Keywords are the linchpin of every top-performing search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
The fate of your SEO strategy and website depends on the quality and relevance of the keywords you choose to target.
But extensive keyword research doesn’t guarantee SEO success. You need a framework to sort, filter, and organize the selected keywords.
Otherwise, you’ll find your team members racking their brains, trying to monitor keyword performance and rankings.
Keyword planning is crucial for improving the outcome of your SEO strategy. Also, it skyrockets the efficiency of your SEO experts. It even helps maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your paid search ad campaigns.
That’s the reason professional keyword research services use various metrics and tools to organize their keywords.
In the following sections, we’ll explore a few powerful keyword organization techniques used by keyword services. Let’s dive right in.
1. Analyze Value and Usefulness
While evaluating a keyword, the first thing you need to consider is how useful it’s going to be for your website.
An easy way of assessing usefulness is to check the search volume and cost per click (CPC) associated with a particular keyword.
Use any standard keyword research tool to find those metrics for your selected keyword.
Also, run a Google search with the keyword to assess the ranking potential of your keyword. Typically, you can divide your keywords into the following groups based on ranking potential:
- Top – Keywords with the highest-ranking potential and competition
- Moderate – Keywords with decent ranking potential and low competition
- Bottom – Ideal for finding long-tail keywords and variations of your target keywords.
2. Prioritize Relevance
Even keywords with the best ranking potential will prove to be futile if they aren’t relevant to your brand/industry.
You need a thorough understanding of your target audience and niche to understand whether a keyword is relevant to your brand.
Analyzing keyword relevance will go a long way to help you streamline the list of target search terms. Also, it’ll come in handy when you’re creating keyword clusters for your content strategy.
3. Understand Search Intent
If you’re targeting keywords without understanding the associated intent, you’re aiming in the dark.
Keywords describe what your target audience is looking for. Search intent describes why they’re looking for it.
Typically, keywords can be divided into three groups based on intent:
- Informational (example: ‘content marketing tips’)
- Navigational (example: ‘content strategy guide HubSpot’)
- Transactional (example: ‘free keyword research tool’, ‘best keyword research tool’, etc.)
Enter your target keyword into the Google search bar. Check out the topmost organic listings for a clear idea of the search intent associated with that keyword.
Make sure you map search intent to each stage of the buyer’s journey.
For instance, if you want to attract consumers in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, your best bet is to use informational keywords.
On the other hand, consumers in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey are more likely to use transactional keywords in their search queries.
4. Identify Brand-Specific Search Terms
Brand-specific search terms are the ones that include the name of your brand/company. Organize all such keywords into a single group. They’re particularly useful for building brand awareness.
5. Sort for Product Terms
If your business offers a broad spectrum of products/services, it’s wiser to sort and filter your keywords according to product terms. You can group your keywords into the following categories:
- Search terms related to products sold by your company
- Search terms related to products sold by your competitors
- Substitute and complementary product terms
6. Explore Business-Specific Terms
It’s another clever way to organize keywords based on their relevance to your brand. Business-specific terms could encompass a wide array of keywords that are related to your industry.
You need a deep understanding of your target audience to select relevant business-specific search terms.
For instance, if you’re running a digital marketing agency, business-specific keywords for your industry might include:
- Digital marketing company
- Social media marketing agency
- SEO services
- Instagram marketing company
If your target audience includes lawyers who are looking to establish their online presence, you’re better off using keywords related to ‘SEO services.’
On the other hand, if you want to target young entrepreneurs looking to build their personal brand, ‘Instagram marketing company’ would be a more suitable keyword.
7. Leverage Google Keyword Planner
Manually filtering various search terms and organizing them into lists is time-consuming and inefficient.
The good news is that various keyword planning tools are available to simplify the process.
If you’re looking for a free and easy-to-use tool for organizing your target keywords, Google Keyword Planner is a great choice.
You can use the tool to filter your keywords based on advanced parameters, such as location and language. Also, you can group your keywords based on their relevance to specific topics.
Make the Most of Your Keyword Research Strategy
Identifying high-performing target keywords will only take you so far. If you want your SEO strategy to yield the best results, you need to organize your keywords into meaningful groups.
Evaluate the usefulness, relevance, and intent of various search terms to identify the ones that are worth targeting. Also, use a feature-packed tool, like Google Keyword Planner, to streamline the process.