Quite a few people are asking if keywords remain relevant in 2015, and the simple answer is, yes. Keywords still play a key role in online marketing, no matter the medium, whether for ranking pages on your site or blog, videos, imagery, paid search or more, you will find that keywords are one of the main items you will want to keep in mind when planning your web content.
Like it or not, keywords are still the primary way Google ranks your content, whether that's in the form of web page, blog post, video or anything else. Google's ranking algorithm considers how well you are optimized for the particular keywords, and ranks you in the search results accordingly. For this reason it's imperative to make sure we are targeting the proper keyword from the outset.
To help with that, let's look at 5 items you'll want to consider as you select the keywords for your content.
5 Things to think about when embarking upon keyword research
Decide what you'll use keywords for – Presumably you have a plan for these keywords, and if not, this is a great time to clarify this. Will they be used for new content, web pages, social media, visual content (videos and more) or what? Knowing this early on is helpful, especially when it's time to cross-promote.
Identify the keywords common to your market – Simply by looking at the top site in your market you'll be able to identify several of the more prominent phrases people are optimizing their content for. This will give you a decent starting place for your research.
Take a look at your competition – This can be done with the help of tools, or again by taking a close look at their pages. Check under the hood for title tags, page descriptions and keyword tags, if they made use of them.
Employ tools to help do the work – Luckily for us there are lots of keyword research tools out there, most of them sport a free version, such as the Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush, and Keywordtool.io.
Discover the intent – Now comes the hard part, where you actually have to use your brain. The best keywords are those that people are searching on with the intent to take action. This usually isn't the keywords everyone else is using. This is where you take your list, and attempt to get inside the mind of a searcher and discover their intent. Doing this will help you outstrip your competition quickly!