Choose keyword analysis over gut feeling
We can't know what people are actually searching for on Google until we've looked into it.
Or what people expect to see in search results.
But a thorough keyword analysis is the key to delivering the right content to the right people at the right time.
That’s the key to being found when your potential customers are looking for you and need your help. And it’s the key to your ability to provide that help.
All right, so how do you do that?
- Last updated:
Keyword Analysis, Step 1: Figure out what's most important to you
… That’s the million-dollar question.
Like everything else in life, you need to figure out where to focus your attention. What is the most important thing for you to become more visible in?
Most often, the most obvious questions to ask to figure this out are: “What brings in the most revenue?” and “What do you want to sell more of?”
Once you’ve figured that out, you can get started on your keyword analysis. Now you have your “goal.”
You know that it is within this area of your business that you want to focus on generating more sales-driving conversions.
Keyword Analysis, Step 2: Figure out who you're optimizing your website for
You can't do targeted marketing if you don't know who you're talking to.
For that reason, you should, of course, find out who your potential customers actually are.
The good news is—there are plenty of ways to gain a better understanding of your target audience.
Among other things, you can:
Dive into the data from your website and social media
In Google Analytics, you can gain much deeper insights into what content your visitors interact with on your site and which pages drive the most traffic.
If you run Facebook ads, you can also use Facebook Insights to learn more about what content your target audience responds to—and about your target audience’s demographics.
Talk to your current and potential customers
To truly understand your target audience in depth, you can interview both your sales team and your existing customers.
You can also use surveys—and reach more people in less time.
The most important thing is to try to understand your customers’ challenges, needs, and questions—how they interact with your business—and what kind of content they respond positively to.
To get an even better picture of your potential customers’ needs, challenges, and questions, you can try creating personas.
HubSpot is great for that—so take my advice anddive deeper into it here.
Keyword Analysis, Step 3: Get an overview of what people are searching for on Google
You now have a clear picture of which business areas are important to you and who your target audience is. Now you can really get started on your keyword analysis.
Before you get impatient, however, keep in mind that keyword analysisisn'ta linear process.
You'll find a lot of keywords, analyze their potential, replace some of them, prioritize them, and find new ones.
But you have to start your detective work somewhere—and you can do that by making a long list of potential keywords.
Inspiration for tools you can use:
Ahrefs(not free),
https://answerthepublic.com (free),
https://moz.com/explorer(free),
Google Keyword Planner(free—but you need a Google Ads account) + a dash of common sense, a touch of logic, and a lot of mentalization.
Let Google come up with keyword ideas related to your business
To get started, you can log in to Google Keyword Planner and let Google “brainstorm.” It’s very simple.
Just enter a few words related to your business, and you'll get a long list of keyword ideas, their average number of monthly searches, and the level of competition.
Download the list of suggestions—and now turn your attention to your competitors ↓
Find out where your biggest competitors are found
It's always a good idea to take a look at what your competitors are doing and get some inspiration. In Ahrefs, you can see what your biggest competitors are ranking for that you aren't.
These aren't necessarily keywords that make sense for your business—but it's a good way to learn more about what people are actually searching for on Google—and to identify any gaps in your own online presence.
Use Ahrefs’ “content gap” feature by entering the domains of three competitors and your own ↓
Add the words you think have potential to your keyword list, and now continue building your list by…
… Find out what you're up to right now
Of course, all optimization efforts must start with the current situation. That’s why you need to find out how your website is currently ranking. Look at both the areas where it ranks well—and the areas where it ranks embarrassingly poorly.
For example, you can use Site Explorer in Ahrefs orGoogle Search Console.
With an understanding of what your site ranks well for, you can dive into the data in Google Analytics and see if those high rankings actually translate into strong traffic numbers and valuable conversions.
If they do, you'll know that keywords like these are important to you—and then you can start looking for related keywords.
You can also add the keywords for which you rank poorly to your list of potential keywords and then investigate whether they have any potential.
"How?" you ask? – Keep reading, and I promise I'll get to that ↓
Map out your potential customers' journey
So far, so good. You now have a long list of keywords that most likely includes both good and bad ones. But the list can be improved and made more targeted.
It’s time to take a closer look at the questions and challenges your personas might face throughout their purchasing process—also known as the customer journey.
Why is that a good idea, you ask?
Because most people don’t just wake up one morning and think, “I need to buy a ventilation system,” and then Google “buy ventilation system”—without having noticed a problem in their daily lives or known the solution before this urge to buy arose.
The customer journey is the key to understanding the thought processes of your target audience—from the moment they first begin to recognize their pain point and don’t yet know the solution, to the point where they know what they want to buy, where, and why.
At each stage of the customer journey, the prospect has different intentions and needs.
The words they type into Google are therefore different as well.
And if you want to optimize your website so that you’re not only found when your potential customers need you and your expertise—but alsoconvertyour visitors—then you need to provide content tailored to the different stages of the customer journey.
In short: A keyword analysis based on your target audience’s customer journey is the way to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time.
Are you a little too busy? Letme or one of my colleagues giveyou a freeSEO analysis.
Find keywords for the awareness stage
Typically, a person’s decision-making process begins at the “awareness stage.”
Here, the person searching on Google realizes that he has a challenge or a problem—but he is unsure of the scope and significance of the problem—and does not know the solution to it.
The searches that this Google user performs here are calledinformational keywords. He is looking for information—he has only just begun his research—and is therefore far from ready to buy anything.
But even though he’s not close to pulling out the card, it’s still an incredibly important stage for a company to be in.
This is exactly where you, as a business, have the opportunity to plant the seed in your target audience’s minds that you know a great deal about the subject.
You're an expert. And on top of that, you're helpful and share your knowledge through landing pages, blog posts, infographics, or videos.
Find keywords for the awareness stage by asking the following questions:
What challenges does your company solve?
What is the best possible outcome your business provides?
And what words does your target audience typically use to describe their problems and the desired outcome?
Let's say your business specializes in optimizing website speed.
For example, searches conducted by your potential customers in the awareness stage could include:
- “slow website”
- “Slow Website Check”
- “Why is my website slow?”
- “How do I optimize my website for speed?”
- “The best way to make a website fast”
- “Make a website fast” or “fast website.”
Find keywords for the consideration stage
In the next stage, the Google searcher is now aware of the challenge—and realizes that there are various solutions available. It is especially at this point that the buyer begins to look at things from a solution-oriented perspective.
The Google user is actively exploring options for a solution—and he now knows that there are companies that can optimize his website for speed.
Search terms at this stage will therefore be much more specific and informed.
To come up with keywords for the consideration stage, you can focus on the following questions:
- Who are your competitors, and how do their products/services differ from yours?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of your product or service (especially according to your customers)?
- What questions do your customers often ask about your product?
- What are some synonyms for your product or service—and what words do your customers use to describe the category your product falls into?
Examples of typical searches:
- “Your product name” vs. your “competitor’s product name”
- “Your product name/product type/product category” + city
- Benefits of “Your Product Name”
- Disadvantages of “Your Product Name”
- Company/Brand + Product Type
- Reviews of “product type”
- Prices for “product type”
Find keywords for the conversion stage
During the conversion stage, your potential customer will use transactional keywords. These are searches that occur toward the end of the buying process—and your potential customer is very close to purchasing your product or ordering your service.
Brainstorm keywords by focusing on:
Do you offer any discounts or subsidy programs?
As a customer, what’s the fastest way to add your product to the cart, order your service, or book an appointment with you?
Do your customers usually have any specific practical questions right before they buy your product or service?
During the conversion stage, searches are often pretty straightforward. You'll see searches like:
- Buy “your product/service”
- Order “your product/service”
- Booking “Your Product/Service”
- Discount on “your product/service”
- Download “Your Product/Service”
- Sale on “Your Product/Service”
- Where can I buy “your product/service”?
Find keywords for the "delight" stage
Unfortunately, many people overlook this final stage. The "delight" stage can be overlooked because your prospect has now actually become a customer.
But don't you also want ahappycustomer who feels seen and heard?
That is exactly what your content—and therefore your keywords—should focus on in the final stage.
Think about the questions your customers often have after they’ve purchased your product. Do you have any tips on how they can get the most out of the product? Or how to avoid running into problems?
Now that you have a long list of keywords, it’s a good idea to sort them according to the stages of the customer journey.
Add them to a Google Sheet. Then you'll have them ready to sort through when you get to the next (and last—don't worry) step in your analysis—namely, analyzing the potential of each individual keyword ↓
Keyword Analysis, Step 4: Analyze the Potential of the Keywords
Before you decide which keywords to target, you should assess their potential by asking three important questions:
Is the keyword really the right fit for what you offer?
The most important thing to avoid is choosing keywords based solely on their traffic potential.
It’s just as important to choose keywords based on their potential to convert the traffic you receive. That way, you’ll attract—relevant—traffic.
So the question is—does the search intent match what you're offering?
For example, when a searcher enters “plumbing,” it’s important for you as a plumber to determine whether the intent behind the search is to hire a plumber to provide a service (such as unclogging a drain) or to find an online store that sells plumbing supplies (such as a bathroom faucet or a new water pipe).
A good way to gain insight into the intent behind a keyword is to look at the results on page 1 that currently appear for that keyword.
Do they match what you offer?
If they do, it's an indication that the world's largest search engine has determined that the intent behind the search is to find what you offer—meaning your chosen keyword has potential.
Is there enough to go around?
The next important question is: How many people search for that term each month?
In my view, there’s no specific number of monthly searches that’s too low or too high to aim for if you have unlimited time in your schedule.
But very few of us have that. So it pays to weigh the monthly number of searches against the monetary value—in kroner and øre—of a single converting customer for the chosen keyword.
The search term“How much does a bathroom renovation cost”has (currently) 30 monthly searches in Denmark.
Overall, there aren't many—but if just one of these searches leads to a customer who hires someone to renovate a bathroom in their mansion, that single customer can quickly make the entire SEO effort for that keyword pay off.
Therefore, you shouldn’t fixate on search volume, but instead consider what ranking number 1 for that keyword would mean for you, given the amount of effort required to get there.
Is that possible?
… And now we come to the less fun (or really fun?) part. Of course, you’ll need to look at the competition for that keyword.
Here's the question—how easy is it to dominate your keyword?
Search volume can often give you a general idea of this. The more monthly searches there are, the more competition there usually is.
But if you want a more specific answer, you can check out Moz’s or Ahrefs’ difficulty score, which is based, among other things, on your domain’s backlink profile.
Also, remember that you need to assess for yourself whether you can deliver SEO work that’s just as good as that of the sites currently ranking highest—because those are the ones you need to beat.
As the icing on the cake, you can take a look at the potential organicclick-through ratefor the keyword—SEO guru Rand Fishkin has writtena really great article about this.
Don't you have time for all this?
Okay, okay. Of course, I understand that perfectly well.
But the work pays off! And just like with money—ittakestime tosavetime in the end. A half-finished analysis will only yield half-finished results.
You can let us provide you with afree SEO report—to help you get started.
If you don't have the resources to develop a well-thought-out SEO strategy, you're always welcome to send me an email at seo@amplify.dk or get in touch with one of my colleagues at info@amplify.dk.
THANK YOU for reading!
Learn Even More
Whether you're a generalist or a specialist in marketing, our experts have put together a number of helpful tips for you on our blog.
