5 Mistakes to Avoid in Keyword Research

Keywords are an important aspect of your SEO campaign. The problem, however, is that you are spoiled for choices. So, it is not inconceivable that you can make mistakes while choosing keywords. What’s worse is that you may not even be aware that you are erring. Below are five common mistakes that should be avoided while choosing keywords:

  • Not understanding how people search: While you may know what your customers need, your customers may only have a very vague idea. Using head terms (keywords that are only one or two words long) made up of industry jargon will not give you the best results. If your customers aren’t aware of such jargon, what will they search for? That is what you have to incorporate in your keywords, even if you have to use long-tailed keywords (those which are longer than two words). You can also gather this by talking directly to your customers and leads and monitoring social media platforms.
  • Not conducting competitive keyword analysis: You should use keyword planner tools (like the one offered by Google) to understand which keywords have the highest number of searches and for which keywords there is a lot of competition. This is also an indirect way of monitoring your competitors’ strategies.
  • Not monitoring search trends: Over time, certain keywords lose their appeal while others become more popular among searchers. It is important to track the search trends of all your keywords and include or remove a particular keyword depending on how popular it is. Tools like Google trends can help you monitor the changing popularity of keywords.
  • Not incorporating geography: This is one mistake that you should avoid, especially if you are a small business. You should include in your keywords the area that you serve. It may be a wide area, like a particular state, or a smaller region, like a particular city or locality. You can even include your area zip code. That way, people searching specifically for your products/services in your area will be able to find you. This may lead to long-tailed keywords having a small number of searches, but incorporating geographical area will help improve targeting, and in turn conversions.
  • Not distributing keywords evenly: When choosing keywords, you must have an even distribution amongst those that are highly sought-after and have a large number of searches, and those that are searched less often and do not have a large competition. Failing to strike a balance will either result in your website not being listed on search results or not generating enough traffic.

Knowing is half the battle won. Now that you are aware of the mistake you could make in conducting keyword research, just make sure you steer clear of them. One other important thing to keep in mind is that you have to identify the keywords relevant to your business and industry.

Image Credit: Bruce Clay, Inc via flickr

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