Updating SEO can be a daunting undertaking for growing businesses and a difficult target to hit, thanks to ongoing algorithm updates. But there’s one time-tested strategy that never goes out of style: performing great keyword research to drive traffic to your website.
This guide discusses the importance of keyword research to your Google search marketing strategy. Once we define what keyword research is, we also explain the steps you need to take to do it correctly.
Don’t have time to do keyword research on your own? We explain how Autumn Consulting can help at the bottom of the guide.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of strategically sourcing relevant keywords to help online searchers discover your business. The goal is to blend popular searches with the user’s search intent, which allows you to increase traffic to your website and boost your digital presence.
You can look at keyword research as a matchmaking process involving both humans and robots. First, you need to help users find your business or platform by incorporating the words and phrases they use online. Then, you need to narrow your list to only the most relevant phrases with good volume and solid authority.
What do these terms mean in context? Let’s break it down:
- Volume: The number of users searching a particular keyword in a period of time (usually per week or per month).
- Relevance: How much a specific keyword or key phrase relates to your business or the topic at hand.
- Authority: The amount of authority you have over a specific topic, including writer experience, website niche, and domain authority.
Now that we’ve defined our terms, let’s take a closer look at what it takes to perform keyword research.
All The Steps You Need To Perform Keyword Research
Performing keyword research is like baking a cake: if you forget even one thing, there’s a good chance it won’t come out.
Thankfully, you can follow this step-by-step guide to avoid preventable mistakes.
1. Start by identifying keywords associated with your website, products, or services. For example, if you’re a flower shop located in Ohio, you may want to choose keywords like ‘flowers in Wickcliffe.
2. Narrow down your list of keywords based on authority, volume, and relevance. Ask yourself: am I qualified to use this keyword? Is there a decent amount of traffic for this keyword? How relevant is the phrase compared to what I want the customer to do? You may want to consider purchasing browser extensions or desktop apps to check keyword volume, traffic, and competitiveness.
3. Acquire the tools you need to succeed. You may need to pay for per-user licenses to access cutting-edge platforms like Keywords Everywhere, Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog. Remember: effective keyword research costs time as well as money. Expect to take days or even weeks selecting the right phrases.
Even once you’ve performed these steps for basic keyword research, you still need to implement the terms effectively. This means updating your website with words and phrases in the right order, as well as following Google prioritization rules to maximize your return.
Partnering With Autumn Consulting For Effective Keyword Research
It can be difficult to manage keyword research on your own, especially when it comes to competitive industries like logistics, transportation, and professional services. Unless you have plenty of time, money, and employees at your disposal, managing such a complex task may not be feasible on your own.
This is where Autumn Consulting comes in. An award-winning Google search marketing firm with hundreds of satisfied customers, we provide WOW moments to growing businesses through our personalized digital marketing and SEO campaigns. You don’t need to purchase any tools on your own, and you don’t have to cross your finders and hope your strategy works. Instead, you can rely on Nathan Misirian and his team to deliver lasting results from sustainable best practices.
Autumn Consulting invites you to learn more about our process for effective keyword research at scale. You’re welcome to call us directly at (813) 618-7554 or complete our online contact form to get more information.
