Without keyword research, there is no SEO.
A small business that invests in search engine optimisation should understand how and why keywords can dictate the success or failure of their digital marketing strategy.
Keywords are words or phrases that customers use to search for products and services. If your business services multiple buyer personas, each of these personas will have a unique voice, characteristics, ways of searching for the product / services on offer and may be at different levels of the marketing funnel.
When you undertake keyword research, you look for phrases or words that your target audiences use with the goal to incorporate them into external communication with them.
The most common pitfalls in executing a SEO strategy are choosing and using incorrect keywords in various content pieces that you / your team publishes.
This article is a deep dive into keyword research – what it is, why it’s important for SEO, 5 metrics of keyword research, the 3 free tools to help you find keywords that prompt consumers to make purchase decisions.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research, whether for a small business, a startup or a mature company, is the process of finding words, queries, and phrases that your target customers are searching for.
These words or phrases are determined by the ideal customer, your product / service offering and the urgency and frequency of the search
As an example:
If you are a small bakery in Melbourne, Australia, your ideal customer might search for the following phrases:
-Gluten free bakery in Melbourne
-Bakery near me etc
These search queries should inform the process of conducting keyword research when you plan your SEO strategy.
It is also worth noting that any query your customer makes has an intent in it. Whether that intent is to buy, understand more about your product or simply gather information – that’s another element to consider while creating your keyword bank.
Following the same example then, a customer looking for a bakery in Melbourne might search for the following:
-Best gluten free bakeries in Melbourne (Query to gather information)
-Where can I purchase gluten free treats in Melbourne? (Query indicating customer is ready to purchase)
-Where do I go for the best gluten free treats in Melbourne? (Query indicating navigational intent)
Some keywords are more popular than others and not all searches come from valid, interested buyers. It is important then, for small businesses to understand that searching for and determining keywords is only one part of the process.
The next steps include selecting the right keywords – which includes analzying them for metrics like cost per click, keyword difficulty [ranking] & then implementing them in external communication with audiences.
Importance of Keyword Research for Small Businesses
For a small business to generate return on its marketing spend, it is imperative for the business to have a well-rounded marketing strategy. And an integral part of any strategy is content.
A business will not be successful with digital marketing if it doesn’t know who it’s talking to [ideal customer] and what they’re saying to them. With keyword research, a business builds a content library of what it should say to its customers and when.
The importance of keyword research for small businesses cannot be overstated. Throughout the customer buying journey, companies can use specific words or phrases to inform and educate their audience creating intangible value for them.
It is through this value creation process that businesses establish trust and generate loyalty with their audience despite the barriers that exist in the digital space.
Over several months or even years, this trust and loyalty then converts into customers who are willing to pay the business for its products or services.
Despite the longer nurturing cycle, keyword research and content marketing allow businesses to generate higher ROI on each dollar spent. This is because well written, valuable content that uses the right keywords and helps resolve a pain point for a customer is looked upon favourably not just by the customer but by search engine giants like Google as well.
Google tracks how a user engages with your content. For example, how long a user stays on your blog to read your article and whether they click on links internally etc, indicating continued interest in what you have to say.
As more users find value in the content you create, Google pushes it in front of an even larger audience, that then creates a snowball or compounding effect.
When looked upon a long-time frame, written content usually outperforms paid ads and other inorganic marketing efforts a company undertakes.
Now that we’ve established the importance of keyword research, let’s look at some metrics that businesses need to be mindful of while choosing their keywords.
5 Keyword Research Metrics Businesses Can't Ignore
Search Volume:
As the name suggests, this refers to how often a keyword is searched for, generally on a monthly basis.
High search volume can be indicative of popularity of the term and consequently the amount of traffic that it can attract to any site.
However, just because a term is popular, it doesn’t deserve a spot in the shortlist. This is because high search volume also indicates high competition – most companies will look to rank for such keywords thinking they can attract a tiny sliver of the pie. While this is possible, it requires strategic long term thinking and patience to keep pursuing the strategy in the interim.
High volume keywords also tend to attract irrelevant traffic because they are generic and lack intent. ‘Cute cat videos’ can get millions of views but if you are a cat food distributor leveraging that keyword for traffic, you might find that people do come to your site but don’t buy the food you’re selling.
Keyword Difficulty:
This is a measure of how challenging it is to rank higher on Google for a keyword against the competition.
For a small business that wants to attract organic traffic, choosing keywords that are a balance of high search volume and competition helps inform a robust SEO / content marketing strategy.
If you have several highly competitive keywords in your strategy, you might end up spending most of your resources to rank for that without a commensurate level of ranking or visibility to go with it.
Click Through Rate:
This is a measure that tracks the number of people who click on a keyword after they see it in the search results.
A high click through rate indicates higher interest in content that is likely to engage users effectively. However, when looked at in the context of the larger strategy, it may not be wise to pick keywords that have a high CTR.
This is why:
CTR is a measure of interest, not necessarily of buying intent. This means that a keyword has the potential to attract and hold a customer’s attention; not necessarily make them hit the purchase button.
A high CTR can also be created by manipulating the algorithm. Writing click-bait headlines that generate no value for a customer is a prime example of a high CTR exercise gone wrong.
Trend Indicators:
Most reports also highlight changes in the search volume over a period of 3-6-9 months. This trend indicator is an important metric that can help small business owners understand customer behaviour.
This information can inform their strategy and make it more robust. It can allow small businesses to stay relevant, identify emerging opportunities and adapt to seasonal variation in product demand.
Notwithstanding the industry, business stage or whether you sell a product or service, a change in any trend is worth investigating. Changes in trends generally speak to changes in macro-economic factors that impact buying behaviour and any business would do well to track these as they become available.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Position
This indicates the ranking position of your website for a specific keyword on search engines.
Monitoring your position helps track the effectiveness of your SEO efforts over time.
Free Keyword Research Tools for your Small Business
Using free tools to get started with keyword research is a great idea. The process is easy, gives you a starting point to stand at and lets you get accustomed to the jargon that one commonly hears in digital marketing.
Google Keyword Planner
Brought to you by Google, this tools allows you to find keywords related to your business. Metrics like search volume, competition data, and forecasts for your keywords can all be looked at here. FYI - You will need a Google Ads account to log in.
Keyword Sheeter
This tools asks for a prompt and then throws as many as 100+ keywords at you – all by clicking one button. The great thing about this tool is that you don’t have to create a login id to access it. However, the information it spits out is very raw – you’d have to filter using search categories like youtube, news, podcasts and then across country and language too.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a fantastic way to observe the popularity of a term over time. This tool lets you identify trending topics and keywords by filtering it across categories like region, time frame etc. This is also very helpful if you are in an industry that serves seasonal businesses or operate one.
Last Words On Conducting Keyword Research Well
While there is no one way to do keyword research well, you have to keep at it to crack the code for what works for your business. Keep the following in mind:
Dynamic Process
Keyword research isn’t static or a one-time activity. Depending on your business cycle, the tier of the funnel you are targeting and intention of your ideal audience, keywords can change over time. Having a flexible approach to this process will allow you to stay on top of your audience preferences and help them using your product/solution when they need it the most.
Intent is Important
Don’t ignore intent while you build your keyword strategy. If you don’t know what your customer is searching for and why – you’ll lose them to your competitors. If you can, work closely with end customers to understand their pain points and their decision-making habits to zero in on your primary keywords.
Consistent Value
Investing in content marketing is a long-term strategy. To make this successful, businesses need to generate value adding, useful content that compounds over time. CMOs and CEOs should understand that it's best to establish strong foundations and build on that.
If you want to leverage the power of content marketing for your startup or small business, get in touch with us today.
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