From Dom Zimmerman: Finding the Keywords that Matter

The SEO industry is constantly changing. From algorithmic updates and spam reduction to best practices for authorship and schema.org vocabulary to microdata for semantic markup, there’s always something to keep us on our toes. As mentioned in SEO’s role in content creation, we’re lucky enough to provide SEO services to some truly awesome clients. And today we’re starting a multi-part blog series thats shares some of the tips and best practices we’ve learned along the way.

Every SEO needs a toolset that they can rely on. But with options including keyword trends and competitiveness, ranking tools, site crawlers and link analysis – not to mention the latest in domain-based social signals and optimization – it can be hard to know where to start.

It’s also important to boil this toolset down to something any marketing professional can use to complement other areas of online visibility. Just like every SEO needs a keyword tool set, campaign managers, creatives and copywriters need to know what people are looking for in search.

Read on for a few keyword research tools anyone can use to yield fresh insights during campaign ideation and messaging creation. And if nothing else, remember this: always look for ideas and key phrases that have the power to resonate in search.

1. Be aware of search trends, rising searches and social search data. Google Trends is a great place to start. Information on rising trends, yearly search volume data and other related terms will get you on your way with research and might even give you some fodder for upper management when it comes to content and campaign ideation.

Social signals at a domain and page level are also very important in terms of ranking. Free tools such as Topsy can complement your more robust social listening tools with a quick view of what type of keyphrases are being used socially to influence your selections.

2. Use search engine data to complement your ideas. To begin with, run a keyword idea through Ubersuggest, a great tool based on the Google Suggest API (the feature that anticipates your search query based on popularity). By filtering out your keyword by language, you can then create a list based on Suggest ideas and run those through the Google keyword API to determine approximate search volumes and competitiveness.

3. Identify search volumes and relative competitiveness. The good ol’ Google Adwords Keyword tool has been the go-to for years as a simple place to start for search volumes. This tool, however, will be sunsetting very soon and will be replaced by the Keyword Planner. While the Adwords Keyword tool showed stats for broad, phrase and exact match, the Keyword Planner will give you only exact match (you should be using this match type for SEO purposes). The Keyword Planner also gives average number of searches for a keyword idea on all devices (desktop, laptops, tablets and mobile phones) as opposed to just desktop by default.

The Takeaway
Keyword insights aren’t just valuable in SEO. It’s powerful tool that can extend across your entire marketing mix, helping inform and refine your campaigns and content.

It can be difficult to know where to start, but once you’ve narrowed down your list based on relevancy, global and local monthly volumes and relative approximate competitiveness, you’ll have a much clearer sense of where your cross-channel optimization opportunities lie.