In the world of SEO, there is always the battle to find balance. Balance between volume and competition. On the one hand, we all want to target keywords that have very high volumes but also do not want to get into the mess of high competition key words as the chances of getting ranked using those are very unlikely. So, what is the best course of action regarding what to target? In this article, we discuss how we can do both of these at the same time, without having to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars on paid advertising on Google.
But before, we delve into the ways in which this can be achieved, we need a rudimentary understanding of some key terms and concepts.
What are low competition keywords and how to find them?
Low competition simply means that there is a dearth of content on that specific keyword and, therefore, any content from a well-established source (read “moderate to high DA) on those keywords have a higher chance of being ranked high. This is of course desirable. But how do we find such low competition keywords? This is where we need to use our own wit along with some powerful tools. We need our own wits to identify our areas of concern and then use a tool like “ahrefs” to find the most appropriate keywords available from there. (A more complete and detailed explanation of how to do this has been provided in the How To section below.)
Why might you need low competition keywords?
Building a site from the ground up is not a simple task and aiming to target consumers with ‘generic keywords’ in you niche is not always the right path to go. It takes time for pages to rank on google while you are frantically trying to put out content, create a marketing strategy and seek backlinks from other websites. It can easily take 6-8 months for results to start showing on a new project. It is, therefore, better to search for low competition keywords in your niche and create content for them so as to ensure that a solid foundation that draws in some traffic is created. And, a lot of times, the traffic generated from the use of low competition (long tail keywords; will be discussed in the next section) keywords can lead to a greater conversion rate as visitors are generally looking for an action-specific keyword. Below is a list that details how this strategy can help.
- With Low Competition Keywords (LCK), it is much easier to rank than on generic keywords with higher competition.
- Ranking with LCKs also help in improving the long-tail rankings of the website in the long run.
- Ranking with LCKs also help to create additional traffic and conversions.
- Finally, they help in creating a base for the website which can then act as a foundation from which to build the site up.
What is search intent and how is search intent related to bounce rate?
Search intent is tricky concept to understand. The basic idea is that one needs to cater to the specific needs of the visitor and deliver content that the visitor is looking for on the website. Because if the visitor finds the content to be irrelevant to their search, then, they would leave the website which could lead to a high bounce rate for the page, affecting rankings. It is pretty simple to understand up to this point. However, complications occur when we try to understand what the visitor is looking for, and how to then cater the content to that specification. This is where keyword research into long tail keywords can again come to the rescue. Broadly speaking, visitors can be looking for one of four types of content – informational, transactional, commercial research, or navigational.
Informational: This type of visitor is simply looking for information on a given topic and would not be interested in buying guides and the like. These visitors would look for keywords containing the words what, who, where, when, how, guide, tips and tricks, etc. So, if the keyword you are targeting has these words, cater your information for that category.
Transactional: This type of visitor is looking to specifically buy a selected item and the content should serve that purpose with provisions for affiliate links or a thorough product list. These visitors would look for keywords containing the words purchase, buy, price, cheap, affordable, etc.
Commercial Research: This type of visitor is a step behind the transactional visitor on the consumer decision making cycle and has not made up their mind about their purchase. They are most likely looking for information about specific types of products to help shore up their minds. These visitors would look for keywords containing the words review, top, best, comparison, vs, etc. They are likely looking for buying guides or reviews of popular products.
Navigational: This type of visitor would be looking for information on a specific product or service and would like to see more detailed discussion on the specific product or service. This is generally indicated by the use of brand, product or service name directly in the log tail keyword.
Now, after researching the keyword, it is important that we cater the content of the articles to the user search intent such that they would be interested in reading through the article. This not only helps in bringing in traffic but retaining them long enough to avoid increasing the bounce rate for the page which could lead to it getting de-ranked.
How to actually find low competition keywords with high traffic?
Having discussed all the relevant aspects that goes into searching for keywords, lets discuss how we find such keywords.
Step 1: Ideate
The first step always is to decide the topics that you want to write about. It can be anything from laptops, garden supplies, to colleges or hospitals. And once you have done so, just brainstorm ideas that form into your head, nothing is off limits. Just whatever comes into you mind, do it. Here I have tried to find some keywords for computers.
Step 2: Research
Having identified the niche, we use a tool like ahrefs to research into them more. This will show us a list of related key words for the terms that we searched. Ahrefs allows you to choose if you want “Matching terms,” “Related terms” or “Terms suggestions” on the left-hand side panel. Use them as you see fit. You will see a list something like this.
Step 3: Filter
Here there are a lot of entries with high KD (Keyword Difficulty) so we want to filter them out to find low competition keywords. I have set the KD to 10 to find the relevant low competition keywords.
In our search here, only one entry was found. We can choose to write on this topic for navigational visitors. However, in this case, given the low search volume and the CPC. We will choose to repeat the process with another set of words.
It takes a bit of time to find the right keywords that would serve our purpose best. But after doing this for some time, you are sure to come up with a gold mine of keywords that can get you to the top in Google search results.
Recommendations
It takes a lot of technical knowhow and time to get good at keyword research and doing so more effectively than your competitors is also another factors. Further, once you have found the right keyword, and created a great content, you’ll then need backlinks from other reputed websites for your page to be ranked. If you have the zeal and the resources, it is best to contact a Digital marketing company like Inteliqo Research and Services that have an experienced team of SEO specialists that can cater to your digital marketing needs.
