What is the purpose of keyword research?

14 Jan What is the purpose of keyword research?

Keyword research for Organic Search results

The object of Keyword Research for organic search, is to identify keywords and phrases which have a high monthly search volume and low competition (i.e low volume of pages with the same keyword in title or url). We call these keywords ‘opportunity keywords’ because they provide the best opportunity for us to get a page indexed and listed on the first page of Google.

If you pick an obscure keyword, something which virtually no-one searches for, and put it in your page title, you can be pretty much assured that, providing your site is connecting with Google as it should, it will be indexed on the first page within a matter of hours.

Generally speaking though, such obscure keywords aren’t much good to you because they are so rarely searched (exception: unless it is of pure relevance to your business, like your brand name for example). So the trick of good keyword research is to find keywords which have a good, high volume of monthly searches (say more than 1,000) and a low volume of competing pages (less than 1000, say). With a list such as that, you can then start writing articles to target those searches and you will have a very good chance of getting them listed well, and quite quickly, in the first page of Google.

Keyword research for PPC Search results

Google’s keyword tool was developed to help us use its Adwords Pay Per Click service more effectively. The development of Adwords, in 2001 or so, gave search engines their first way of monetising the high volumes of traffic they were getting. And it remains the most profitable product in the Google armoury.

When researching keywords for PPC, there are a different set of criteria you will want to take account of, which are partly irrelevant for organic search. One is Google’s competition rank (either High, medium or low), which is an indicator of how many other sites are bidding on the same keyword. Another is the Avg CPC – or average cost per click – which can be taken, and budgeted for, as the price you will pay per click your adwords ad receives.