Keyword Research Tools for Small Business in Nigeria

Keyword research tools for small business are core course you don’t want to carry over. For every decision you make in digital marketing, keyword research provides the right direction.

That is why I will be sharing with you 10 keyword research tools and techniques you can use for effective keyword research, both online and offline. Guess it never crossed your mind that there are offline techniques for coming up with keyword suggestions for your digital marketing campaign.

Keyword research tools for small business you will come across here will change your orientation about keyword research. You probably have not come across some of these techniques for getting keyword suggestions and how to further filter them for better campaign performance.

I will breakdown short tail keywords, long tail keywords and question keywords for you to appreciate the significance of each type and when best to deploy them. Using only Google Keyword Planner for keyword research does not cut it anymore these days.

In fact, Google Keyword Planner will only be used to complement keyword research tools and techniques that I will demonstrate to you.

So, prepare your mind for a brand new experience with keyword research for SEO, PPC and any digital marketing campaign you have to execute.

Are you ready for this one? Take it.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

You need keyword research to match your content with searchers’ intent. That is the SEO side of things. For other campaigns, keyword research helps you identify interests and behavioural patterns of target audience you are out to get.

It is easy to assume audience will behave in some pattern you can predict or they will use the exact word you use in your content (web pages) to look for your small business.

But, it does not just go that way.

Prospect search as words happen to them. Thus, keyword research puts you in the mind of target audience, based on many of such terms already used across the Internet.

Keyword research tools help you identify words or phrases you will use to present information you want to pass across such that search engine can relate your content to search queries used by searchers.  

Keyword research moves you from many random search terms to commonly used keywords that search engines already used to index content and web pages,

Hun?

Types of Keyword: Short tail Keywords

Short tail keywords are 2-word phrase (3-word sometimes) commonly used search terms. Short tail keywords are quite popular among digital marketers.

Short tail keywords are known for having huge search volumes because they are easily thrown around.

For offers that are quite unique, let’s say you are monopoly or no business offers what you sell online yet, short tail keywords are great.

In most cases, the first few businesses who start selling something online get a hold on short tail keywords, as they are easy to rank for when there is weak competition or none at all.

However, as the online market for such product becomes bigger, more competitors fight hard to rank for certain short tail keywords. At this point, it becomes quite expensive and more difficult to rank for such short tail keywords.

These are keyword suggestions for skinny jeans, from search terms in above example

Types of Keyword: Long tail Keywords

Long tail keywords add few more modifiers to short tail keyword to turn out unique. The essence of using long tail keywords is to beat stiff competition surrounding short tail keywords.

Long tail keywords:

• Are longer than 2 to 3 words
• Have less search volume
• Have lower competition
• Are more targeted

Long tail keywords help  small business reflect more of what they offer in the keyword they seek to rank for.

From above example, one of the keyword suggestions, skinny jeans for men, can be used as long tail keyword for creating content, since it already has high search volume.

This approach will bring you more visibility and traffic, then visitors can discover more types of skinny jeans you sell at their first visit.

Types of Keyword: Question Keywords

Question keywords are rarely used, though they are quite effective. They provide keyword opportunities for questions that audience are asking concerning a search term.

If both short tail and long tail keywords have very stiff competition, you could search for questions that are being asked concerning such product or service.

These are Question Keyword suggestions for Skinny Jeans for Men, one of them is being searched for already, where to buy mens skinny jeans.

Offline Keyword Research -Brainstorming

Brainstorming is an unusual source for base keyword suggestions. It is offline keyword research technique and it is great for small business that does not have existing data with which you can plan and implement digital marketing campaign.

During situation analysis, you can call for brainstorming session, to include clients team. It will be of advantage to brainstorm with client’s sales team, customer service team, traditional marketing team in order to fetch a wide range of terms used for what you want to market.

A collection of these suggested terms, based on interaction with customers and the market space, can then be taken to online keyword research tools for further filtering.

Offline Keyword Research – Industry Jargon

Industry jargons (registers) are terms that are particular to certain profession. They form good source of base keyword suggestions as well. What is great about using industry jargons as keyword suggestions is that they are already synonymous with your offer among your target audience.

Collect industry jargons, as many of them as possible, and use them as keyword ideas which you can refine in keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner.

I will show you how this can be done shortly. Keep reading.

Offline Keyword Research -Competitor Research

There are couple traditional methods for researching your competitors. Beyond marketing insights marketers plan to get from competitor research, you could get some keyword ideas from it.

One way to get keyword ideas via competitor research is to pay customers of your top competitors to feel questionnaires. You make your competitors’ loyal customers to debrief you on how they relate with competitors’ products and what terms your competitors use to refer to what you offer.

Collect terms used by competitors’ customers in filling your questionnaires into a keyword suggestion sheet which you will feed into online keyword tools for more insights.

Offline Keyword Research -Customer Survey/Feedback

Customer Survey or Feedback works the same way as getting keywords from competitors’ customers but this time from your customers.

Depending on how your questions are structured, you could get useful keyword ideas from your existing customers.

Keyword Research Tool -Moz Keyword Explorer

Moz Keyword Explorer is not a regular research tool. It gives you different variations of keyword suggestions you get.

Keyword suggestion you get from Moz Keyword Explorer include mix of sources, questions, closely related terms and many more.

The essence of getting different variations of keyword suggestions from Moz Keyword Explorer is to include as many relevant search terms as possible in your keyword list. An expansive keyword list helps you take care of wide segment of target audience.

In order to prioritize keywords to create content for or try to rank for, you will need to ascertain average search volume in a month, level of competition and the worth of your preferred keywords.

How to Get Keywords Search Volume and Competition

• Export your expand list of keyword suggestions from Moz Keyword Explorer.
• Go to Google Keyword Planner
• Click Get Search Volume Data and Trends
• Enter/Upload your keyword suggestions
• Set your parameters and search

Keyword Research Technique -Google Search Suggest

Google Search Suggest gives you base keywords relating to what you type into Google Search bar. We tend to ignore these keyword suggestions, but I would advise you to always add them to your keyword list.

Why?

People are already searching for those keyword suggestions popped up by Google for you. To confirm this, make a list of these Google Search Suggest keywords and check them on Google Keyword Planner.

You will see what I am talking about.

Keyword Research Tools -Wordtracker

Wordtracker should be your favourite keyword tool for long tail keywords. Having talked about long tail keywords earlier, you already know the importance of modifying short tail keywords to reduce competition on keywords you want to rank for.

Wordtracker takes in short tail keywords and gives you long tail keyword suggestions. These are keyword insights you can get from Wordtracker:

• How many times your base keyword has been searched for
• How often phrases containing your base keyword has been searched
• Synonyms and terms related to your base keyword
• Number of keywords found optimized for each keyword suggestions

How to use Wordtracker for long tail keyword research

Keyword Research Tools -Google Trends

Google Trends can help with keyword research, if you know how to do it. Keyword research is probably part of unsung heroics of Google Trends.

Google Trends may not be particularly great for keyword research for evergreen content.

But for industry news, updates, or new topics which your target audience are currently discussing, you could use Google Trends to know what keywords most people are using to search for the new trends.

You can use Trending Searches, as well, to find trending topics and content ideas on Google Trends. Permit me to show you how Google Trends can be used for keyword research.

Here you have it.

How to use Google Trends for Keyword Research:

1. Log on to Google Trends
2. Type in your base keyword, choose Search Term option
3. For local trends, change from Worldwide to your current location
4. Use Compare to see how other related keyword suggestions trend against your base keyword in search

Keyword Research Techniques: ‘Searches Related’ under SERP

Searches Related section under search result pages provide long tail variations of your base keywords. This is another one. Hun?

This works like Google Search Suggest, as it gives you more related search terms that are long tail keywords. All you need do with these Searches Related is to check for their search volumes to be sure they are worth creating content for.

Long tail keywords that you will get from  Searches Related are already being searched for. It is not like they are totally new to search engines.

Keyword Research Techniques -Quora, Google+ Communities, Niche Forums

Quora is one of my favourite keyword sources. The reason you should add Quora to your keyword sources is because it is a knowledge-driven platform. Much as you find topic ideas people want to learn about, you find content already written to answer questions.

This will give you insight into what some of your target audience may be interested in learning about.

If you do not find existing questions that really match your base keyword, you could ask a question and request experts or people who have answered similar questions to help with solution.

Google+ Communities, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, Niche forums in your industry too are great for finding keyword ideas you can further refine and create content for.

The good news about getting keywords from these sources is that you have audience for such topic ideas and you know people are already searching for what you are about to create.    

Finally, we are done with awesome 10 keyword research tools and techniques for creating great content for small business. With little or no budget, you should be able to pull good SEO content that will do well in organic search using these tools and techniques.

Please use the comment box to add your favourite keyword research tools or techniques that are not included. See yah!