Skip to content

5 Reasons Why Keyword Research is So Important

Today, more than ever, keyword research is critically important to everything you do online, from content writing to PPC campaigns, it is one of the most valuable and high-return activities within the marketing world.
It’s not just about getting people to land on your site, it’s more about getting those visitors to act, buy, share, like, comment, do anything on your site (except close it).

In order to achieve positive keyword research, there are certain steps you need to follow. Negative keyword research can cause your product or business to fall into internet obscurity, i.e., page 300 on every search engine and never be found.

How Keyword Research Works

In short, keyword research is the process of researching and selecting words and phrases that people are likely to search for online that directly relate to your business, product, or services.

To put this into perspective, I’ll use Bamboo Nine as an example. We’re based in Brighton, England, so it would make sense that someone searching for Brighton Marketing/Digital Marketing agency will easily be able to find your site on Google (or whatever search engine they’re using). Though, it’s not simply choosing appropriate words that will match what your site sells or provides.

If you do not efficiently ‘optimize’ your site around a certain keyword or phrase, then you’ll have trouble being found, let alone ranking for your chosen keywords.

So, with that being said, let’s take a look at the 7 main reasons why keyword research is so important!

1. Websites That Rank Highly Always Have the Right Keyword Strategy

This is arguably the most simple point I’m going to make – if you’re using keywords that don’t directly relate to your site, then you aren’t going to be bringing in customers who want to be there. Using keywords that are tailored to your site is so important, because even if you do somehow land some customers with the wrong keyword, they’re just going to land on your site, and think ‘oh, this isn’t what I was looking for’ and then exit. This means no money, no conversions, no nothing.
Ensure that you do your research on keywords, it’s the difference between selling a goldmine and selling a peanut.

2. Keyword Research Saves Money

Keyword research isn’t simply just a list of terms, or searches people punch into Google, it also includes traffic and competitive estimates for each keyword that allow you to most effectively allocate resources.
In an ideal world, you’d be focusing your time and money on a few competitive sites that rival your own. This is wiser than trying to rank first amongst 300,000 other sites all competing for that same keyword or phrase. Similarly, competitive bidding information can influence your keyword advertising spending, both how much and where. It can also reveal negative keywords, which can end up saving you a fair bit of time, money and effort in advertising campaigns.

3. Keyword Research Uncovers Hidden Opportunities

This is the joy of keyword research, one day a search term might have zero searches, next thing you know, ‘pink antelope hero’ is trending on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and all of a sudden, these people are landing on your pink antelope bicycle site.

While that example is slightly far-fetched, it’s not unheard of. Search terms constantly shift, and part of the keyword research process is learning how to judge what’s trending (and has little competition) and how you can optimise that keyword or phrase.

In short, be wise, and be savvy to this. Opportunities arise due to the sheer number of terms turned up by wise keyword research.

4. Consequences of Bad Keyword Research

While stressing how important keyword research is, it’s also incredibly important to understand why bad keyword research could cause you some serious trouble.

  1. Empty Content – if we’re breaking content writing down to its bear bones, it all comes down to one thing: make it shareable. If your content is targeting the wrong keywords, or generic keywords, you might find that it won’t be ranking very well, or not at all.
  2.  People Can’t Find You – again, similar to the above point, if people aren’t finding you, you’re going to have a tough time selling your business or product. Ensure you brush up on your keyword research, lest, you’ll end up like Wally, and it took me ages to find him.
  3. Unqualified Leads – using keywords that are not tailored to your site will bring in the wrong audience. While people may be landing on your page, your conversion rate will be non-existent. It is so important that you optimise your keyword research so that your bounce rate doesn’t bounce away into the depths of depravity.

5. Keyword Research is Essential in SEO

These two go hand-in-hand now, think of keyword research as SEO’s right-hand man, SEO needs it, and keywords need SEO.

Until you find out which keywords and phrases are going to get your site the results you want, you won’t be able to accurately or efficiently optimise the pages on your site.

To put it simply, developing a list of keywords is one of the most important steps in any SEO initiative. Both SEO and keyword research must marry if you’re looking to develop a trusted and successful marketing campaign.
People regularly make the mistake of only doing SEO keyword research once, or don’t other to update or expand their keyword list. Other people target keywords or phrases that are simply too popular and far too competitive.

What this all boils down to is consistency. Keywords change constantly, trends change daily, so it’s your job as a marketer to keep up with the evolution of contemporary society.

So, there you have it! These are the reasons why you need to integrate keyword research is so important in today’s SEO climate, so making use of the plethora of opportunities it has to offer would be a wise choice!