Definition of Keyword Research
This article was published on May 19, 2011
Categorized in: Glossary
Keyword research is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) as keywords are at the
foundation of SEO campaigns. When users search for things online, search engines determine the relevancy of websites based on these keywords and key phrases. When you are a website creator, it is important to know which keywords and key phrases are going to help users to find you online.
Are there different types of keywords? Keywords are divided into two primary groups:
• Long-tail keywords: long-tail keywords have a conversion rate of approximately 70 – 80%. These types of keywords contain more details and have longer word/character counts. Despite getting less search traffic, they have a higher conversion rate. An example of a long-tail keyword would be: “Size 9 hiking boots brown.”
• Short-tail keywords: short-tail keywords are more commonly searched by users and have a conversion rate of about 15 – 20%. Short-tail keywords do not include specific details. These keywords do have a high search rate, but a lower conversion rate. “Hiking boots” is an example of a short-tail keyword.
There are three main stages in keyword research:
• Discovery: during the discovery stage you will want to find as many keywords as possible the relate to your website, blog, product, or service. Don’t rush this process. Having a full list will help your search and allow you to narrow it down later. There are tools online that can help you search for related keywords and phrases you may not have thought of.
• Return on Investment (ROI) Analysis: during the ROI analysis stage you will find the most valuable keywords and phrases for your website. Generic keywords tend to be searched often, as most people use everyday language. These might not bring in the highest conversion rates, but keywords and phrases that are accurate and detailed will yield a high ROI.
• Competitive Analysis: during the competitive analysis stage you will analyze the competition for keyword possibilities. This analysis includes figuring out how attentive websites are to optimization issues as well as the number of inbound links they receive.
You can use a trusted keyword research tool such as the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to conduct a more thorough search of keywords. Google Trends is a tool that can help you compare keyword popularity over time as well as where around the world they tend to be popular.
How does a keyword research tool work? You can enter your list of brainstormed keywords into the generator, which will then create a list of relevant keywords that reflect the content and goals of a web page. You may be tempted to collect the keywords that have a high search rate, but as mentioned above, these aren’t always the ones that have a high conversion rate.
By conducting keyword and phrase research, you can improve the amount of traffic that you drive to your website and also increase your conversion rate in the process.
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About the Author: Brick Marketing President, Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis is a digital marketing expert and President of Brick Marketing. With 25+ years experience, he specializes in solving complex digital marketing challenges through SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC, email marketing, SEO for AI (GEO) and conversion optimization.
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