Not Your Father's Keyword Strategy

Last Updated on Februar 15, 2024

SEO and keywords – it’s nothing new. Everybody wants to rank for the words people are searching for. It’s a bit old though – with BERT in 2019, we moved away from specific keywords activating SERPS. Today it’s all about search intent.

Search and content creation is less about the fact that you’re searching for jogging shoes, and more about why you’re searching for them.

In this post, I wanted to suggest a radical new keyword strategy. But first, a little overview about keywords and keyword strategy.

What is a Keyword Strategy?

„A keyword strategy contains every decision you take based upon your findings in your keyword research project, whether it’s about the content you’re planning to write or how you are going to track the results in Analytics. Keyword strategy is about how you want to target those keywords, now and in the future.“ Yoast

Simply put, a keyword strategy helps you to find out which search terms or groups of search terms you should optimise for.

A good keyword strategy is more than guesswork. A good keyword strategy consists of individual search terms and entire search term groups, which are assigned to specific landing pages. At the beginning of a keyword strategy, most of us usually think of the important keywords of our industry. Unfortunately, this is exactly what all too often proves to be very difficult.

Why are All Keywords Not the Same?

Keep in mind that there are Organic Keywords to be optimised for, and PPC keywords to be optimised for.

Organic are those keywords we want our content to be found for over the search engines, (more informational) while the PPC – paid ad keywords – are those keywords that activate our Google ads (more transactional) – for example.

However, in the end, you’re looking to have your web pages be found for the key terms and phrases people are using when they search on Google, Bing, and other search engines so they come to your website and convert.

What are the Different Types of Keywords?

We would probably agree that there are four main types of keywords that relate to search intent:

+ Informational keywords — looking for an answer to a specific question or general information. (organic keywords end of the spectrum)
+ Navigational keywords — looking to find a specific website or page.
Commercial keywords — looking for brands or services.+ Commercial keywords — looking for brands or services.
+ Transactional keywords — looking to complete an action or purchase. (PPC keywords end of the specturm)

So, How Can We Find the Right Keywords?

7 Keyword Discovery Tips

We can get in front of people who have never heard of us before, by being there when they search. We can do that by matching our website content, our products, and our services, with the keywords people use to search for things.

Where can we find those keywords everyone is using? – I wrote about this in an earlier post.

A Different Type of Keyword Strategy

It’s not uncommon to hear, and actually follow, the idea of trying to rank not for the keywords everyone is searching for, but for those terms that have low search volume. It’s a good strategy.

„Many SEO professionals disregard zero volume keywords because they think no one is searching for them. So, you now have an advantage over your competitors because they are not targeting these keywords.

Less competition for keywords means there is a better chance to rank for that term with unique, thoughtful, optimized content.“
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-you-should-target-zero-search-volume-keywords/458522/

Let’s Talk About Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are integral to our content marketing and eCommerce URLs. Why? Keyword-based natural language content fits how people think and how they search.

A long tail keyword is a phrase that is generally made from three to five words.

+ Marketing – keyword – high competition, low chance of a conversion
+ Online Marketing Strategies for Restaurants – long-tail keyword – low competition, higher chance of a conversion

Long Tail Keywords, or Keyword Phrases, are very important to consider because this is how people search. In fact, we should create more content to support long-tail optimisation because it is more natural language content.

Everyone searches for “pizza ovens”.
Your customers search for “Italian stone wood-burning pizza ovens”.

Don’t use just any keywords – use those that are valuable to you and focused on what you offer.

Let’s Talk About Long Keywords

Instead of trying to rank for popular keywords, or even long-tail keywords, why not try ranking for long keywords!

Trichotillomania – when someone can’t resist pulling out their hair. There is definetly a blog post about stress, teens, sports, and related topics that can use this keyword.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis – a lung disease for your fitness blog.

Floccinaucinihilipilification – when something is deemed to be without value.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – the fear of long words – but also probably quite useful for a language website, a blog about fears, or one featuring hippos.

You aren’t restricted by English words either. Multilingual Marketing has many advantages, even for SEO.

Telekommunikationskundenschutzverordnung – this is a German term which means telecommunucation customer security regulation. Are there any call center blog posts that need to be written?

Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka – means a single woman reisdent in Constantinople – in Polish. Now this city is called Istanbul, but travel blogs for women might find it a interesting lure.

Ejendomsserviceassistentuddannelsen – a real estate training assistant (in Denmark).

Electroencefalografista – a Spanish health worker managing the brain imaging machine.

Precipitevolissimevolmente – this is Italian for hastily. A good word for your pizza delivery website.

Think Outside of the Box so You Don’t Get Stuck in it

SEO can be a lot of work, and after awhile one keyword looks like another. However, keyword research is ongoing, because what people search for is always changing. Don’t cut your keywords OR your keyword research short. And don’t leave any keywords on the table.

What do I mean by that? Identifying keywords that you can integrate throughout your pages is even more important than just thinking of those keywords that appear in your headers and meta description. Why? The Google Featured Snippet and People Also Ask function finds text from within our pages. You never know where people will find you.

I hope this post inspires your creativity and gives you something amusing to think about when the going gets tough!

With thanks to https://unsplash.com/@mrthetrain for the image!