What is the most important thing to consider when doing keyword research? It is not how much traffic your website could gain, nor how easy or difficult it will be to rank for it. These are still crucial, but are only part of the real answer: profitability.
The best keywords are the ones that contribute to the business, whether it is by generating leads or directly increasing sales. Ultimately, this is the only thing that will determine whether or not your SEO campaign is successful. You might be drawing thousands of visitors every day, yet it is worthless if they do nothing for the company.
The factors of success
A profitable keyword is one that not only generates high amounts of traffic, but one that consistently achieves high conversion rates – all at a reasonable cost to the business. This is why so many websites differ in the value they add; even when they have similar numbers, one of them is contributing far more to the bottom line.
Therefore, your keywords need to score highly on each of the following factors.
- Buyer mentality – The people you attract to your website must not only want what the business has to offer, they also need to have the capability and willingness to buy it. This is why audience targeting is so important, as it determines the overall quality of your visitors.
- Search volume – Your keywords need to be searched by a significant number of people every month. Otherwise, it is just not worth the effort, as the ceiling is too low. You won’t get a steady stream of new visitors, and will have limited growth.
- Competition – The more competitive a keyword is, the more you have to invest. It eventually reaches the point that you are putting in far more than what you get out. The secret to affordable SEO is finding keywords that are profitable, but still relatively easy to rank for.
Proper SEO takes a lot of time, effort, and resources. Because selecting keywords is the first step in this long process, it is also the most important. Make sure to choose keywords that will actually help your business grow.