By Nick Nelson

Trying to build an SEO strategy without a keyword strategy is like trying to build a plane without wings. It’s going nowhere.

Expert-led keyword research and planning are foundational to successful SEO, no matter the business, industry, or audience. This multifaceted process sets the stage for your brand to grow its digital footprint, helping you understand exactly the topics, questions and pain points you need to address with your content. 

What is a keyword strategy in SEO?

Keywords are the terms, phrases and queries that users enter into search engines to surface relevant content. Brands and marketers use keyword strategies to gain a grasp of which keywords they should be focusing on, and how to earn visibility for them. 

Not only are keyword research and planning essential for informing your SEO strategy, they also provide crucial insights for your broader marketing and business development. Understanding how people search for your solutions, where search demand exists, and how keywords are trending has deeply valuable implications.

Why many keyword strategies are lacking

When SEO is not delivering results as a marketing team hopes, the core issues can often be traced back to a keyword strategy that isn’t quite right. Pursuing the wrong opportunities leads to a lot of waste and frustration. 

There are two prevalent challenges that brands encounter with their keyword strategies, in our experience:

1. Lack of specialized expertise. SEO is as much an art form as a science. While tools like Semrush, Moz and Google Keyword Planner are helpful, it takes real skill and experience to turn their capabilities into action and impact. High-caliber SEO specialists are in short supply.
2. Lack of maintenance and agility. Many companies are still operating with the same keyword list they developed years ago. That just doesn’t work in an environment where everything is changing, all the time. 

With so many organizations getting stuck in the mud at this critical step, it is no surprise one recent UK study found that two-thirds of businesses are unhappy with their SEO strategy. But the good news is that it’s never too late to revisit your keywords and get on track. 

Building an effective SEO keyword strategy

Identifying target keywords, contextualizing them, prioritizing them, and developing a clear plan to win (and maintain) rankings are all part of a full-fledged keyword strategy. At TopRank Marketing, we focus on these five core steps:

Keyword research

Keyword research sets the roadmap that your entire strategy will follow. The process involves identifying and analyzing keywords that will guide your planning. These phrases and queries all relate in some way to your buyer’s journey. To substantiate your best opportunities, you’ll want to gather data around search volumes, current rankings, keyword difficulty, SERP landscapes, and more.

The goal of keyword research is to understand the language and terms your target audience uses, allowing you …read more

Source:: Top Rank Blog

Author: Aaron