How Keyword Insight Can Help Improve Your Digital Performance

Disclaimer: Jason Parks, president of The Media Captain, is the author of this article. Some resources within the article link to themediacaptain.com for more information.

Key Takeaways 

• Make better business decisions
• Understand what your customers are searching for
• Generate more leads and revenue

As a business leader, there are some things you need to understand how to do in order to achieve success. SEO is one of them. Your knowledge of this is downright critical if  you run your own small business and don’t have a team to handle it for you. 

When you understand Google’s algorithm, you view the world through a different lens. Rather than just searching for a restaurant or a nearby auto mechanic like the average consumer, you recognize the strategy used by businesses to achieve the coveted "page one” position on Google. This is an extraordinary skill to have as Google handles over 3.8 million searches per minute across the web [source]. Again, if you are an entrepreneur, it’s vital to master this. 

Even someone who is not an SEO expert can tell you that keywords are an important part of your website and marketing strategy. A keyword is a word that describes the content on your page or post best. It’s the search term that you want to rank for with a certain page [source].

When you think of Google search in the most simplistic way, it helps solve a problem. When a user starts typing a query into Google, there is an issue they are trying to solve. Below are some examples to help you better visualize this.

• Search Query: Dermatologist Near Me
  • Issue: The searcher has a skin issue and needs it checked out by a doctor
• Search Query: Auto Mechanic in Downtown Columbus
  • Issue: The searcher has a problem with their car and needs it fixed
• Search Query: Anniversary gift ideas for my wife
  • Issue: The searcher is in need of some creative gifts for their spouse

The search queries someone types into Google are composed of keywords. Businesses want to rank well for queries relevant to their business as it can increase website traffic, leads and sales.

Whether you’re a marketer or business owner, when you understand keywords, it can help your digital performance while growing your business.

Make Better Business Decisions

Google can help you better understand what people are searching for. The example I love to use pertains directly to my business. In 2010, when The Media Captain was founded, we were primarily a video production company. I started getting a lot of requests from video clients as to whether or not we could run their SEO and social media. I took this customer insight and did research on Google. I realized there were more searches on Google for digital marketing services (SEO, PPC, web design) than for video production. I used free tools like Google’s keyword planner to confirm the data. This insight helped me make crucial business decisions as to where the focus of our agency for continued growth.

Another example I love using is a dry cleaning client in Gahanna, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus). They had the keyword “Columbus Dry Cleaning” plastered throughout their site. With only one location, it made more sense to target the suburb of Gahanna on the keywords on their site and within their ad copy. While there was less search volume for the suburb keyword of Gahanna versus Columbus, it provided them a greater chance of ranking well and led to a greater conversion rate percentage, as people tend to look for dry cleaning nearby work or home versus at the city level.

Resource: Picking Suburb vs. City Level Keywords “Learn More” 

It’s important to come up with a strategy as to what keywords to target and then leverage the data you get within tools like SEMRush to make sound business decisions.

Understand what your customers are searching for

Business leaders  can make better decisions by looking at keyword insight, such as the average monthly search volume. The example I love to show is “July Fourth.” According to Google, 7.5 as many people search for July Fourth by spelling out “Fourth” versus using “4th”. If you were selling fireworks in Columbus, on your website, you should absolutely put, “Best July Fourth Fireworks in Columbus.”

 Below are some ways to better understand what your customers are searching for:
 

• Utilize Search Terms within Google Ads 
  • In Google Ads, you bid on keywords to get your ads to populate. The search term is the actual query someone types into Google. The search term lets you know exactly what people are looking for when they click on your ad. We recommend looking at search terms for our clients to better understand the user intent “learn more”. Utilizing the search terms report within Google Ads will help you come up with new blog topics, add new keywords onto our website and ultimately help you better understand how the customer is looking for your business.
     
• Utilize Google Ads Keyword Planner 
  • The July Fourth data above was obtained from the free tool I mentioned earlier, Google Ads Keyword Planner. It’s important to know how many searches are being conducted for a keyword as this will help you better construct your website and your advertisements with popular queries.
     
• Write down popular questions from your customers
  • Long tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they're closer to a point-of-purchase [source]. Long tail keywords can oftentimes lead to higher conversion rate than short tail. Since the searches are more specific, there’s less data available through a tool like Google Ads Keyword Planner. This is why I recommend creating a list of questions from your customers and answering those questions via blog posts. This is a great resource that can be emailed off to prospective buyers while driving more organic traffic to your site.

Generate More Leads and Revenue

When you start tracking keywords organically and optimizing pages on your site to rank well for that specific keyword, it can drive more organic traffic, which can lead to more traffic, leads and sales.

In Google Ads, when you see certain keywords starting to convert, you can double down on them by investing more money and increasing your bid on those keywords.

When you understand the value of keywords on Google and come up with a good strategy for your business to populate organically and through paid ads, your digital performance will improve. And that will help you find further success as a business leader/entrepreneur.

Resource: How to Measure ROI of SEO 

Resource: Selecting the Right Keywords for an SEO Campaign