How to Use Keyword Tools in Your Favor

One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs is setting a keyword strategy and choosing terms that are compatible with their product – and that attract qualified traffic to their page.

However, with a lot of planning and the help of some keyword tools, it is possible to find the most appropriate terms for your content marketing strategy.   

In today’s post, we’ll share some tips for finding the right keywords for your web page.

Also in this text:

What are keywords?  

When the user searches for a particular word, the search engines show the most relevant results on that subject based on several factors, including the quality of the keyword used.  

Keywords are words or groups of words that summarize the theme that is approached on a page.

Despite the name, the keyword does not need to be, necessarily, a single word. It can be a concept or even a sentence, provided that it has some direct relationship to the content you share online.

Suppose you have a crash course in Spanish. A keyword option would be:  “Learn Spanish quickly.”

 

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The importance of having a keyword strategy  

The goal of a keyword strategy is not only to increase traffic on your page but to take visitors who are prepared to get to know your product.  

If your page gets about 60 thousand visitors per month but only 1% of these users perform some action there, maybe it’s time to rethink the keywords of your business.

When you are measuring the performance of your page, try to ask these two questions:

Are you speaking the same language as your persona? Does your page have quality content about the term you are trying to rank?  

Keyword strategy: focus on quality and not on quantity

The number of keywords you choose has no direct influence on the conversion rate of your page.

You can select 1,000 words and not be well-positioned in the organic search rank for any of them.

The trick is to make a list of at least 50 and not more than 100 words that have some connection to your business, to the themes you address on your page, and, mainly, to your buyer persona.  

Believe us, having a list of groups of keywords will help you a lot when it’s time to create relevant content for your audience.

If your business venture is in the initial stage, having a keywords strategy is essential not to waste efforts trying to lead research terms that do not attract the right people to your page.

This is extremely important because the return in digital marketing starts to come with the proper segmentation of your website/blog. Because qualified accesses are the ones more likely to become leads and, later on, become customers.

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How keywords influence users’ searches

If search engines list the most relevant results for the user on a determined subject, at the beginning of the Internet, it wasn’t so.

Before, it was enough that the page mentioned the same word several times: in the URL, in the title, and in the body of the text; so that it showed up in the first results of the organic search.

This keyword strategy is exemplified by Brian Dean, author of the blog Backlinko when he says that once he was hired by a company to write 50 articles containing the keyword “how to get rid of man boobs.”

This company’s goal was to rank for that term, even though the content of the articles didn’t have much to do with the keyword chosen.

Today, major search engines evaluate the keyword and present only what the user is really looking for.

Let’s say you search for a weight-loss product, for example. The search engine will show you the pages that actually approach this theme.  

The more specific you are in your search, the more assertive will the result be.   

Tips for improving the keyword strategy of your business  

Look for the term/phrase in the main search engines

Once you have a list of possible keywords in your hands, find out what pages lead the search for each term.

Accessing your competitors’ websites is critical to find out the strategies that will help you stand out.

If you want to make a more accurate analysis, you can use the tools featured in the post how to monitor your competitors.

Another interesting tip is to check how many paid ads there are for your keywords. Many ads may indicate that that term has a great potential to make sales.

Pay attention to the search volume

Search volume is the metric that determines how many monthly searches were made about that term on the Internet.

It’s always good to remember that, despite being important data to your decision, search volume alone doesn’t mean much.

It shows that many people search about that subject but it can also mean more competition and, of course, a bigger challenge to rank in the top positions.

Evaluate the level of difficulty to rank for these words

Now that you know your competitors and the search volume of the keywords you want to target, it is important to assess the level of difficulty that your blog/website will have to move up positions.

If the ranking you intend to dispute is led by a multinational company, it is unlikely that you can surpass it, because you have fewer resources and less workforce at your disposal.

Of course, you can try segmenting your website for these keywords, but you will need a well-defined plan of action to increase the strength of your domain, and that can take time.

The best way in these cases is to choose a keyword with a lower search volume but that still has a connection with your product.    

Revise your list as many times as you need

A list of keywords is not an untouchable file. It is necessary to assess each term separately to identify those which do not make as much sense for your business.

Imagine you have a product about Yoga and you come up with a list of keywords with terms related to your product such as yoga, meditation, physical balance, Eastern philosophy, etc.

After doing a quick search on these terms, you realize that the websites that show up in the results have nothing to do with your business or with your product, so these are vague terms, that won’t bring qualified traffic to your website.

You can scratch these keywords off your list, as well as the repeated terms or misspelled words, as search engines already have an autocorrect tool for misspelled words, so don’t bother to cover all the possibilities.

Try to think like your audience

Imagine what kind of terms people would search on search engine websites to get to your website.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine, since the study of your persona shows the problems that your prospective customer faces every day.

The ideal keywords for your business are those that “point out” the solution to the pains of your prospective customer.

To direct those people to your website, be specific! If your product is directed toward a certain audience, do not use terms that may include other segments.

A food blog for lactose intolerant people should not contain the keyword “cooking” because it will attract people who are only interested in cooking and, probably, are less likely to buy your product/service.

Now, if you use the term “cooking for people who are lactose intolerant,” you segment your page to people who are interested in the type of content you are sharing.  

 

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Head vs. long tail keywords

Before comparing these two types of keywords, you need to understand what they mean.

Head keywords are broader search terms, usually composed of a single word, which we research when seeking a solution to a problem. Ex: diet.  

Whereas long tail keywords are the ones with two or more terms, which point out to a more specific solution. Ex: diet for gluten-sensitive people.

Despite head keywords having a higher search volume, long tail keywords convert more, because they attract people who are already in a more advanced stage in the buyer’s journey.

Another interesting fact about this comparison: broad terms receive 30% of the search volume done on the Internet, while the other 70% go to long tail keywords, which represent tens of thousands of specific searches.

If you are still in doubt about the best option for your business, next, I list the main advantages of opting for long tail keywords:

• Detailed searches are usually made by people who are considering buying a product or consuming some specific content. Which means higher chances of conversion;
• To rank on the first page of Google for long tail keywords requires less effort and investment in paid traffic since competition for that term is lower;
• Once you move up positions in less popular search engine rankings, your blog/website gets points for domain authority and page authority, and it is considered an authority on that subject.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords are those terms for which you don’t want your page to be found and that, generally, have no connection with your product.

Even though they don’t generate qualified traffic to your page, negative keywords can be extremely useful for your sponsored links strategy.

And it is very simple: when you do not want your ad to appear in searches for a given keyword, just add it in the negative terms when you are setting up your campaign.

This is a simple segmentation keyword strategy that prevents your content is shown to the wrong people.

Keyword tools for your business  

Google Trends

Google Trends is a tool from Google that allows you to identify the main searches and searches that are increasing about a given term.

Through it, you can filter the main results by location (city and country of origin), time period (weekly, monthly, and yearly), and sources (images, news, Google Shopping or YouTube).

To know what Internet users are searching on the Internet can give you ideas for expanding your keywords and increasing the reach of your page at sub niches related to your business.

SEMRush

With SEMRush you can search for a specific word and know what websites are appearing in the first search results for organic or paid traffic.

Some information provided by the platform, such as average cost per click and competition, is great for optimizing your pay-per-click strategy.

Another advantage of SEMRush is that it also offers a list of keywords related to the term you’ve researched, providing you with more options to add to your list.

Google Analytics + Google Search Console

If you own a blog or a website for your product, you definitely use data provided by Google Analytics to assess the performance of your page.

But know that, in addition to all the features available in this tool, you can integrate it with Google Search Console to find out which keywords bring more traffic to your website or blog.  

To do this, simply access the Google Search Console home, select the menu “Search” and then the option “Search Analytics”.

By doing this research, you’ll notice that not always the keyword to which you are trying to rank is the one that is generating more traffic to your page. And it can give you tips of terms that may have been underused in your content.

Along with the main searches, Google Search Console shows the countries of origin from these accesses, the type of device used among other information that you can use to optimize your keyword strategy, in order to attract even more qualified traffic to your web page.

Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner is a tool available in Google Ads and is, perhaps, one of the most used by entrepreneurs to find keywords, since it is integrated into one of the leading ad networks.  

You just need to add the words related to your text that the tool will offer keyword options you can use to segment each content on your blog, the number of monthly searches for that word and your level of competition.

While the number of searches is important for you to determine whether that keyword is relevant to your potential customers, the competition level helps to identify if the term is too broad.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a tool in which you type a generic term and the platform suggests specific keywords, related to the search term, based on actual searches made by Google users.

In addition to variations for your keyword, you get information about the search volume for the suggested terms, cost-per-click and the competition of each one, in the case of paid traffic.   

Google search bar

That’s right, you didn’t read it wrong: the Google search bar is a major source of keyword suggestions.

When we enter a term on the Google search bar, the autocomplete function suggests search terms related to the keyword you’re looking for, which can give you great insights from niche-specific words.

For the technique to work, it is important to clear the cache of your browser or use an incognito tab. Otherwise, Google will use the search pattern stored in your computer.

If you have questions about how to clear the cache of your computer, you can do so by following this tutorial here.

MOZ  

Keyword Explorer is a tool from MOZ specific to keyword search.

Just type a term in the search bar, that you have access to some information such as:

• search volume;
• difficulty level to rank for that word;
• pages that are leading the searches for that term;
• suggestions for keywords you can use in your strategy.

Keyword strategy: onpage optimization

You’ve followed all these tips but still can’t lead the research for your keywords?

Relax, don’t panic!

First, make sure that you are providing quality content that is related to the term you want to rank.

If everything is okay with your content, it’s time to employ SEO techniques to improve your Onpage performance.  

One way to do this is by optimizing your page for the keyword chosen: which is basically using the word in the URL, the title of the post, and repeating it in the content, whenever possible.   

To illustrate this topic, let’s use as an example a blog post whose keyword is fitness products.

Title containing Keyword

It is very important that the post title contains the keyword, preferably in the beginning.

Fitness products that you can sell on the Internet

Meta description

The meta description is a short text of up to 156 characters that appears just below the title of the page in search results.

Generally, it summarizes the content that the user will find when clicking that link.

Learn which fitness products are the best sellers among Internet users.  

Keyword in the URL

The URL is the address where your content is hosted.

On platforms like WordPress, the URL is generated from the title of the post but you can edit it for shorter texts, as long as the final version is in accordance with the content you’re sharing, ok?

Keywords throughout the content

Even though the keyword isn’t the only factor that influences your positioning in search rankings, it is important that you use your keyword whenever possible, to draw the attention of search engines for your content.    

In smaller posts, up to 500 words, your keyword should come up at least five times during the text, including intertitles and paragraphs.

 

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Of course, there is no limit to mentioning your keyword but it is always good to remember that texts with a lot of repeated words may seem confused and disrupt your visitor experience.

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