Why Keyword Research is so Important
Often, marketing teams invest time and resource into content creation for their website, but don't see the benefit of increased organic traffic. This is usually because the keyword research hasn't been completed effectively beforehand.
This guide will show you why spending time on keyword research is important, and how to get the most from your website content.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of finding the words your target audience will use to search for your services or solutions to their challenges. You can create detailed, effective content, but without dedicating time and expertise to keyword research, you won't gain search engine traffic, and your audience will be limited. If your keyword research isn't aligned with the key phrases and terminology used by your customer base, then you won't attract the right traffic, and your investment of time and resources will be wasted.
Why does keyword research matter?
Many organisations create content that pushes what they sell. Blogs, news items and newsletters focus on the products or services on offer, their features and in many cases, specialist terminology that is used all the time internally.
The blogs that perform the best are the ones that flip this approach. Starting with the customer's challenge, finding keywords in their language and then creating content with solutions, not services. The benefits of this approach include higher keyword rankings, increased click-through rates and driving qualified traffic to the website.
Your goal should be to match your customers' needs through the keywords you use with the services you offer.
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The key metrics for keyword research
Search Volume
Search volume tells us how many people are searching for that particular keyword over a set period, usually a monthly search volume. The higher the number, the more popular the keyword is on search engines, but usually this is linked to an increase in keyword difficulty. Often, content targets a keyword that has lots of traffic, but is too hard to rank against competitors and delivers the wrong traffic to the website. Find a balance between short tail and long tail keywords.
Keyword difficulty
This is a score (usually up to 100) that SEO platforms such as SE Ranking use to show how difficult a keyword is to rank for on search engines. The higher the number, the harder the keyword is. Keyword difficulty is usually defined through competition and the search volume. Broad, well-used keywords are often much more difficult to rank highly for than targeted niche longer keywords. If you have a relatively new or small website, try and find keywords that have a low difficulty (below 20) until you gain more traffic.
SERP Competition
Content targeting a keyword will have two sources of competition. Direct competitors to your products or services, who you will be fully aware of and SERP competition, which could be anyone writing about that keyword topic. SERP stands for Search Engine Results Pages, and competitors here are usually other websites featuring content that includes the keyword you're targeting. If that search result is a government, BBC or Wikipedia page as an example, then you are unlikely to break into the top rankings for that keyword, and it's advisable to choose a different one.
Keyword trends
Keywords have a monthly average search volume, but they also follow seasonal or demand trends. Five years ago, the trend around AI search terms was stable and low, but this is a rapidly growing area of search topics, so search volume has been increasing every month. When looking for keywords to target, look at their trend: is it increasing, stable, or has it decreased? If fewer people are looking for topics including that keyword on search engines, then organic rankings will be more competitive to achieve.
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The benefits of dedicated keyword research
Driving qualified SEO traffic
The more tailored the keyword research is to your content, the more likely it is that you will increasingly attract qualified website traffic. Including keywords in your URLs and headers will tell search engine algorithms exactly what your content is about and the search terms that will match it. By creating content that visitors will engage with and clearly signposting the subject, you will improve the quality and quantity of leads.
This is especially important for LLMs and AI search platforms. Whereas Google or Bing rely heavily on keywords in structurally strategic places, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity look at a website's content as a whole and interpret the intent and target audience from a much broader data set. Your content should be authoritative, created from a position of expertise and have depth. You can't rank well if the algorithm only has 300 words to crawl.
Attracting the right target segments
Good keyword research narrows down your search parameters, so you appear more often in search results for the segments you want to target. Often, marketers will aim for keywords with huge search volume, and this means lots of the wrong visitors end up on the website. This drives down engagement and conversions. A good keyword strategy will prioritise relevancy over volume. A very targeted keyword of 10-50 searches a month is more likely to consistently drive the right prospects to your site than a very broad keyword of 1,000 a month or more.
Attracting visitors ready to convert
Visitors you attract to your website through organic search will usually be looking for a solution to a challenge they are facing, this is known as search intent. They might be looking for research around a topic, although with the increase in AI, research traffic is declining. They are likely to want to find a company to provide that solution, which means they are already in-market and ready to talk to you. Strong, targeted keyword research will bring traffic to your site, ready to make enquiries, submit forms or make purchases. Investing time in getting this right will increase your return on investment and provide a solid long-term strategy compared to the expensive volatility of PPC.
What tools are available to help with keyword research?
To complete keyword research effectively, you will need a good search engine optimisation platform. We use SE Ranking, it's cost-effective compared to other platforms, easy to learn and use and provides accurate data on keywords and ranking performance.
Learn more about SE RankingUpskilling your marketing team so they fully understand SEO, algorithms and how to create content can lead to increased conversions and more qualified traffic. We provide a well-respected, tailored day of training on SEO and GA4.
Learn more about our trainingCreating content that attracts visitors and converts into leads is complex and requires expertise. If you are a small team and you need more support, then consider Arboreal Marketing's SEO services. We can audit your site, create and implement a keyword strategy and create content that delivers the right audience to your website.
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The importance of keyword research: Frequently asked questions
Regular reviews will help tailor your strategy
Reviewing your keyword strategy and research regularly will help increase the effectiveness of your content and continue to drive qualified traffic to your site. A full audit will only be required every 6 to 12 months, depending on the trends you see in your research. However, a micro review, with iterative changes to the keywords you use, should be carried out every two months to ensure content always stays on point.
Both should work together as part of an integrated strategy
PPC is expensive, and cost per click inflation has been rampant for the past three years. As AI overviews become more prevalent and organic results appear lower and lower on Google Search, PPC ads will increase in expense. However, SEO is a slow burn, a long strategy that requires a lot of resources dedicated to content creation. Many successful organisations target the majority of their keywords, with lower search volume and keyword difficulty, with SEO. They then reserve their PPC to target 10-12 keywords that are crucial to the audience, but have a high keyword difficulty and are therefore unlikely to rank well through SEO. This way, there is an integrated approach tailored to ensure the best return on investment.
Targeted, long-tail keywords are often the SMEs secret weapon!
Long-tailed keywords are specific, niche and very focused on your sector or service. For instance, rather than targeting the keyword "SEO", you might instead consider "SEO for start-ups in Cambridge". This is more likely to have a very specific audience and a low keyword difficulty. Creating content this way avoids the keywords dominated by bigger brands while increasing the probability of qualified traffic landing on your site.
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