The words you type into search engines play a role in how easily you find a site or web page– and the same goes for the way people find your website. If you want people to find your website, you must understand what keywords are, why they matter, and best practices for how to find them. In this article, you will learn how to do so successfully and strengthen your content strategy on your own (search) terms.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are words or phrases that users type into search engines to find relevant content for their queries. Because keywords come from search queries, incorporating these terms
into your content strategy helps search engines rank your website pages and users find your content when looking for it. So it’s essential to know how to do keyword research to find keywords that relate to the topics on your website and create good SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising strategies
The 3 Common Types of Search Intent
Behind every keyword is the reason the user makes the search query in the first place. This is known as search intent which falls into 3 categories: informational, navigational, and transactional.
Take a look at your keyword and think about what the user is asking by making their query.
. Like, if they were to search, “what are nfts” they are feasibly looking for informational content that will explain this topic in detail.
. also, if they look up “nft marketplace” they are likely searching for navigational content to take them to NFT platforms.
. If they type “best nfts to buy now” they are probably trying to find transactional content that will help them complete a purchase decision.
By speaking to the “why” of the search query, you can tailor each content page to fully provide value to the user and deliver the best possible experience. But to fully grasp how to provide this value, you need to know the impact of keywords and why they matter to your website in the first place.
Now, while keywords are still useful tools for conceptualizing and planning your content strategy, their effectiveness is entirely rooted in context.
Why Are Keywords Important?
Keywords are important because they help you understand what users are searching for and the content you need to provide to meet their needs. The keywords you choose help define your content strategy and what topics to include on your website. This means incorporating the most relevant terms to increase your ability to rank and, in turn, increase website traffic.
For instance, say you’ve written SEO blogs about the various aspects of software. If you have been fleshing out a topic cluster to demonstrate your content authority. Then, Google will have the context it needs when ranking websites like yours.
The keywords you include on your pillar and cluster pages will guide you to produce content on various user interests. But with the paradox of choice, how do you choose a good keyword? Your decision will depend on the marketing channel you’re writing for and your short or long-term goals.
Let’s dive into how to define good keywords across SEO and PPC channels to put you in the best position to benefit from your content.
What are good keywords?
What qualifies as a good keyword in SEO is different from what makes for the right target in PPC. But how do SEO keywords differ from keywords for PPC on the SERP?
Understanding this difference takes learning how to use SEO and PPC keywords to your website’s advantage.
How Do I Use Keywords in SEO?
A good SEO keyword strikes the ideal balance between keyword volume, competition, relevance, and intent based on your website’s authority. Therefore, adding keywords encompassing these factors will allow you to rank and drive traffic long-term.
Plus, because SEO keywords are free- to rank for, and when users click on your content- you can receive high value from the content you produce.
While the roster ranges both on and off the page, SEO content includes:
What Is Keyword Difficulty?
Keyword difficulty, otherwise known as keyword competition, measures how challenging it is to rank well for a specific keyword. In addition to how many pieces already rank for a keyword. Hence, your domain authority and paid search volume factor into the keyword difficulty for any given search query. The lower the difficulty, the easier it is to rank for that term.
Frequently, competitive keywords with higher difficulties are the ones in which everyone in an industry wants to rank. For example, broad keywords like “insurance,” “marketing,” or “technology” are all going to be highly competitive because they have a high volume of monthly searches. There is also a bevy of written content on these topics vying for a keyword ranking
How many keywords should I use?
It’s a question that has withstood the tests of time (spent on digital marketing): what are the optimal number of keywords for SEO content?
Well, for a long time digital marketers organized their entire content calendar around specific keywords. And the number of times to include these keywords on the page. They’d work with their teams to brainstorm focus keywords relevant to their products or services using keyword research tools. Then analyze all the variations of that keyword most likely to be a source of website traffic.
Unfortunately, as time went on, publications began keyword stuffing; publishing irrelevant, poorly-written content with specific keywords just to drive traffic. Eventually, search engines is largely led by Google, and the constantly-changing Google search algorithm — became more advanced. Instead, a more contextual-based approach to digital content was favored over simply keyword count.
How To Find Keywords The Right Way
. Clearly define your target buyer personally.
. Narrow your focus and investigate keyword competition.
. Collect data, analyze keyword research results, and repeat.
The following ways to find keywords for content strategy in Google keyword planner.
1. Clearly define your target buyer personally.
Having a clear understanding of your ideal audience is the key to any marketing endeavor. With keyword research, you must understand what questions you can answer or problems you can solve for this target buyer persona. At this point, it’s okay to think in broad search terms regarding what those problems or questions are.
For instance, if you’re a PR agency, you need to find leads who are interested in hiring a third party to help them run a PR campaign. To do this, perhaps you begin by writing digital content that answers the question “How to run a successful PR campaign”.
A broader content topic is a good starting point for building a pillar page for your topic cluster.
2. Narrow your focus and investigate keyword competition.
Once you determine the overarching question or problem to address, it’s time to get more specific. Getting more specific allows you to cater your content to your target audience, and it helps you leverage less competitive keywords.
However, latent semantic indexing, is a process of generating search query variations by determining how closely a given search term relates to other search terms. Think of latent semantic indexing tools as a way of brainstorming and generating a lot of keyword ideas quickly and easily.
From there, use keyword tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to analyze a competitive keyword. This analysis allows you to determine which keywords have the most potential for your business.
3. Collect data, analyze keyword research results, and repeat.
As you create content around specific keywords. Also, keep in mind that a great content strategist doesn’t just throw content out randomly to see what sticks. Consider using a tool like Google Search Console to track how your website is performing for your keywords.
Google Search Console can also help you see whether your traffic is increasing from keywords you hadn’t planned on ranking for. Nevertheless, this will help to informs your future digital content strategy. Having this knowledge is crucial to further refining your keyword planning. And identifying content gaps that have significant potential to bring you new customers.
How to Create Unique Content Through Niche Keywords
What’s great about leaning into less competitive keywords is that it will allow you to build your brand authority. Even, within a specific field through clearly defined niche content. Niche content is a specialized writing topic that engages a specific audience’s interests to make a viable impact in your industry’s content market.
If we reexamine our “marketing” example above, we see how difficult it is to make an impact by writing general content on “marketing” in such a saturated market. But what if your content targets a longer, more specific keyphrase like “marketing portfolio. For example, examples” and an audience of marketers trying to build or bolster their marketing portfolio?
As you can see, although the monthly search volume for this keyword is significantly lower. However, it would be easier for you to get a foothold in the market thanks to this phrase’s lower keyword difficulty. To become more authoritative in your space.