@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

ADVANCED KEYWORD

RESEARCH

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Jono AldersonHead of Insight @

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

people search*with keywords

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

people search*with intent

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Good SEO is about good

intent-alignment

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Consumer intent

Business intent

Competitor intent

Understand the marketplace

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities

changing & emerging trends

create, or inform, strategy

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

So…

good, comprehensive,

effective keyword research

underpins good strategy

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

But the process is broken

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Stakeholders often confuse

keyword research processes with

defining a 'ranking wishlist'

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“ Top 10 ‘golden’ keywords.

100 commercial priority terms.

Primary, secondary. Attack, defend.

This quarter’s tactical opportunities. ”

Easy to report on, to understand, to

challenge.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

This is a

TRAP.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

You don’t know

what you don’t

know.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

There is

money left on

the table.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

It breeds

bad behaviour.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

This happens because…

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

1.

Lack of education,

experience or alternatives

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

2.

Lack of tech, tools or

processes to utilise more

sophisticated approaches

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

3.

The primary responsibility of senior

stakeholders to be in control, to

object, to push back

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

And so…

“Keyword research” rarely

resembles research

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

How do we fix this?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

• Get all the keywords in the market

• Categorise and classify by everything

• Slice and dice to identify the opportunity

• Get the buy in

• Monitor the results

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Getting all the keywords

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“Young Drivers Insurance”

6.6k monthly

searches

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

But what about all of the... [variants, plurals, stems, synonyms, typos]

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Combine multiple sources.

And then keep going.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Step one.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Oh. Look.

266 “young drivers insurance” keywords...

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

65k monthly searches

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

£318k media value

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

And the site in #2…

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

13% of market

8k visits per month

£41k media value

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Hanging off a page with 121

words

…Which has no links

…and no shares

…on a tiny website

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

One off?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“one day car insurance”

12k

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

But also…

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“1 day car insurance”

6.6k

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“day car insurance”

2.4k

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“car insurance for a day”

1.9k

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“daily car insurance”

1.6k

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Etc.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

71k monthly searches...and the biggest brands have

<10% market share

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

!!!

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Stop thinking about

individual keywords!

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Start thinking about…

Topics, intent and need

groups

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Some of the world’s biggest

brands, doing the most

sophisticated marketing only

track a few thousand keywords

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

But this is only step one.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Keyword research isn’t

about stumbling across a

hidden gem; it’s about

already having found and

classified them all, and

tactically picking

opportunities

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Categorise and classify

everything by everything

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

1. Group by topic

2. Find behavioral clues

3. Add real-world context

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Horizontal classification

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

What can I infer about

visitor intent?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

http://www.slideshare.net/carmenmardiros/getting-to-the-people-behind-the-keywords-16581811

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

http://www.slideshare.net/carmenmardiros/getting-to-the-people-behind-the-keywords-16581811

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Where are my

competitors ranking?

…or outranking me?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Where am I being

outranked by, say, media

– or highly commercial

content?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

When is this OK?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Where do I have

executional advantage?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

All of this is quite

resource-intensive.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

And it’s big

(The mobile phone industry has ~ 150,000

keywords!)

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

And it changes…

Keywords, and topics, come and go.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

You’ve got the 30,000ft view

…but you’ve lost all agility.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

What if you could make

this MUCH easier?

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

We’ve built a tool!

http://tools.jonoalderson.com/term-tagger/

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

We’ve built a tool!

http://tools.jonoalderson.com/term-tagger/

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Now eyeball all of it.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Export / Import / Pivot

Recombine and assess

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Identify the opportunity

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Use SEMrush, Linkdex, or your

favourite platform (and a whole

lot of Excel) to explore.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“Phrases relating to our core

strengths, where visitors are early in

their buying cycle, where we don’t

have highly performing content”

Identify gaps which can be easily filled

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“Topic groups where we’ve got top 10

rankings, where are competitors are

weak, and where consumers are

actively researching with questions”

Use existing strengths to win

consumers

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

“Types of language which indicates

high purchase intent, where we’re

outranked by competitors who don’t

rank for longer-tail queries”

Disrupt/intercept competitor buying

cycles

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Track & react over time

Refine your understanding of ‘the market’

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Get the buy-in

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

It’s really easy to improve

performance for a group

of keywords which

everybody else is

ignoring, just by creating

content.

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Start small, aim big

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

(But aim high enough to

get a result)

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

150 words

0 links

0 likes

ROI ???

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

22 likes

1 comment

0 links

ROI ???

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Pick an easy win.

Deploy proof-of-concept

tactics for small, un-

competitive niches

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Define success in terms

of improved intent-

alignment

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Survey on satisfaction

and task-completion rate

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

bit.ly/15Qsaop

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Secure more budget and

support to try a small,

commercially valuable

niche

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Making this strategic

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

http://slidesha.re/1vqvsIy

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Process historical

performance

Model to compensate for

seasonality

Normalise outliers

Plan activity to generate results

Predict impactSet targets, get

buy-in

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Wrapping up

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Explore, evaluate and

track more keywords

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Categorise and classify in

order to start thinking

about topics

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Identify tactical

opportunities to

demonstrate

effectiveness

@jonoaldersonAdvanced Keyword Research

Build capitalising on

small scale, tactical

opportunities into a wider

strategy