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3 Key Questions to Ask Before You Begin Keyword Research

Keyword research should be the foundation of your digital marketing strategy.

The primary purpose is to find of keyword research is to find out the answers to:

  • What are consumers searching for?
  • How many people are doing a similar search?
  • How do they want to digest the information?

However, you do not simply jump into researching keywords blindly. Unfortunately, some marketers skip this part of the process as it is labour-intensive. It also takes time, which may scare away businesses that want results right away. 

You may think that it is no longer necessary since you already know what you are ranking for. But there lies the disconnect–what you want may not match what the audience wants. So, here are three questions that you need to find answers to before researching keywords.

 

1. What Are Your Business Goals? 

 

Your online marketing campaign must always align with your goals. Before starting your research, you first need to define your business goals. Each organisation may have a different intent. An e-commerce site is much more straightforward compared to an educational website, which may have several purposes. 

Once you have defined your business goals, then your keyword research can work to supplement your strategy. 

  • You can collect data for calibrating your website to customise the customer experience.
  • You can use the keywords to shepherd your SEO or PPC campaign.
  • You can also find out how your target audience is using the language in search.
  • You can research keywords to determine the format that your target market prefers.

 

2. What Are the Keyword Tools We Need to Utilise?

You do not go to war with the wrong weapon because that is the quickest way to defeat. Savvy SEO marketers create a baseline list of keywords that they can quickly scale as needed. When you have the list ready, you can then break the keywords into categories to easily test each one on your keyword tool. 

Below are some of the keyword research tools that you can use to bolster your online SEO campaign:

  1. Google Keyword Planner
  2. Keywordtool.io
  3. Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
  4. SEMrush
  5. Google Search Console
  6. Moz Keyword Explorer
  7. UberSuggest
  8. Google Trends
  9. KWFinder

Once you have collected enough keywords, export the data as CSV. Now, you have a large resource of keywords you can analyse and test to find if they fit.

 

3. How Is Competition Doing?

One way to analyse your competitor’s ranking for specific keywords is the SEO Competitor Analysis tool. It is an excellent way to study your competitors while saving money in the process. For instance,  you can learn from their mistakes so that you do not have to repeat them.   

Moz and SEMruh will also help give you insight into the competitor rankings. Now, it is just a matter of reverse-engineering their steps and building on their success.

While the name of the game is outranking the competition, the bigger purpose is to generate a complete profile of your customers. You should find the answers to:

  1. What keywords are they using that funnelled them to your competitor?
  2. What topics are your competitors choosing that you may have missed?
  3. Who is visiting their websites, and how long are they staying?
  4. What links are they clicking, and what content are they consuming?
  5. What pages received the most engagement?

 

When you have already started your keyword research, it is extremely important to monitor the performance of each keyword. The Google Search Console will tell you how you are ranking. When you benchmark against your competitor, it will give you a better grasp of where you are and the direction you want to go. 

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