SEO is many things, but above all else, it is primarily a comprehensive digital marketing tool through which companies can identify trends in their activity sector and develop strategies to target the hidden interests of core audiences. How can this be done? Through back-end technical optimization, on-page content modifications, and comprehensive keyword research. In this post, we will focus on the latter and showcase both the importance of keyword research in the SEO process and the many types of intent-focused key phrases or words that can be unlocked through a high-quality keyword research strategy.
What is keyword research? To put it as a straightforward definition, it is the process by which our company will analyze the digital space and unlock the words or long-tailed phrases most often utilized by audiences looking for specific products, information, or locations. Keywords, in the digital medium, are the core of modern SEO strategies, and they are the main element utilized by search engines to determine the relevancy of indexed content. So, they are, for lack of a better word, fundamental and have remained a key factor in digital growth, regardless of Google updates or modifications in crawling algorithms.
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Search engine crawlers leverage keywords to align user intent with already-indexed content, and by utilizing them, site admins can target the interests of core demographics while also aligning their site with the latest trends in SEO. It’s quite easy to understand, actually. Keywords represent a way to gain a competitive advantage over industry rivals, optimize your site’s indexable content, increase the CTRs of your pages, and enhance the profitability of your commercialized products. Therefore, keyword research is intertwined with potential SERP growth.
How Many Types of Keywords Are Out There?
Establishing why keyword research is important is pretty straightforward. However, what is a bit harder to do is enumerate all the potential keywords or phrases that can be unlocked through a complex search term exploration framework. Let’s say, for example, you want to leverage the professional SEO marketing strategy developed by our company to enhance your site’s presence at a local level. In that case, the keyword research we’ll conduct will, at first, primarily concentrate on short-tailed keywords, which are broad search terms often comprised of less than two words that are characterized by high search volumes but also significantly elevated competition.
What are some examples of short-tail keywords? Let’s take, for example, terms like: laptops, dog food, or insurance.” These words have broad intent, but on their own, they are inefficient in actually capturing general audience responses (because of the competition). However, things change a bit when they are paired up with location-based terms. Are you, for example, active in a small town in Maine? If you simply target “insurance” as a primary keyword, your success will be minimal. However, if you combine that primary search term with a secondary keyword that’s location-based, your chances of appearing in the local pack will increase drastically.
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Is This All?
No. Actually, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Long-tailed keywords, for instance, are specific key phrases that can be utilized to target the particular interests of niche audiences, while transactional keywords are characterized by an enhanced conversion potential and can be utilized either for ad campaigns or articles with a pronounced CTA. Likewise, if you want to increase affinity with your services, a good idea could be to leverage navigational keywords or LSI-relevant ones, which can also improve your content’s chances of appearing in feature snippets and have a positive effect on the subsequent SEO link-building packages implemented by our firm.
That said, for a local SEO strategy, geographical keywords of the “near me” variety are a good place to start, as they can drive an increase in local search traffic by more than 50%. Are you, however, targeting users looking for information about more general topics, and is your keyword research not focused on phrases with local relevancy? In that case, concentrating on informational keywords leveraged by users with a low purchase intent can be worthwhile, as these kinds of keywords also have the secondary effect of potentially raising your site’s authority score.
Our team will select the appropriate search terms for your firm’s use cases based on the keyword research conducted during the SEO audit phase of the optimization process. Are you active in an industry in which high search volumes are to be expected, and are you planning to expand your services at an international level? Then, we will primarily focus our attention on short-tail keywords. Are you present in the e-commerce sector, and are you planning to enhance your venture’s local growth? If so, we will primarily focus on transactional phrases used concomitantly with location-based ones.
What Is the Difference Between Primary and Secondary Keywords?
The importance of keyword research becomes apparent when we discover the plethora of different options available for all kinds of content-creation strategies. However, when we break down keywords to their simplest characteristics, one thing becomes especially clear. Keywords can be split into two distinct categories: Primary keywords and secondary ones. Also known as main keywords, primary search terms represent the principal core of a search query and act as the central term that should be targeted by a content creation strategy, regardless of the activity sector of your business or the developments happening on your website.
Primary keywords can be found in the meta description of indexable content, in title tags, or even in the URL of specific pages. However, most importantly, these keywords can be implemented naturally in the body of a text and can form semantic connections with secondary keywords. Speaking of them, secondary keywords are additional search terms that can expand on the scope of the initial query, and they can often provide extra depth to searches without negatively influencing the initial meaning of the principal keyword.
For example, the search term “Cars” can act as short-tail primary keywords, which can be inserted anywhere from meta-descriptions to title tags. However, by itself, its implementation will not lead to noticeable SERP results. With secondary keywords, however, such as “near me” or available in X colors for Y prices,” the primary search term will gain support, and the query’s depth will be enhanced. The digital medium and the algorithms used by search engines are changing on a year-to-year basis. However, since the launch of Google Page Rank, one thing has remained unchanged. The efficiency of SEO approaches is still greatly influenced by the utilization of primary and secondary keywords.
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What Are the Steps of a Comprehensive Keyword Research Strategy?
In order to implement a high-quality and comprehensive keyword research blueprint, our company will first need to perform a complete audit of your site’s back-end element, create a profile of your industry rivals, and gather information partaking to the interests of your core audiences, and the services and products they expect from your organization. After that, our team will create a list of “seed” keywords, which are basically a broad set of wide-reaching search terms that can increase relevancy to the niche interests of your audiences. Then, we will need to make use of specific SEO tools.
Since no one can refuse the help of a free-to-use application, during the keyword research phase of the SEO optimization process, our team will primarily use Google Keyword Planner. Nonetheless, occasionally, we will also utilize paid tools such as MOZ or SEMrush. With these programs, we will analyze the performance of your already-in-use keywords, compare their incidence with the search terms discoverable on your rival’s pages, and develop a content creation plan that can make use of them. What will we look for? It really depends on the particularities of your website and the preferences of target audiences.
That said, in order to select the right choice for your site and follow the latest SEO trends, we will look at the KD of the identified keywords, the number of monthly searches associated with them, and their CPC. Ideally, a keyword research strategy should discover both high-volume search terms with a broad appeal and secondary transactional, location-based, and informational keywords that can add to the primary search terms. However, each strategy is different, and our team will need to take into consideration the particularities of your website and the profile of your competitors before selecting particular keywords and grouping them together by category.
What Keyword Research Mistakes Should You Avoid?
First, you should only implement keywords that make sense for the content already published on your website. Sure, you might’ve found a couple of long-tailed keywords that can have a positive impact on your site’s CTRs. But, you must consider the user’s search intent and match the semantics of your texts. For example, you can’t integrate a location-based keyword for a sales page targeting international clients. Nor can you leverage informational keywords in articles with a clear focus on CTAs. On top of that, during the keyword research phase, it’s essential to limit the number of search terms or key phrases that you introduce in your site’s articles.
It might be tempting to stuff as many keywords as possible into short-form content, but this is a black-hat SEO strategy that will potentially have a negative impact on your site’s SERP presence. Keywords are only efficient if they are inserted naturally in the body of the text and/or are accompanied by secondary LSI key phrases that help search engine crawling algorithms identify the overall context of the indexable content. Is your 1000-word blog post composed of more than 30 different keywords? Then, most likely, the effect on your site’s online position will be the opposite of what you expected.
It’s also necessary to deprioritize focusing only on high-volume keywords. Of course, it might be tempting to target short-tail keywords that can theoretically be utilized for an international SEO approach. But in practice, high-volume keywords are almost impossible to rank well on their own. The key to a competitive keyword research strategy is to use a mix of short and long-tail search terms, update the search terms you selected on a regular basis, and also make use of structured data, which can increase your site’s chances of appearing in featured snippets.
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What Connects Keyword Research to Link-Building?
In a digital marketing strategy, SEO link-building services and keyword research are interconnected and, ultimately, aid in the same goal. To make your site more visible to the crawling algorithms used by search engines and help us understand subjects of increased relevancy for your target audience. During the keyword research phase of the SEO process, our team will identify topics with increased relevancy for the interests of new and broad audiences and utilize the information gathered to develop a content creation blueprint that will make your site more attractive for backlink collaborations.
In other words, in order to obtain links from reputable external sources, we will first need to leverage keywords with an increased search volume that can also contribute positively to your domain’s authoritativeness score. With the help of keywords, our team will create E-E-A-T optimized content that might be qualitative enough to deserve mentioning on external blogs or forums. Keyword research represents a tool to develop the central thematic anchors used in the link-building proposals, and it’s also a way to ensure that your content-creation strategies align with the SEO demands of the sites you’re collaborating with.
About Author
Ion G. Tudorache
As a co-founder and managing director of GAMIT I am the first contact of our clients. My job includes setting project objectives and offering SEO consulting advice to customers. My professional background and experience working in the SEO industry are essential in developing efficient SEO strategies and designing innovative techniques.
