Most SEO project begins with researching the right keywords. There is nothing wrong with that since the keyword is the center of the SEO game. You get the right keywords in your hands, you dominate the search engine right.
It is not enough to do regular keyword research since everyone is doing the same. So, the challenge here is to upgrade the way you research keywords and level up the SEO game. It is not an easy step to do if you are a beginner. However, with Sequence Stats, even beginners can dominate the search results.
This article will take you further to the advanced keyword research strategies and tell you how Sequence Stats can assist you in conducting one. Read the can’t-miss insight below.
The Very Common Keyword Research Steps
Basically, we start the keyword research activity by entering the main topic or seed keywords into the keywords research tool and then checking the list of keywords ideas. This step is to make sure you can target popular keywords. However, this method neglects the less popular keywords with a high potential to be targeted.
Imagine if everyone on the internet does the same, there will be fierce competition and a low chance of high ranking for certain topics. That is why you need a different method of doing keyword research, an advanced one.
We are not saying that this method is ineffective because some steps just cannot be abandoned. But, you might need some refresher to build a stronger strategy than your competitors.
Next Level of Keyword Research Strategies
Now, it is time to level up your keyword research strategy. These strategies are piled up to help you find untouched keywords and use them on your page or content.
Identify Competitors and Their Top Page Report
You must have a competitor list in your note and you need to know what they are up to. You can put them in your Watchlist to know their top pages and top keyword report. This report gives you an insight into their pages and keyword which perform well in the SERP.
In Sequence Stats Domain Watchlist, you can easily get the data about their top keywords and page to see the search volume of their targetted keywords. If you find keywords you want to target, you can take note of those keywords and use them to your advantage.
Figure 1: Top Page and Top Keyword report in Domain Watchlist module
Expand Your Keyword Ideas
After you get an insight into your competitors, you need to expand your keyword ideas. In expanding your keywords ideas, you might think about the high search volume to target. However, not all high-search-volumed keywords need to be targeted. It is important to consider the relevance of the keywords to your site and how they can lead to your product or services.
If you need a keyword ideas suggestion, Sequence Stats can help you through this. It will suggest relevant keywords for you and update it monthly based on your tracked keywords. Go for a refresher by reading the Keyword Suggestion Feature of Sequence Stats.
Understand Searcher Intent
Understanding searchers' intent is a basic thing in choosing high-performing keywords. It then defines what content type should be made. Whether it is informational, transactional, or navigational. It is very important to understand what searchers want to know with a certain keyword.
You might target high search volume keywords with low competition, but you should not forget about users' intent. Go to the SERP with your seed keywords and see the results, is it informational or other types of intent? To optimize your page performance, you need to make content that relates to searcher intent.
Think Like Your Target Audience
The next is you need to think like your target audience. Think about what they want to see, read, and hear, or what answer they want to discover about a certain niche. Decide the seed keywords as your target audience.
For example, think about where your audience will go when they have a question related to your business. It would be best if you can dive into a forum or any other platform to find your audience’s questions. Then, you can use their questions as long-tail keywords. Once you have their queries, try to answer them on your website.
The next step is to put yourself as a newcomer to your website, then criticize the website content. Do they answer your curiosity? Do you find the keywords you are looking for? This step also helps you build a place where the users can refer when they have related questions.
Answer The Question Asked Better Than Your Competitor
If you have a list of keyword ideas in your hands, then it is time to take over your audience by answering their questions more than anyone else on the internet. Since Google thrive to give the most relevant results for its user, you need to have helpful content to make the search engine recognize you.
Here are some actions you can do to outperform your competitors' content
Do research on SERP #1: Find out what matter they do not provide and make sure you have a more complete discussion. However, make sure the information is relevant to the topic. That way, search engines will prefer your page better.
Answer the complex questions: with Google MUM, now users can find the answer to their complex questions. Make sure your content can answer every question, even the complex ones. Provide a wide range of cases that might occur in users' daily activity, then your content will be able to answer it thoroughly.
Create in-depth content: create longer content than competitors and put value in it. Give the reader more valuable information which can add to their knowledge. Keep in mind that longer content with no value is never better than your competitors’ concise valuable content.
Keyword Research Feature to Help Finding Ideas
Besides the ability to track your valuable keywords, competitor analysis, and Kanban board system, now Sequence Stats is able to assist your keyword research activity.
The Keyword Research module helps you get keyword ideas that are worth tracking. You can conduct advanced keyword research by utilizing the Domain Watchlist feature plus Keyword Suggestions for optimal results.
Figure 2 - Keyword Research Module in Sequence Stats
There are two main features in this module, Keyword Ideas (Paid) and Keyword Suggestion (Free). Here is the explanation of the two sub-modules:
Keyword Ideas
Keyword ideas in Sequence Stats are similar to the ideas on Google Keyword Planner (GKP). The procedure is quite the same, you can input your seed keywords to generate more ideas related to the seed. Here is an example of GKP results.
Figure 3: Google Keyword Planner ideas
As you can see from the figure above, you can set the targeting parameters in GKP. As in Sequence, you can set the market setting such as location and language to limit the scope. However, the user cannot set the time period since it is predefined to the last 12 months. But, worry no more because the data presented in Sequence Stats are as fresh and as accurate as Google Keyword Planner since we do not process it first.
Figure 4: Keyword ideas result in Sequence Stats.
To conduct keyword research, you will only need to pay IDR 2.000 or equal to USD 0.213. You will have 1.000 keyword ideas completed with the data of search volume, cost per click, and keyword competition. Then, you can choose the keyword and add it to your keyword rank tracker.
Keyword Suggestion
You can access the keyword suggestion in Sequence Stats through the sidebar on the Keyword Suggestion menu. The system will present up to 100 keywords you can add to the tracker and support your SEO campaign.
Different from the Keyword Ideas, the list of Keyword Suggestion is processed by the Sequence Stats system. That is why you will receive an updated keyword list sorted by the highest search volume.
Please note that the keyword suggestion in Sequence Stats is different from the keyword suggestion of the SERP. We do not generate the data from the Google SERP keyword suggestion below.
Figure 5: SERP Keyword suggestion. This is not the data we take as the keyword suggestion list.
But, Sequence Stats Keyword Suggestion is more like the related search on the SERP. Check the picture below to see the resemblance.
Figure 6: Related search on SERP is the same as Keyword Suggestion presented in Sequence Stats.
That is why the keyword suggestion presented in Sequence Stats purely depends on the tracked keywords. So, Sequence will give you around 50-100 suggestions based on your keyword list. This sub-module will give you high-related keywords and be more precise as to what users type on the search engine.
Chop chop, your competitors are not getting weaker. You need to conduct advanced keyword research and outperform them in the SERP. Let Sequence Stats be your helping tool to do better SEO.