0SEO practices at large have helped companies get their websites placed on the first page and gain millions of views per day. SEO uses the method of strategically placing keywords in the article a certain amount of times to make the article relevant and of high quality as per Google’s standards. Only 30% of the small businesses use an SEO strategy, and we hope to make you a part of the elite 30%.
SEO practices have at large become the most used content marketing strategy in the online marketing arena. As the online marketing world keeps growing and pushes against the horizon, SEO practice has become an important part. There are SEO specialists who work day and night to make use of their knowledge and technology to reach millions of people every day. Companies hire SEO specialists to strategize and produce content that is relevant to their audience.
The first step of SEO is to research keywords that are mostly used to find the results and add them to the article. Thus, it is the topmost priority of digital marketers as it should be. It is astonishing how this step is a priority yet is taken-for-granted. While learning SEO, specialists also advise learning the importance of keyword research. If one thinks of skipping this step, they should think again, for SEO practices a futile without keyword research.
What is keyword research?
It is primarily important to understand what keywords are? They are those words that internet users mostly use while searching for results. If someone is looking for “women’s shoes”, they are likely to use words such as women’s footwear, best brands for women’s footwear, shoes for women, women’s shoes, etc. If they have a particular brand in mind, they also might search along the lines of “Nike shoes for women”. Keywords are as illustrated above, are either short or long. This depends on the internet user.
The main aim of keyword research is for businesses to find what their audience or target customer base use for search results. Once these keywords are known to the business or firm, they can use these keywords accordingly in their blogs, company web pages, and product descriptions.
It is always good to keep in mind that not only internet users but also web engines search for keywords. As Google or other search engines have a reputation to maintain, they need to present only quality content to their users. So, these search engines go through the content on different web pages, and they search for keywords. They also look at the number of keywords used and the quality of the content, etc. On the basis of these factors, search engines rank different web pages for an easier and better experience for internet users.
Why is keyword research so important?
The process of finding out the keywords for your business so that you can help identify consumers in finding you and locating your brand is called keyword research. It also implies that you need to have an understanding of your target audience and of, how many search engine measures the quality of content.
Main goals
There are various reasons why keyword research should be a priority for a digital marketing campaign. Here are some of the most crucial reasons why firms need to change their priorities:
- While most businesses start with the goal of establishing brand identity and growing big, they sometimes lose the aim in between. It becomes all about the generation of sales, which is also important but not the only priority. Many businesses try to diversify their products when they cannot find sales for their existing products. But what they are lacking is diversifying keywords, and putting out the right content can help them immensely.
Content aids a business to stand out in front of the audience. If you are confused about how to write a better product description or blog, you need to know everything that is relevant in the market and is related to your product. Knowing the different keywords linked to your niche or product helps you understand your business and brand better.
- Keyword research can tell you vital information. There are facts that you need to know for the better growth of your business. Keyword research can tell your business where you will rank after accommodating this particular SEO practice. It also gives information about your competitor’s position and ranking in the web arena
- There are a lot of times when one starts a business, and they do not take out enough research and analysis of their probable target audience. There are a lot of assumptions made, so proper research can tell the businesses what people are searching for. It is better to conduct researches to see what users search for, according to their needs, and use those keywords for your benefit.
- Keyword research also helps to increase the reach of your web page, blogs, etc., to a lot more people, especially according to demographics, relevance and quality of your content, and other factors.
Globalization
Keeping in mind the contemporary circumstances of the world being a global village and international trade being a major part of all economies, SEO becomes all the more important. Sitting in one end of the world, you can reach the users of the internet on the other side of the world, if not with your products, but at least with your content. In this possible scenario, your content needs to be good enough for google to put it out there for its global audience.
As of 2017, content marketing had made its place at the top, with 20.3% of the efforts being put into it. It continues to play a major role and ranks the first among other techniques, for it is the easy-peasy and most cost-effective way of reaching a huge audience and breaking the record. And while content marketing takes this place on top of the list, let’s grab your attention towards a quote. “Keyword research is the skeleton of content marketing.”
Where have we heard that one before? Everywhere!
Long keywords versus short keywords
Long and short keywords are opposites and yet interlinked. Short keywords set out a broad base for further research and are used within the longer keywords. It is always best to understand with an example.
Say, we take the word marketing and search through google.
Searching for the word ‘marketing’ gives us relevant information about what is marketing, its definition, and use, strategy, and history, etc. it is mostly a general overview of this particular word marketing. But, a business that is already in the arena would not go looking for marketing’s definition or history. They are already done with the basics.
So, what do they search for?
Longer keywords are more specific in nature and are used to find particular results. Now, if we search for ‘digital marketing trends’, here are the results that we come across.
The results vary from digital marketing trends with a specific number of trends being focused upon, and they are also specific to different years. Since we know that digital marketing trends seem to change as more and more technological advancements come our way. Hold back his in mind, and we can safely say that articles with a focus on different years have something different to offer and thus have been ranked by Google in this specific manner on the first search engine page.
If you want to nail-down your results even further, you can search for ‘digital marketing trends in 2021’ or ‘comparison between digital marketing trends of 2020 and 2021’. All these searches will show different results because google combs through the content of different web pages and only shows those pages first which have the relevant content.
Keyword Planning is crucial for it shows you different aspects of the audience’s needs and user trends. In the above picture, keywords are ranked according to their competition as low or medium. Suggested bids are low for those keywords which are not commonly used for they are only going to be searched upon by beginners for basic knowledge. This also depends on your target audience. If your target audience is that of beginner level, you need to focus on such keywords.
Whereas keywords that have high competitivity and high bidding are important keywords and will drive more traffic and revenue to website and company.
Importance of long-tail keywords
As explained above, long-tail keywords have a higher probability of getting your blog out to a lot more people. Long-tail keywords are very specific, sometimes even to regions, age, ethnicity, nationality, and other identity markers.
As per the research conducted by WordStream, long-tail keywords have an average conversion rate of 36%. Long-tail keywords are a greater way to connect to customers. These kinds of keywords give you an option to specify a lot of things and thus, helps you reach the target audience, which in turn increases the conversion rates. Long-tail keywords are used by people who are prospective buyers at this point in time and are ready to buy after gaining all information about the product or service.
Long-tail keywords can not only be used within the blog or article; they can also be used as headings. By now, we are well aware of the importance that we need to give to the titles of articles, which is also the first thing a user sees as they comb through the results on search engines. So these keywords can also be used for heading and sub-headings as it narrows down the search of users and also makes even the longest of articles easier to read.
Conclusion
We have come to a stage in digital marketing where a lot has to be done, all the while keeping pace with competitors. So, it is time for you and your business to incorporate these SEO practices for your competitors are probably one step ahead.
