The most interesting aspect of online marketing and SEO is that the first step in launching the campaign has to be repeated during the entire tenure of the campaign. And herein lays the immense importance of the first step to marketers. Keyword research forms the backbone of SEO, and it is the crucial first step that translates into giant leaps when repeated periodically as the campaign progresses. It is essential to have your fingers on the pulse of the audience for which you have to keep your ears to the ground by intermittently performing keyword research at regular intervals. Although there are several SEO tactics that marketers use, keyword research is the foundational tactic that gives direction to marketers about how to position the campaign and create strategies.

Looking at keyword research from the perspective of search engines, you would discover that had you not conducted the research; search engines would find it almost impossible to understand what your website is about and what business it upholds. Through the selection of the trending keywords in your niche, you can tell search engines about your business.

Not restricted to SEO only

Although we are focusing on keyword research about SEO, it has a much wider appeal across the entire segment of digital marketing and not SEO alone. Keywords are the sources of organic traffic and play a critical role in determining how people should perceive your business. Determining the type of content that would suit your marketing goals becomes easy by looking at the dimensions of the selected keywords. Keywords tell you about the user intent that helps to create appropriate content. The effectiveness of your marketing strategy largely depends on keywords because behind every decision you take there are keywords.

Know from where your organic traffic comes

It is important to know the source of organic traffic because it contains information about the audience you target.  While you must be interested to have the farthest reach to the market by using keywords, you would also be interested to know from where the organic traffic generates. You have to nurture the section of the audience that drives traffic to your website so that it translates into real marketing gains through higher conversions. For driving traffic to websites that boost sales and ROI, you have to know the relevant keywords by conducting research using keyword research tools like the ones available at keywordinspector.com.

Explore the powers of keyword research tools

Connecting with the audience with the help of keywords is the primary goal of keyword research.  You must use suitable keyword research tools that help to unearth keywords that match with the vocabulary of your target audience. Unless you speak in the same language as the audience and use the same terms as theirs, you would never be able to connect with them.

The only way of knowing the vocabulary of the audience is to find ways of getting inside the heads of the target audience who frequent websites that are similar to your niche. It would tell you about what they search for, what terms they use, what answers are likely to make them happy and so on. The keyword research tools not only make a list of search terms people use but also create the possible combinations of the variants of the terms by matching and mixing.  In addition to the keywords that the tools fish out, you should also focus on the keywords used on your site.

Avoid targeting big keywords

Keyword research not only provides a list of relevant keywords but also indicate the search volume against each. The search volume points at the potential of keywords; higher search volumes attract more attention like the big keywords. However, these keywords are also highly competitive and dominated by the big companies with financial muscles.  If you target such keywords, you are actually up against the big brothers of the industry, and your chances of ranking keep diminishing. Even, it might take years to get results, which does not make sense.

The way forward

 To cut through the confusion of which kind of keyword you should pursue, turn to the keyword research tools and select keywords that might not be attracting large volumes (neither too less) but can be very effective for your business. Look at what your competitors are doing, find the keywords that drive heavy traffic to their websites, analyze its effectiveness and competition and select the ones that can assure modest performance. Instead of trying to reach the sky in a rocket, take the ladder approach to scale higher in increments.

As success breeds success, once you see the results going in your favor, you gain the confidence of being a little braver when taking the next step. It would ensure that you conquer the peaks of success one after another.

About the author: Henry Petersen is a content marketer who started his career about ten years ago. He has worked for a few companies that market keyword research tools including keywordinspector.com, a company that caters to the e-commerce business.  Henry is a passionate artist at heart and loves painting whenever he finds the time.