Understanding your audience’s search behavior is key to driving online success. And It all starts with choosing the right keywords. Keyword research is a crucial first step in any digital marketing strategy. It involves identifying the search terms that users type in to find products, services, or information online. By focusing on the most relevant and high-performing keywords, businesses can optimize their content to rank higher in search engine results, ensuring they attract their ideal audience.
According to recent studies, 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, making effective keyword research essential for driving valuable, qualified traffic and achieving online success. In this article, we will explore how Cybez, a leading digital marketing agency, approaches keyword research to deliver measurable results for its clients.
Why Is Keyword Research Essential?
Here are three reasons why extensive keyword research is essential for eCommerce SEO:
- Improve Visibility: Keyword research identifies the exact terms your target audience is searching for. By optimizing content around these terms, you increase your chances of ranking higher on search engines, ensuring more visibility and attracting organic traffic to your website.
- Understand Audience Intent: Keyword research helps understand user needs by analyzing search queries. It reveals the specific questions, problems, or desires of your audience, enabling you to create relevant, high-quality content that meets their expectations and drives engagement effectively.
- Boost ROI: Strategic keyword targeting ensures your marketing efforts focus on high-value opportunities. By attracting qualified traffic likely to convert, keyword research reduces wasted efforts, enhances ad performance, and delivers measurable results, ultimately maximizing the return on your investment.
How Cybez Approaches Keyword Research:
Here is the Cybez SEO methodology for keyword research:
1. Visit and Analyze Categories and Sub-categories
We begin by reviewing the main categories and subcategories of the website or business. Here’s how we do this:
- Core Services or Products
Review the business offerings to identify the main services or products. This helps focus keyword research on what is most important, ensuring that the keywords selected are relevant to the business’s primary focus and target audience.
- Unique Selling Points (USPs)
Identify the USPs that set the business apart from competitors, such as quality, price, or unique features. These points should be highlighted in keyword research to attract customers searching for these specific differentiators.
- Website Structure
Examine the site’s structure, categories, and sub-categories to guide keyword targeting. Understanding how content is organized helps align keywords with the business’s goals and ensures the research focuses on the most relevant areas of the site.
2. Competitor Research in the Same Niche
The next step is to research competitors operating in the same niche.
- Competitor Keywords
Analyze which keywords competitors are ranking for to understand their SEO strategy. Identifying these keywords helps you recognize trends and areas where you can target similar terms or focus on untapped opportunities in your niche.
- Strengths and Gaps
Identify strengths in competitors’ keyword strategies and discover any gaps they may have. This allows you to refine your own approach by targeting missed opportunities, giving you an edge in SEO and ensuring comprehensive coverage of relevant keywords.
- Content and Strategy Insights
Examine competitors’ content and search strategies to understand their approach. Analyzing their content gives you ideas for creating better, more optimized content while understanding their search strategies helps refine your own SEO tactics for greater success.
3. Keyword Volume and Difficulty Analysis
Next, we analyze keyword volume and difficulty to determine which keywords are worth targeting.
- Keyword Research Tools
We use Keyword research tools for ecommerce like SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner to analyze keyword volume and competition. These tools help you assess the search demand and difficulty level, guiding you to select keywords that are both relevant and achievable.
- Targeting High-Impact Keywords
Focus on keywords that balance decent search volume with a difficulty score not exceeding 30. This ensures you target terms with good traffic potential while remaining realistic about your chances of ranking highly.
- Mix of Transactional and Informational Keywords
Include both transactional and informational keywords in your strategy. Transactional keywords drive conversions, while informational keywords attract traffic and create opportunities to engage with users at various stages of their buying journey.
4. Competitor Keyword Research Data
Then we gather data from competitors’ keyword research to improve our keyword strategy.
- Competitor Keyword Performance
Use SEO tools to identify the keywords that competitors are ranking for and the search volume associated with them. This helps pinpoint terms with high potential and guides your keyword selection to compete effectively.
- Filling Content Gaps
Look for keyword gaps in competitors’ content. If they are missing high-traffic terms that are relevant to your business, you can target those keywords to capture traffic and provide value where others are lacking.
- Refining Your Keyword Strategy
By examining competitors’ keyword data, you can refine your strategy, ensuring you select terms that not only match industry trends but also offer a competitive advantage in terms of search volume and competition level.
5. Keyword Projects
Next, the keyword researcher creates detailed keyword projects to ensure careful keyword selection.
- Large-Scale Keyword Projects
Start with a broad selection of 25 keywords per project. This allows you to cast a wide net and consider multiple variations of relevant search terms before narrowing down your final list. Expanding the initial selection helps ensure that you cover all potential keyword opportunities and identify the most effective terms for targeting your audience.
- Expanding Keyword Selection
Expand the project by researching 3x more keywords, considering related terms, long-tail variations, and potential new keyword opportunities. This ensures you capture a wide range of relevant terms for various audience needs.
- Prioritizing Keywords
After collecting a large pool of keywords, prioritize those with the best mix of search volume, relevance, and achievable difficulty. Narrow down the list to ensure you focus on the most impactful keywords that will drive traffic and conversions.
6. Keyword Ranking Analysis
Now the keyword ranking is tracked over time to measure its effectiveness. Here’s how one can analyse the rankings of a keyword:
- Track Keyword Rankings
Regularly monitor the rankings of selected keywords using SEO tools to track changes in performance. This helps identify which keywords are driving traffic and which need further optimization.
- Adjusting Strategy Based on Performance
If certain keywords are underperforming, adjust your strategy by tweaking content or targeting alternative keywords. Continuous ranking analysis allows you to make data-driven decisions and improve your SEO efforts.
- Identify Growth Opportunities
By tracking keyword rankings, you can identify areas for growth. This includes finding keywords that are gaining traction, allowing you to shift focus towards those terms to capitalize on growing search trends.
7. Target Keywords for On-Page Optimization
Optimize on-page elements with target keywords for better SEO.
- On-Page SEO Elements
Incorporate target keywords in key on-page elements like titles, headers, meta descriptions, body content and category page optimization too. This ensures that each page is optimized for both search engines and users, improving relevance and discoverability.
- Content Optimization
Use keywords naturally throughout your content, maintaining a balance between optimization and readability. Overuse of keywords can result in keyword stuffing, which harms both user experience and search rankings.
- Internal Linking
Integrate internal links that use target keywords to connect relevant content. This not only boosts SEO but also enhances user navigation, encouraging visitors to explore more pages on the site.
8. Seasonal and Event-Based Keywords
Incorporate seasonal and event-based keywords for timely traffic.
- Include Seasonal Keywords
We at Cybez, identify keywords related to specific seasons, holidays, or events (like Black Friday or Christmas) and integrate them into your strategy. This helps capture traffic during peak times when users are searching for seasonal offers or information.
- Target Global Events for Non-India Clients
We have a variety of clients outside India, so the keyword research here includes keywords related to major global events, festivals, and holidays. This ensures that content aligns with users’ search behaviour during specific events, driving relevant traffic to the site.
- Adjust Content for Timely Relevance
Now, content is updated to include seasonal and event-based keywords, ensuring your website remains relevant and visible to users searching for time-sensitive topics. This can boost traffic and increase conversions during high-demand periods.
9. Finalize Keywords
- Review Keyword Relevance
Finally, we ensure that the selected keywords closely align with the business’s offerings and target audience. Keywords should accurately reflect the content and services to avoid attracting irrelevant traffic.
- Monitor Keyword Trends
While researching keywords we stay updated with trends and shifts in keyword demand. We adjust our list periodically to accommodate changes in search behaviour, ensuring that the SEO strategy remains updated and effective. - Long-Term Keyword Strategy
Using a mix of short, medium, and long-term keywords creates a balanced strategy. This approach ensures steady growth in organic search while keeping important keywords visible immediately, helping businesses maintain both short-term gains and long-term success..
Conclusion
Cybez follows a comprehensive keyword research strategy to help businesses improve online visibility. By analyzing competitors, identifying high-performing keywords, and focusing on terms with optimal search volume and difficulty, we ensure businesses attract qualified traffic. The approach includes seasonal optimizations, on-page SEO targeting, and continuous tracking to maximize ROI and drive long-term success for clients in competitive digital landscapes. For the best keyword research strategy for your brand, contact Cybez today!