What are the 5 Most Common Keyword Research Mistakes?
When doing your preliminary research for a new website or blog, it is now standard practice (if you care about SEO) to spend a significant amount of time on researching the important keywords for your site and your chosen niche. However, what many people don’t realise is that keyword research needs to be done carefully in order to avoid both confusing yourself and to ensure you get the SEO and keyword strategy for your site exactly right. If you’re planning an SEO strategy and campaign then researching the correct keywords is one of the most important elements of that campaign around which everything else needs to be arranged. Do it right and thing will be plain sailing. Get it wrong and your site will be going nowhere. Here are some of the most common keyword research mistakes that both SEO newbies and even old hands get wrong from time to time:
Common Keyword Research Mistakes | Going for the plural
This is an easy mistake to make but one that you should always be careful to avoid. Many web masters and website owners will try and rank for the plural of their chosen keyword when in fact most people would use the singular form. There are a few obvious cases where this does not happen – sheep, shoes, socks etc – but mostly web users tend to type in the singular form. If you are not sure which to use, simply make it a part of your research routine to always check both the singular and plural each time.
Common Keyword Research Mistakes | Don’t go large
Everyone wants to be king of the hill but when you are first starting out it is simply not realistic and will probably be counter productive to aim for the high volume key phrases and keywords. They might bring in huge traffic numbers but the competition for them will be intense and out of your league, for now at least. A better use of your time and resources is to go after other popular words and phrases that have slightly less intense competition and a little less traffic. The best way to look at it is to remember that having a share of a smaller market is way better than having absolutely no share of a bigger market. And you can then build up to those bigger markets over time.
Common Keyword Research Mistakes | Don’t go small
The flip side of the above argument is that some site owners and SEO experts then go too far the other way and try to concentrate on key phrases and keywords that have little or no search volume. There has been a great deal of talk over the last few years about long tail keywords and their importance for traffic and conversions, but make sure you don’t go for long tail words that have no traffic whatsoever. Aim for those inch keywords that sit right in the middle when it comes to traffic volume.
Common Keyword Research Mistakes | Remember the exact match option
Another silly mistake and one that is easily avoided. Always remember to select the box within the Google Keyword Research that filters your results to an exact phrase match rather than a broad match. Otherwise the search results you are working from will be of no use to you, especially when researching two word phrases.
Common Keyword Research Mistakes | Go back and recheck the results every month
This is the most common mistake of all. Most people do their research once and then forget about it. You need to always be conscious of the fact that SEO is continuous and never-ending. You will always be required to update and maintain your site and you will always need to keep an eye on SEO, traffic and keywords. Those keywords that are important and trending when you start will not necessarily be so important in two or three months time. Consequently you should get into the habit of regularly rechecking your keyword research and updating it to take into account the latest trends.
About the Guest Blogger: Alex is a personal finance blogger and journalist. He writes about issues affecting the consumer and small businesses, everything from SEO to marketing and from company loans to tax reduction.