Keyword research for content strategy
Keywords are the glue that connect search engine crawlers to the people who want to read or search for great content online.
Keyword research is an important planning element for creating content that gets views online. Without keyword research, there can be little hope for a successful SEO or content strategy.
Keywords are essentially like the dewey decimal system for vast web of content available online - they help people find the content they are looking for and they allow content creators to find the best keywords to maximise visibility online.
A step by step approach to keyword research for content strategists and content designers .
Don’t let keywords make your writing robotic
Keywords are like making sure your front door is visible from the street so the Amazon delivery can make it to your house. They are merely a tool to make content more visible and discoverable.
The more important strategic task for content markers and designers is to create awesome, unique content that people want to link to – this will drive better visibility than merely choosing the right keyword.
Using the exact keyword to match a person's search is not the search engine ranking factor that it used to be - it’s more important to know whether the audience or persona you are targeting is using that TYPE of keyword:
For example, is the keyword part of a conversational search, such as “What use are keywords”,
Or is the keyword more about a product-led search, such as “Google keyword tool” where users want to use and test keywords using the Google Ads tool,
Or is it a location-centric keyword, such as “Find a keyword professional near me”.
The art of great keyword research is relating that keyword to the intent the audience has if they try to find the content in a search engine.
So it’s more important to relate the intent of the keyword to the problem that content solves for that intent (yes, I know that’s confusing, but most stuff about SEO is … cos agencies and techies want you to think that way and pay them).
You see, most keywords have high competition, as all SEO agencies and planners use the same set of paid tools - AHRefs, SEOMoz, SEMRush etc - so all target similar keywords. It can sometimes make more sense to use the lower volume keyword and create the very best content for that term (even if the search volume is lower), as you may have more chances of ranking more highly.
The reality is that Google is getting better at knowing the synonyms and similar keywords to a particular keyword - as well as finding the best quality unique content about that term - so you need to select keywords more strategically then merely finding the magical holy grail of high search demand and low competition.
Of course, this advice changes if you are using Google Ads and want to target keywords in paid campaigns to your content - when you advertise, you need to choose the highest-converting keywords to get the best bang for your buck. But content strategy is more audience-focussed than plain ol’ advertising or marketing focussed.
Just to be totally meta, doing keyword research on the term ‘keyword’ through the paid tool SEMRush shows there are 1900 local monthly searches in Australia, but it’s competitive with 82% difficulty.
Smart search engines are using the power of artificial intelligence and big data to evolve beyond the keyword to what is called “entity-based search” (yep, that’s jargon if ever I heard it).
Content strategists don’t have to worry about exactly matching search phrases or keywords – instead, you need to match the audience or persona intent behind the search – the main concept of what the searcher is looking for.
This means that a strategist’s work is not only about finding the right keyword - for example is it better to use “keyword” or “search term” - but it’s vastly more important to understand the intent your potential readers have when looking for you.
How to do keyword research around audience intent
Keyword research helps you to understand the concepts and terms people that might read your content use. Key phrases are scored based on popularity – there might be a hundred ways to search for the widget you sell, but there will be two or three phrases that are used far more often than the others. The easiest step by step approach to keyword research is to:
USE FREE TOOLS TO GET AN IDEA OF SEARCH TERMS
Google’s autocomplete is good for this - you can read more about that in this piece about search demand and content strategy.
IF YOU NEED, GO TO PAID OR FREEMIUM TOOLS LIKE UBERSUGGEST OR SEMRUSH
You may only need to do this if it’s a tricky term or highly competitive. Sometimes keyword research is easy, sometimes it’s not (like when I’m writing about data science and there is precisely zippo search demand around complex terms).
Once keyword research gives you an idea of terms, you can rank them in order of popularity or even difficulty and you get more of an insight into how to:
CREATE CONTENT THAT YOUR AUDIENCE OR PERSONAS ARE SEARCHING FOR
CREATE CONTENT THAT SEARCH ENGINES LIKE GOOGLE OR BING WILL SURFACE
So, basically, content strategists do keyword research to find out what their prospective audience is looking for.
A great content creator can then write the best and most useful content around those terms. Ideally that content will also be shareable and be so relevant that others will link to it (ideally without you having to email, phone or pester people to link to it!).
Even Google will tell you that keywords and SEO take time to work - with a recent video from the search giant saying it can take four months to one year to help a business implement SEO improvements and then see benefits.
Advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in Google’s search result, yet - weirdly - this is how many agencies “sell” SEO … they ask for a Google Ads spend.
Just to be clear, you don’t need to buy ads to do SEO. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites and it costs nothing to appear in organic search results.
As a content strategist, I know the best strategy is to write great, unique content that search engines want to index.
It’s even smarter to check there is real search demand around the topic or idea before you waste three days creating the content.
Of course, making content and spending time to make that content visible does have a ‘time’ cost, and content strategists are often well placed to deliver the front end content elements of SEO.
The other services a good content strategist can help with are:
Reviewing existing site content or information structures
Content development - making the right type of content for a brand or business’s ideal audience
Keyword research
SEO training for businesses and brands