Since Google is taking strict actions day by day to keep rolling new algorithm updates; one thing that is really not good for digital marketers is to adopt a practice of using ineffective keywords. Keyword research is essential for marketers who are looking optimize their websites; the need to do the keyword research has remained the same.  How you actually do the keyword research for your content or blogs really matter; it is a comprehensive process of finding and analyzing actual search terms that people enter into the search engines.  The insight you can get into these actual search terms can help inform content strategy, as well as your larger marketing strategy.

Over the past ten year or so, digital marketers have been scratching their heads to understand how much Google has changed its SEO rules and how some keywords have become unimportant. There are some myths to leave behind in 2017. Nowadays, using those keywords that are directly related to person’s search are no longer effective to promote your SEO. Rather, the keywords need to be intent-based. Keyword search is useful to tell marketers what people are searching for; that implies that keyword search cannot be outdated.

Marketers need to research keywords which are getting them a high volume of searches per month; you can sort and identify your content into various topics. You should sort your content into topics and then you can use these topics to identify the right keywords that your target audience searches for. Most people searching the web are interested in finding the answers they are looking for, by including the right keywords, you can handle the questions that most people want to answer.

User intent is the most important factor these days to help marketers use their ability and rank websites at the top of search engines. These days, it is vital for marketers to focus on a problem that their customers are looking to solve through the Internet search; but how can they accomplish that goal? You can simply incorporate a keyword into the content to help find the intended customers. Recent Hubspot article states that user intent is the most important factor to rank higher on the search engines. A searcher has intentions to solve their problems and that affects the keyword research people do.

The above facts reveal something about keywords that is more important to understand. Not all the keywords have same meanings, different keywords has different face value and hidden meanings beneath the surface. Because the intent of the searcher is extremely important to solve their problem, it also impacts your ranking potential. Therefore, it is vital for you to understand how you can interpret a specific keyword that you target.

For example, you are researching a keyword related to “how to make shoes” and aim to create a whole article related to that topic. The intent of the searcher will definitely impact the direction of your article. Does the research want to learn how to start a shoe business? The direction you are giving to them in the blog post or article is crucial to determine your own success. Unless the content is highly valuable for the users, they are not going to read ahead and move to a new post. If the content strategy is only based on targeting customer who want to buy sports shoes, then you will miss out on those people you want to start a shoe company.

There are ways to verify the intent of users in a keyword; it is a good idea to simply enter a keyword into the search engine yourself and see what type of results actually come out. So let us provide you an effective keyword research strategy that you can incorporate into your company’s SEO policy or guidelines to efficiently research and manage keywords.

To kickstart the process of keyword research, think about all the important topics in your mind that you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. Hopefully, you will come up with 10 to 12 new topics that are vital for your business and industry; then you can use these topics to create a list of all the related keywords in the next phase.

Regular bloggers often understand the point that these are probably the topics that your blog needs the most for success. Or maybe they include the topics that come up the most in sales conversion; it is important to put yourself in the shoes of your buyer’s persona and determine what type of content you need to create on blogs to attract most customers. Below is the list of vital topic buckets that can help to maximize your keywords research strategy.

Now that you are specifically focused on the topics that you want to create content for, the next step is to fill these topic buckets with the right keywords and throw them into those buckets. In SERP results, these keywords play a vital role to boost your ranking because there maybe thousands of people who maybe searching for the same keywords on the Internet. The point discussed here focuses on deciding the final list of keyword that allows you to create a robust keyword strategy. You can further narrow down your list and finalize your list. There are many data driven tools available to help you rank well.

While doing a keywords research, this is a vital step to take. If you are still not sure about which keywords to incorporate into the list, then you can simply go to Google.com using your browser and have a good look at the related search terms when you insert a keyword. Do scroll towards the bottom of the search results when you have typed a keyword and Google will provide you some good suggestions for further searches which relate to your original keyword. These keywords can play a magical role to spark new ideas for new keywords you may use for your keywords list.

A great thinking is to check for the head terms and long tail terms because it will give you a good keywords strategy that helps to balance your long term goals. Infect, short words or phrases are harder to rank for in terms of SEO. For example, if you are a blogger and use keywords such as “blogging” and “how to write a super blog post as a beginner”, then the first choice will be harder to rank. Why? Because most researchers are qualified and probably know the art of Google search more than a kid. Someone not looking for a generic term is more interested in a detailed search results. So make sure that you incorporate a mix of long-tail keywords and head terms that are going to be beneficial for your customers and business in the long run.