SEO Keyword Research: How to Improve SEO Ranking with Effective Strategies
Standing Out in a Crowded Online Space
Everyday millions of websites are competing for attention. So how do you make your website stand out among the rest? By identifying the right keywords, you can improve your website’s ranking on search engines, attracting more visitors and increasing your chances of success. This is one of the first steps when optimizing your website for SEO (Search engine optimization). So how do you find the right keywords to get to the top of the results page? Well by doing something called SEO keyword research you can find the keywords that your target audience is searching for. We will go in depth on keywords figuring out several types of keywords, tools, analyzing competitors, monitoring, and adjusting and more.
Understanding Search Intent: The Four Types of Keywords
When finding the keywords for your website you need to categorize them within a search intent. There are 4 search intents, informational, navigational, commercial, transactional. Categorizing your keywords within these search intents allows you to target and narrow down to your target audience.
Informational Keywords
Informational keywords are Search queries used by individuals who are seeking knowledge are called informational keywords. For example, how much calories are in a coffee or what is the difference between ice and hot coffee. These usually ask what, why, how, where. These will give the searcher results like articles, videos, guides. These are great for building brand awareness but not good for conversion sales.
Navigational Keywords
Navigational keywords are where people find a specific site/page or when someone looks up a location to get a company’s products or services. For example, when searching for YouTube, searchers simply type YouTube or when someone types where is the nearest Starbucks or nearest Walmart. This search intent works best if you are well known and popular. Like the YouTube example everyone knows about YouTube so when they type that specific company it comes up first in the results. Navigational intent is not just for big companies like YouTube it can be a local coffee shop that is popular in your city that everyone knows about.
Commercial Keywords
Commercial keywords are looking up specific brands, products, or services. These types of searchers usually want to check reviews, compare products, look for discounts. For example, Starbucks flavors, Starbucks cold brew vs Dunkin cold brew, Free coffee, best noise cancelling headphones, deals on cameras, iPhone 14 reviews. A searcher’s intent here is to buy something now or in the future. These are also the customers you would want as they are more high quality, and they will keep coming back to buy more. You can target these using comparison articles, how-articles, and reviews. Such as the Starbucks cold brew vs Dunkin cold brew there are many articles comparing the different brands cold brews.
Transactional Keywords
Transactional keywords these keywords are the strongest intent to buy something immediately. These keywords should are typically used on paid ads, product pages, landing pages where users can act. For example, Chinese food near me that deliver, sedans under for sale near me, or buy crypto. These searchers have already done their research, decided, and now wanted to make a specific search to purchase something. These are usually the last destination for a buyer. Which is why these keywords are the most valuable when doing keyword research. Transactional keywords are more detailed than commercials keywords. For example, “2022 black Toyota Camry for sale near me” is more detailed than “Toyota Camrys for sale”.
This is the hierachy for search intents. Informational keywords are least likely to make sales as they are to inform users and transactional keywords are more likely to make sales as users are looking to make a purchase.
How to Improve SEO Ranking: Long-Tail vs. Short-Tail Keywords
There are two types of keywords long tail and short tail keywords. Knowing the difference between these will help your SEO performance and get you further to the top of search engines. But why do we need keywords? Well, when you look up designer clothes you get brands like Gucci, Verace, coach, Kate spade. But how does google know what results to give you? Well, that is why there are keywords. When you apply keywords to your website, google will take a searcher’s query and match it using these keywords. So, if you have the best match for that searcher you will appear on the top.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords are extremely specific search terms that focus on a specific audience. These keywords have less competition but higher conversion rates. Long tail keywords have less competition as these are longer and more specific. But they have higher conversion rates as they target searchers that already know what they are looking for. For example, lawn mowing services in my city.
Short-Tail Keywords
Short tail keywords are more broad keywords that focus on a wider audience. This is the opposite of longtail keywords these have more competition and less conversion rates. Short tail keywords have high search volume but because it is not as specific, they do not have high conversion rates as the searcher is browsing. But this does allow you to be on more search results compared to short tail. For example, lawn mowing services.
Overall, you should have a mix of long-tail and short-tail keywords in your SEO strategy, and you should balance them out. This way, you can reach a broader audience while also appealing to people who know exactly what they want. Having only long-tail keywords may not drive enough traffic to your website, while relying solely on short-tail keywords might not convert visitors into customers. Think of it like this short-tail keywords are the foundation for long-tail keywords. For example, “running shoes” can lead to more specific queries like “best running shoes for flat feet”.
Best Tools for SEO Keyword Research: Finding the Right Fit
To make your life easier popular keyword research tools are Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Moz keyword explorer, Ubersuggest, and SEMrush. The best is google keyword planner as it is free to use with a google ads account and its from the most popular search engine. But if you want a more advanced platform everything else, I listed is also good, but most require a purchase to get all the features.
Analyzing Competitors: Gaining the Upper Hand
To get even higher on search engines results you can analyze competitors keywords and find weaknesses with their SEO strategy. This can be done using SEMrush’s keyword gap tool. This allows you to compare your website with your competitors. Using this tool, you can fix where your weak and beat your competitors on the search rankings. You can see which keywords most popular and which ones are too difficult to compete with and which ones are easy to compete with. To get more information you can use SEMrush’s blog. They have a complete guide on how to analyze competitors’ keywords.
Monitoring Keyword Performance: Staying Ahead of the Curve
After you have did all the research and applied keywords to your website you want to track the performance of your keywords overtime. Keywords can change in competition and search volume reducing your rankings in the future. Thankfully, there are tools we can use to monitor keywords like Google search console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Serpwatch. Using these tools can help keep you on the top of search engines and stay there.
Elevate Your SEO Strategy with Effective Keyword Research
In summary, SEO keyword research is a crucial part for SEO. By understanding search intent, using different type of keywords, using tools for keyword research, you can target your keywords towards your audience. Also look over your competitors’ keywords to get higher on the results page. Monitoring and adjusting your keywords based on their performance will allow you to stay on top of search results. Using these techniques to improve your SEO will allow more traffic to your website and increase your online presence. If you want to learn more go to my other blogs.