Keyword research
Keyword research is the process of finding and prioritizing the search terms your target audience uses, based on search volume, intent, competition and business value.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of finding out which search terms your target audience uses and deciding which of them are worth targeting. It is the foundation of any SEO or search advertising strategy: content and campaigns built on the wrong keywords rarely reach the right people, no matter how well they are executed.
Keywords are usually evaluated by four criteria:
- Search volume: How often a term is searched per month in a given market.
- Search intent: What the searcher actually wants – information, a specific website, a comparison or a purchase.
- Competition: How hard it is to rank or bid for the term.
- Business value: How closely the term matches your products and how likely it is to lead to a conversion.
In international marketing, keyword research must be done per market and language rather than by translating a master list. The same product is often searched with different terms in different countries – even within one language, such as German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Search volumes, competitors and even the dominant search engine can differ from market to market.