While Google is keeping a gun through our heads with the consistent algorithmic updates, building the best keyword research strategy has stayed as a pillar for marketers looking to optimize their websites for search results.
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Not to mention the fact that the need to create the best keyword research strategy has stayed the same. However, the time has come to use the state-of-the-art marketing practices to shape up your strategy.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is a process of discovering words and phrases that all of the users use during their search. The ultimate goal here is to optimize the content around those items.
Keyword research is a process of discovering words and phrases that all of the users use during their search.– Tweet This!
Do you wonder how and why building the best keyword research strategy is important for your eCommmerce business?
You have to know that keyword research affects every aspect of your SEO, from on-page SEO to content topic exploration and your promotions.
That is the main reason why you have to consider keyword research strategy in the first step of your SEO strategy.
You may think of SEO as the guide for your campaign. They will tell you where to go and if you are progressing correctly.
Keywords help you find out thoughts, intents and most importantly the desires of your target market. They give you a “golden” insight about the needs of your potential customers. But according to SEO professionals, the keyword is not the only important thing for a good SEO practice, the intent behind that particular keyword is much more crucial.
Don’t be confused. Here is a quick explanation.
Assuming that you use the right SEO tools, keyword research itself tells you the topics and categories that people care about and how popular are these categories among your target audience. Then you can use these categories to find the best keywords. By this way, you can tackle the main intent of your audience.
Now, another question may pop up on your mind. How do people’s intentions affect your keyword research or why intent is so much important for your business?
User intent is one of the most crucial factors to rank well on search engines. Do not forget that it is more important for your website to address the problem that people intended to solve rather than just carrying the keywords that they search for.
Be careful on how you are interpreting the keywords you target.
Do you need an example? Ok, let’s jump into it.
Let’s say that someone if searching for “how to start a blog”. An individual may want to start a blog just for leisure or she may want to build a business out of a blog. Here, the intent will influence the direction. Did the researcher want to learn about individual blogging or she wanted to know how to launch a website for building a blogging business?
Now, I am going to explain the keyword research process to help you build up a list of terms you should be targeting. These steps will help you to put in place the best keyword research strategy. If you follow these steps, you will hopefully create a sound SEO strategy that will help you rank for the search terms that you really care about.
How to establish the best keyword research strategy for a better SEO
There is no doubt that you have your own way of describing what you do, but how does your target audience search for your products?
Answering this question is the most crucial step in keyword SEO strategy process.
1- List important and relevant topics based on what you know about your business.
To get started, think of the topics that you want to rank for and come up with 5-10 generic topics you think are important for your business. You will use these topics to come up with some specific keywords.
Let’s say that you are an online fashion retailer. Some topics that come to my mind would be things like:
-men trousers (4.4K)
-vintage coats (1.6K)
-winter coats (74K)
The number next to the topics show their monthly search volume. These numbers demonstrate how important are these topics to your audience and how many sub topics you may need to create content on.
2- Get down and make a list of the related terms
Do not confuse these topics with keywords. They are just the pillars that you are ultimately going to use to come up with a specific keyword list.
Now that you have a few topics, it’s time to identify some related keywords for those.
You can start with typing these topics into Google or even YouTube.
You can see what terms Google suggests you. These are very important keyword phrases to rank for in the SERP’s as your target audience is probably conducting searches for those specific terms.
But you don’t need to stop with Google. You can also find keyword ideas from YouTube.
Here you go:
The main point of this step is not to end up with your final keyword list. You just need to end up with phrases that your potential customers might use to search for items related to that particular topics.
Although many keywords are getting encrypted from Google every single day, another way to find some keywords is to figure out the keywords that your website is getting found for. To do this you need to use Google Analytics and Google Search Console. You can check your website’s traffic sources and make a list of the keywords people use to arrive at your website organically.
3- Mix head terms and long tail keywords
Probably you will be asking what are head terms and long tail keywords. Head terms are shorter and more generic keywords with just one to three words in length. Long tail keywords are longer phrases containing three or more words.
These two types of keywords are both beneficial for shaping up the best keyword strategy for your website. It’s very crucial to use head terms along with long tail keywords for achieving your long term goals and having short term wins. However, you first need to know the important differences between head terms and long tail keywords:
- Head term keywords are mass words with high search volume. Thus, millions of results appear on search engines when these keywords are searched for. As a result, these words become competitive to rank for.
- Long tail keywords are niche keywords that more sophisticated users of a specific category search for. The longer the keyword, the more specific it becomes. Therefore, not all websites carry those long-tail keywords leaving room for a great SEO opportunity.
For example; “men trousers” is a head term with 4400 monthly searches whereas “men’s trousers with elasticated waist” is a keyword with only 140 monthly searches. You may want to use both of these keywords in your keyword plan if you want to drive instant traffic with the long tail keyword and build a presence with the head term keyword.
There may also be pitfalls on the way i.e.targeting keywords with very high search volumes can point out to an ambiguous intent and put you at risk for drawing visitors whose interests differ with the content of your website.
Here is an example:
What is this searcher particularly looking for? Does he want to order a pizza or to find a pizza restaurant? Maybe she wants to have a receipt of pizza? Google doesn’t know so it offers some features to refine what you are really looking for.
Someone that looks for something very specific is much more qualified for your product than someone looking for something very generic. The long tail keywords convert better thus are better in terms of driving instant and organic traffic to your website.
4- Analyze your competitors’ rankings for those keywords
Just because a keyword is important for your competitors, doesn’t mean that it is important for you too. Understanding the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, is a great way for your list’s evaluation.
If your competitors are ranking for some keywords that are already on your list, it definitely makes sense that you need to work hard to improve your ranking for those keywords.
It could be a great idea to prioritize high-volume keywords that your competitors are not currently ranking for. Take advantage from your competitors’ missed points.
SEO keyword research tools for a better strategy
Keyword SEO generators are tools that provide keyword suggestions to rank better and answer the need of your customers more precisely.
Below are some great tools that will absolutely help you with establishing the best keyword research strategy.
1- Google Adwords Keyword Planner
Now that you have a mix of keywords, you have to narrow down your list with some stats.
Here is where Keyword Planner comes into play. You can use a mix of the Keyword Planner and Google Trends.
In Keyword Planner you get search volume and traffic stats for the keywords that you are considering. After the information you learned from Keyword Planner, you can use Google Trends to fill in the blanks.
Use Keywords Planner to underline those keywords that won’t help you very much. But before deleting anything check Google Trends, too. Some low-volume terms might actually be your golden mine in the future. Google Trends can help you figure out which terms are trending upwards and those that require more focus.
2- Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the place to analyze your SEO keywords with their average Google position, impressions and CTR.
With this, you will be able to optimize your URL that ranks on page two or three or even optimize the highly ranked URL with low CTR.
It’s free to use and a very helpful tool for SERP ranks.
3- Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a tool that shows you keyword ideas from different places around the web, from Google to Youtube and many more websites.
All you need to do is to install the Chrome plugin and the next time you visit a website that Keyword Everywhere is integrated with, you will see a quick keyword SEO check with a list of keyword ideas and data for each of the keywords.
Like this:
4- Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a tool which generates keyword ideas from Google’s search suggestions. Also it gives you the related data to the keywords like search volume, CPC, search difficulty and more. It’s a great tool to plan the best keyword research strategy.
5- SEMrush
If you have some capital to invest, SEMrush is highly recommended because it is a real time saver.
Aside from giving keyword ideas, what makes SEMrush different from other tools is that it’s listing the keywords that a particular website ranks for. This is a huge advantage to find the missing points of your competitors easily and rank higher.
Pretty cool 🙂
Today I am also going to share some PRO tips that will help strengthen your best keywords research strategy more than you have imagined.
Did you know that Reddit was a great platform for keyword SEO research?
Here is how:
For example, if you are running an online store selling female fashion, type female on reddit and choose a subreddit where your audience will probably hang out.
Finally keep an eye to the threads with a quite high number of comments.
Also, there is a tool called “Keyworddit” that scans reddit for words and phrases that people use.
Another gold mine to build the best keyword research strategy which is constantly missed is Wikipedia. After searching for the broad topic, head through the contents section of the page which lists the subtopics of the page. Some of those may be tough to find but can help you very much in your keyword research.
Forums are also great sources for keywords. The easiest way to find a forum of your target audience is to type your keyword and forum on Google. For example if your Keyword is fashion, you need to type “fashion forum/forums”. Each of the sections of the forum are potential phrases for your keyword research.
The Best Keyword Research Strategy For eTailers: The Final Words
Congratulations! Now, you know how to create a great list of the best keywords for SEO to target your audience in the most desired way. This will hopefully help you build the best keyword research strategy for your business.
You have to be sure that you are doing your keyword SEO analysis at least once a month to always have the best keyword research strategy in play!
If you think that something is missing here, please send us a message and we will try to include it 🙂
Curious to learn more? Take a look at related posts!
- Most Searched Keywords In 2019: Your Ultimate Guide
- 5 Tips To Rock Fashion eCommerce SEO With The Most Searched Fashion Keywords
- How to do keyword research for social media marketing: Guide for Shopify
- Shopify Website Keywords: How to Think Like Your Audience to Rock SEO
