Keyword research is at the heart of any successful SEO strategy, but it’s not just about attracting traffic; it’s about driving leads, conversions, and revenue. Traditional keyword research focuses on maximizing traffic, often overlooking the intent and commercial potential of keywords. This blog dives into how to reframe your approach to keyword research, emphasizing business growth and aligning keywords with user needs, buyer journeys, and ultimately, sales. Here’s how to shift your perspective from traffic-centric to revenue-driven keyword research.
Rethinking Traditional Keyword Research
Most traditional keyword research guides emphasize generating traffic through volume-based keyword targeting. This approach typically works around the idea of optimizing for the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU). However, this model often fails to address the bigger picture—driving revenue and business outcomes. Why? Because traffic without intent is just noise.
SEO Beyond Traffic Volume
Ranking for a popular keyword might generate thousands of visits, but what if those visits don’t convert into sales or leads? Keyword research should not just aim to get as many eyes as possible but rather, the right eyes. To make the most of your SEO efforts, align keyword research with strategic business goals, audience needs, and buying journeys.
SEO as Product Placement: A Better Approach
Imagine SEO as product placement in a movie—when a product shows up at just the right moment, it connects with the viewer on a deeper level. Similarly, optimizing for keywords is about showing up at the right time in a user’s journey, and effectively positioning your product or service in front of potential customers when they’re ready to engage.
This approach requires shifting from a funnel-based strategy to one focused on the user’s path to purchase. It’s about placing your business at key touchpoints throughout the decision-making process, with an emphasis on the bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) keywords that drive conversions.
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Understanding the “Forgetting Curve” in SEO
Many businesses assume that ranking for a keyword will automatically result in brand recall, but this is a flawed assumption. Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus’s “Forgetting Curve” suggests that people forget almost 50% of new information within an hour, and 70% within a day. In SEO terms, this means that even if your content ranks and is viewed, there’s a high chance that users will forget it quickly unless it leads directly to a purchase decision.
Implication for Keyword Research
Focus on keywords with direct commercial intent that bring users closer to purchasing or inquiring for better ecommerce SEO marketing. Instead of targeting broad or informational keywords, target those representing a “bottom-of-funnel” behavior.
Revised Keyword Strategy: Creating an Effective Roadmap
Creating a revenue-driven keyword strategy requires a clear plan and alignment with your business’s overall goals. Here’s how to build one effectively:
1. Build a SMART Keyword Strategy
Make a keyword strategy SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
- Specific: Your keyword goals should be aligned with a well-defined objective (e.g., “Rank for ‘affordable legal services in NYC’ to drive inquiries”).
- Measurable: Track keyword performance through metrics like ranking positions, conversion rates, and organic traffic growth.
- Achievable: Consider your budget, resources, and timeline.
- Relevant: Ensure your keywords match your business offerings and audience’s intent.
- Time-bound: Set timelines to measure progress and assess your keyword’s performance over time.
2. Customer and Competitor Research
To gain insights into what your customers are searching for and how your competitors are addressing these needs, use a variety of data sources:
- Customer Feedback & Pain Points: Direct feedback from customers (via surveys, customer service inquiries, etc.) provides real-world context into what your target audience is interested in.
- Paid Search Data: Use Google Ads data to understand which keywords drive conversions.
- Keyword Research Tools: Leverage platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz to identify potential keywords and their competitiveness.
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Track user behavior on your site and identify patterns in search traffic that align with your business goals.
The Goal: Understand the needs and search behaviors of your audience while analyzing how competitors are targeting those same needs.
3. Mapping the Buyer’s Keyword Journey
Understanding how your target audience moves through the buying journey is crucial to effective keyword research. This journey can be divided into exploration and evaluation stages, each aligning with different types of keywords.
Keyword Types to Target:
- Head Terms: Short, high-volume keywords that are generally broad (e.g., “running shoes”). These are typically exploration stage queries.
- Medium Tail: More specific keywords that carry moderate search volume and intent (e.g., “best running shoes for marathons”).
- Long-Tail Keywords: Highly specific keywords that indicate strong intent (e.g., “women’s lightweight running shoes for marathons under $100”). These tend to have lower search volume but higher conversion rates and are often at the evaluation stage.
Aligning with the Buyer’s Journey:
- Exploration Stage: Focus on informational keywords that help users understand their problem.
- Evaluation Stage: Prioritize commercial keywords that align with a user’s intent to make a purchase or inquiry.
4. Aligning Keywords with User Needs
Understanding user needs helps tailor keyword targeting and content creation. Market research firm Kantar has identified six core search needs that users exhibit. These needs help categorize and refine your keywords for maximum impact.
The Six Core Search Needs:
- Educate Me: Users are looking for information and guidance (e.g., “how to tie running shoes”).
- Thrill Me: Users seek entertainment or inspiration (e.g., “top trail running experiences”).
- Surprise Me: Searches are curiosity-driven (e.g., “fun facts about running marathons”).
- Impress Me: Users look for something that stands out (e.g., “innovative running shoe designs”).
- Help Me: People are searching for solutions to specific issues (e.g., “running shoes for flat feet”).
- Reassure Me: Users are seeking validation or confirmation (e.g., “Are Nike marathon shoes worth it?”).
Group Keywords Based on User Needs
Identify and categorize keywords based on these needs to create content that aligns with each specific intent. This ensures you’re meeting users at every stage of their decision-making process.
5. Final Steps in Keyword Research
Here’s how to execute the final steps for effective keyword targeting:
1. Keyword Ideation
Start with brainstorming a large pool of keywords that align with your business offerings, buyer journey, and user needs. Use keyword tools to identify related search terms and assess their potential.
2. Select Keyword Assets
Match keywords to specific content assets (blog posts, product pages, guides, tools) that fit the intent and goals of the user. For instance, an informational keyword may require a detailed blog post, while a transactional keyword might need a product landing page.
3. Manual Research for Viability
Go beyond metrics like search volume and competition to assess the commercial potential of each keyword. This requires evaluating:
- Search Volume: While not the only indicator, search volume gives an idea of potential reach.
- Commercial Potential: Does the keyword directly align with your business goals and target audience?
- Resource Allocation: How much time, budget, and resources are needed to create assets for ranking and conversion?
Creating Revenue-Driven Keyword Strategies
Traditional keyword research focused on traffic often falls short of driving meaningful business outcomes. By understanding user intent, mapping keywords to buyer journeys, and creating SMART, revenue-driven strategies, you can align your keyword targeting with real-world business goals.
Key Takeaways:
- Focus on commercial intent and bottom-of-funnel keywords that lead to purchases.
- Align keywords with your audience’s needs and search behaviors.
- Regularly analyze keyword performance to adapt and refine strategies based on what drives leads and sales.
At CHLEAR, we help businesses achieve their SEO goals with tailored keyword strategies that focus on revenue and growth. Ready to make the shift from traffic-centric to revenue-driven keyword research? Contact us today to get started on a strategy that works for your business!
Embrace a smarter approach to keyword research—one that focuses not just on attracting visitors, but on driving real business results.