You might’ve heard from a naysayer or two that keyword research is dead. Don’t listen to them! Any great SEO agency will tell you that keywords are not only still vital, but the research that goes into finding the right keywords is more important than ever.
Simply put, the right keyword research can unveil the important information you need to grow your business. It can show you what terms people are looking for, how competitive those keywords are, and what kind of content you need to produce to increase your organic visibility and rankings.
If you don’t actually do your due diligence, you may think you know which keywords people are searching for. If you’re like most marketers and business leaders, you’ll likely be surprised at some of the results that come back when you perform thorough keyword research. If you go on intuition alone (or completely opt-out of using keywords altogether), you’re likely losing out on a lot of traffic that could otherwise be hitting your pages.
Why is Keyword Research Important?
Your potential customers use keywords when they’re trying to find solutions to their problems. If you want to get your content in front of the audiences who are your ideal buyers, it’s essential to make sure you’re using the words they use when they’re searching.
Here’s the thing: You shouldn’t be creating content around what you want to tell people; you should be publishing information that answers consumers’ questions and informs them about things they wish to discover. You can’t do that if you’re not researching keywords.
When you understand which keywords people use on search engines, you’re one step closer to achieving higher rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs). That’s because, by default, this practice is telling you which phrases the search engines are being asked for when users pop in a question or search term.
Here are a few crucial reasons you need to pay attention to keyword research:
- Understanding your brand and business. You’ll be better able to provide elevator pitches to potential customers when you know exactly what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to.
- Obtaining vital information. With keyword research, you’ll uncover where certain keywords rank, which are easiest to rank for, and which words your competitors are ranking for.
- Getting true insights. Keyword research will tell you what people are actually searching for versus what you think they’re searching for.
- Telling Google who you are. The search engines can only rank your site if they know who you are and what you do. Keyword research helps you curate content that lets Google understand this information so it can rank you for those keywords.
- Driving traffic. Perfecting your use of keywords can help you drive organic traffic to your website because it solves searchers’ problems and questions.
How to Perform Keyword Research
First, brainstorm some keywords you think might be on-topic for content. Then utilize an SEO keyword research tool to see how close you came. These are available in both free and paid versions online. From there, build a keyword list, and establish a baseline by which you can see your progress going forward. Set a few goals, and get to creating new content!
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