Applications of Keyword Research

Is SEO Dead?

40,000 Google Searches

per second

1.17 billion Google Users

— Users have been searching this myth for years —

Keywords are at the heart of every search on the web, but it’s the keywords you target that make the difference.

• Do your keywords attract traffic that converts to sales or goals?

• What is the search intent behind a keyword?

• Do you know exactly what your target customers are searching for?

Why do we need it?

Put simply, keyword research is an integral process in SEO used to identify and research exactly what people are entering into search engines for a chosen industry. Not only does it tell you what people are looking for, but how they feel and the intent behind a search.

A comprehensive list of keywords can be used to optimise webpages in order to rank for what your target customers are searching for. Ultimately, this is about serving the right content to satisfy the user need and as a result increase conversions and user engagement.

Head vs. Long-tailSourcing long-tail keywords is imperative to keyword research.

In today’s online market, we all know that broad head terms are extremely competitive and expensive to target.

Long-tail keywords are specific and more descriptive phrases. Often they will have a significantly lower search volume, however the searcher is further down the buyer journey and know what they are looking for, leading to a higher chance of conversion.

High Cost & Competition

Low Cost & Risk Low Cost &

RiskHigh Probability of Conversion

1 Word Phrases “jeans”

2-3 Word Phrases “mens jeans”

More Descriptive Phrases “mens black skinny jeans”

Head Terms

Highly competitive and high search volume terms with lower conversion rates

Keyword Search Volume

maxi dresses 135,000

mens jeans 27,100

ps4 console 40,500

Long-Tail Keywords

Less competitive and lower search volumes, but higher conversion rates

Keyword Search Volume

size 12 maxi dresses 30

mens black skinny jeans 2,400

second hand white ps4 10

IntentUnderstanding the consumer

Every search on the internet has an aim. These mostly fall into one of three categories. Understanding the searchers intent will determine what can be achieved from targeting a keyword.

Transactional £ Value: High

Intent to make a purchase, complete a task or source a local business. Near end of

conversion funnel.

e.g. ‘chinese in hertford’ ‘buy samsung galaxy s8’

Navigational £ Value: Low

Performed with intent to land on a specific website / brand.

e.g. search ‘tkmaxx’ to find:

http://www.tkmaxx.com/

Searchers Intent

Informational £ Value: Low

Searches that look for an answer or how to do

something. Generally no commercial value.

e.g. ‘when was the UKs hottest summer?’

InsightsKey Techniques for Keyword Research

Google Keyword Planner

Google’s Keyword Planner is the bread and butter tool used for Keyword Research and is extremely simple to use:

• Enter keywords related to your products and services and click ‘Get Ideas’ to generate suggestions

• Export the list to Excel and filter out any irrelevant terms • Repeat for multiple keywords, collate lists and remove duplicates • Sort list into keyword targeted clusters

Keywords

Internal page or homepage

Your niche

• Avoid broad keywords (otherwise you’ll get competitive head terms) • Get more targeted results by using all 3 fields (see right) • Use ‘Keyword filters’ to include or exclude certain keywords • As of September 2016, Google now groups search volume data if

you don’t have any live PPC campaigns

Tips:

Google Trends

Google Trends is a tool that shows how often particular search terms are entered relative to the total search volume in a given location. It is best used in conjunction with Google Keyword Planner.

Trends enables you to look at when terms are trending, at what time periods and in which locations. Compare similar terms to spot rising and declining trends.

It is great for showing the life of a keyword and how factors like seasonality or location affect them.

If you scroll down, you can see ‘related queries’ which can be exported to Excel. Run these through Keyword Planner then sieve out the relevant terms.

Long-Tail MethodsThere are many methods for finding long-tail phrases, here’s one of our favourites:

Answerthepublic is a useful tool providing content ideas from an entered search term. Search with some of your keywords and run through Keyword Planner for search volume. This will often uncover some hidden gems to target.

Related SearchesGoogle’s related searches is great for finding long-tail keywords. When you type in the search bar, Google gives a bunch of suggestions. But how do we extract this data?

Fortunately, we have free tools to do this for us such as keywordtool.io. It’s particularly good because it adds a character before and after the keyword, generating a huge amount of suggestions.

Type your key phrase into the search bar, then click ‘Copy all’ (see below) and run them through Keyword Planner to get your search volumes.

SEMrush - Competitor ResearchReviewing competitors is a great way to further understand the customer, find alternative keywords and unlock different avenues for ranking opportunity.

Using SEMrush?

• Enter a competitors domain

• View full report for ‘Organic Keywords’

• Use the advanced filters to remove branded terms leaving the most useful data for the Excel export

• Repeat with other competitors and collate your keywords

• Remove duplicates and check for relevant terms and additional keyword clusters

Available from $69.95 a month

ForumsLooking at industry related forums can sometimes uncover a hidden gem; related questions and discussions points.

Just search using one of the following structures: “Keyword” + “forum” “Keyword” + “powered by vbulletin” “Keyword” + “board”

Look through forums to find the topics people are talking about. Run topics and questions through Keyword Planner to add to your list.

Alternatively, go straight to forums you already know such as Reddit or industry specific forums.

How can we apply it?

Theme Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Audi

BMW

Seat & Mini

Jaguar

Peugeot

Skoda

Used Audi Used Audi

New Audi New Audi

New BMW New BMWUsed BMW Used BMW

New Seat New Seat

New Jaguar New JaguarUsed Jaguar Used Jaguar

Used Seat Used SeatUsed MiniUsed Mini

New PeugeotUsed Peugeot

New Skoda New Skoda

Used Skoda

Used Skoda

Strategy Planning

Execution

Keyword Research is the backbone to most SEO strategies, unlocking wealths of information to drive decisions. It can be used to understand your audience and plan when to execute key content strategies. E.g. planning around peak search times round the year.

Site Architecture The architecture for a site has various impacts on your sites performance:

Usability - User friendly pages improve the user experience by giving them a logical route throughout the site.

Rankings - A well thought out content structure enables you to target the right pages with unique content.

Conversions - Provide a natural journey that moves the user towards a purchase.

But how do we know what structure to use?

Keyword research determines key clusters that people are searching for and how these link together from broader terms to long-tail. This puts keyword research into action by creating pages highly geared towards your keywords and increasing a sites ranking opportunity.

Identifying new opportunities in the research means you can target other relevant terms to your business.

Content Planning

A content plan can be greatly enhanced with the inclusion of keyword research.

It forms the basis of content plans by digging into the behaviours of the target audience and working out what they are searching for.

Relevant content can then be produced that targets these areas and keywords. Furthermore, you can use seasonality trends for target keywords to inform when is best to launch a piece of content.

HOW TO DELIVER ROI ON KEYWORDSKeyword research can be used to forecast the monetary gain from targeting specific keywords or URLs.

It is much easier to justify the cost of implementing projects when you can see the financial benefit it can bring.

See below how we can work out the ROI from targeting keywords:

Avg. Search Volume of Keyword

Click-Through Rate of ‘Keyword’

Ranking Postiion

Number of Site Visits

Conversion Rate

Number of Site Visits

Average Order Value

Additional RevenueX = X X =

TAKE AWAYS User Intent - People use search for numerous reasons. We can categorise queries into transactional, navigational and informational searches to determine what the user is looking for and it value.

Insight - Use multiple research methods to uncover as much as possible about your service and user needs. Triangulating data sources will give better quality data.

Strategy - Support business decisions with keyword research by working out the ROI from targeting keywords / clusters.

Content Planning - Drive your editorial calendar with topics you know the target audience are looking. ______________________________________________________________

Top Tip: Search habits change over time. Keyword research should be refreshed so you’re always targeting in line with your audience.