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Keyword research is one of the first things you must do if you want to rank on the first page of Google.
A proper keyword research strategy lays the foundation of SEO. It adds more value and brings organic traffic to your website. But there are many common mistakes most people make while researching for a particular keyword.
Most online marketers are not even aware of these mistakes, which is why they keep making them.
Having a clear understanding of these keyword research mistakes will set you on the right path, help you understand keyword research and improve your SEO game.
In this article, we have highlighted these mistakes that kill your SEO efforts.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research refers to the process of finding which words or phrases your target audience is using to search for websites and answers to questions on search engines. This is why keyword research remains the foundation of SEO.
They are the genuine search terms that people use to explore the internet. Without them, your website can’t appear on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Why Do You Need To Do Keyword Research?
Keyword optimization is of utmost importance for websites as search engines use keywords to define rankings and bring organic traffic.
Organic traffic is vital for a business as it helps in building online reputation, trust and increasing conversion rate.
However, if you want your website to appear on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) when people search for that particular keyword, you must develop a proper keyword strategy to help them find you.
Keyword research is also important because it helps you understand your customers’ buying journey, study your competitors, and how to shape your content strategy.
Once accurate keyword research is made, one can expect to receive high organic traffic due to competitiveness and the sheer number of searches for those keywords.
In other words, some common keyword research mistakes have become unidentified due to a lack of updated knowledge about SEO. Realising these mistakes will help you restrategize.
1. Neglecting Search Intent
Having the searcher’s intent in mind should be the number one rule you must focus on. Many online marketers focus their energy on search volume rather than search intent.
However, it’s not wrong to focus on search volume but the search intent should be your priority.
Rather than focusing on how many people use a search query, focus on search intent or the reason why someone is searching for that particular keyword.
Once your concern is based on the searcher’s intent, you will be able to satisfy both Google and the searcher.
2. Ignoring What Your Competitors Are Ranking For
In addition to neglecting your customers’ search queries, it is also important to understand whether and how your competitors are answering those same questions.
Understanding what your competitors are ranking for is very important. It enables you to identify quick wins while at the same time signalling whether a competitor is directly targeting some of the keywords or phrases that are most important to you.
3. Not Considering SERP
There are lots of excellent keyword research tools that make keyword research so much easier. With these keyword research tools, you can discover hidden search volume, keyword difficulty, and ranking difficulties.
Many marketers spend so much time diving deep into research tools that they forget to look at the one place that really matters – the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Don’t let tools take over the entire keyword research process. Take the time to see what type of content is ranking for your top terms and use that to inspire your marketing campaigns.
4. Using Only One Keyword
Another uncommon mistake is selecting keywords that consist of a single word. It’s really hard to rank for one keyword. This so because they are too general and too competitive.
Besides being highly competitive, short-tailed keywords lack context.
5. Not Selecting Keywords With Enough Search Volumes
Keyword search volume refers to the number of people that are searching for a specific keyword on a monthly basis.
This is very important because higher search volumes mean more chances to drive traffic to your website.
In other words, keywords with high search volumes will be harder to rank for because so many of your competitors are already targeting them.
However, we have highlighted a list of the best keyword research tools that you can use to measure keyword search volume.
6. Not Communicating With Your Customers
This is one of the common mistakes that most people do make with keyword research. However, it is done without their knowledge.
Always bear in mind that the ways we use to talk about our products are far more different from the way our customers do.
In addition to using keyword research tools, it’s very important we listen and communicate with our customers to understand their problems.
Pay attention to how they describe their challenges, the solutions they find, or what types of products they want.
Once this is done you can be able to come up with keywords that satisfy the search intent.
7. Relying On One Channel For Your Keyword Research
Most people have generalised SEO to google and that is a problem.
Google is not the only search engine in the world people are looking for answers to their queries.
Channels like Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Reddit and YouTube are very resourceful to find what people are looking for.
Just because a word ranks well on Google doesn’t mean it will do well on YouTube or Twitter.
Pay attention to which channel your users are searching, not just what words they use.
Final Insights
Achieving a tremendous result with SEO is not far fetched. This is why keyword research should not be overlooked when it comes to ranking your page on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
In addition to this, you should always bear the searchers in mind. It’s done by listening and communicating with the customers to understand their problems and find possible solutions to those problems.
Any SEO practise that is done without bearing the searchers in mind is a total waste of effort.
If you need help with any digital marketing strategy or SEO related issues, then look no further. LBDIGITAL is a result-focused web design and digital marketing agency that is keen to help you with your digital marketing problems.
Kindly reach out to us by sending an email at info@mylbdigital.com and we’d be glad to work with you.
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