When setting up a SEO/PPC campaign, your main goal is to get as much traffic as possible. You want not just traffic but traffic that actually funnels into sales and subscriptions. If you are to run a successful campaign, the first step is to always select a set of keywords to target. If you are to optimize your pages and content for the search engines as well, you will have to know the right keywords to focus on. Understanding your target audience will give you a better understanding of what the audience searches for online and you will be able to optimize your content and pages more to reach them. Without proper knowledge on this however, your SEO or PPC campaign might end up frustrating you. If you are finding a hard time researching keywords to target for your campaigns, then worry not because we are here to help. We sought to find tips from top Google partner and SEO expert Tony Guo. He is a long time professional in web matters and he is more than qualified to provide insights on this matter. Here are tips on Keywords research as provided by Tony Guo that will help improve your campaigns and help you get the most out of them;
1. Choose a niche
The first step towards keyword research is to settle on a niche. Choose a niche that you are comfortable writing or blogging about and make yourself an expert. Once you have a niche in mind, it is time to research thoroughly and get a grasp of what it entails. Understanding the dynamics of a niche will help create optimized content that will rank highly.
2. Put yourself in the audience’s shoes
When formulating keywords, it is very important to put yourself in the target audience’s shoes. This way, you will be able to think about the keywords that they will most probably be looking for. Understanding the keywords that your target audience is likely to use will help you choose those phrases and keywords that resonate with them.
3. Extract more keywords
When you think about the keywords that the audience is likely to use, it is time to break them down into more specific and long-tail varieties to further increase the chances of matching the queries the audience will search for. Use Google Autocomplete to enter a general keyword and get long-tail varieties of the same keyword.
4. Determine relevance using advanced tools
After generating a list of potential keywords, it is time to determine the most relevant ones and put them into use. There are thousands of tools that will help you determine the relevance and quality of the keywords and phrases. Tony Guo recommended the likes of Ubersuggest and Moz Keyword Explorer. They present very important information on the keywords and will help you choose only the best keywords for your campaigns.
5. Understand the competition for the specific keywords
Keyword competition shows the degree to which other websites and blogs already rank for the keywords that you have chosen. You don’t want a keyword with a lot of competition because this will reduce your chances of flourishing with the keyword.
6. What opportunities will the keyword present?
The keyword opportunity shows the potential returns that you are likely to get from a set of keywords. The potential returns are presented in form of page visits and clicks. You ideally want a keyword that shows promise and will help your campaign move in the right direction.
7. Look at keyword trends
The keyword trends show not just the current search volumes of a certain keyword but a history of how often the keywords was sought after in the past. These trends are important in determining whether a keyword’s use is on the rise or going down the drain.
8. Include local search
When the competition for a certain keyword is too high but the opportunities it presents are still reasonable, you need to include location to your keyword string just to help your campaign stand out from the others.
9. Competitive analysis
As part of keyword research, you will need to conduct some competitive analysis to find out what your competitors are doing with their campaigns. Examine the links that always rank highest for the keywords you are interested in and find out what the content in those pages are like.
10. Monitor the progress of your campaigns
After thoroughly researching on keywords and choosing the perfect ones for your campaign, it is time to sit back and monitor the progress of your campaign. Comprehensive analysis of your campaign will help you pinpoint the keywords that are doing well and those that you need to lose.
The tips provided above have been repeatedly been used by clients and Tony Guo himself and they have been proven to work. It not a surprise therefore that Tony Guo and his clients have been very successful online. Try the tips today and witness a change in your campaigns.