Are you working on your website’s SEO strategy? Here’s how to ensure you spend your time and money on the keywords that matter most…
Search engine optimisation is one of the best digital marketing services you can invest in when done right. Search marketing is a low-cost yet powerful way to target and convert customers that fit the profile you’re seeking. However, there is a lot to SEO, so it’s easy to lead yourself down the wrong path. Any successful SEO campaign should start with keyword research, perhaps the most critical stage. If you hone in on keywords that aren’t relevant or are too competitive, you will waste a lot of your resources further down the road.
So, why is it important to target the right queries, and how can you choose what keywords are worth optimising? We will answer these questions in today’s article!
Why It’s Crucial to Target the Right Queries
Before you dive into the nitty gritty of optimising content, building backlinks and other vital SEO tasks, you need to know where your priorities should lie. The core principle of search engine optimisation is to boost your website’s visibility to prospective customers searching for answers related to your business. Therefore, your work should start by identifying a list of keywords and close-matched variants via dedicated tools, competitor research and common sense. During this process, you will likely find hundreds of keywords, including many that are potentially worthless, so it’s crucial to handpick the ones that make the most sense.
Keyword research lays down the foundations for your entire SEO campaign. It’s important to find relevant keywords for your business and avoid queries about something you cannot offer. While piggybacking on certain topics can sometimes make sense, if you don’t provide a solution to what the user is looking for, you won’t earn a profit. Businesses function by making money, and while website traffic can be an exciting vanity metric, it means nothing if it fails to translate to conversions.
The next thing to consider is search volume. You may have a keyword extremely specific to your business, but if no one searches for the query, there’s no point focusing your efforts here. Analysing your list of keywords based on the estimated search volumes is a necessary step. With these search volumes in mind, you can paint a picture of where the potential for traffic growth lies and start to map out your focus keywords.
While a keyword may appear promising based on its monthly search volumes, this doesn’t mean you should aim this high. For example, ‘hotels in Liverpool’ gets a whopping 110,000 searches per month. If you’re a hotel in Liverpool, it probably makes sense to go for this keyword, right? Wrong! While the keyword is strongly relevant, it is far too competitive, even for big brands. Booking platforms and Google’s built-in features dominate search results for queries like this. Opting for keywords like this will have you hitting your head against the wall and won’t yield much in terms of traffic growth. Instead, you may wish to opt for a more straightforward win, like ’boutique hotels in Liverpool’ or ‘Liverpool serviced apartments’.
How to Choose the Right Keywords
So now that you know why it’s essential to choose the right keywords, let’s start looking at how you can achieve this.
Be the Customer
Google frequently advises businesses to build their strategies with the user in mind, not the search engine, a trap many SEO specialists fall into. You need to get into the mindset of a potential customer and consider what they might search for. Ask yourself, if you wanted the product or services you provide, what would you be interested in searching for? Customers enter questions to discover answers to their problems. You can even consider asking colleagues or friends for external perspectives.
Consider the Search Intent
Following the previous point, you will want to consider the user’s search intent. It’s critical to understand that Google displays results based on intent. For instance, the search results for someone seeking information differ from those for someone looking to buy a product immediately. You will want multiple pages to rank for different keywords and should tailor your focus according to search intent. With this, you should create content that fits the target keyword, such as a guide or a product page. How will you best visually answer the user’s query? The format of your landing page should be altered to suit, such as going heavy on images, graphs and CTA buttons or focusing on text content.
Look at the Volume
We mentioned this briefly above, but search volume is one of the most significant factors in choosing the right keywords to prioritise. This data will help you estimate which keywords will bring in the most organic traffic. Several tools, including Google Keyword Planner, show projected monthly search volumes. You can also use Google Search Console to understand the impressions and clicks for keywords you already rank for.
Don’t Neglect Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are essentially detailed and longer queries that users make. While long-tail queries are often low in search volume, they are more specific and usually lead to more relevant traffic. Therefore, long-tail keywords are more likely to increase your conversion rate. The competition is usually significantly lower for long-tail results, which presents a unique opportunity to achieve the first-place position.
Look at Your Competition
Chances are your competitors are already ranking well for keywords you should be gunning for. You can research your competition to find areas where you can win. Visit a competitor’s website and use their titles and H1s to gauge their priority keywords. With this information, you can see the monthly search volume and the search results and make a judgement call on whether you think you can achieve first place. Most people click a result in the top five, so don’t set your sights too low – you want to be the top-ranking website! When looking at your competition, assess their optimisation and authority to determine if they can be beaten or not.
Start Your SEO Campaign With Activate
We are proud to be a specialist Liverpool SEO agency helping businesses worldwide increase their online traffic and sales with successful search marketing. Our team is experienced in every area of SEO, from on-page optimisation to external link building and technical implementations. We are confident you will see a significant increase in new customers following our journey together.
Before working with us, we would be delighted to offer a free SEO audit. This audit will provide an in-depth analysis of your website’s current SEO standings and will offer recommendations on how you can improve. If you are happy to proceed with our SEO service, we will suggest a flexible campaign structure that fits your budget and timeframes. Contact us at hello@activatedigital.co.uk or 0151 236 4857 to get started.
If you’re keen to hear more about any of our other digital marketing services, get in touch, and we will explain how our experts can help your business excel in a digital world.