What to Know About Keyword Research in 2017
Keyword research is a primary focus for everyone from online digital marketers to individuals who want to provide their services or rent out products.
For example, if you’re a freelancer and you want to connect with new clients, or you have an RV you’d like to rent on a site like Outdoorsy, you’re going to need to know at least the basics of SEO and good keyword research.
The following are some of the things everyone from digital marketers to individuals offering products or services online should know about keyword research in 2017.
Foundational Keywords
When you start your keyword research, whether it’s for a business or you’re going to be marketing your own product or service online, you want to start with foundational keywords. These should be in line with your niche, and they should also direct you toward your competitors when you’re researching them.
As you’re thinking of your foundational keywords, the earliest planning stages can include simply describing what you’re offering in your own words, or thinking about the terms people would use to search for it.
Often your foundational keywords will be what are called head terms. These are the shortest and simplest keywords. These terms may be the easiest to generate, but they’re also the most competitive.
See How You’re Already Doing
If you already have a website or a listing page, you can check and see what you’re already ranking in and use that as one of your starting points for new research. You can build on your existing rankings and branch out into related keywords.
Relevance
The Google Keyword Planner Tool remains one of the best resources you have to do effective keyword research, but you need to know where to focus your attention when you’re using it. You can start with brainstorming and then add what you come up with into the Keyword Planner Tool.
Once you get to that point, it’s best to focus primarily on relevance. You can then go into the relevant categories that are shown and find the most relevant keywords. Modern SEO research is significantly based on relevance.
Once you have relevant keywords, you can move on to other criteria, such as search volume.
Is It Too Difficult?
Aside from relevance and search volume, another one of the primary considerations you should keep in mind with keyword research is whether or not your terms are going to be too difficult or competitive. If you have no chance of ranking for a keyword, it’s pointless to include it in your SEO strategy.
Tools like Moz have a difficulty score that you can look at when you’re doing your keyword research, and it can be extremely helpful.
You can use the Moz tool to see whether or not you would have to position yourselves against huge names in order to have any type of worthwhile ranking.
Finally, in the initial steps of keyword research and planning, you should also think about how you’ll use the words and phrases. You need to focus on keywords that will allow you to create content focused on the intent of the targeted audience you’re aiming for.
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