t do you any good to rank #1, #2 and #3 for a search term that no one else ever searches. One time I ranked my company for “The sexiest SEO agency” in 15 minutes. It was fun, but no one was searching for that.
Understanding the search volume of keywords is a fundamental aspect of keyword research. You can look at the amount of searches by a particular location or globally. You can analyze the search volume based on specific locations or look at global trends to get a more detailed insight.
When considering the total number of monthly searches, it’s important to be strategic. Chasing keywords with the highest search volumes may not always be the best approach, as they might take too long to rank for and kill your ROI — or you may NEVER be able to rank #1 for some keywords.
As an example, if you are trying to rank your real estate website for the keywords homes for sale in Kennewick because that is the city you are a Realtor in… the road to you beating out Zillow, Homes.com, Trulia, Redfin and all the other big boys is not an easy one. Some may say impossible. But there is another way…
Long Tail Keywords have more words tethered together to create a more granular search. Needless to say, they generally have substantially less monthly search volume, but may be your best strategy. In the above case of trying to beat out Zillow, the experienced real estate marketer may try to find a property type not on their website; like Brownstones or Camel Backs.
Because the big real estate sites have to homogenize their database, they generally don’t have area specific property types. They also may not have some commonly referred to, but not legal areas of your city. So even though those long tail terms get less volume they are the keywords you would want to generate real estate lead traffic.
One of the most critical factors in evaluating keywords is the level of competition. Competition provides insight into how many other websites and are targeting the same keyword. Sites with a ton of authority will be much harder to pass up. Needless to say, the higher the competition, the harder it will be to rank for that keyword.
In some cases, the level of competition can vary based on geographic location. For example, you might find that the competition is intense for “Dallas Personal Injury Attorney” but not as competitive for “Denver Personal Injury Attorney.” At the end of the day, competition should be one of the determining factors when you are given your price for SEO.
A Good SEO Company should look hard for a great keyword phrase, that will convert, but doesn’t have that much competition. Or if it does have a lot of competition, see how hard it will be to knock them out of the #1 position.
The Cost Per Click (CPC) of a particular keyword refers to the average amount of money marketers are willing to pay for Google AdWords. In many cases, CPC is directly correlated to the level of competition. This correlation makes sense—if a group of keywords is highly sought after, marketers are often willing to pay for ad placement. It’s important to remember that Google Ads run off of a “bid system” where if you are willing to pay more, you can be on top. This drives the CPC up for high converting keywords.
Although looking over the CPC for a specific term can provide insight on how well that term converts, this is not always the case. For example, it’s common to see a keyword with a low CPC but high competition. “Dog Walking Services,” for instance, typically has heavy competition but a low CPC. This happens because the cost per acquisition of a lead needs to be lower than the revenue generated for SEO to provide a return on investment. As a result, marketers are not willing to bid up the CPC for such keywords.
Traffic Value is the final keyword metric we will discuss. It is calculated by multiplying the cost per click (CPC) by the total number of clicks. Then they look at the number of SERP Features displayed on that search. Most SEO tools that provide Traffic Value have some sort of algorithm to guestimate the value of the search term. That means you may see differences between different tools and how they value certain traffic.
This metric also provides insight into how much money is being invested in a particular keyword phrase. For example, even keywords with a low number of searches, such as “mesothelioma attorneys,” may not have a high volume of clicks but can have tremendous competition and a very high CPC. Despite the limited number of searches, acquiring a single lead for such a term can result in a significant payoff.
The simple goal of keyword research is to strategically search out the terms that make the most sense for your business. Although keyword research sounds like it should be easy, that is not always the case. Because the keywords that you decide to build your website around become ingrained in your site, you should really think through your entire digital marketing strategy prior to settling on what to go after.
As previously mentioned, DEAN Knows will provide a FREE list of keywords for your business with some of the basic keyword metrics. Just reach out!
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