When planning an article, landing page or blog post, you must take the search terms of your target audience into account. It is these search terms that will become the keywords in your article. Keyword research, therefore, plays a vital role in the building block of your articles and is one of the first things to consider in copywriting and SEO.
In this article, you will learn practical tips on how experts carry out keyword research when developing content, so you can adopt the same strategy in your content development. Or, if you don’t have the time, it may be worth investing in SEO copywriting services from an agency. WooContent is one such agency who are renowned for their SEO-led approach to content creation. In today’s competitive search landscape it’s crucial you adhere to current best practice guidelines. Here’s our guide to the essential parts of keyword research you need to know.
Know your goals
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This is the first thing to understand before you can start keyword research: you must know what you want to achieve with your content and how it matches up with your blogging and marketing goals, like they do on the site The Doe.
For you to meet these goals, you must have an audience in mind and you must offer something of value to them. This might be a product, a service, or entertainment by way of stories and so on. Usually, your level of influence and nature of your market will determine the answer to this question. When you have this figured out, you can decide how your next article can fulfill these purposes.
Compile a keyword list
Once you have your blog’s agenda in place, you should compile a list of possible keywords for your article. This requires that you think like your audience and figure out what they may want from an article in your niche. We recommend compiling this list electronically in a Google sheet or Excel document for easy editing. This should be relatively easy if you have done a good job of planning your goals in the previous point. Write as many keywords as you can come up with, so you can fine-tune them later.
Cross-check your keywords in search engines
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The next thing to do with your keyword list is to enter them into your search engine. Most search engines, like Google, try to complete your search words automatically and show you other related searches you can make; this tells you which keywords already exist and what people are looking for in your niche.
We also suggest checking out the Yoast tool. This will reveal more keywords and also show you the same keywords phrased differently for variations of the same term. You should jot down as many relevant keywords as you can at this stage.
Study your competitors
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Certain keywords are overused by websites with a bigger influence than yours. You need to know this and avoid these keywords so you don’t find yourself too far down the search engine rankings.
Shorter keywords are always broader and less specific, and may not place you in a favorable ranking spot if you have more competitors in your niche. Go for search terms with as little competition as possible, and with as many chances of being searched for by potential clients.
Your biggest competition is often companies that have made their mark as strong influencers in your niche. Sometimes you’ll find that a global brand performs well on a particular search term. If so, you may wish to reconsider using that keyword, unless you believe you can offer better content. Revert to your keywords list and add or subtract keywords as necessary.
Choose your keywords carefully
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As explained previously, the most popular search terms are often crowded by more popular brands, making them less effective for use in SEO. The longer, more specific ones are referred to as long-tail keywords. If a common search word says ‘birth control’, you might want to narrow it down by typing, for example, ‘birth control concerns for mothers in Manchester’, as you might find less competition there. So, you can add more phrases to your head term to create your long-tail keyword.
A long-tail keyword is more direct in what it searches for and has lesser chances of being overused, especially by the bigger players. This means you get better search ranking results using them in your posts.
Anticipate your audience’s search queries
Your audience’s search inquiries will tell you if their search queries are site-specific, information specific, or centered on a market inquiry about a purchase. The most prominent pages in your search inquiries may comprise of written, video, pictorial content, or a blend of two or more. This will help you decide which keywords to focus on, so make sure you jot them all down. Google places a lot of value on user-intent, so make sure you get under the skin of your audience’s informational needs. There are plenty of free tools like AskThePublic.com and Google’s own Search Console, which can help you understand a lot more about your target audience and customers. If you not helping people make decisions through your content, you need to rethink your content strategy.
Create your strategy
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The next phase is to create a keyword strategy on the strength of all the information you have gathered. All of your keywords from the steps above will need to be considered when writing your content. You should use as many high-value keywords as possible in your post. The catch is to make sure there aren’t many big players in your niche who have used those keywords and to incorporate your knowledge of your audience’s search inquiries online. Your strategy will reward you with good page rankings and Domain Authority (DA).
Keyword research is a vital part of the copywriting process. To maximize the traffic that your post will receive, you must incorporate keyword research into your SEO strategy. Quality content, for all of the effort that goes into it, must include your keywords, to stand any chance of ranking.
