In our previous blog we discussed the difference between Longtail and Shorttail keywords and how we get better search results. We also discussed that it could be beneficial for brands to do a search term analysis since this could create a solid base for a successful searchterm strategy. Setting a solid base and searchterm strategy also helps brands to determine which visual and normal content they should create and in which channels they should distribute their content.
As a (visual) marketer you can follow these three steps to create a solid base for your searchterm and content strategy.
1. Set up a brainstorm to create a longlist
There are numerous ways to find good and often used search terms. We will describe three steps that can help you find good and solid search terms and to better understand how your target audience is searching.
The first step in the brainstorm phase is doing internal and external research. Get a clear view to what kind of brands, products and services people search for in your industry and also investigate why your brand is so special. Besides the internal and external research it is important that you investigate both on- and offline data: brochures, recent press releases, your own website, your own campaigns and statistics of these campaigns.
Besides these common steps there are a lot of free tools that you can use for creating a long list of important search terms. We will dive into these in our next blog, so stay tuned.
- Google Adwords searchterm planner
- Google Suggest; this is the tool where Google fills in the rest of your search term
- Google Analytics for your own data – website visits based on search
- Google Insights for Search – Understand the trends shaping your industry
- Google Webmastertools– search queries on your dashboard
- Google Trends which can help you to check how popular the keyword is over time.
- Forums and boards – This is the goldmine for getting people asking questions about your site’s topic.
- Soolve.com, UberSuggest & ScrapeBox are easy to use, (free) tools that shows you a lot of keyword suggestions.
- Answer The Public can help you with uncovering question-focused keywords.
- Quora.com helps you find keywords where is an extremely popular crowdsourced Q&A site
- Keywordtool.io is very helpful when you would like to get longtail keyword ideas.
By using these tools it is much easier to get a good long list of keywords.
2. Determine the relevance of your keywords
The longlist that you made is very useful and we need to determine which keywords are most important for you so you get the best results. The most important keywords are going to determine the eventual (visual) content that you are going to create and are an important metric in your searchterm strategy.
To determine which keywords work best it is important that we give these keywords a number of relevance. This is what we can do with a scale of four. The most important keyword get a 4 and the least important keyword get a 0. The ones with the highest rankings can be considered as most important.
3. What will be the focus?
Almost done folks. You did your brainstorm and keyword research session. This already delivered valuable results and you now have a longlist of keywords selected by relevance. This research is based on what you as a marketer thinks but we have to think consumer wise. How does your consumer searches for your brand and what keywords do they consider as relevant?
We search for the best overlap between what you as a brand provide and what the possible consumer is searching for. There is where your brand is most relevant and you are able to get the highest conversion rate.
In this step you create your top ten keywords. Oh yeah our top ten…. Didn’t we do this in our previous step? Yes we determined the relevance given by you as a brand. Now we are going to validate them.
How do we do that? To determine what the best keywords are we need to check how big the search volume is for these keywords. The bigger the search volume the more attractive these keywords are and the more important it is to be present when people are searching for these keywords. When volumes are high it is hard to get your first page rankings on Google so it is important that we seek for a combination of high search volume and low numbers of competition.
Searching for these “golden” keywords can be considered as a hard job and therefore we need to find a balance between both high search volume and high competition and high search volume and low competition.
To determine the search volume and competition we can use an online tool. There are several tools that you can use to get the best results. SE Cockpit is one tool that can help you with getting a clear view on search volumes and competition. Unfortunately this tool is not for free but this tool gives you good insights and is worth the money.
Within these online keyword tools you can use your relevant keywords to validate if your keywords are also relevant for consumers.
While you noted your top ten keywords in excel you can now add the search volumes and competition for these keywords. After you done this you can determine which keywords to focus on.
In a nutshell
Get your team together to brainstorm and make a longlist of keywords is always the first step. As a brand it is quite easy to do it by yourself and determine which keywords are important to be found on. The second step is to categorize them by relevance. What keywords are most important you’re your brand? Your most important keywords get a score of four and the least important get a zero. The last step is to validate the selected keywords and put search volumes and competition behind it so you get an idea about where your consumer is search for.
When you finished the last step, you’ve set the base for a solid search term and content strategy. Focus on these words, advertise on them, get better search results and page rankings by doing so.
