It is no surprise that writing quality content for a website is no easy task. With the increasing importance of targeted keywords, research into quality keywords can mean the difference between your brand disappearing in a sea of thousands on Google and being the first result on search engine rankings. In other words, the difference between ten visitors to your website and ten thousand is highly dependent on your keywords.
In this article, we will take a look at 4 of the most common mistakes that people make when they are conducting their keyword research, so read on to find out more!
1. Answering Questions You Assume People Are Asking
This is one of the key mistakes that many bloggers and companies make – they arbitrarily write what they assume their readers are interested in, instead of catering to the exact needs that their web users are searching for. The very crux of good keyword research is data-driven decision-making, so it is unwise to assume that you know everything your users are looking for before doing extensive research. Realistically, it is impossible to know every single question your users have, who might be asking these questions and what their backgrounds are. This is where keyword tools truly comes into play. Some good resources to look into are SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner.
2. Got Tunnel Vision?
Confirmation bias is, unfortunately, one of the key culprits when it comes to not so great SEO keyword practices. Mistakes such as trying to drive sales towards products or services that are completely unrelated to a user’s search query should be avoided at all costs. Educating users on everything related to their search query EXCEPT the main qualifier of their search should also be avoided. Lastly, don’ try to trick your users. If you cannot give them an answer or a service to something, don’t beat around the bush or try to trick them – this is something we all universally dislike, so stay away!
Just because a market niche is popular does not mean that it is what everyone needs or wants. Similarly, just because you really want to sell your business to a customer does not mean that your service or product is the best thing for them. Your best bet is to drive all your focus into providing quality and honest information, hoping that your product sells itself with the aid of your other marketing tactics and efforts.
3. Pulling Keyword Data From A Singular Source
Never make the mistake of just relying on one source when it comes to keyword data research. There are multiple avenues out there for you to utilise, so use all of them (or at least a few). Never put all your keyword eggs in one basket and always make full use of any tools that may be in your disposal. Keep up to date with the latest in search engine research and studies as well, to ensure that you’re not falling behind.
4. You Fail To Answer The Question
All too often, web content producers engage in extensive keyword research, only to throw it all in the bin at the end of the day. Imagine spending quality time, money and resources to analyse user queries, only to have to flush that information out and instead serve up an answer to tangentially relation questions instead. An awful waste of efforts, in our opinion! Internet users are, pretty specific when it comes to knowing what they want out of their Google searches. . The more modifiers that are thrown into a query – such as “free”, “best”, “no ads” etc.—the more fed up they get with existing search results. If you fail to focus on actually answering their specific questions, they are going to bounce from your site. It’s as simple as that. Always listen to your searches and try to provide them with the specific information that they are looking for. The rest will follow.
