Keyword research is so important, I can’t stress enough how much. Any kind of campaign online must never be attempted until you have a thorough understand of the things that people are actually physically typing into the search engines. All too often companies assume they know what people are looking for, but in reality it can be completely different. Each key phrase is its own individual market, so in order to understand which ones to target you need to know the volume of searches for each term, how competitive they are and whether you are able to compete against other websites.
You also need to bear in mind that often it is better to first target long-tailed keyphrases, here are some reasons why:
- It is easier to get organic rankings for these terms
- You often pay a lower click cost for your paid advertising campaigns
- They are less competitive
- They often have a higher conversion rate as the searches are so much more specific
In terms of SEO it is a balancing act between volume and what you can realistically achieve high rankings for. By targeting longer tailed key phrases first it then helps when you come to go after much more generic phrases as you already have some SEO juice with what you have achieved.
So search out those long-tailed keyphrases, make sure you understand which ones you are targeting and then build your campaign based around this. If you follow these simple steps then you will be well on your way to using your keyword research to have a successful online campaign.
Google have made it more difficult to determine the key phrases that your website is found for and there is a definite move away from taking 10 key phrases and trying to rank for them. Today’s approach is about taking an overall view of a businesses performance online, but having said that, keyword research is still a critical part of that. It’s something we carry out on a consistent basis.