Your Guide to Keyword Research

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Understanding what your audience is searching for, when they want it, is of paramount importance. Strategically peppering your content with targeted and well-researched keywords is the best way to go about this. It’s a delicate balance, though, as keyword stuffing could get you penalized by Google. On the other hand, not incorporating enough keywords won’t do you any favors in reaching your target market.

It’s important that search engine algorithms pick up your content so as to accurately rank it for the right keywords. When crafting SEO content, be mindful of the phrases, search terms and keywords people are using to find you. Only then can you create meaningful and focused content.

All About the Power of Keyword Research

Getting a solid understanding of your target market is a priority. You have to know what they want and how they search for it. To find out, you can do some keyword research first, asking yourself:

  • What is my audience searching for?
  • How many people are searching for those services and products?
  • How do they want to receive that information?

Before your business can grow through search engine optimization, you have to truly understand the core offering of your business, what you stand for, who your customers are, and what their needs and goals are. This is the part that trips up so many business owners, as keyword research takes time — something many people are short on these days.

Choosing arbitrary keywords not based on actual data can leave you spinning your wheels. Focus on your audience and use careful keyword data to uncover those insights to ensure the most successful campaign, suggests Moz.

Answering the Right Questions

Focus your energy on getting accurate answers to all the right questions. Those answers will help you formulate the keywords or search terms that are used by your prospective customers.

Your primary keywords are your topic themes, which you can identify by:

  • Understanding your target audience and aligning their goals to your keywords (AKA, keyword intent mapping).
  • Performing keyword research in advance so as to come up with a content plan that aligns with trending topics.

There are many online tools you can use to research keywords, such as SEMRush, or you can use your own analytics to pinpoint the ideal keywords.

Take a look at what is displayed in the SERPs on a consistent basis. Gather the top 10 results for your primary topic and then dive in for a closer look by:

  • Content type: Are the results skewed towards a particular type of content, such as videos, blogs, infographics and in-depth articles?
  • Format: How is the information formatted, i.e., guide, list, how-to?
  • Differentiation points: What automatically stands out about the top three results compared with all the rest?

Once you have a list of all the right keywords, you can start honing in on the other side of the equation: content writing.

Contact Detroit Internet Marketing

Not sure how to go about it? We have you covered there, with copywriters on staff who can optimize your content for SEO. To find out more, contact us at (248) 234-4830.