Keywords are important in digital marketing. It’s an essential component of every SEO campaign because it gives definition to your content, your brand, and possibly all other digital marketing endeavours. Aside from the keywords we come up with for our brands and companies, there are industry-specific keywords that we also keep our eyes peeled on. The thing about keywords, however, is that they are not set in stone. Keywords are largely rooted in people’s online search behavior—which changes over time based on so many factors—so it’s just logical for our own keywords to eventually evolve.
Fresh, updated keywords are as important as new content for your brand. So in this blog, we walk you through four tips for expanding your keyword list to ensure your brand’s relevance to the audience.
Why Do We Need to Update Our Keyword List?
Like we said, search is always changing based on people’s behavior online. New developments are always popping up. Trends are ever-changing, capable of overtaking the trends we know to be true in the past. So, there is a huge possibility that the keywords you’re using are already outdated. Focusing on keywords that people aren’t using to search online isn’t going to be helpful for your visibility in search engines.
Tips for Expanding Your Keyword List
Do an audit of all your existing keywords and keyword groups.
Everyone begins with a keyword group because this makes creating content a breeze, especially for people who know how best to use it to their advantage. So when you’re in the process of updating a keyword list, it’s important to begin with this first step—hunkering down to look at what you already have. A keyword audit can help you spot the keywords that aren’t making the same numbers as they originally did. For some, it even helps them drop the keywords that are no longer working for your brand. Some brands, including their products and services, evolve, too. With this evolution can come the realization that what keywords worked for you before may no longer rake the same benefits or numbers now. That they no longer reflect your brand as a whole. And that’s totally fine. Beginning from the inside gives you an opportunity to review your content based on numerous metrics like Impressions, Clicks, your Click-Through-Rate and so on. If you’re using tools like Google Search Console, it’d be best to begin your keyword review there.
Look at your competitors’ keywords.
Another important element that you should be looking at is your competitor. Knowing your competitors' keywords, especially the ones they rank for, will show you terms you might be missing out on. This could also reveal or at least give you an idea about their strategies so you could augment your own process. Tracking what keyword works for your main competitors can give you an insight that can drive your own strategies. This allows you to see keywords that are driving their success, especially if you don’t rank for it (yet), and then observe if these are keywords you also want and need to explore. The main point of doing competitive keyword analysis, however, brings us back to a point we made earlier—to see industry trends and possibly, fill market gaps.
Focus on long-tail keywords.
Although SEO experts aren’t always inclined to use long-tail keywords, they can be valuable to your campaigns and overall strategy if you know how to use them in the right manner. There is a good formula advocating for long-tail keywords and it goes like this: less search traffic, high conversion rate. Of course, conversion rate anchors on so many aspects, but it’s good to point out that since long-tail keywords are more specific (meaning people are deliberately searching for these keywords or there is intent behind the search), then they’re also likely to perform specific actions like make a purchase or convert to a new audience. Intent is a strong element in SEO, and long-tail keywords are usually driven by a strong intent to perform actions beneficial to brands. Another point worth pointing out is long-tail keyword’s link to voice search. The dominance of voice search, especially using mobile devices, entails “exact match” keyword or keyword phrases which are, in essence, just long-tail keywords.
Run the keywords on the tools you’re using.
Another way of making sure your keywords are fresh is by running them over to SEO tools, if you’re using any. Keyword tools and SEO extensions are great in that they help match your keywords and give you other keyword ideas you might be missing, and they don’t just do it for you the first time. The tools help you see customer demand—old and new—and capture the “language” your audience is using. Remember, not all keywords are worth going after. We’re not totally dissuading you from using high-demand keywords, but know that a lot of these are already ranking big, popular sites. The best you can do is match what you’ve collected with your brand to see if it works for you and if you have a big chance of ranking for it.
If you haven’t already noticed, the tips are also just reminiscent of the steps you’ve already gone through the first time—with the exception of number one. That’s because keyword research is a highly iterative process, meaning you don’t really stop after doing it one time. Keywords are important for optimising your website and making sure everything is up to date.
However, it takes time to build your list and refine it, and even more time to create content based on the keywords you have collected. Good thing, there are digital marketing experts who can make it work for you. Get in touch with our friendly team today!
