While there really is a wide array of amazing tools out there to help a marketer or business owner to find keyword information they require, keyword research is still a time consuming process. There are no hacks or shortcuts that will dramatically cut the effort required, it takes knowledge and time.
If you need some background click here for info on marketing keywords.
We don’t want to just identify a handful of keywords, we want to identify (and understand the reason for) all the keywords that will make the page contextually relevant, i.e relevant to the concept we are taking about on a page. That’s why we structure our keyword research documents to discover two types of keywords:
Beginning Keyword Discovery
The main keyword is the focus keyword for a page and it is generally the most relevant intent and highest search volume keyword a page is ranking for or is intended to rank for.
This keyword drives the main targeting of the page. Secondary or supporting keywords are generally “long tail” keywords (three or more words in the term) that support the main keyword and give the page the opportunity to rank for additional search queries.
Finding the Focus Keyword
Keyword research is essential when you assess a website, particularly if the site is in a niche you have little experience in. Before you can get to work, you need an idea of what keywords you’re going to target through the campaign.
Bear in mind, keyword research can be a bit dry. You’re going to deal with long lists of search terms, narrow down the keywords you want to use, discard those with little value, and so on.
Here are some questions to get you started:
- What keywords have you tried using in the past?
- Who’s your target audience?
- Who are your primary competitors?
- What regions do your products/services target?
You can get a lot of this information yourself just by visiting your or your client’s website. And it’s always interesting to find out if your ideas about a business actually match what is going on with the business.
It’s all too common to deal with businesses that have been going about targeting the wrong keywords, either because they choose options that are too competitive or they don’t have enough search traffic.
The keyword research process may be dry, but it gives you the data you need to make smart decisions.
Supporting Keywords
Now, there are a lot of tools you can use to identify keywords. Most of them will throw hundreds of options at you. One of the tools that marketers use most frequently is Google Search Console.
If you have access to Search Console, you can hop over to the Performance tab and look for the QUERIES section. Search Console will show you the top queries driving traffic to your website, including clicks and impression data.
What your main keywords are should be evident – they’re the ones getting you the majority of your clicks. In some cases, it’s possible that website owners have never looked at this data and they have no idea what keywords are driving the majority of their traffic. In other words, they’ve been driving blind.
If you find a page that is ranking for a main keyword, you can narrow the data in Search Console to display for only that page and then check what other queries that page is ranking for. Now you have found your supporting keywords for that page!
Find a guide to advanced keyword analysis here.
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