Keyword Research

But, how do we find the perfect keyword to target, so we know what we want to rank for?

When doing keyword research, what a lot of companies tend to do is find the keywords that they want to rank for across their website. Then, they try to apply those keywords to certain pages. That’s not the way to do it. You’ll find that you’ll run into a lot of problems when you try to force certain keywords onto a certain page, where they don’t really belong. It means that you’re gonna force those keywords in, and that way, the page is going to look completely unnatural. The content is gonna lose its quality and you’re potentially going to decrease your rankings.

The correct way to do it is actually select the pages that you already have, and then find the keyword to apply to that page. So, you’re going the other way around. If you find keywords that you want to rank for, but can’t apply to your current pages, then that’s when you want to start building out new content.

There’s four things to consider when you’re picking your keyword:

• Average Monthly Searches – how many times are people searching for that particular keyword, on Google, Bing or Yahoo.
• Relevance of that keyword to the page.
• Search Engine Competition – is there a lot of competition for that particular keyword in the search engines? Is it likely that you’re actually gonna rank for it?
• Your Current Rankings – if it looks like you’re ranking fairly high for a keyword already on a particular page, then once you actually optimize for that keyword, it’s likely that you’re going to rank even higher and get better results.

Let’s assume, in this example, that we are trying to optimize a page that displays alkaline phosphatase detection kits. The first stage that we’re going to go through is average monthly searches – how many times are people searching for certain keywords that correlate with this page. I went to Keyword Planner, which is a free tool from Google Adwords. I’ve popped in a few keywords here: “alkaline phosphatase”, “alkaline phosphatase staining”, “alkaline phosphatase detection”, and “alkaline phosphatase detection kit”. This gives us the average monthly searches, so, how many times people search for these keywords on average per month. From average monthly search traffic’s perspective, it’s pretty obvious which one we want to pick here. It’s “alkaline phosphatase”. From the traffic perspective, this has the most searches, so, if we rank for these keywords, it’s going to bring in the most traffic.

Then, we want to move on to the next stage, which is relevance. The best way to think of this is, “Are these keywords actually relevant to the page that I’m trying to optimize?” That will give you a good indication for whether you’re actually going to be able to rank for this keyword. The best way to do that is to pop these keywords into Google and find out what is already ranking. For “alkaline phosphatase”, for example, we can see that there’s “Alkaline phosphatase” from Wikipedia, “Elevated alkaline phosphatase”, “Alkaline phosphatase serum”, “Interpreting an isolated raised serum alkaline phosphatase level”, etc. What I’m not seeing here is any pages that relate to alkaline phosphatase detection kits, which is the page we’re trying to optimize. That is telling me that this is wrong keyword to use, because Google won’t see your page as relevant to this keyword, so it’s not gonna rank it. Unless you have a very, very high domain authority, and you can more or less rank for anything, it’s not likely you’re gonna rank for this.

Let’s look at the next keyword, which was “alkaline phosphatase stain”. That’s getting a little bit more relevant to a page that is displaying alkaline phosphatase detection kits. The first one that comes up in the search results is Thermo Fisher Scientific, “alkaline phosphatase live stain”. It’s getting a bit more relevant and related to a page about alkaline phosphatase detection kits. Wikipedia again, alkaline phosphatase, and a little bit lower is “alkaline phosphatase staining kit”. We see that twice from Stemgent. AP staining kit from SystemBio, and an alkaline phosphatase detection kit. Brilliant. So that’s telling me that “alkaline phosphatase staining” could be a good keyword to target. It is a lot lower, at search traffic of 390, but we’re actually likely to rank it. So, if we try to optimize for “alkaline phosphatase”, you’re not going to rank and it’s a waste of time. But for “alkaline phosphatase staining”, you’re probably going to rank, if you have high enough authority. Therefore, it’s worth targeting.

The next stage we’re gonna look at is your search engine competition – what competition do we have for this keyword? We can see here who is ranking: there’s Thermo Fisher, Stemgent, SystemBio, Millipore, and Sigma-Aldrich. All of these websites are very, very high authority. From my own previous research, I know that Thermo Fisher and Sigma-Aldrich have domain authority of about 70 and above. If your website is very fresh and new, if you have a low domain authority of between 15 or 20, or even up to 30, your likeliness to compete with Thermo Fisher and Sigma-Aldrich is quite low. So, if you think that is the case, then you might need to move on to an even more relevant keyword, such as “alkaline phosphatase detection kit”. The search traffic for this keyword is 30, which is very low. But again, we don’t want to waste our time trying to target the keyword that we just can’t rank for, because our page isn’t relevant enough, or if the competition is just too high.

Let’s look at the keyword “alkaline phosphatase detection kit” in the search results. Again, we have some high authority websites in here: Millipore, Abcam, and Sigma-Aldrich. But then we get to BioVision. From previously seeing their website, I know that this is a much lower authority site, I think it’s around 30. BioAssay Systems is also very low. So, if you have a domain authority of between 20 and 30, it’s likely that, if you optimize your page for this keyword, then you’re going to get ranking.

I know that you’re probably thinking that this has very low search traffic, so why would you wanna rank for it? However, we know that this keyword is so relevant to your page, that anybody who is searching for this keyword is, in fact, looking to buy your product. Anyone who is looking for alkaline phosphatase detection kits is more likely, if they click through to your page, that they are looking to buy that product. So, that’s why it’s actually a very good keyword to target and to rank for, compared to something like “alkaline phosphatase”. The searcher who is searching for “alkaline phosphatase” is probably more likely just looking for information about alkaline phosphatase. They are not looking for an alkaline phosphatase detection kit. Even though this is very, very low in traffic, it may actually be an even better keyword than “alkaline phosphatase”.

In the next stage, we’re gonna move on to your current rankings. You wanna go to a piece of software called Rank Tracker. There are other pieces of software that you can use, but I find this one the most reliable. You would pop the keyword and your website in here, and that’s gonna tell you where you’re currently ranking for all of these particular keywords. That’s when you might begin to change your mind. If you decided that the competition is too high for “alkaline phosphatase staining”, and you went for “alkaline phosphatase detection kit”. Then, if you find out where you’re actually ranking for these two, let’s say it’s number 15 for “alkaline phosphatase staining”, without even trying to target that keyword and not even optimize for it, when you actually optimize your for it, it’s very likely that you’re gonna be brought up to page one. In that case, it may change your mind. Obviously, it’s probably better to rank for this keyword, which has a lot higher traffic.

If, however, you’ve already chosen this keyword, and you find out that you’re not ranking anywhere for it, that might be because the relevance is too low, or the competition is too high. You may wanna drop down to “alkaline phosphatase detection kit”. But again, this is so much more relevant, because of the searcher intent, they are actually looking to buy that detection kit, it may be a way better keyword.

That’s it. Thank you for joining us, and see you next time.