There are a lot of skills you need to learn if you want to become a skilled digital marketer. One of the most important skills you need to learn is how to research keywords.
If you’re new to online marketing, you probably have no clue how keywords research works. But that’s okay.
Keep reading and I’ll show you exactly what you need to know about researching keywords. I’ll break everything down so that you can understand in simple terms, why keyword research is a critical part of digital marketing.
Let’s begin!
Keywords and the Internet
If people want to find something online, they’re going to type in some kind of keyword. Whether they’re using Google or YouTube, they’re going to type in a word/phrase, that’ll help them find what they’re looking for.
These words and phrases are known as keywords. For example, suppose someone wants to learn how to train their dog to ‘sit.’ They might type into google the keyword ‘how to train the dog to sit.’
With that in mind, if you want to get in front of your target audience, you need to understand what keywords they’re using. If you can do that, you’ll be able to get your brand/content in front of them, when they’re engaging with the platform of their choice.
Keywords and the Importance of Intent
The more you learn about keywords, the more you’ll realize that not all keywords are the same. That’s because people will generally use different kinds of keywords, depending on their intent. This phenomenon is best explained by using something known as the ‘buyer’s journey.’
There are three stages in the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness Stage
- Consideration Stage
- Decision Stage
Suppose someone is looking to improve their gaming experience.
They might first use the keyword ‘make video games look better.’ At this stage, they’re just looking for information.
They might then come across an article that tells them they need a better monitor. This stage is the Awareness stage. They’re just looking to gain some awareness on what the problem is and what the solution might be.
Upon learning this they might then type in a keyword ‘how to choose a monitor for gaming.’
Here they’re aware of the problem but they’re also looking for a solution that treats the problem. This is the Consideration stage because they’re now considering options for treating the problem in question.
After this, they might type in ’30 inch 4k monitor for gaming.’
At this stage, they’re aware of what the problem is and what is required to solve the problem. Now they’re looking for the best item, in their chosen solution category to solve their problem. This last stage is known as the ‘Decision stage.’ That’s because they’re deciding on the best option to treat the problem.
You need to spend some time isolating the different stages of intent for your niche. You need to identify the different kinds of keywords for each of these stages of intent.
Finding Keywords Without Spending a Lot of Money
Finding keywords can seem like an impossible task if you’ve never had to find keywords before. The good thing here is that there are several tools that’ll help you get the job done.
If you’re on a budget, you can use something called the Google Keyword Planner. This tool is developed by Google. It’s originally designed to help people who are using the AdWord feature. People can type in a relatively generic keyword related to their niche and this tool will then return a large list of related keywords.
One of the best things about this tool is that it’ll help you work out how likely it is that a keyword is going to produce customers.
That’s because when using this tool, you can see how much advertisers are willing to pay, per click, to market their website under a specific keyword. The more a company is willing to bid, the more likely it is the keyword will produce a return.
You can also improve the relevance of your results with this tool, by telling the tool to only return results that closely match the one you’ve typed in. This can help you find keywords that not many other people are targeting.
Using Paid Tools
If you find that the Google Keyword Planner is not sufficient, you can also use some paid tools to help you get results. There are a couple of SEO tools that will provide you with great keyword research options.
Of course, you don’t have to use these tools to get results. The Google Keyword Planner is often more than enough for most people.
If you want help finding relevant keywords, you might even want to make use of the autocomplete feature. This is where you type in a keyword and the search bar then provides relevant suggestions. This can be a great way to identify potential keywords worth targeting.
Do You Know Everything About Researching Keywords?
If you want to succeed in digital marketing, you need to learn how to research keywords. But if you’ve never run an online marketing campaign before, you may not know where to begin.
In this post, we’ve reviewed some of the key things you need to understand when it comes to researching keywords. You need to think about your audience. More specifically, you need to consider their intent, when they’re typing in keywords.
If you’re struggling to find keywords you can always use tools like the Google Keyword Planner. Learning how to use these tools takes time. So it’s important you remain patient. Once you begin to launch marketing campaigns based on your keyword research, though, you’ll soon find out what does and doesn’t work.
Interested in how you can make the design of your website more attractive? Check out this post for some tips!