The formulation of keyword strategy is a very important part of SEO work. In my career as a consultant, I found that many people do have the correct concept of SEO and can correctly build a SEO-Friendly website, but because the keyword strategy is not perfect, Resulting in a limited increase in traffic or too much traffic without quality.
SEO does not rely on search engines to increase traffic, but on search engines to increase the "quality" and "quantity" of traffic. Even if you rely on search engines to get considerable traffic, but the conversion rate is too low, the brand power has not grown, then the high traffic is totally meaningless.
The planning of keyword strategy is a big topic, which requires the application of some analytical tools, coupled with SEO thinking and marketing ideas, we can develop a complete keyword strategy. Because the topic is full, I will first spend 2-3 articles to introduce this topic (Yes! Is equal to the next few articles we are talking about SEO), in these articles I will share your keyword strategy as much as possible How to do it, this article will first focus on the initial level of "Get keyword data and suggest what tools and methods should be used". As long as the subsequent articles are updated, I will put them at the bottom of this article. Slow Slower, we will talk about SEO thinking and how to apply marketing thinking to keyword strategy from the beginning to the advanced.
Collection of "Keyword Data"In this article, we will not talk about how to combine the keyword strategy with the marketing strategy / website optimization strategy. We will keep the follow-up articles for the marketing strategy. We will focus on the data collection and methods of all the following content first.
In practice, it is impossible for us to guess what keywords consumers will search like headless flies, for example, I want to operate the "SEO repeated content" group of keywords, but maybe no one will search for this group of keywords at all. There is no way to bring you exposure value, of course, there is no need for operation, so when formulating strategies, you still need to use some tools and methods to collect data, combined with data and your own understanding of the industry, to ensure how Targeting should operate Keywords and generate your own keyword map and keyword strategy.
Usually these keyword research tools will give us some indicator data for keywords. Common indicator data are:
Search volume data:
Generally speaking, we rely on analysis tools to organize search volume data. Such tools are very easy to use. Most of the tools will show you the "average monthly search volume" after you enter specific keywords. "(I will introduce common and easy-to-use tools in the latter part of the article). As shown in the figure above, I entered" Internet Marketing "in the keyword planning tool of Google Ads, and he will show me that the Internet Marketing group The keyword search volume is: on average 10-100 per month, which also means that on average there are 10-100 searches per month to search for this group of keywords.
In practice, through search volume we can understand how big the search market for this set of keywords is, and even understand the search behavior of consumers. Looking at "search behavior" from the search volume: Why can search behavior and search habits be understood from search volume? For example, there are two common expressions for the keyword "SEO", one is English "SEO", and the other is UNITED STATE "Search Engine Optimization". You can know by comparing the data in the figure below, most of them Searchers will search for "SEO" instead of "search engine optimization" when seeking SEO related knowledge, then we should prioritize "SEO" when targeting SEO keywords, because most searchers search like this.
Look at the "market size" from the search volume:
Another meaning of search volume is the size of the "market size". If all keywords related to SEO today have very little search volume, it is obvious that few people search for these keywords, so the market reflects the small size. (What if your industry really belongs to an industry with a smaller market? We will come back to this strategic issue in the next article.
Keyword competition:SEO does not rely on search engines to increase traffic, but on search engines to increase the "quality" and "quantity" of traffic. Even if you rely on search engines to get considerable traffic, but the conversion rate is too low, the brand power has not grown, then the high traffic is totally meaningless.
The planning of keyword strategy is a big topic, which requires the application of some analytical tools, coupled with SEO thinking and marketing ideas, we can develop a complete keyword strategy. Because the topic is full, I will first spend 2-3 articles to introduce this topic (Yes! Is equal to the next few articles we are talking about SEO), in these articles I will share your keyword strategy as much as possible How to do it, this article will first focus on the initial level of "Get keyword data and suggest what tools and methods should be used". As long as the subsequent articles are updated, I will put them at the bottom of this article. Slow Slower, we will talk about SEO thinking and how to apply marketing thinking to keyword strategy from the beginning to the advanced.
Collection of "Keyword Data"In this article, we will not talk about how to combine the keyword strategy with the marketing strategy / website optimization strategy. We will keep the follow-up articles for the marketing strategy. We will focus on the data collection and methods of all the following content first.
In practice, it is impossible for us to guess what keywords consumers will search like headless flies, for example, I want to operate the "SEO repeated content" group of keywords, but maybe no one will search for this group of keywords at all. There is no way to bring you exposure value, of course, there is no need for operation, so when formulating strategies, you still need to use some tools and methods to collect data, combined with data and your own understanding of the industry, to ensure how Targeting should operate Keywords and generate your own keyword map and keyword strategy.
Usually these keyword research tools will give us some indicator data for keywords. Common indicator data are:
Search volume data:
Generally speaking, we rely on analysis tools to organize search volume data. Such tools are very easy to use. Most of the tools will show you the "average monthly search volume" after you enter specific keywords. "(I will introduce common and easy-to-use tools in the latter part of the article). As shown in the figure above, I entered" Internet Marketing "in the keyword planning tool of Google Ads, and he will show me that the Internet Marketing group The keyword search volume is: on average 10-100 per month, which also means that on average there are 10-100 searches per month to search for this group of keywords.
In practice, through search volume we can understand how big the search market for this set of keywords is, and even understand the search behavior of consumers. Looking at "search behavior" from the search volume: Why can search behavior and search habits be understood from search volume? For example, there are two common expressions for the keyword "SEO", one is English "SEO", and the other is UNITED STATE "Search Engine Optimization". You can know by comparing the data in the figure below, most of them Searchers will search for "SEO" instead of "search engine optimization" when seeking SEO related knowledge, then we should prioritize "SEO" when targeting SEO keywords, because most searchers search like this.
Look at the "market size" from the search volume:
Another meaning of search volume is the size of the "market size". If all keywords related to SEO today have very little search volume, it is obvious that few people search for these keywords, so the market reflects the small size. (What if your industry really belongs to an industry with a smaller market? We will come back to this strategic issue in the next article.
Most keyword research tools will have the so-called "keyword competition", usually displayed as "Keyword Difficulty" on the tool, keyword competition means that if you want to operate this group of keywords and rank it on the first page How high, the higher the degree of competition, the harder it is to get to the first page. Some tools even separate the keyword competition for natural search from the keyword advertisement for keyword ads. Take the example icon above, The "digital marketing" group has a natural search competition of 51 and a keyword advertisement of 66.
For example, if the Z keyword has many large e-commerce companies such as Pchome and MoMo in front of the search results, then the keyword Z keyword is more competitive, otherwise, if the search results of the Y keyword are all small and medium-sized websites , Then the competition of the Y keyword is relatively low.
Keyword trends
The trend of each group of keywords may be different. Most of the analysis tools will have a full year search volume trend graph. The search market of some industries will have problems in the off-peak season. For example, the peak search volume of "hot pot" is certain. It is winter, and summer is related to ice-related keywords to have a higher search volume.
CPC for keyword advertising (Cost Per Click, single click pricing) The keyword analysis tool usually comes with the CPC indicator. We will look at the keyword CPC (average cost per click), search volume, and competitiveness, because the single-click bid for each group of keywords is How much means how many competitors in the market are buying this set of keywords, which simply means "competitive condition of keyword advertising".If some keywords you find that his SEO competition is not high, but the CPC is very competitive, it means that your opponent wants to get this group of keywords, but they may not get a good ranking performance on SEO, so compare Many people rely on keyword ads to get this set of words. If the SEO competition of this group of keywords is low and the competition of keyword advertisements is also low, it means that relatively few opponents care about the operation of this group of keywords.Through a comprehensive observation of the indicators such as CPC and keyword competition, you can understand the "current competition situation" and "how many opponents may appear in the future to compete with you".
Analysis tool for collecting keyword data As mentioned above, we mentioned the index of keyword data. At this time, we will introduce common analysis tools. Each tool has its advantages, disadvantages, and advantages and disadvantages. Common tools are as follows:Google Ads keyword planning tool Tool URL: https://ads.google.com/Price: Free
There is a set of tools in Google Ads called "Keyword Planning Tool". As long as you have a Google Ads account, the process is completely free. However, the current method adopted by Google is: If your account does not run ads, keywords The planning tool will only give you the "range" of search volume, and will not give you accurate actual data. This is the main shortcoming of the current keyword planning tool (although it is free to use on the surface, it can only be seen by people who pay. Complete information).As an example in the following picture, if I am not sure which group of keywords "Internet Marketing" and "Digital Marketing" should operate today, and then I use the keyword planning tool to query the search volume, I will only get the following Data report. We can see in the report below that these two sets of words are search volume 1000-10,000, but in fact the range of 1000-10,000 is too large, maybe the search volume of "Internet marketing" is 1,000, "Is it 8,000? But I can't see the actual numbers in this tool at all, only a very broad range.
Therefore, if your Google Ads advertising account runs without a budget, the keyword planning tool is almost impossible to use. This data range is too large for us to make business judgment. On the contrary, if your advertising account has a budget, then run, Instead, I would suggest that you use a keyword planning tool. After all, his data sources are all official Google, and there will not be problems with inaccurate data (other tools sometimes have relatively large data errors. Use Google ’s official Tools will not have this problem, after all, the search engine is Google's own).
UbersuggestTool URL:
https://app.neilpatel.com/en/ubersuggestPrice: completely free, you can use it without registration.
Ubersuggest is a SEO tool developed by marketing master Neil Patel. He is very very simple to use. As long as you enter the keyword data you want to know and select the search engine, there will be reports and data. In addition to the search volume, "Keyword Competitiveness" and "Search Trend" are also provided. Because this tool is easy to use and is completely free (not even for registration), I usually recommend it to students Or customers use this tool (the related report is shown in the figure below, there is search volume, competition, and even the average CPC of this group of keywords).
I search this keyword "BLOGGING "
SEO paid analysis tool:
AhrefsTool URL: http://ahrefs.comPrice: Starting from USD 99 per month, 7 days trial for USD 7I have written a full article on Ahrefs, an analysis tool. There are many tools like Ahrefs. His main functions include the keyword information of competitors, market keyword data, website ranking monitoring, backlink analysis … Wait, it is a tool that I will definitely use when working as a consultant. As shown in the figure below, we can see the search volume, competition, and even my own website in each group What is the ranking of this group of words (that is, the function of ranking monitoring).
My own Search Console data Tool URL: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/homePrice: Free Google ’s official free SEO tool-Search Console will be one of the tools we rely on when doing keyword research. Search Console can help us observe what keywords consumers use to search and find your website.
In fact, the data of Search Console can only be provided to us "the keywords that appear on our website after searching", that is to say, if you search for Z keywords, your website is not ranked, then of course there will be no Z key in it. Word data, so in addition to Search Console, we still need to use the tools mentioned in this article, Ahrefs and Ubersuggest, to use them together.But if your site already has a lot of keyword rankings and data, the historical data of Search Console is an important reference. If you are not familiar with Search Console, you can read these articles:
Google search trends Tool net Address: https://www.google.com/trends/Price: Free
Google search trends are also Google ’s official search data, which is very easy and fast to use. If someone, boss or customer, is unfamiliar with analysis tools, search trends will be very useful (because they are easy and simple to use), but the disadvantages of Google search trends are: He will only give you the search volume of each group of keywords. As shown in the above figure, the search volume of each group of keywords will be displayed in 1-100 steps, so I personally do not recommend this tool. For analysis and strategic planning, accurate numbers must be valuable. For example, Ubbersuggest will give complete search volume data. I usually use this tool and recommend it to other partners (if someone is not familiar with the tool or has no time to learn too complicated analysis tools).
Other keywords Idea collection method:
The above-mentioned analysis tools basically require you to actively think about "what keywords should I operate", and enter the keywords into the tool, only to see the keyword search volume and competition data, but there are In fact, we actually have no direction at all. I do n’t know how to start researching keywords. At this time, you can use the following methods to get more keyword ideas. Then you start to research from these ideas.
Competitor keyword analysis Search for your core keywords and observe what keywords your higher-ranking competitors use as a reference. The purpose of competitor analysis is to "mining business opportunities". Many times the keyword strategy that your opponent thinks you may not think of. Therefore, analyzing the keyword of your opponent is a very important thing. For keyword analysis of competitors, you can refer to Powerful [SEO competitors] and [keyword analysis] tools: ahrefs.
Google Smart Search suggestions:
The default smart search suggestions in the Google search engine are a good reference phrase, and Google will show you the keywords that more people search for.As long as you simply enter the keywords you want to operate in Google, Google will pop up other keyword groups, these keyword groups are "words that other people will also search for", for example, in the above example we entered " The words "night market", then the words "night market life" and "night market stall" are the words that other people will also search, and Google sorts according to the search volume, that is, except for "night market" , "Life at Night Market" is searched by most people, "Stall at Night Market" is searched by multiple people, and so on. When you do n’t have any ideas where to start keyword research, this is a good way to start.
At the same time, in addition to search suggestions, the "relevant search block" at the bottom of the search results also works the same. Google will list the most searched keywords at the bottom of the search results (as shown below). Keyword opportunities.
Search data in the site:
If you have a site search function on your website, use Google Analytics to analyze what keywords User uses on your website to search. This can help you understand which phrases your brand visitors are accustomed to using? It applies to SEO keyword strategy.
As marketers, we believe that everyone should understand that every click and pageview after a visitor enters our website is very precious to us. Most websites have an average of more than 50-60% The bounce rate means that more than half of the visitors will leave the site directly after entering your website. If you understand this concept, then you have to think more about it: since every click is precious, not to mention that my visitors are willing to search and find products / information on my website? Isn't this more precious :)
Therefore, by searching the data on the site, we can help us do keyword research on SEO. Through these data, we can better understand their habit / behavior of using keywords and even their needs. For my website, I will watch it regularly What words my readers are searching for? The more words people search, the greater the market demand for this keyword. Then I will schedule to write related articles.
Finally, use PPC keyword advertising to complete the keyword strategy. This is a very important concept, if you do not combine keyword advertising, your SEO strategy is absolutely incompleteTo do keyword research and analysis, in addition to the above mentioned methods and several indicators, it is very important that you must also combine keyword advertising data.Why rely on data for keyword advertising? The analysis tool mentioned above may only tell you that the search volume of the Z keyword is 3000 and the Y keyword is 5500, but in fact, the search generated by the market every month cannot be an integer. The reason why the analysis tool gives us an integer , Because the data provided by the analysis tools are only estimates, but keyword ads are placed on our advertising budget, so Google will give us accurate data in the advertising background and solid visitor search volume.
For example, when you initially collect data, you see that the search volume of "night market snacks" is higher than that of "night market foods", but the data of the analysis tools are all estimated and not necessarily accurate. In the end, you can’t have the accuracy of the search volume Numbers.At this time, the best practice is to directly place keyword advertisements on the two groups of keywords "night market snacks" and "night market cuisines", and after a period of time, analyze / observe the exposure of these groups of words. At the same time, you also Can test the click-through rate between each word group and the searcher's click-through status on different ad copy, and then apply it to SEO with everything you learned from keyword advertising.
