The key to a successful SEO program is selecting the right keywords for your business. Selecting actionable keywords that will actually generate more leads is often a difficult and tedious process. Even so, choosing the right keywords is a necessary task for your content marketing, PPC campaigns, and SEO to be successful.
Even if you understand how important it is to choose actionable keywords, you might be curious about how you can find the most appropriate keywords for your SEO. The best place to start is research.
Types of Keywords
Before starting your research, you’ll first need to figure out what kinds of keywords you intend to look for. Knowing this will make your research easier, more efficient and less time-consuming.
Here are the three primary kinds of actionable keywords that businesses often use to drive more leads:
Common: Also known as a short-tail keyword, a common keyword usually consists of just one word that has no context. An example of a common keyword is “pie.” If someone searches for something using the word “pie,” it will be difficult for you to figure out what the person was looking for. Was the individual searching for a pie recipe or instructions for creating a pie chart? It’s impossible to know because the word doesn’t have context.
Transactional: Unlike short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords include multiple words. A transactional keyword is a long-tail keyword that an Internet user normally uses after the person has made the decision to buy something. These keywords are often used in searches related to e-commerce and they ordinarily include words such as “buy,” “rent,” “purchase” or “price.” When transactional keywords are used, it’s much easier to identify a user’s reason for conducting a search.
Informative: Similar to transactional keywords, informative keywords are long-tail, meaning they usually consist of 3-5 words. As their name implies, informative keywords are used by people who are searching for information related to a specific, identifiable topic. This type of keyword often includes terms such as “how to,” “why” or “review.” Informative keywords may also include the word, “tips.”
Finding Actionable Keywords
To find keywords that will successfully drive more leads, it’s helpful for you to identify the various levels that make up your purchasing funnel. This will enable you to create “buckets” for the various types of keywords you’re going to research.
In general, keywords are evaluated in terms of difficulty and volume. Difficulty refers to the level of competition that exists between different domains for the same keyword. Volume refers to the number of searches that are conducted for a given keyword in a certain period of time such as a month.
It’ll be difficult for a website that’s new or one that lacks authority to rank for keywords that are considered competitive. Luckily, there are many free tools available online that can help you determine how difficult it will be to rank for a selected keyword. Using tools like Google Analytics can help you pick actionable, less competitive short- and long-tail keywords for your website and SEO.
If you’re going to research informational keywords, visiting websites such as Ubersuggest and Quora are great places to start. The topics, questions, and answers on these websites are entirely user-driven, which makes the content particularly useful for finding informational keywords.
When you’re looking for transactional keywords, using Google Keyword Planner to find them is a good idea. You can use Google’s estimated cost per click to identify what people intended to buy, as well as the value every click has over a period of time using the Trends tool inside Google Keyword Planner.
Here are some additional online tools that you can use to find actionable, transactional keywords:
While there are many tools available to help you find different kinds of keywords that can drive more leads, identifying actionable keywords can still be a daunting task.
Want to make finding keywords that will drive more leads for your business a cinch? Let DB Marcom help.
Offering managed marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses, DB Marcom has the expertise necessary to select actionable keywords, create content and implement a marketing strategy designed to drive leads and increase conversions. Contact DB Marcom to learn more now!
About DB Marcom
DB Marcom helps small to mid-sized businesses market smarter, faster, and more profitably…without adding overhead. We are a full-service marketing partner providing outsourced and managed services for strategy, branding, digital and inbound marketing. DB Marcom is a strategy-first agency with a focus on building integrated marketing systems that attract, engage and convert profitable customers.
No more thrashing. No more chaos. No more wasted marketing dollars. We’ll focus on the details so you can focus on your running your business. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.
DB Marcom, Inc.
Marketing > Strategy | Branding | Inbound
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