Everything you need to know about keywords

Keywords are specific words or phrases that people use when searching for information on search engines.

Here is why keywords are important

1. Search Engine Ranking – Keywords help search engines understand the content of a page, and when your content includes relevant keywords, it is more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
2. Content Relevance – Keywords signal to search engines and users what your content is about.
3. Targeted Traffic – By optimising your content with specific keywords, you attract visitors who are actively searching for information related to those keywords.
4. Content Organization – Keywords help organise and structure your content. When you use keywords naturally throughout your content, it creates a coherent and informative piece that is easier for both users and search engines to understand.
5. Competitive Analysis – Understanding which keywords are relevant to your industry or niche allows you to analyse the competition.
6. Ad Campaigns – In online advertising, keywords are essential for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Advertisers bid on keywords, and when users search for those keywords, the ads appear.
7. User Experience – Keywords contribute to a positive user experience.
8. Long-Tail Keywords – In addition to broad keywords, long-tail keywords (more specific phrases) are important.
9. Local SEO – For businesses with physical locations, using location-based keywords is crucial for local search engine optimisation.
10. Analytics and Measurement – By tracking the performance of keywords using analytics tools, you can gain insights into what terms are driving traffic, engagement, and conversions. This data helps refine your content strategy over time.

Basics of Traditional SEO:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Traditional SEO refers to optimising content to improve its visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google or Bing.
• Evolution of Social Networks: Social networks, while not traditional search engines, incorporate features of search engines to help users find relevant content.
• Active Social Media Searching: Users now actively use social media platforms for searching specific information, such as product reviews, brand recommendations, and local businesses.

Benefits of Social SEO

1. Get Your Content Seen: Social SEO focuses on making content discoverable when users actively search for information on social platforms.
2. Grow Social Channels Faster: It can be an effective way to grow social channels by connecting with users who may not follow you yet.
3. Reach Users Not Using Traditional Search Engines: Social SEO helps reach potential customers who may not use traditional search engines, as demonstrated by examples involving Instagram Maps and TikTok searches.

Keyword Research

Why is keyword research important:

• Relevance to Current Trends: Effective keyword research allows businesses to stay attuned to current marketing trends.

• Search Engine Ranking Impact: The choice of keywords directly influences search engine rankings.

• Meeting Audience’s Needs: Keyword research helps businesses understand the needs and queries of their target audience.

• Understanding Popular Queries: Researching keywords for popularity, search volume, and intent enables businesses to address the questions that their audience is actively seeking answers to.

• Evolution of SEO: While individual keywords are still relevant, there’s an increasing emphasis on understanding the intent behind the keyword.
• Intent-Centric Approach: Instead of solely optimising for specific keywords, businesses are encouraged to adopt an intent-centric approach. This involves creating content that aligns with the user’s intent behind the search query, ensuring that the content comprehensively addresses the user’s needs.

Elements of Keyword Research

• Search Intent: Understanding the intent behind a search query is crucial for creating content that meets the needs of searchers.
• Value and Quality: To rank for a keyword, your content must provide significant value and be the best resource available for the query.

• Authoritativeness: Google assigns more weight to sources it considers authoritative.
• Competition: If a keyword’s SERPs are dominated by authoritative sources that are challenging to compete with, it becomes essential to create exceptional content to stand out.

• Search Volume: The volume of searches for a specific keyword, measured as Monthly Search Volume (MSV), is a critical factor.
• Strategic Targeting: Prioritising keywords with higher search volumes can be strategic, especially when aiming to attract a larger audience. However, it’s essential to balance this with relevance and competition considerations.

How to research keywords for your SEO strategy

There are a couple of steps to make sure you use the right keywords:

Make a list of words/topics related to your industry/niche:

• Create 5-10 topic buckets – this will help you establish your keywords later on.
• Think of your target audience – what kind of topics your target audience want to see/read about.

Here are two tools to help you with keyword research