The beauty of keyword research is that you can easily find keywords or keyword phrases people enter into the search engines by using a keyword research tool such as the Google AdWords Tool, WordTracker or Market Samurai. If a particular keyword receives thousands of searches per month it has the potential to generate lots of traffic to your website if it gains high rankings in the search engines.
The problem is many marketers continue to make obvious mistakes when it comes to keyword research resulting in much frustration and ineffective results. By avoiding the 10 keyword research mistakes below you’ll get faster and more accurate results.
Top 10 Keyword Research Mistakes To Avoid
1. Believing the Google AdWords tool is accurate
Most online marketers exclusively use the Google AdWords Tool to conduct their keyword research because it’s free and readily available. The problem is that it doesn’t provide accurate search terms because the results are compiled from Google AdWords campaigns, search engine robots, search engine reports plus they include singular and plural keywords.
Only use it to get rough estimates of search accounts.
2. Researching single keywords only
A single keyword will generate thousands of more searches than the plural form of the keyword. For example the search count for “shoes” will be much higher than “skinny red shoes.” Long Tail keywords( phrases containing 2 or more keywords) may have a lower search count but will be easier to rank for because there is less competition.
3. Selecting keywords that are too competitive
initially you may be happy there are 5000 searches for your particular keyword phrase, however without understanding your competition you may waste weeks or even years trying to gain high rankings for that phrase. For instance if the top 10 websites in Google each have thousands of backlinks pointing to them it will be almost impossible to outrank them.
Watch the Video on YouTube: Top 10 Keyword Research Mistakes To Avoid
4. Targeting keywords with little or no search volume
It’s easy to get top rankings for keywords that no one is searching for because you will have little or no competition. The problem is that it won’t generate any traffic from the search engines and therefore you’re wasting your time with such keywords.
5. Using broad match only
The default setting of the Google Adwords Tool uses Broad match. This provides grossly inaccurate search counts as it includes both single and plural keywords or any combination of them in a search string. To get a more accurate assessment use “exact match”.
6. Choosing keywords with no commercial intent
Commercial intent means those keywords which have the potential to generate profit. For example if your niche was about camping then keywords with commercial intent would include products associated with your niche i.e. tents, camping stoves, backpacks, etc.
7. Keyword research doesn’t generate conversions
Even though you may do extensive keyword research it doesn’t mean your keywords will convert into sales. There are so many other factors that influence high conversion rates such as the web copy, web page design, price, etc. Only through tracking and testing will you improve your conversion rates.
8. Relying on only one keyword research tool
Any keyword research tool only provides estimates of search counts therefore don’t rely on one tool but use a variety of tools ie google insights, google trends, WordTracker.
9. Not reviewing keywords from time to time
Keywords generated from a keyword research tool one year or several years ago may be different to keyword research done recently because words change with time.
For instance several years ago I optimized my web design business pages using the keyword “web site” based upon the results keyword tools provided. Currently most people now enter “website” into the search engines. This meant I had to re-optimize my pages.
10. Not monitoring the effectiveness of your keywords
If you not using software to track your website statistics you won’t be able to track the effectiveness of your keywords or find alternative keywords to create new content and generate more traffic.
If you avoid these top 10 keyword research mistakes you’ll get more accurate results and reduce the time it takes to profit from them.
Related Articles
5 Disadvantages For Using The Google Keyword Research Tool
Keyword Research 101 – Where to Begin?
How To Research The Market Value Of Any Keyword
How to Choose the Right Niche to Start an Online Business
How To Begin A Search Engine Optimization Campaign
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