Introduction
Keyword research is crucial for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as it helps identify what people are searching for online, their search intent, and their preferences. This altogether helps a website optimize its content according to people’s preferences and rank higher in search results to drive more traffic to the site. This keyword research is an integral part of online marketing.
This article unfolds the concept of SEO marketing and the importance of keyword research in it. It also enlists 10 ways in which an online website amplifies its SEO strategy through effective keyword research.
Knowing SEO Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing is the process of optimizing the content of a website, or the website as a whole, to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. In this type of digital marketing, webpages are optimized for search engines like Google, helping the target audience find your site easily or, if done properly, even on the first page of the search results. Using proper keyword research, you can generate content that enhances your webpage’s visibility on the search engine, amplifying your SEO marketing approach.
10 Methods to Enhance SEO Keyword Research
Enhancing keyword research in SEO requires a mixed approach of traditional and modern techniques. From brainstorming relevant topics to analyzing search intent, keyword research encompasses a vast approach. SEO experts conduct keyword research using free tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, Keyword Tool.io, Ahrefs, Semrush, and others, prioritizing the low-competitive and high-volume keywords. It helps optimize the site content to enhance user experience and search engine visibility. Hence, it is extremely crucial to enhance this keyword research using various conventional and modern techniques. Listed below are some strategic methods to enhance keyword research to improve SEO marketing-
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Analyzing Keyword Metrics
Analyzing metrics such as ‘difficulty,’ ‘search volume,’ and ‘estimated CPC’ of keywords is imperative in the research process. Analyzing these data gives valuable insight into which keywords would be more advantageous to target and optimize according to users’ preferences. An effective keyword strategy uses customer insights to target campaigns and content according to customers’ needs and their search intent. It begins by analyzing highly searched topics by users and then identifying relevant keywords to measure their metrics that suit your site.
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Competitor Analysis
Executing research on competitors’ keywords can be the right thing to do in SEO marketing. This shows what they are ranking that your site is lacking, helping you identify gaps in keyword strategies. Above all, analyzing your competitor’s keywords can help you observe the keywords driving a lot of traffic to their site. Moreover, it helps understand how successful websites in a particular industry are strategizing their SEO efforts. It is a great learning experience for SEO experts to know about strategies that are already working.
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Exploring Long-tail Keywords
Longer and more specific keywords often lead to more qualified conversions of actual keywords. Searchers exploring long-tail keywords are at the helm of taking action in amplifying search engine optimization. Although the long-tail and specific keywords may have lower search volumes, they help identify a specified need of their broader counterparts. For instance, if the broader keyword is “financial services,” a longer keyword like “best financial services in the USA” often helps rank better as it targets the specific needs of the users looking for the best financial service providers in the USA.
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Crowdsourcing Keywords
Why do we conduct keyword research?
To find out what people are searching for online. As the name itself suggests, crowdsourcing keywords is about finding out what is the talk of the town. Using this technique, SEO experts often identify innovative content marketing strategies or tap into new keyword opportunities. Reddit is one of the best sources of crowdsourced keywords, where people talk in groups about subjects of their interest. People here talk about varied topics, from stock markets to healthcare.
This platform helps a lot in doing niche keyword research. It gives exposure to multiple terms and languages used by the targeted audience that were previously unexplored. Hence, finding out what these groups are talking about and the language they use can be a treasure trove of keywords and innovative content ideas.
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Improving Technical SEO
Improving technical SEO is synonymous with improving your website. Although it may sound intimidating, making your website work smoothly is equally important in keyword research. To ensure uninterrupted research of keywords, your website must work smoothly. This means optimizing the website’s structure, mobile friendliness, and speed. By crafting a clear site architecture, fixing broken links, optimizing internal links, and escalating page speed, you can improve your technical SEO while conducting keyword research.
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Using Google Search Console
Google Search Console plays a critical role in SEO keyword research. This web service of Google enables web experts to check search queries, index status, optimize visibility, and crawl errors on their website. Using this free tool, one can run one’s website through to observe and improve ongoing SEO campaigns. It can also be used to track the website’s performance when it appears in organic search results. By looking into these results, one can see the keywords sending more traffic to the website’s blog over your chosen timeframe.
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Enhancing Page Loading Speed
Similar to backlinks, page loading speed is also influenced by quality content. In simple words, if the webpage’s ranking is at the top of Google for a given keyword load in a comparable time, then the slowest page of the lot with that keyword in it can also load faster. The faster your site loads, the higher the traffic will be. Google statistics have already shown that an additional loading time of even a few seconds can reduce the conversion rates by double digits. By improving the site’s performance using speed-coded themes, like GeneratePress, Blocksy, and SeedProd, a webmaster can enhance the site’s loading time.
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Answer the Public
Knowing the subject you want to target your blog post to, but not knowing how to phrase the primary keyword (PKW), may leave you with hurdles while strategizing your content. In this scenario, ‘Answer the Public’ is likely the correct solution you are looking for. In this tool, you enter a simple seed keyword and receive a list of prepositions, questions, related searches to the term, and comparisons. For example, if you enter the seed keyword “SEO marketing,” you may receive results like:
- What is SEO marketing?
- SEO marketing best practices
- SEO marketing vs. Traditional Marketing
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Optimizing On-Page SEO
Before knowing the process of optimizing On-page SEO, we must know what On-Page SEO means. On-page SEO involves optimizing individual web pages to make them search engine-friendly. It is the primary aspect of enhancing one’s website’s ranking on Google. A detailed outlook of the On-Page SEO strategy would clarify our understanding of how we can optimize the process.
Step 1: Keyword Research
Before optimizing web pages, thorough keyword research is needed. This is done by identifying specific keywords and phrases entered by users into Google related to your products or services.
Step 2: Strategic Use of Keywords
After identifying the keywords, one should use them strategically in their content, organically incorporating them in titles, headings, and content. One should avoid keyword stuffing to save the rankings.
Step 3: Delivering High-Quality Content
Always focus on delivering informative, valuable, well-researched, and engaging content for users to gain Google rewards.
Step 4: Meta Tags Optimization
A thorough SEO site checkup helps identify proper tags and surfacing errors on the site. However, optimization of meta tags, including meta titles and meta descriptions, can help search engines understand the content of your web pages.
Step 5: Improving Website Loading Speed
Focusing on increasing the speed of the site is also a part of On-page optimization. Faster-loading pages are user and search engine-preferred. By optimizing its loading speed, you are likely to draw more traffic to your site.
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Updating Meta Description
Updating the meta descriptions of your older content helps increase the click-through rate (CTR) of your content when it features in Google search results. So, by improving your SEO copywriting, bring different meta descriptions to the table to see which one gets the best CTR.
Conclusion
Improving keyword research for SEO is a multidimensional process where web developers and SEO experts work hand-in-hand to integrate best practices that suit your website. Regular upgradation of the site content also ensures that search engine bots will crawl your content more frequently. This could be done by identifying new keywords and crafting or integrating them into fresh or old content. The more robust the keyword research is, the higher the chances of incorporating best SEO practices into a website.
The CEO Views understands the importance of search engine optimization and aims to incorporate best SEO practices into its website to make sure its content remains at the top of Google search engine rankings. Serving as a connective force between industry peers, this media house delivers high-quality SEO-optimized content for its readers.