3 Keyword Research Mistakes That Kill Your SEO Efforts
7 Nov 2015
3 Keyword Research Mistakes That Kill Your SEO Efforts
Keywords are the foundation of online marketing. That’s an incontestable fact. At first, finding the right words may seem like an easy task – all you have to do is think of a few terms and phrases related to your business, run them through any keyword research tool and calculate your potential traffic. However, there is more to keyword research than meets the eye.
There are several common mistakes that companies make with their keyword research. Let’s analyze these mistakes and see how you can avoid them.
Mistake #1: Using broad match instead of exact match
Search volume is one of the most important metrics to take into account when looking for the perfect keywords. This is probably the first thing to check with keyword research tools, and it’s where the next serious mistake may occur.
Most tools offer three types of keyword matching:
- Broad match contains all your in no particular order and may include other words. For example, if your targeted words are “black shoes,” broad match may include “black shoes for men,” “shoes for black suit,” and so on.
- Phrase match includes your keywords in order and may contain other words. For example, “where to buy black shoes,” and “black shoes with high heels.”
- Exact match contains only your keywords in a given order – “black shoes.”
And there is a huge difference in search traffic between all of these results. If you do not take this into account and estimate your potential visitors using broad match, you’re likely to get absolutely disappointing results.
How to avoid this mistake: When using tools to estimate search volume, avoid using broad and phrase-match figures. Always base your decisions on exact match.
Mistake #2: Using one-word keywords
Another mistake is selecting keywords that consist of a single word. It’s really hard to rank for one-word terms – they are too general and too competitive. Besides being highly competitive, short-tailed keywords lack context. For example, a person searching for “fans” may also be looking for a big industrial fan, a fan to ventilate their apartment or even a football fan community!
How to avoid this mistake: Try to compose your keyword list of mostly long-tail keywords, as they provide more context. Every additional word should focus more specifically on user intent – this will bring you closer to your target audience.
Mistake #3: Not taking the competition into account
Ranking for a specific keyword actually means beating your competitors. So to plan an effective keyword strategy, you need to know the competitive landscape. If you choose your target words without considering the competition, you will likely waste both time and money.
How to avoid this mistake: Step one: type your target query in the search box and take a critical look at the websites that are on the first results page. What are your actual chances of making your way to the first positions with that particular keyword? If your competitors are are ranking too highly, you need to choose other words to rank for.
What’s also great about competitor research – it helps you get fresh ideas and find new additions for your keyword arsenal. There will surely be some keywords that your competitor is ranking for while you’re not. You can find these words with the help of the Domain vs. Domain tool
Just type in your domain and the domains of up to four of your competitors. Then you will get a Venn diagram visualizing keywords that these domains share, as well as exclusive ones for each domain.
