In an increasingly digital world, it is more important than ever to get your business in front of your audience.  While most people understand that content is a great method of getting information about their business out there, not many know how to implement the right strategy that suits their goals. 

This is where an SEO content strategy comes in. A well-formulated strategy can help users understand the intent of your website better, draw new users in, and nurture relationships with existing ones. One aspect of creating a strong content strategy for SEO is through building a strong foundation with keyword and content research.

By finding the right keywords that suit your target audience, your website has the potential to rank higher in search engine rankings and potentially generate more organic traffic, which can lead to more conversions. In this article, we take a deep dive into what keyword and content research are, why they are important, and how to conduct them as a part of your SEO content strategy. 

What are keywords and what is keyword research? 

Keywords are terms used to help develop and establish online content. These are words or phrases typically entered in search engines that best describe the services or products a potential customer is looking for or a question they wish to answer. Keyword research is the process of analyzing and finding these search terms, with the goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Keyword research can help marketers uncover the popularity and ranking difficulty of these terms in their target market and other related terms to use to produce more valuable content.

Keywords are vital for your website, as they showcase what it is about and what its purpose is. The quality and number of keywords included in a piece of content can help search engines such as Google decide where to place a business’s website on the search engine results page (SERP). The higher a website ranks on SERPs, the more likely it will be able to gain better traffic and reach. 

Why is keyword research important?  

Through keyword research, you can find relevant terms and phrases that are in demand for your business. You can also find insights into other queries that your audiences may be searching for online. These insights inform your SEO content strategy and any other digital marketing activities you may be conducting.

When you have the right kind of content in front of your audience meeting their search needs, your website can stand to gain more traffic. This can lead to a boost in audience growth and reach. When keyword research is done well and keywords are implemented properly, organic traffic generated by SERPs may even outperform paid traffic, creating leads for years to come.

But relying on keywords alone is not enough. Content marketers also need to find the best angle to approach topics, how to start keyword research and the best ways to use keywords. This is where knowing how to do content research comes in. 

What is content research?

Content research revolves around analyzing the online landscape, including competitor content, and finding the best-performing ideas relevant to your business. Based on these findings, you can spot content gaps on your website or in your existing pages you can fill, which will inform your overall strategy.

Several factors you may consider when conducting content marketing research include:  

• Topic Popularity: How many people are searching for information related to this topic? How much traffic can you potentially gain from writing about it?
• Content relevance: How is the content relevant to your business and your target audience? Where does the content fit within your website and business model?
• Competition: How can you differentiate yourself from existing content?
• Keyword strategy: What are the keywords you can use to increase visibility for your content?
• Seasonality: When is the best time to create and publish this type of content? This is particularly important for websites and businesses that are heavily influenced by seasonality, such as ski supply manufacturers, flower shops, and more.
• Content format: What is the most sought-after content type within your niche or topic? For example, businesses that sell complex machinery may find it more useful to use videos and images to demonstrate product applications instead of just text. 

Why is content research important?

Most marketers will likely have heard of the phrase ‘content is king’. However, what is essential to remember is that content is only king if it can effectively benefit a business. To create valuable content, content research is vital. Below are some benefits of conducting thorough research before writing: 

It guides your content strategy 

Good content research is the key to developing a good content marketing strategy. It allows you to better understand who your target audience is, their search habits, and how to get their interest, attention, and engagement. It also allows you to find missing gaps in the content that you are currently producing, and you can uncover new ideas that can bring value to your business. 

It helps you understand audience preferences  

Effective content research can help you understand your audience, such as their needs, problems, desires, search behaviour, and preferences. When you know your audience, you can create content that resonates with your audiences, so that they are more likely to engage with the content produced. Ideally, each piece of content you create should fulfil one of these two goals:

1. Give readers helpful information or solve a problem.
2. Direct the reader’s interest and attention to a product or service as a solution to their problem. 

It lays the foundation for building long-term brand authority

SEO is a long-term game, and SEO content marketing is no different. When valuable content is added consistently, businesses can build a comprehensive library that can meet the needs of searchers and satisfy search engines. 

Getting started with keyword and content research

Knowing the benefits of keyword and content research, you can conduct your own by following the below steps:

Define your goals

You need to first determine the specific goals of your overall content strategy. Are you aiming to increase website traffic, boost brand awareness, generate leads, or provide valuable information to your audience? Considering your goals and objectives can help you to be more focused when it comes to producing targeted content.

Understand your target audience

Identifying your target audience is a necessary step in content research. This involves getting a feel for what their preferences and needs are, where they spend their time, and how to best reach them – through their preferred types and styles of content. This way, you can better customize your offerings and articles to make them more impactful towards audiences. 

Analyze competitors

Analyzing industry competitors and the content they produce can give you an idea of what works or doesn’t work in the industry, which can inform your own content strategy. This includes looking at information such as what keywords competitors are ranking for, their website traffic, customer engagement and more. Other factors you may want to check include your competitors’ online presence, customer reviews, and more.

Make a list of broad topics relevant to your business

Before producing content, you should create a spreadsheet and fill it with general categories for the keywords you are looking to rank for. These may be related to product or service categories, or anything your target audience may be interested in. Try to keep the list relevant to your business to ensure that you stay on topic. 

Expand each topic with phrases that customers may use

After identifying the relevant topics, determine the phrases and terms your target audience may type in a search bar. These can include both long and short-form keywords, and they should match your product offerings and be relevant for your business.

Aside from doing research of the most popular keywords out there, you should also find which keywords your website is already ranking for. This can be done with the help of Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool that allows you to find metrics related to your website.

Find related search terms

Aside from keywords, you can also find related search terms and phrases that you may want to include in your content. For instance, you may consider looking at the related search results that appear at the bottom of SERPs, or any of their suggested questions.

Analyze keyword strength

Analyzing keyword strength is a good way to see whether it is realistic to aim to rank for certain keywords. If you have a small website with a weak link profile, you may want to aim for keywords with lower difficulty levels first. If you are creating content for a larger website that is well-established, you may have a higher success rate when you aim for broader keywords with higher search volumes.

Google's Keyword Planner or a paid SEO tool can help you complete this step. Here are two things you should consider when you are analyzing your keywords:  

• How high is a keyword’s search volume? If no one uses the word or phrase when searching online, then it will not do much good to base an entire content strategy around it, unless it is a core tenet of your business. Try to aim for keywords that have some search volume, to cater to what people are searching for. You can also aim for a shorter, broader term or phrase if your preferred terms are too niche.
• How intense is the competition? While you should look for keywords that have higher search volume, you should also aim for those that have lower organic search competition. As such, make sure to check the keyword difficulty of a particular term or phrase, as it indicates how difficult it is to rank for that keyword.   

Determine rankings

If you are looking to compete with larger names in the industry that already take up the first page of Google’s search results, you should consider altering your strategy to instead identify with less competitive long-tail keywords.  

However, there is an exception to this. For instance, if your competitors have not been publishing high-quality content regularly. In this case, you may be able to outdo your competitors by creating content that is of considerable length and better in quality, while focusing on competitive keywords.

Verify search intent

Fulfilling user search intent is more important than ever. Creating content that addresses a problem a searcher intends to solve or answers a question a searcher is looking for can add value to your website.

To look for ideas and inspiration when it comes to user pain points and challenges, you can enter the keyword in a search engine, and see what results generally pop up. They may include questions or keyword phrases, such as how something works, where to buy an item, or what kinds of solutions there are for a specific problem that they are encountering. Make sure the type of content being shown is closely related to what you intend to produce, and it matches your business goals. 

Monitor trends

You should also monitor certain trends relating to your sector in the relevant market. This will help you to stay on top of the latest news, so that you can provide relevant and timely content for your target audience. Freshness is valued by search engines, and it will certainly generate added value for your website. 

Post-publication: measure and adjust performance

Your content strategy should be continually reviewed and adjusted based on market changes, your business development, and other factors such as changes in user searches and trends. After publishing your tailor-made content, you should measure its performance via Google Search Console or other performance tools to see how it does and whether it meets your initial goals. You can gain valuable insight from seeing how users interact with your page, which can inform your future content strategy. 

Contact us for a content strategy consultation 

If you are beginning your content marketing journey and want to set yourself up for success, MediaGroup can help you. We have a team of content specialists in Europe and Asia who can help you generate useful insights into your niche and build a suitable strategy for you. Contact us today for a consultation.