Keyword research is one of the key (pun intended) practices in SEO. Without it, we’re flying blind and that’s no way to reach your destination. While it sounds fancy (and can be extremely complicated), the purpose of keyword research is a relatively simple one – figure out what words your clients or customers are using to search for products or services you offer.
We work with many different types of businesses so we’re pretty well-versed in a variety of niches. And yet we still get surprised by the search habits of some of our clients’ customers. This is the spice of life in SEO.
But why would you care what words your clients or customers are using? Surely it’s not that important. After all, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Not in the world of search engine algorithms, it wouldn’t!
When you know the keywords your audience uses, you can optimize your website to appear in relevant search results. It’s like knowing where people are looking for ice cream in the summer Alabama heat and setting up an ice cream parlor there. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but you get the point.
Whether you’re running a blog, an e-commerce store, or a local business, understanding and using keyword research to your advantage can seriously boost your online visibility and drive more targeted traffic to your site.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that people use when they’re looking for products or services similar to what you offer. Think of it as tuning into the conversations happening all around you and catching the exact phrases people are saying about topics related to your business.
OK, we get it – it sounds creepy when you put it like that. But it’s aggregate data, not literally listening in on people, so it’s perfectly ethical. This process is critical for onsite SEO because it guides your content creation and helps you produce materials that resonate with your target audience and satisfy search engine algorithms.
Let’s illustrate it with an example. Imagine you own a bakery in Birmingham, AL. Through keyword research, you discover (or we help you discover) that “gluten-free donuts” is a hot search term. Lots of people search for this term online and yet there’s not a lot of competition. Bingo! Now you know to highlight your gluten-free options on your website and in your marketing. This not only drives traffic but attracts the right traffic—people who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
Note: Before you go off opening a bakery for gluten-free products, you should bear in mind this is an illustrative example. Moving on.
Keyword research also helps you understand the intent behind those searches. Are people looking to buy something (“buy gluten-free donuts”) or are they looking for information (“how to make gluten-free donuts”)? By understanding this intent, you can tailor your content to meet your audience’s needs. This could mean creating thorough product pages, well-researched blog posts, or other types of content.
The Benefits of Professional Keyword Research Services
You might be thinking, “This sounds great, but where do I start?” It’s OK if you’re feeling lost. This is where professional keyword research services come in. You don’t have to do the heavy lifting here. We can do it for you.
Here at Uptick, we use a professional keyword research tool (or five) to extract keyword data and figure out how people are searching for the clients and services of our clients. Then we create content to satisfy those searches and in most cases, we rank them and help their business grow. Obviously, this is an abridged version of our process, but we’ll get into more detail below.
Not to toot our own horn, but our tools and expertise allow us to dig deep into search trends, competition, and keyword effectiveness. We sometimes joke around the office that we’re like detectives who specialize in SEO mysteries. We can uncover insights others might miss and provide a detailed analysis of which relevant keywords can bring the most value to your business.
Professional services can also save you a ton of time and effort. Instead of spending hours sifting through data and trying to figure out which keywords are worth targeting, you get a clear, actionable plan handed to you. It’s like having a personal trainer for your SEO—someone who knows exactly how to get you the best results with the least amount of wasted effort.
Plus, these experts often have access to advanced tools and analytics platforms that provide deeper insights into search trends and competitor strategies. They can help you understand not just which keywords to target, but also how to use them effectively in your content and overall SEO strategy. It’s a smart investment that can pay off big time in increased traffic, better rankings, and more conversions.
Local Markets and Local Keyword Research
If your business serves a local market then local keyword research is your best friend. The underlying principle is the same, but it’s more area-specific. It’s all about understanding the specific terms people in your area are using. For instance, a plumber in Huntsville would benefit from knowing that “emergency plumber Huntsville” is a frequently searched term. Optimizing for these local keywords ensures that your business pops up in the local keyword rankings.
But it’s way cooler and goes way deeper than this. If you really want to do this right, then you’d figure out the specific problems your target audience is likely to encounter where they live. For example, Downtown Huntsville is a treasure trove of plumbing problems due to the old buildings and aging infrastructure. Knowing this, you can create the right type of content to target the right clients in this area (or we can do it for you). It’s amazing how much information is out there that nobody’s using properly.
Local SEO isn’t just about keywords. It involves optimizing your Google Business Profile, getting local backlinks, and encouraging customer reviews. When done right, local keyword research can seriously improve your visibility in local search results. This drives more foot traffic to your store, gets you more calls, and helps you build a loyal local customer/client base.
Discovering Competitors’ Strategies with Keyword Research
Search engine optimization is about competition. It’s very easy to do SEO in a non-competitive field and nearly impossible (without a serious budget) when the competition is fierce. But how do you know how competitive your field is? Enter competitors’ research!
Keyword research tools allow us to perform a competitor keyword analysis. This way, we can understand their focus areas and identify gaps in your own strategy. It’s not unlike having a playbook of the moves they’ve already made. It allows us to refine and improve the tactics for your website and generate the best business outcomes.
Competitor analysis can give us insights into your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. For example, suppose a competitor is ranking well for a particular keyword, but their content is surface-level. In that case, we can create a more detailed and valuable piece of content to outrank them.
We can also use a keyword gap tool to figure out if there are gaps between your business and your competitors in organic search. Checking out their offsite SEO can also solve a few mysteries about their organic performance.
To top it off, we can identify opportunities that your competitors might be missing. If there’s a high-volume keyword related to your business that none of your competitors are targeting, that’s a golden opportunity for us to fill the gap and attract more traffic. We stay ahead in the SEO game by continuously monitoring and analyzing competitors’ keywords and adapting strategies to changing market dynamics.
Organic Keyword Research
Let’s talk about organic keywords. While the term “organic” calls forth images of a farmer’s market, we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about organic keyword research. This is about finding keywords that can naturally attract traffic without the need for paid ads. It’s the SEO equivalent of “build it and they will come”. By targeting high-potential keywords relevant to your business, we can help draw in visitors who are genuinely interested in your offerings.
Organic keyword research focuses on identifying keywords that have high search volume and low keyword difficulty. These are the sweet spots that can drive significant traffic to your site without requiring a massive advertising budget. It’s like finding a hidden gem in a sea of pebbles.
To do this effectively, we need to understand the search intent behind the keywords. Are people looking for information, or are they ready to make a purchase? By targeting keywords that align with your business goals and the needs of your audience, we can help attract high-quality traffic that’s more likely to convert.
Organic keyword research also involves ongoing monitoring and adjustment. The search landscape is always changing, so it’s important to keep an eye on how your keywords are performing and make adjustments as needed. You don’t want the competition one-upping you and getting the upper hand, do you?
Putting Together an Effective SEO Strategy with Keyword Research
Now that we’ve gathered all this juicy keyword data, it’s time to put together an SEO strategy. While we do a lot more than keyword research to come up with an effective plan, keyword research is one of the main pillars. It allows us to figure out what direction the content should be getting and what kind of information it should include.
Our SEO strategy starts with a clear understanding of your business goals and how your keywords align with those goals. For example, if your primary goal is to drive sales, we’ll want to focus on transactional keywords that indicate purchase intent. On the other hand, if your goal is to build brand awareness, we might target informational keywords that attract users looking for information.
Once we’ve identified your target keywords, we can start creating content that’s optimized for those terms. This might include blog posts, product pages, landing pages, and other types of content. The key is to ensure that your content is high-quality, valuable, and relevant to your audience.
All the content goes through our clients’ hands before it gets published. After all, it’s your business so we want to make sure that we’re getting everything right. And this helps with transparency and keeping clients in the loop. It’s a win-win.
The Future of Keyword Research
The landscape of keyword research is always evolving. With the rise of voice search, long-tail keywords, semantic search, and AI searches, businesses need to stay ahead of the curve. People asking their smart devices, “Hey, where’s the nearest eco-friendly dry cleaner,” used to be the stuff of science fiction. Now it’s a reality for more than 70% of people. Adapting to these changes and continuously refining the keyword strategy ensures your business stays relevant and visible.
For example, people are using long-tail keywords more and more to refine their searches. In stead of searching for “shoes”, many users now search for something more specific, such as “blue women’s running shoes”. This keyword will have fewer searches than “shoes”, but it’s also a lot more targeted so if you get traffic from it, it’s a lot more likely to convert.
Voice search is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s changing the way people search for information. This process has been going on for more than a decade now and there’s no sign of stopping. Instead of typing short, concise keywords, people are using more natural, conversational phrases. This means businesses need to focus on long-tail keywords and phrases that reflect how people speak.
Semantic search is another important trend. Search engines are getting better at understanding the context and intent behind queries instead of simply matching keywords. This is what we call “semantic search” and it’s something that’s changed the SEO landscape. It has also made creating high-quality, in-depth content is more important than ever.
And let’s not forget the inexorable march of AI. Early adopters are already using AI to replace their search habits online. Once enough people start doing it, search results are likely to be filtered through AI before even reaching the user. Not to mention both Google and Bing are already experimenting with AI results in the search. It’s a brave new world out there!
Conclusion
When it’s all said and done, does keyword research benefit your business? Yes, it does. In fact, we’d go as far as saying keyword research is the cornerstone of understanding and tapping into market demands and customer needs. It’s an ongoing process that not only fuels SEO efforts but can also shape your overall business strategy. Many success stories have started by someone from the SEO team going, “Hey, look at these keywords I found,” and then showing a table full of high-volume, low-competition keywords.
Are you ready to dive into the world of SEO? Let’s talk!
