How to pick the right keywords for your Content Marketing Strategy

Google grew to prominence and then world domination by doing one thing really well: provide a more accurate search result. There is a word for this, RELEVANCE. Googles every evolving algorithm is attempting to put the most relevant ads (slots 1-3) and then the most relevant "organic" search results next, in regards to what someone types or speaks into the search box. So, what does Google look at, look for, evaluate, filter.... WORDS. Words are the foundational piece when it comes to content marketing.

So words. Think about your business. What is your value proposition? What would "Major Tom" type into a search box in the hopes of finding a website containing your product or service? The goal here is to successfully implement and execute a content marketing strategy by generating a list of specific keywords to target for search engine rankings, or at least to support the overall domain authority of your site. Once you have a shortlist of these terms, you need to do a bit of simple research.

There are many tools that you can use for this next step. Some are free, some are cheap, and some are very expensive. What we are going to look at “search volume.”

1. Search Volume: How many people on average are typing your desired keywords into a search engine per month.

Why is search volume so important? Well, imagine you invest a great amount of time and resources or Content Marketing to show search engines that your website is a relevant option to send traffic to for your targeted keywords only to find that no one or very few people are typing in those terms. By targeting terms with a higher search volume, there's a better chance of attracting a high volume of organic traffic, which can then lead to increased conversions and a better ranking in search engine result pages based on the keywords you are attempting to rank for. But beware, keywords with an exceptionally high search volume will be much more difficult to rank for.

2. Competitiveness: How many people are competing for your main keywords? How hard it is to rank well on search engines for your keywords? How expensive are your keywords in Google Ads? Good news, there are great tools for assessing how competitive your targeted search term is.  

Why is assessing competitiveness so important? Well, imagine if you have 200 big companies with huge marketing budgets that have been competing over your target keywords for decades already. How hard do you think it will be to get on page one? Some level of competitiveness is actually a good sign of a healthy market and if you have a local business, search engines will give you some precedence for being local. But knowing the playing field is an absolute necessity in content marketing. There are many strategies related to overly difficult keywords, such as utilizing “Long Tail Keywords,” but that is a very big topic that you can read more about it here: Long-Tail Keywords: A Better Way to Connect with Customers

3. Searcher’s Level of Intent: This is related to initial brainstorm, but I place it here at step three because it is easy to lose clarity as you work through step’s one and two. You want to make sure that the terms that you are going to be targeting are connected some level of intent on the part of the user.  

Why is searchers level of intent so important? Imagine that you find great keywords that are not too competitive? Then you work really hard making great content around those words and you start to rank well on search engines. Great right? Traffic is flowing! Fantastic right? But then you realize that your website visitors are finding great value, maybe doing some research, and then leaving. Now, this scenario is better having no traffic, and could possibly be salvaged by creating a bridge to more actionable pages, but in most cases, targeting terms related some intent to take action is achievable. The objective of this tactic is to find keywords and phrases that people search for meaning, and really stop to ponder and comprehend what the searcher is actually looking for when they enter a particular question or statement into a search engine. By researching this, you'll be able to retain traffic that doesn't just bounce off the page!

Words are only the beginning of your content marketing strategy, but they are the foundation piece. Now that we are starting off on the right foot, all the other pieces will lead to a much happier ending for your bottom line. Once again, we cannot stress enough the importance of using content marketing keyword research to identify and target the right keywords along with researching search volume, competitiveness, and the searcher's level of intent to more efficiently perform your content marketing strategy.