Richard Goulde Writing

SEO Keyword Research Step 3.2: Researching Keywords – Taking Stock

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | SEM, SEO

Before we move further into the actual research, let’s take a moment to understand what we’re researching exactly. What is the information we’re trying to derive about these keywords, and why?

Qualities of a Keyword, Revisited

Since we’re a little deeper in the process, I’m going to expand a little on the introductory post about keywords.

Keyword Relevance

The keyword must be highly relevant to your site. In other words, you want the keywords you use to relate directly to your products, services or the information your site contains.

Moreover, it must be targeted: it must capture the customers who want to visit your site, who are looking for and interested in purchasing your product or service.

There is no online tool or data set that can tell you if the keyword is relevant; some methods can imply if the keyword is relevant. But at the end of the day, this is why people, and not machines, do keyword research. It’s a judgment call you have to make.

More About Keyword Targeting

• Is the keyword targeted for the customer you want?
• Is it targeted for someone who is (1) interested in and (2) wants to purchase the kind of product or service you’re selling (this applies even if you’re just offering information, and you want the visitor to consume your articles and maybe sign up for your RSS feed).
• Try to see through your customer’s eyes. People searching for “Copywriting” might want one of many things:
  • yes, they might want copywriting services, but they might want to become a copywriter themselves.
  • They might want to know about schools or educational programs.
  • They might want how-to guides or do-it-yourself information.
  • They may be looking do comparison shopping prior to actually engaging services.
  • They may have no idea what copywriting is exactly (I get asked all the time), and they’re trying to find a definition.

  Ultimately, it’s a poorly targeted keyword if I want visitors who are looking to hire me as a copywriter. It’s just too broad.

That’s the importance of identifying how targeted a keyword is. We’ll discuss indirect methods for assessing targeting over the next few posts.

Search Volume

High volume keywords will drive more traffic. They’re also harder to optimize (relatively) and less targeted. Don’t assume a higher volume keyword is going to be the best for your choice. Again, it must be targeted: your website can get all the traffic in the world, but if those visitors don’t convert into sales, the keyword has done you no good. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but it’s critical to choosing a keyword.

An Aside Re: Long-Tail Keywords

Here we return to the long-tail principle: Keywords that are longer (3 to 6 words or more), highly targeted, but demonstrate low search volume. These keywords in aggregate may drive quite a bit of traffic to your site. Plus, they typically convert better because they’re so highly targeted. The lesson is: we care about search volume, but don’t over-emphasize it in your research.

Search volume is something we’ve already assessed, thanks to Google’s AdWord Keyword Tool. We’ll look at it in-depth in the next step, and with each successive step.

Keyword Competitiveness

Also known as keyword difficulty, the question is: how hard it is to rank for a given keyword? How much competition will there be? Is the competition already optimized for that keyword? Can we compete against the quality of the competition’s SEO?

You can also think of keyword difficulty in terms of keyword “achievability.” Is it possible to rank for that keyword given your site’s other SEO attributes (age, structure, inbound links, authority on the subject matter, etc) compared to competitor sites? Factors that contribute to keyword difficulty include:

1. Search volume – how many people search for a particular keyword. Terms with more searches are harder to optimize , because there’s more keyword competition.
2. Search results – how many search results a particular keyword produces in a search engine. Kind of the inverse of the first item, but it leads us to the same result: a keyword that yields a ton of results will be harder to optimize, again because there’s more keyword competition.
3. Competitor SEO strength – if the top results for a keyword search are strong on the different dimensions of SEO, it will be harder to rank. On the bright side, if the others are poorly optimized, it doesn’t matter how many there are, you should still be able to compete.
4. PageRank – PageRank as a factor of SEO is diminishing; however, it is still useful as a data point to consider. A higher PageRank suggests that you can use more competitive keywords. Once again, you cannot take the pure PageRank number as intrinsically meaningful, but rather (1) use it as a means of comparison and (2) as only one piece of a comprehensive view

Keyword Difficulty is the main factor we’re going to be researching over the next several steps

Richard Goulde is a professional writer and SEO who combines compelling copy with Internet savvy -- sales, educational, PR and creative. He's based in Dallas but his words go global, so whether you're in Peoria or Paris, contact him to talk about how his work can serve your business needs.

Tags: Keyword Research, Keywords

1 Comment to SEO Keyword Research Step 3.2: Researching Keywords – Taking Stock

Leave a comment