10/25/2020
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is part of SEO (search engine optimization). It’s the work someone does to come up with an extensive list of keywords they would like a website to rank for. To obtain such a list, website owners need to dig into their desired audience and search engines. What search terms do people type into Google when looking for their products, service, business or type of organization? And what do they expect to find? With this list, website owners can create content that will attract more, high-quality traffic to their site. Keyword research is never finished: repeating it regularly is essential to stay up-to-date!
Why is keyword research important?
Proper keyword research is important because it will make clear what search terms your audience uses. At Yoast, we frequently came across business owners who used one set of words when describing their products, while their target audience used a completely different set of words. As a result, potential customers couldn’t find those websites, because of a mismatch in word use.
For instance, sometimes, a marketing department decides to give a product a not-so-common name. This can be a smart marketing decision: People could remember your product more easily. If you rent out vacation cottages instead of vacation homes, you might stand out. But beware: Very few people search for [vacation cottages]. If you optimize your text for this term, you’ll probably rank well on this specific term. However, you won’t generate a lot of traffic with this term and you’ll miss a large part of your potential audience because they use other words.
You’ll probably understand that it doesn’t make any sense to optimize for words that people don’t use. Thorough keyword research makes sure that you use the same words as your target audience and this makes the whole effort of optimizing your website far more worthwhile. In addition, by looking at search intent, you find out what exactly your audience is looking for. Those queries should get an answer in the form of quality content.
