Without keyword research, your SEO strategy is dead in the water. That might sound a bit harsh, but it’s true! If you don’t know which keywords to target, you’ll never be able to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs), and you’ll never get the organic traffic your business needs to thrive.
What is keyword research?
Simply put, it’s the process of finding and selecting the best keywords for your website. But there’s a lot more to it than that. In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into everything you need to know about keyword research, including why it’s so important and how to go about doing it. So if you’re ready to learn more about this essential SEO task, read on!
Why is Keyword Research Important?
Now that we know what keyword research is, let’s talk about why it’s so important. There are three main reasons:
- It allows you to find the right keywords to target
- It helps you understand your competition
- It provides insights into customer behavior
Let’s take a closer look at each of these points.
First, if you want your website to rank high in SERPs, you need to target the right keywords. That might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many businesses make the mistake of trying to rank for keywords that are either too broad or too competitive. Keyword research allows you to avoid these pitfalls by finding keywords that are just right for your business—not too big or too small. It’s all about striking that perfect balance!
Second, keyword research can help you better understand your competition. By analyzing the SERP landscape for your chosen keywords, you can get an idea of who your main competitors are and what they’re doing right (or wrong). This information is invaluable when it comes to developing an effective SEO strategy.
Lastly, keyword research provides insights into customer behavior—specifically, what customers are searching for when they visit SERPs. This information can help you better understand their needs and desires, which in turn allows you to create content that resonates with them on a deeper level. And as we all know, happy customers = good business!
How to Research Keywords?
There are a number of different methods that can be used to conduct keyword research. The most common method is to use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer. These tools allow you to enter seed keywords—the starting point for your research—and then generate a list of related keywords.
Once you have your list of keywords, it’s time to start analyzing them. When conducting keyword research, you’ll want to look at several different factors, including:
- Search volume: This refers to the average number of searches that are conducted for a particular keyword each month. The higher the search volume, the more popular the keyword is.
- Competition: This refers to the number of other websites that are competing for the same keyword. The higher the competition, the harder it will be to rank for that keyword.
- Keyword difficulty: This is a measure of how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 results for a particular keyword. A difficulty score can range from 0 (very easy) to 100 (virtually impossible).
- Click-through rate (CTR): This measures how often people who see your website in SERPs click on it. A higher CTR means that people are finding your site relevant and useful.
After you’ve analyzed your keywords, you can then start using them in your content to improve your SEO. For example, you can include them in blog posts, website pages, title tags, meta descriptions, image file names, and alt text.
As you can see, keyword research is an essential part of any successful SEO strategy. If you’re not doing it already, now is the time to start! Not sure where to begin? Don’t worry—Metric Marketing can help. Our team of SEO experts will work with you to find the best keywords for your website and help you develop a well-rounded SEO strategy that gets results. Contact us today to get started!