Search engine optimization helps your web pages rank highly on search engine results pages. This is very important when it comes to content marketing. You definitely want your content to be seen by as many people as possible so you have a higher chance of finding customers for your products or services. Using appropriate keywords is a critical component of any SEO strategy. Accordingly, you need to know how to find the right keywords to use for your specific website niche. In this article, you’ll learn five keyword research tips to take your SEO to the next level.
- Brainstorm Frequently Asked Questions
Consumers looking for answers on the internet usually ask questions on search engines. For this reason, you have to think about what your potential customers are asking of your products and try listing down the questions they’d ask.
For instance, say your company produces and sells printers. Typical customers can be university students, print shop owners, or a business with lots of paperwork. They can ask questions like the following:
- What printer produces the cleanest copy?
- What’s the fastest printer for bulk work?
- Can I print wirelessly?
- Is it possible to scan documents using a printer?
- What printer offers the best value for money?
- How do you connect printers to the internet?
- How many pages does one cartridge print?
Some of these questions may be easy to conceive in your mind. To further expand this list of customer questions, you can consult your sales department or conduct market research, which deals directly with customers, and therefore might have more ideas on popular customer questions. You may also dig into your main customer support channel and extract all the questions they ever asked.
2. Use Keyword Research Tools
In some aspects, the human mind is limited in capacity in comparison to computing technology. That’s why brainstorming possible frequently asked questions may not suffice. Fortunately, there are a number of commercial keyword research tools designed to simplify keyword research.
Typically, you enter a given keyword into a search field and the software generates hundreds or thousands of related phrases and questions. Additionally, keyword research tools like those provided by SEO Scout allow you to group the generated keyword suggestions into clusters which may help you write SEO-rich content for your website. They also provide keyword metrics like monthly organic search volume, cost per click, competitors keywords, trend data, country-specific search volumes, and untapped keywords, among many others. This may spike your interest, and you wonder, ‘How do I track my keywords at SEO Scout?’
3. Leverage Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords are neither singular words nor short phrases. They contain a considerably lengthy string of words. As a starter, you may find it difficult to rank highly for most keywords because of the extremely high competition for these terms. For instance, it may be currently difficult to outrank competitors on keywords like ‘reverse osmosis filters,’ ‘ultraviolet filters,’ or ‘sediment filters.’
But if you use a long tail keyword like ‘reverse osmosis filters vs ultraviolet filters vs sediment filters,’ your chances of ranking highly increases. Long tail keywords have lower competition. You may want to focus on such and fast-track your SEO journey.
4. Try Search Engine Suggestions
You’ve most probably noticed how every time you start typing a query, search engines generate a pop-up full of suggestions that aren’t far from what you’re looking for. Impressive, right?
These engines are designed to learn and analyze user behavior. The suggestions generated mostly reflect what other web users have been searching for. Most probably, your queries aren’t very different from those of millions of other internet users.
This way, you can quickly tell the most popular search terms for any given topic. You can use these suggestions as part of your keywords. However, it’s good to note that the suggestions are always only a handful, whereas commercial keyword research tools generate thousands of related phrases.
5. Do Competitor Research
Of course, in business, you must consider what your competitors do and use the information to try and have an edge over them. The same applies to keywords.
For example, if you’re an IT consultant, research the keywords that the highest-ranking IT consulting firms in your geographical region rank for. You’ll be able to understand the SEO strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. Afterward, craft your SEO strategy around these keywords and several others so you’re one or two steps ahead of your competitors.
To Sum It Up
An intelligent keyword research exercise is a key step in developing a high-ranking website. With the tips and tricks in this post, you can easily elevate your SEO game to the next level. Combine both your thinking power and sophisticated online tools to get the best results for your business.
