Do you want to know how to get more eyes on your content?
Would more clicks to your website help you promote your services?
Do you want more reach and engagement on your social media content?
Do you want to create a content strategy that moves the needle?
Keyword Research helps you find which keywords are best to target and provides valuable insight into the questions your target audience is asking. Understanding how to research and read the insights help inform your content strategy and your marketing strategy.
If you know about keyword research, you may think it's only essential for your Google or Bing search results, but social media uses them as well. Here are a few places where you can implement a keyword strategy:
✅ Your Instagram title
✅ Your copy on each post
✅ Your website copy, meta titles and descriptions
✅ Your images on both social and online
✅ Your Google Business Profile
✅ And more!
Every piece of content you create should include your keyword findings. There is more to how you use them and in this post, we will discuss how to get started with keyword research.
Listen to your customers.
The easiest way to start your keyword research is to begin with an audience you already have. What questions do you hear your current audience asking? What questions do you see when you engage in groups and other accounts on social media? For instance, if you are a virtual assistant, those questions might include things like:
What does a virtual assistant do?
What does a virtual assistant cost?
How do I find a virtual assistant?
What are virtual assistant services?
Type these questions into search and start creating themes.
This is putting yourself in your client's shoes and relating to their pain points and what they don't know. This of Google or Social Media search as a QUESTION machine. And you are the one creating the most accurate answers. The question machines only know to pick the most relevant, or answers that are the closest, to the questions asked. That's how you start to build your ranking. When you search, remember these three things:
You will see paid answers. First, these are the businesses winning those keywords in their ad strategy.
When you start to type in the question, Google will begin trying to predict your next word. This gives you more insight into your audience's questions; grab those too!
For Google research, scroll to the bottom of the screen and you will see "Searches related to..." This will provide more insights for you.
Research the popularity and competition of the keywords.
This is the "research" part of what you've discovered. Using tools like Google AdWords, Semrush and SERanking.com are tools you can use to learn the value of your words. The best keywords are in a sweet spot between high search volume (the number of searches performed for that word) and low competition (not many people are using them in their content). So while the term "i need a virtual assistant" is both high in volume and difficulty, the term "hiring a va" or "virtual assistant prices" are high volume and have a medium difficulty level.
Start using these keywords on your website.
This is where you will add content related to the keywords you've decided the best "value" for your business.
One your website: Create H1 titles including the keywords (only one H1 per page) add keywords to your meta titles and descriptions, and use the keywords in the content on your page by highlighting them in paragraphs and outlining your page with H2, H3, etc. titles). Once you've created the page with the content, promote it in your email and social media, driving traffic to the page for more information.
Track your results using Google Console, Google Analytics, Meta Insights and subscription-based posting or SEO tools if applicable.
You are looking for website traffic changes. Look at Organic Search traffic and see if you are experiencing an increase—a review of which terms are bringing traffic to your site or profile. In social how many are visiting your profile and clicking on your website link?
This is a very high-level and simplified way to get started doing keyword research. If you're ready to get started and have a more in-depth understanding of what someone to do the leg work for you, schedule a Clarity Call and let's talk about your options for getting more clicks!