Imagine a day without words. How would you communicate? People use words to get information and share it. Entering words in a search engine box is an excellent example. Users type a word or a few words to get a list of results. And these words play a significant role in the success of your business.
But are you using the right words? Keywords brand your business and attract customers to your site. Finding those words can be a challenge, especially Google’s ongoing algorithm updates. Do you feel lost already? Consider ten reasons to hire a keyword research service rather than attempting to generate this data internally or on your own.
1. Derive the Benefits of Business Brainstorming
Keyword researchers understand how search engines work, and what it takes to rank well on them. The first step a keyword research service takes is brainstorming about your business. This process may involve a few telephone conversations and meetings.
During these meetings, the service learns more about the company and what it does. An SEO service knows how to find keywords, but they don’t know as much about your industry as you do. Performing basic research about your field helps, but can’t reflect your unique approach. And walking through them together also enables you to refine your business plan.
Brainstorming reveals essential facts about your business that you might have forgotten. And the keyword researcher gains an in-depth understanding to focus on finding industry-specific keywords that make a difference. A bucket list of general words is created to define your business and what it does.
2. Take an Enlightening Walk in the Customer’s Shoes
Once a keyword researcher knows more about your business, it’s time to step into the shoes of your typical customer. What do they want, and how do they search for it? Who is the average customer that buys from your company, and what are they looking for when they shop? Defining your target audience is crucial to generate leads and increase conversions.
Some companies wrongly believe throwing out a broad net will increase conversion rates. The Internet is user-specific, so narrowing the audience is what elicits the best results. For example, if you’re selling sandals for little girls, you don’t want to attract senior men looking for loafers. More traffic is not always better. An SEO expert helps you navigate these tricky waters.
Typical customers are defined by their age, demographics, and what they want from the business. Keyword research is done based on these personas. More keywords are added to the original bucket list, and it starts to become more focused.
3. Define the Possibilities and Avoid the Pitfalls
Now a keyword research service is ready to refine the keyword possibilities. Do you want to attract local, national or international traffic – or all three? Will the website provide evergreen or time-sensitive content or both? Different keywords would be used for all of these strategies.
The right keywords become the foundation of lead-generating content. Content development is time-consuming and requires special expertise. It takes a skilled team to craft optimized content that performs. Trying to do this on your own can be frustrating with less-than-satisfactory results.
Most business owners soon discover their time and efforts are best spent on upfront entrepreneurial efforts rather than behind-the-scenes research. And hiring an SEO specialist or team full time means paying salaries, benefits, taxes, and other employee-related expenses. A service (such as Galileo’s) can provide as much or little assistance as fits into the company budget and needs at the time. A keyword research service is far more flexible and scalable than hiring SEO staff.
4. Discover the Difference of In-Depth Keyword Research
After the preliminary fact-finding, it’s time for the keyword research to begin. The process is labor-intensive and thoughtful. It takes hours to sift through the keywords to find ones suit your business brand and its goals. User intent, location, business objectives, and analytics are all considered as a keyword researcher combs through the possibilities.
Tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, and Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest help keyword researchers work their magic. Keywords are classified by traffic volume, and level of competition. A combination of short-tail keywords (one or two powerful words, sometimes referred to as head terms) and long-tail keywords (contain three or more words for more specific searches) are chosen based on a variety of factors.
Your current site content is also analyzed to determine which pages rank the highest, what keywords are working, and what needs to be changed. But is the keyword research complete now? We’re only halfway there. Now it’s time to find out what the competition is doing. What keywords are working for their web pages and blog articles? And can they be used to boost the rank of your site? The next phase begins.
5. Stand Up to the Competition
To stand up to the competition, you need to know what they are doing. A keyword research service asks about your competitors to see where ranking opportunities might exist. Then research is done much like it was performed for your business. And additional resources are used to find out more about a competitor’s online activity.
Besides the tools mentioned above, there are dozens of ways to spy on the competition and target their keywords, such as SpyFu and SEMRush. Determining these keywords becomes the foundation for writing competitive web content and blogs in the future.
Researchers also review trends in the news, Google’s “People Also Ask” feature, and Q&A websites such as Quora to get unique keyword ideas. These keyword terms can be used to craft trending articles, content, and social media bring attention to your company as an authority on the subject and drive more targeted traffic to your site.
6. Get a Better Backend
With a host of keywords to consider, it’s time to determine the most powerful ones to use for online marketing. Beginning SEO efforts focus on less competitive keywords and long-tail keywords to attract targeted traffic other sites might have missed. Over time, more competitive keywords are naturally infused into your web content to continue crawling up the ranks.
To get a better backend, focused keywords are chosen to add to each page’s title tags and metadata. These elements are the overview of the page that comes up when people perform a search. And the title tag is also visible when people hover over the site URL, letting them know what the content promises to deliver. Brief content must provide a powerful message that is also optimized – both bring relevant visitors to your site.
Optimized content also includes images and video. Alt tags use keywords to describe the imagery, giving them more search engine “juice.” Do you want to find out what keywords are being used at your pages and competitors’ content? Visit the sites on Google Chrome, then press CTL + U to see the backend data in HTML, one of the primary Internet “languages.” A professional service knows how to read HTML and other coded languages to optimize your site on the backend as well as the front end.
7. Crawl Up the Ranks of the Search Engines
With no stone left unturned, your site is optimized to attract the search engines and targeted visitors. The overuse of keywords can cause sites to be penalized and omitted from search engine results. Keywords must be infused naturally into the content, so it is easy to read. Every page of your site must appeal to both search engines and potential customers. It’s a delicate balance to strike and is best left to the expertise of a respected keyword research service.
So is your site ready to soar to the first page of the most significant searches? While some content ranks quickly, SEO is primarily a waiting game. It can take weeks or months to start crawling up the ranks. The process is based on many factors, and some of them are known only by Google developers. But quality content focused on relevant keywords is the key to long-term success. Providing value to readers, and adding sharing buttons to your content, encourages people to share content they like.
From traffic volume to social media sharing and keyword relevancy, every factor helps improve search engine rankings. Each small victory feeds off the other, creating a series of successes that continue to boost site ranking. Inevitable declines occur, based on current keyword relevance and the optimization activities of your competitors. What do you do then?
8. Wash, Rinse and Repeat for Stellar Results
Keyword research is not a one and done project. Industries evolve, trends arise, and customer shopping behavior changes. All of these factors and others impact the relevance of past keyword research. To remain on the first page of the search engine results, it’s time to wash, rinse, and repeat.
The frequency of keyword research is based on the business’ objectives and budget. It can be done monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annually. SEO best practices are continually evolving, so past content is often tweaked for maximum optimization. Fresh title tags, metadata, and keywords can turn a tired piece of content into a lead-generating machine.
Unlike hiring SEO staff, companies can determine how often they want to invest in keyword research services. If the budget is focused on other business development expenses, research can be done less often. Keep in mind that relevant keywords attract more organic traffic and targeted leads.
9. Measuring ROI – Improved Lead Generation and Conversion Rates
Site analytics reveal the potency of your current SEO marketing campaigns. Detailed metrics keep track of the number of site visitors, where they come from, how long they stay at your site, and what they do at your site. Over time, companies realize a measurable ROI for working with a qualified SEO service. Reports are generated periodically to show your site’s progress.
These reports contain a wealth of useful information to help your business grow. The analytics reveal where the leads come from and what makes visitors want to connect with your business. This data fuels future marketing campaigns, based on the type of customers making purchases now. Find out the pulse of your target audience and what they want – then deliver it to generate more leads.
Effective keywords and quality content open the gates to more traffic flooding to your site. And this process continues to feed itself with fresh content and updated keywords based on recent research and trends. Detecting patterns is another way to increase leads to your site. Know the seasons of your business and when to post time-sensitive content to achieve optimum results.
10. Effortless Business Branding and Recognition
Words are the cornerstone of your business branding efforts. What makes you better than anyone else? Why are your answers the most accurate? Brand terms include your business name. Are people looking for you? If not, why not? An SEO pro knows how to find the answers to these questions to help develop focused keyword research and marketing campaigns.
As more people see your site, they remember your name and offerings. This means people will search for the site based on the company, rather than the industry or specific products. When they want something specific, you will come to mind. Social media sharing and reviews are more ways to brand a business and gain recognition.
Outstanding branding encourages satisfied customers to write reviews about the business. People are proud of being associated with the company and want to talk about it. And all these marketing possibilities are built on the foundation of professional keyword research. There’s no doubt about it – words matter!
Make hiring a keyword research service part of your business plan. Use the right words to build a successful enterprise and get noticed. Tap into the expertise of an SEO pro without adding another employee to your payroll. Talk to us to learn more about why words matter and how we can put them to work for you!
Ready to watch your business start rising to the top? Contact the dedicated team at Galileo Tech Media today!