The digital marketing world is always shifting and evolving, with new social media apps, CRM tools, and the search engine algorithms always changing. Despite all of the changes and flow, there have been some constants in digital marketing that have remained steady, one of them being the importance of keyword research. Before we provide a guide of how to conduct your own keyword research, we will go over what it is and why it is important to your marketing campaign’s success.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is interested in finding out what your target audience is searching into the search engine. It turns out that, when searching for a particular service or product, internet users gravitate towards similar high-leverage keywords, phrases, and topics. Successful keyword research will find what those keywords are and incorporate them into various aspects of your website and content production. This way, when the search engine algorithms are sorting which websites to rank the highest, you will improve your odds by incorporating relevant keywords and topics.
The Benefits of Keyword Research
Keyword research is essential to any digital marketing campaign. However, you might think it’s just another trend and not something you are interested in. So, before we go over how to conduct keyword research, let’s take a moment and look at some of the benefits of keyword research.
Perhaps most important, keyword research provides you with insight into your target audience. When an internet user is looking for, say, a dentist’s office, what terms are they using to find the website? As a business owner or head of a marketing team, you need to be able to answer that question. You need to be able to know how users are finding their way to your website and related websites. With this insight, you will be able to not only improve your SEO but also have a larger, more general understanding of what your target audience is interested in. This way, you might be able to detect and adjust to any shifts and changes in your particular market.
In addition to improved insight into your business and market, keyword research will also help you improve traffic to your website. By having relevant keywords and topics on your website, the algorithm that ‘crawls’ over your website will find your site relevant and will then rank it higher on the search engine results pages (SERP). Secondly, the incorporation of relevant keywords and topics will also help improve organic traffic to your website, since your website includes exactly what your target audience is looking for.
How Can I Conduct Keyword Research?
Keyword research is something you can do entirely on your own. However, if any of this seems like just too much, then consider working with the marketing team and all-in-one marketing tool Ella Interactive.
First Step: Make a list of relevant and important topics
In order to conduct effective keyword research, the very first thing you should do is generate a list of topics that are important and relevant to your business. Try to generate a list of five to ten different topics. To come up with ideas, you can look at your website and some of the content you have generated. To stick with the Dentist, you might have some general keywords and topics like “dentist near me”, “dentist check-up”, “general dentist”, etc.
Second Step: Turn that List into Keywords
Now that you have some general keywords, now it is time to fill in those general topics to get a little bit more specific. This is a time when you need to get a little bit more creative with your topics and get specific. Continuing with the dentist office, you could specify that general query, “dentist near me”, with more specific keywords: “pediatric dentist near me”, “teeth whitening near me”, dental crowns and bridges”. However, this is not your final list of keywords – so do not feel married to this second list.
However, you might be wondering, Users are finding my website somehow, what words are they searching for? Why should I be doing this guesswork? Though there is nothing wrong with generating topics and keywords ‘the old-fashioned way’, you can also use Google Analytics to help with your keyword topic generation. Google Analytics will tell you what keywords users are searching to find your website. So, with that information, you can really improve your keyword research efforts.
Third Step: Research Intent and Related Search Terms
This third step is where some of the deeper research takes place. During the third step, you will begin to search some of the terms you generated onto google or another search engine. You want to make sure that your keywords are aligning with what your intention is. Because sometimes search terms can get a little confused. For example, a person may search the term ‘dental health’. Now, a person who searches for ‘dental health’ may not be looking for a dentist’s office; they may be looking for some brushing tips.
Now, you will plug in a relevant keyword or phrase, and then scroll to the bottom of the search engine results page. At the bottom of the page, you will find a place where Google provides suggested search terms. Don’t let those days go to waste – incorporate them into your keywords and topics!
Fourth Step: Leverage Keyword Research Tools and Ella Interactive
Though keyword research can be conducted without the use of any tools, you should not shy away from using them. Ella Interactive, a recently developed CRM tool, can greatly transform your keyword research and your digital marketing campaigns. Ella can provide you with SEO audits, keyword research, and then help you with implementing those keywords and topics into your marketing strategy. And, importantly, once the marketing campaign has been conducted, Ella’s analytical tools will give you insight into how your campaign performed. By using keyword research strategies and an all-in-one digital marketing tool like Ella, you can transform your marketing strategy and the insight you have into your business.