As an (inbound) marketer, you know that selecting the right keywords is crucial to making your online content discoverable by potential customers. Almost everyone in search of specific information and with access to the internet uses Google. Hence, it is essential that organizations differentiate themselves from their competition and rank high in search results. In this blog article, I discuss the four most important focus areas to determine effective keywords and provide you with three helpful keyword tools to assist you in the process.
Looking for new keywords: what should you consider?
Relevance
When determining good keywords, it is important to keep in mind that the search terms should be relevant to the information your target audience is seeking. By putting yourself in the shoes of your audience, you can think of the terms they would use to find certain products. You can also gain inspiration for relevant keywords by consulting the data from your website's internal search engine. This way, you directly attain information about the search terms your visitors are using.
Uniqueness
If you want your organization to rank high in the search results, I would avoid using general keywords. Therefore, think carefully about unique terms that will make you easy to find by potential customers. However, do not go overboard; the keywords should still remain relevant to the information that your target group is looking for.
Competition
Take a close look at the keywords used by your competition. By using different word variations or selecting a good combination of search terms, you can differentiate yourself from your competition. It is challenging to rank high in the search results if you use the exact same keywords as all your competitors.
Useful keyword tools
The keywords you have selected based on the above mentioned considerations can be tested using keyword tools. Four useful keyword tools are Google keyword tool, Wordstream, Semrush, and Keyword Tool.
Google keyword tool
This tool has two important features: displaying search volumes for entered keywords and providing suggestions for synonyms or related keywords. A useful feature is that you can compare two or more keywords to decide which one best fits your organization's content strategy.
Wordstream
WordStream finds different keywords than the Google keyword tool and has three useful search functions that can help you select the right keywords:
- Keyword Tool: provides suggestions for relevant keywords
- Keyword Niche Finder: displays groups of keywords based on the entered term
- Negative Keyword Suggestion Tool: identifies keywords that you should avoid using
Semrush
Semrush is a comprehensive keyword research tool and that is why it is our favourite. The marketing tool offers the following features:
- Access to 23 billion keywords for 130 countries
- Comprehensive website audit based on 130 checkpoints
- Track and analyse competitor websites and marketing strategies
- Create and track PPC campaigns
- Get recommendations to improve content and search rankings
- Plan, draft, and publish content on social media
- Create branded reports for easy export.
Keyword Tool
As the keyword tool calls itself, it is the best alternative. Here are a few reasons why:
- The free version generates up to 750+ long-tail keyword suggestions for every keyword.
- It is highly reliable, working 99.99% of the time compared to other tools.
- It is free to use even without creating an account.
By using a combination of these keyword tools, you can create a good list of search terms.
Determine the best keywords
In the most ideal scenario, a keyword has a high search volume and low competition. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. That is why you need to consider which keyword is the best fit for your organization and relevant to the information your target audience is searching for.
