At my own company, Measure Marketing, we have to know what people want from a digital marketing agency like us. We need to know how they think, who they are, what they like, what they dislike, and more. One of the best ways to key into this is with keyword research.
Keyword Research, It’s Not Just Numbers
Often this part of digital marketing can seem like a very technical aspect, and in some respects, it is, but in no small part it’s about knowing your customer.
An important thing to understand is that what you think your target customers want and what they truly want may be two completely different things. You create profiles on the kinds of customers you want to attract, but you can’t let those original ideas bog down the reality of what’s happening with your business and customers.
A good way to stay on track with this is to tap into your page’s Google Analytics and look at what keywords have gotten you traffic. Hopefully some of these keywords are what you’re already targeting. But if you see something popping up over and over that you weren’t targeting, you should absolutely shift gears and add it to your strategy.
Though this is more of a reactive strategy, a more proactive way of knowing what people want is by running your desired keyword list through your keyword research tool (or tools) of choice and looking for the average monthly search volume for each term you’re looking to rank for. If they’re not getting any traffic, they’re probably not a good idea for you, but something with tons of traffic might also be too difficult to rank for. You may want to aim for mid to low traffic search terms. The more specific these keywords are, the better your chances are to rank for them. Longtail keywords with low search volume often actually convert better than a high-volume keyword.
It all depends on what type of strategy you want to use. Some people like to target what their competitors are trying to rank for. Or to put a lot of effort into a high search volume keyword that becomes the number one way people find their site.
Most tools will also generate keywords related to whatever you’ve put in, and this can be a good way to find those specific keywords that are easier to rank for and may have a higher chance of conversion.
It’s All About Intent
As Google evolves further and further, it continues to better understand user intent and favours webpages that have that same understanding and care for the user.
So, like I discussed before, it’s essential to do some serious mental work in trying to inhabit your potential customers. When you understand your customer, you can better predict the ways they’re going to search for whatever it is that you’re offering, and then you can better serve that customer.
Are you still not sure about how to get your keywords in order? Don’t worry, we can help! Contact us now and we’ll get started on your Keyword and SEO strategy.