SEO starts with a keyword search

I regularly speak to entrepreneurs who have tried everything to make Google easier to find, but the results? They are disappointing! If I then ask about what they have done to improve online findability, I often get the answer: "use more keywords and increase the number of backlinks". That is fine in itself, but when I ask how they have investigated whether the chosen keywords are actually being searched for and whether the online competition has been mapped, I often get a "no".

Do you recognize yourself in this? Then this article is a must to read. I am going to tell you what the added value is of a keyword research, why you should conduct a competition research and how you can subsequently improve your online findability.

Why a keyword search?

By researching which keywords your target group is looking for, you gain insight into how your target group expresses their questions in the search engines and what their online customer journey looks like. I give an example to clarify this.

Suppose you have an insulation company, then keywords such as cavity wall insulation, floor insulation and roof insulation are obvious, of course, but your target group has all sorts of questions about these types of insulation. For example: what types of insulation materials are there, what are the benefits per type and what are the costs? Is a subsidy scheme possible and what is the average payback period?

With a keyword search you find out which questions your target group is looking for online and how often they do that. That way you know that the keywords you want to focus on have the potential to attract visitors to your website.

Which tools can you use for keyword research?

You can provide insight into the keywords and search phrases that your target group uses in the search engines using various tools. These tools are paid, but often you can create a free account to find a limited amount of keywords. An example of a tool that can do this SEMrush. You can also choose to advertise with Google Adwords. If you start a campaign and you have incurred the first click costs, you can Google keyword planner and get an insight into the monthly search volumes on keywords. This tool also provides you with many keyword suggestions that you may not have thought of. Very valuable!

The competition investigation

With the keyword research you find out which keywords your target group is looking for, but you do not yet know whether it is feasible to get a position on the first page in Google on those words. That is why it is important that you conduct a competition study. You also look at various metrics. Based on the scores on those metrics you can estimate how difficult it is to achieve good positions in the search results for certain keywords.

You guessed it: to interpret the scores on the metrics, professional knowledge is needed. That is the reason why many companies choose to outsource SEO. There are various online marketing agencies that you can go to, see an example here: https://www.resultinternetmarketing.nl/seo-uitbesteden/.

Competition research yields a set of keywords that are searched for on the one hand and the competition on the other hand is not too strong. Those keywords can then be processed in the website.

And then?

After you have optimized your website for the chosen keywords, you have a site that can be found in the search engines. But because there will always be companies that use the same keywords as you, you will need to ensure that search engines give priority to your website in the search results.

One of the best ways to do that is by collecting relevant references to your website. That means that you write valuable blog articles and try to place them on websites that are highly regarded in your industry. In those blog articles you make a link to your website. This way you collect votes for your website and your website gets more respect in the eyes of the search engines. This in turn results in better positions in the search results.

Do online marketing yourself or outsource?

As you now understand, there is a lot involved in making it easy to find online. It is not only a lot of work, you will also have to invest a lot of time to acquire the required knowledge. So consider carefully whether you want to invest your valuable time in it or whether you prefer to focus on expanding your business and decide to outsource online marketing. Do you want to know more about the possibilities of outsourcing online marketing, click here.