Keyword Research Isn't Outdated, But It's Not What It Used
Feb 18, 2024 0:17:38 GMT -5
Post by account_disabled on Feb 18, 2024 0:17:38 GMT -5
Search engine marketers rightfully need objective data and ongoing reporting to do their jobs well. In the world of marketing, we need to constantly question our assumptions and improve our understanding of the user so that we can ultimately produce better content, compete strategically with our competitors, and maximize our return on investment (ROI). One of the most important data sources used by search engine optimization (SEO) experts has been keyword data discovered through the art of keyword research. But today, keyword research is not the guiding or informative powerhouse it once was. This doesn't mean that keyword research is outdated. We claim that it is not so. But it's undeniable that keyword research is not what it used to be. If you want your SEO strategy to be successful, you need to incorporate this assumption into your keyword research and SEO planning approaches. The Slow Decline of Keyword Research Back in the day, SEO wasn't exactly white hat - at least by today's standards. Today, the most successful search marketers on the planet focus on developing the best content.
reaching a niche audience, and being truly, qualitatively better than their top competitors. But 20 years ago, SEO was a simple game of manipulation, and keyword research was at the heart of it. With a few keyword research tools, you could quickly gain insight into how many people are searching for a particular term and how many competitors are ranking for that term, thus determining the best possible latestdatabase.com keywords to target. You can create a 20 or 30-word list of target keyword phrases, then start developing content around each of those phrases, increasing your relevance and authority in the eyes of Google's algorithm. track-keyword-positions-relative-to-competitors-1536x312.png Source: Seo.co Assuming you had the time and resources to do the work and there were no big players getting in your way, it was a clear and simple path to success. You could spam on-site posts over and over using the same phrases and almost guarantee that you would eventually rank for those phrases. Over the years, this approach has become less and less feasible as Google imposes keyword stuffing penalties and keyword data becomes less reliable.
A decade ago, it was still a major mainstay in the SEO industry. Today it is a shadow of its former self. So what happened? Four Big Factors Limiting the Value of Keyword Research There are four major factors that limit the value of keyword research in the modern age. 1. Semantic search - First we need to think about the role of semantic search. In the beginning, Google relied almost exclusively on verbatim keywords and phrases. If you searched for a phrase like “best mountain bikes,” you would almost exclusively find results containing that phrase or a very close match. However, starting in 2013, Google began releasing updates focused on improving semantic analysis of user search queries. By trying to "understand" the search query rather than just looking at the exact phrase, Google began serving results that appealed to the search query even if they didn't contain an exact match or close match. With semantic search coming into play, “best mountain bikes”, “how to choose a mountain bike” or “which mountain bikes are suitable for beginners?” It can return pages like.
reaching a niche audience, and being truly, qualitatively better than their top competitors. But 20 years ago, SEO was a simple game of manipulation, and keyword research was at the heart of it. With a few keyword research tools, you could quickly gain insight into how many people are searching for a particular term and how many competitors are ranking for that term, thus determining the best possible latestdatabase.com keywords to target. You can create a 20 or 30-word list of target keyword phrases, then start developing content around each of those phrases, increasing your relevance and authority in the eyes of Google's algorithm. track-keyword-positions-relative-to-competitors-1536x312.png Source: Seo.co Assuming you had the time and resources to do the work and there were no big players getting in your way, it was a clear and simple path to success. You could spam on-site posts over and over using the same phrases and almost guarantee that you would eventually rank for those phrases. Over the years, this approach has become less and less feasible as Google imposes keyword stuffing penalties and keyword data becomes less reliable.
A decade ago, it was still a major mainstay in the SEO industry. Today it is a shadow of its former self. So what happened? Four Big Factors Limiting the Value of Keyword Research There are four major factors that limit the value of keyword research in the modern age. 1. Semantic search - First we need to think about the role of semantic search. In the beginning, Google relied almost exclusively on verbatim keywords and phrases. If you searched for a phrase like “best mountain bikes,” you would almost exclusively find results containing that phrase or a very close match. However, starting in 2013, Google began releasing updates focused on improving semantic analysis of user search queries. By trying to "understand" the search query rather than just looking at the exact phrase, Google began serving results that appealed to the search query even if they didn't contain an exact match or close match. With semantic search coming into play, “best mountain bikes”, “how to choose a mountain bike” or “which mountain bikes are suitable for beginners?” It can return pages like.