Why do some articles get more traction than others? Why do some stories blow up online, while others get resigned to the ethereal dustbin of digital history? These are good questions, with nuanced answers.
One way to begin to think about answering them is what keywords are these successful articles targeting? What keywords are they using to reach a broad audience?
When web publications are planning what articles they want to write, they’ll do what’s called keyword research to help inform their decision. Good keyword research can let you know which topics are worth pursuing and which aren’t worth the effort.
Judah Chambers,who writes about SEO for the business advice platform Solution Scout, described keyword research as “a vital step in the process of understanding what people want to read about.”
What is keyword research?
This is the process of finding and examining search terms that internet users enter into search engines. It's done to use that data for a specific purpose, often involving search engine optimization or general marketing. Keyword research is used to uncover search queries useful for marketing and assess their ranking difficulty.
Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research helps digital marketers find which keywords are best to target. This provides valuable insight into the queries your target audience is searching for on Google. The results you get can be used to create an effective content strategy for your business. Other keyword research benefits include the following:
Marketing trend insight
Effective keyword research provides you with insights into current marketing trends. This helps you focus on relevant topics for your business and use keywords your audience is searching for.
Customer acquisition
It's easier to meet customer needs if your business offers solutions to their problems. You can lead them through the buyer journey from the awareness stage to the purchase point by providing a call to action.
By researching keywords' volume and search intent, you can answer your prospect's questions.
Traffic growth
Your rank in Google's search engine increases once you identify the best-fitting keywords for your content. This ensures you get a steady stream of traffic for your website.
Elements of keyword research
There are three main elements worth considering when researching keywords:
Relevance
Google ranks content based on relevance. That's where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for keywords if it meets the needs of your target audience. Additionally, the content needs to be the best the searcher can get from that query. Besides, why would Google rank your content higher if the value is less than what similar content are offering?
Authority
Google gives priority to sources that are considered authoritative. This means you must enrich your site with helpful and informative content. You also need to promote that content to earn social signals and backlinks.
If keyword pages are already loaded with heavy sources (e.g. Forbes or Hubspot), your chances of ranking are incredibly low.
Volume
You can end up ranking on Google's first page, but it won't result in website traffic if no one searches for your content. Volume is measured by monthly search volume (MSV). This means the amount of times the keyword is searched every month across all audiences.
