Customers searching for products and services you sell are online every day. Driving users to your site over your competitors’ sites depends upon your use of keywords in your posted content.
With Google algorithms changing frequently, it’s essential to update your content production strategy to optimize for the shifting way in which we search the web.
There’s an art to choosing effective keywords that help your website’s visibility, not to mention getting customers to click the “purchase” button.
The following are five reliable tactics for ensuring your content and website rank high in searches and help convert your followers to customers.
When you want and need help creating relevant evergreen content because you’re too busy, don’t love writing, or don’t know where to begin, contact our friends at Romain Berg.
Romain Berg is a digital marketing firm featuring an in-house team of writers with extensive experience in keyword research. Fill out their contact form today to get started on a content production strategy that converts.
Keywords continually change
Now that Google is savvier to the conversational queries we ask on our phones, type into our laptops, or seemingly think in our minds (hello, Big Brother), ranking keywords take on new meaning.
A keyword is a string of text your target audience enters into the search bar when looking around on the internet. Business owners who can better predict the questions their target customers ask get ranked higher in organic search results.
Finding your best selection of keywords to use in your content takes a little digging, but is entirely do-able. Discovering new keywords is imperative at regular intervals to keep your search rank high and to grow your visibility.
Here’s how we do this.
Make a list, check it twice
If you think like Santa Clause, you’ll do well in this step. Make a list of all the top topic areas your products and services cover. For example, if you manufacture artificial knee joints, some of your broad keyword topics could include:
- Osteoarthritis
- Surgical recovery times
- Surgical costs
- Post knee replacement rehab
- Artificial knee materials
- Practices for surgical knee replacement
- Advancements in knee replacement technology
Once you have a list of general keywords, you can begin to drill down into specific queries regarding the broad headings your company uses.
Test your topic list
Try running a few searches on Google with your general topics and see what kind of articles pop up. Reading through a few of those results can give you insight into the precise questions your target audience asks about the general keyword you chose.
You can further hone in on a good title with free keyword analysis sites like Answer the Public.
Sites like ATP will help you discover often-used search questions about your selected general keywords.
If you come up with a few relatable questions either on Google or other keyword analysis sites, you may need to retool your list of keyword categories to better match what your audience wants to know.
Create clear intent with your keywords
Google users come with limitless perspectives and positions as they search up similar keyword phrases. Be sure to use your keywords to target the people, as well as the perspectives and positions of the searchers you most desire as customers.
In other words, your keywords should communicate who you’re talking to. With the medical device example from above, you can craft your message to reach health care professionals or end-users.
Increasingly, end-users want to inform themselves deeply about their health care from surgical prep, to cost, to recovery. It makes sense to use similar keyword topics to craft content with differing intent so you can connect well with more than one buyer persona.
Users judge articles by their titles, so create engaging ones
When a Google user lands on a results page, the titles make all the difference as to which result the user clicks. Your keyword must be part of your title, but you can build interest and communicate the intent of your content with words that grab the reader and engage them to click.
Here are several examples of catchy titles:
- Digital Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide
- 10 Reasons You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy
- 5 Digital Marketing Strategies for Hotels to Win Direct Bookings
So, that last one in the catchy list? You can see how the author nailed his audience and one of their crucial pain points in his title. If we were hotel owners or managers, we’d click that article right away.
The other titles provide a motivation to read because they offer a payoff–a clear picture of what the reader will gain after clicking.
The “Step by Step” guide means the author will hold your hand if you’re a beginner at digital marketing. “10 reasons” helps you clarify your situation and decide if you fit the criteria for needing a digital marketing strategy.
These titles are finite instead of open-ended, and the reader gets a clear result for his time investment. Google loves content and keywords with clear intent, by the way.
Titles not to use and where to find better ones
“Digital Marketing: Overview and Resources” is a title no-no if your goal is to drive conversions.
This title is in the no-no list because it reminds us of a musty old lecture hall and a sleep-inducing, monotoned professor. It’s open-ended without a clear payoff for reading, and we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck there sifting through the material for what we want. We’ll be skipping that article for now.
Still stuck for good content titles? Check out Google related searches.
When you search for an item, location, or piece of information on Google, you’ll get several results. If you scroll down to the end of the first page, you’ll also see a list of related searches.
Take note of those results and build them into your keyword list under each big topic bucket.
Enlist help to create your ranking, converting content strategy
How-to articles like this one for DIY-ers serve many owners and solopreneurs well. When your content and conversion vision is bigger than you can manage on your own, our friends at Romain Berg are ready to pick up where you leave off.
Their content team is packed with expertise on keyword research, title optimization, and increasing your rank and conversion with each article they produce for your brand. Contact them today for content that delivers results, not hype.
