Keyword Analysis In SEO - Why Is It Necessary? - Semalt Expert
Analytics is an inseparable element of SEO activities. Keyword analysis can be considered one of its foundations. Unfortunately, it is rarely given enough attention. Looking from the outside, it may seem like a waste of time - after all, we are not working on the website then. Nothing could be more wrong! This article explains how a good keyword analysis can help you and which tool you can use to perform a much deeper analysis.
Why is keyword analysis so important?
We usually perform the initial keyword analysis at the very beginning of cooperation with the client, and even before signing the contract! The selection of several to several dozen phrases helps us to get to know the client's industry, understand his / her needs and / or the needs of his / her potential clients. At this point, the first surprises often appear.
It may surprise you, but having worked in a given industry for many years, you may not be able to correctly identify how users search for your products or services. Being familiar with professional nomenclature, brand names, and jargon (although the latter sometimes helps) often makes "regular doe" searches seem incorrect or just plain weird. Remember, however, that you build your website with the client in mind - and the shape of the content should be adjusted to him. Of course, if you direct your offer to experts - professional vocabulary will be perfect. However, in the case of most companies - it is the keyword analysis that will help in the comprehensible description of products or services. Carrying it out at the very beginning of positioning activities saves time in the future.
An initial keyword analysis is a signpost for SEOwca, according to which it will guide the further process. Thanks to it, by creating an SEO audit, you can determine the degree of correctness of the website optimization and find content or structural gaps to be filled. The first list is also a starting point for further expansion of the phrase pool - on its basis, we create a set of thematically related words that have the potential to bring valuable traffic to your website.
Keyword analysis = Your website through the eyes of the customer
You already know that your vision of how potential customers use the search engine can be wrong. Keyword analysis will support you not only in recovering from the error, but also in finding an idea of how you can help them, and at the same time encourage them to take advantage of your offer.
Search Intent
Your website should contain content that will be of interest to users at every stage of the purchasing decision. We will describe it with a short example. Suppose you sell women's clothing. The user enters "what dress for the wedding?" on Google. So he is clearly looking for advice. Showing her one product or a category with a hundred dresses, even the most beautiful ones, will not help her. But a blog post on how to choose a dress that suits the occasion will be perfect. Of course, we will then include links to the proposed products or categories in the content. Continuing the example - another potential customer enters "winter jacket" - here it will be a better solution to show the category, because it is not a question, and at the same time, the user did not provide any specificities related to the desired clothing.
Google tries to support its users in finding relevant information and is constantly developing algorithms that test the intention of searches. It does not display products or services for phrases related to the search for knowledge, but if you enter, for example, a specific device model (without any additions), most of you can expect offers from stores.
There are 4 basic search intentions that determine the shape of the query:
- informational - searching for knowledge or a solution to a problem - contain words such as "how", "when", "what is it", "why" and other interrogative forms;
- transaction - in this case, the user wants to take a specific action, it is not only about purchasing a product or service, but also, for example, making a reservation, registering or downloading content from the Internet - here the pool of keywords is much wider because it can include both product names (alone or combined with the words: shop, buy), as well as names of services with location - e.g. locksmith Krakow, as well as words related to various types of shopping opportunities such as "promotion", "cheap", etc.;
- pre-transaction analysis - an intention that combines the features of the previous two, indicating the desire to find an opinion about a product, store or compare specific devices, an example here may be "dentist smith opinions" or "Realme 8 pro test";
- navigation - in this case, the user has a clearly defined goal - to reach the website of a specific brand, company, institution or person - but he / she does not want to enter the address himself (he / she does not remember it or it is too long) - e.g., YouTube, 4F or MTWeb.
Your site should be able to respond to the user at each of these stages - then you have the best chance of acquiring customers.
Keyword grouping
The combination of the search intention with the knowledge of the offer should result in the division of keywords into groups. Among them, the basic sets are usually distinguished, i.e.:
- brand phrases - with the brand name;
- reach phrases - generally describing the offer - with a large search range, but low conversion potential;
- product phrases - pointing to a specific product or service with high conversion potential;
- knowledge phrases - pointing to a blog or knowledge base - content that exhaustively covers the issues of your industry.
Grouping is a very important part of keyword analysis. On this basis, you will be able to determine the needs of the website content - not only for the content itself but, most of all, for its structure.
Generally or locally?
Already at the stage of keyword analysis, it is also worth determining whether the positioned website is to reach users throughout the country or only intended to the inhabitants of a specific region.
If your products or services are available only to people living within a certain distance from the company's headquarters, it is not always worth positioning yourself on general phrases. You will need to analyze local keywords, whether they have the potential to generate traffic (search volume) and will allow you to reach potential customers. If so, it's definitely worth focusing on them. There is no point in trying to deliver your offer to people who cannot take advantage of it. It will increase the bounce rate and unrealistic inquiries.
Conclusions after keyword analysis - what to pay attention to?
In-depth analysis of keywords - both those on which your website is visible (if you have, of course) and phrases related to the industry, as well as those on which your competitors' pages appear high - is a great support in the process of building the structure of your website.
Ideas for the site
Based on the information gathered, after creating groups of keywords and analysing their search volume, you can organise the category structure in the shop, create a list of subpages on the service page and determine the message of the homepage. In addition, the list of knowledge phrases is an almost ready recipe for a valuable blog. By addressing users' problems and needs, you encourage them to take advantage of your offer.
And this is where it may turn out that your potential customers are looking for your services in a completely different way than it seemed when designing the website. Perhaps the division of content into subpages was prepared correctly, but the existing content has not been properly optimized or there is simply too little of it. Thanks to the analysis of keywords, you will be able to adjust the existing content to the needs of users. All you need to do is juxtapose your website visibility data with your keyword search potential and your competitors' website data.
Keyword analysis also provides information on content gaps. By browsing phrases for which the competition is well visible and your website is poorly visible, you have a chance to find a gap that is worth filling. Perhaps some seemingly insignificant element of the offer is searched very often? Make it visible by creating a separate, well-optimized subpage. Users are looking for a solution to a problem to which your product is the answer? Write about it on your blog.
Indication of the source of the problems
On the other hand - keyword analysis can also reveal significant errors in the structure of your website. If you do not see those with high sales potential on the list of phrases generating traffic, optimization will be the solution. But what if complete stupidity appears on it?
There are many sources of such a problem, and the least harmful is the already mentioned lack of optimization. Unfortunately, however, such a problem very often concerns websites with a very extensive portfolio or a detailed discussion of previous implementations. If you focus on boasting about your achievements so far, and on the other hand, forget about accurately describing your offer, you may suddenly find that you appear on Google for keywords related to your customers, and not what you can offer. This is a fairly common mistake that can only be dealt with by significantly expanding the offer section.
Common mistakes related to the selection of keywords
Keyword analysis may not be an extremely difficult task, but it is certainly tedious and requires a lot of concentration. Attempting to cut corners often ends up overlooking important phrases that have a high potential for generating sales or leads. This is an error that is easy to spot and fix: you just need to dig deeper into the word base, analyze your own site, competition, and thematically related sites.
However, if an inexperienced person leans over the obtained word base and starts optimization, he / she may adopt an inappropriate strategy of action. The idea will be noble here, but the effects are far from desired. Here are some glaring bugs that can take a long time to fix.
Positioning everything for everything
This error can be classified as basic and at the same time very harmful. It is based on the fact that an attempt is made to position the entire site for the keywords found. The whole, that is, almost all existing subpages and as a result, we get, for example, titles with phrases listed after the decimal point and texts filled with all found keywords.
The source of the problem here is the omission of the phrase grouping stage - only one subpage should be optimized for a given keyword. One subpage can be optimized for many phrases, but the rule doesn't work the other way around.
Incorrect keyword matching
Another common problem is the incorrect matching of keywords to specific subpages. The flagship example here are pages with an extensive blog. If you write a blog entry and optimize it for keywords related to a product or service (sales phrases), there is a high risk of cannibalization. It consists in the fact that users will receive a product (service) and a blog entry alternately as a result. Considering the intention of the search: those who find your blog are unlikely to take advantage of your offer because they will not want to search for it on the website. If the blog content will be much more valuable than the product or service description, then all traffic for keywords related to it will go to the blog - and this is a ready recipe for sales problems.
Another example, typical for stores, is to mix category keywords with product keywords. Remember that the product (or service) page should be optimized with the most specific phrases possible, while the more general ones should be left for the categories.
No use of localizing phrases
If your offer is addressed to the inhabitants of a specific region or city - do not forget to put their names in the content and meta data of the page! By ignoring them in the keyword analysis process, you run the risk of losing visibility in the area that interests you the most!
Wide positioning - constant analysis of keywords
If you think that keyword analysis is a one-time task - you also have to part with this view. The strategy of setting a specific pool of phrases and positioning the site "according to the list" has long ceased to be used. Currently, it works only for specific, narrowly specialized businesses. The standard is broad positioning, an inseparable element of which is regularly repeated keyword analysis for individual subpages. SEO is a process that constantly adjusts the content of the website to the needs of users. With time, it turns out that the same element of the offer is searched for at least several times and very often more than a dozen ways. Even a very experienced specialist will not be able to find them all at once - it takes time and observation of customers.
Is it worth doing keyword analysis yourself?
We hope we have succeeded in convincing you of the usefulness of keyword analysis in SEO activities. However, a question arises: can anyone do it alone? Theoretically yes and it is very simple! In fact, there is an SEO tool developed by the experts at Semalt called the Dedicated SEO Dashboard that makes this possible. You can use this tool to analyze the visibility of your website. In the "outside" analysis and the competitor check, this tool has many features to help you do all these tasks in a short time and get better results.
In addition, we have reserved a 14-day free trial period so that you can know the features and performance and benefits of this tool for your website. During this period, you will have access to all the features included in the Standard package.
The question, however, is whether the proper matching of intentions and grouping of keywords will be too much of a challenge?
This should be left to the professionals. Even minor shortcomings in the analysis will lead to an accumulation of errors in the entire positioning process. If you want to plan a sales transfer strategy, we know how to do it and will be happy to help you! Contact us and find out how to position your website effectively.