Keyword research is an SEO activity that delivers one of the highest returns. This makes it critical to your online marketing success. By now you probably have read multiple articles, tutorials and step-by-step guides on how to conduct keyword research to improve your traffic in Google.
But here is an interesting observation, that you may have probably noticed as well: Not one of these guides produced by authority sources provide the exact same set of instructions.
It is not that any of them are spreading false information, it is just there is no universal approach to keyword research. There are many factors that you can base your approach on. Here is a list of points that should be considered when researching and using keywords on your site.
- Your website authority.
- The number of web pages available.
- Quality of content you produce.
- Your goals for the site in terms of leads and sales.
- Your SEO branding and exposure vision.
- Availability of resources, time and budget.
- The competitive landscape, industry, and niche you are in.
These factors above are just seven of the many characteristics that could affect your keyword use. These could be reasons why you find some of the step-by-step guides and articles are difficult to relate to and execute.
Today, we will focus on the common mistakes that many webmasters are doing in terms of keyword use. It is easy to get caught up with promising stats, but using a critical eye will assist you to avert from disasters that can cause you to get penalized by google later on.
1. When you overemphasize volume
It is exciting to see keywords with a high volume of searches. However being new to the market nevertheless makes you invisible even if you use keywords that are popularly searched for. It does not matter how many people use these keywords if the market is incredibly competitive.
If you are still new to the online marketing scene, it is best to take a low volume keyword or key phrase that brings in users who can potentially convert into customers. Using long tail key phrases is recommended for newly established sites as the users who use these are more likely to convert anyway.
2. Wrong keyword allocation
Keyword allocation is the process of figuring out where to place your keywords or keyword phrases on your site. It is a critical step that many beginners stumble upon. One common mistake is when you add an unrelated keyword to a page whose content does not match the search intent.
It is easy to simply put your keywords on any page, but matching it with search intent will help pull your rankings up. For example, users who use “best vacation places in India” are predominantly tourists. So the page content you are placing this keyword on should adhere to the concerns related to tourists in India.
3. Targeting the same keywords or key phrases throughout the site
Remember, in SEO you need to pick your battles and focus on the strengths rather than the weaknesses. But it does not mean that you neglect underperforming pages for good. If you have specific pages that rank well, try to make that particular page rank higher and make it a page that searchers for your keyword would be happy to land on and to read.
Do not just spread out the exact same keywords on all of your pages. If you do manage to rank well for the keyword or keyword phrase you chose, your pages will be competing with one another and eventually start killing off new traffic for other keywords. The rule of thumb is to use different keywords or key phrases for every page you have.
4. Aiming for keywords without any traffic
Long-tail keywords is a crucial way to start your keyword strategies, and this is an information you inevitably see in every SEO article you find. Indeed, using specific terms does grant you a higher chance of conversion and returning visitors.
But using keyword phrases that are too specific will not help your SEO efforts at all. So make sure to conduct a thorough research on the long tail keywords you are planning to use and find out if there is some actual traffic for them.
Executing keyword research and strategizing how to utilize them takes time. It is critical that you take the time to really ponder about the phrases that you want to rank for. Lastly always remember that you should look for key phrases that would give you the best return on investment (ROI).