Stergo Media: Doing keyword research the right way. Tips from an expert

Targeting the wrong keywords can spell disaster for website owners. More importantly, targeting the right keywords but writing insufficient quality content on those can be even worse – because you don’t even know where you’re going wrong!
In this interview, we talk with Aleksandr Suchkov of Stergo Media fame and he helps us dismantle the science of effective keyword research.

How much time and effort should a website owner put into doing keyword research vis-à-vis actually writing content, doing SEO, outreaching for links, etc.?
Keyword research is a vital part of any SEO campaign. It’s the first step in getting your site found, and it’s one of the most important steps to making sure you get the traffic you want and need.
I’d say it’s the very foundation of a good website.

Every once in a while we get clients who have no keyword strategy in place. And then they tell me, “Gosh, I don’t know why isn’t my traffic increasing.” The first thing we do for them is use some keyword research tools to analyze their closest competitors. We produce various charts, like the hottest keywords in that niche, keywords with a decent volume but low competition, keywords with the highest PPC bids, etc.
All this sort of allows us to formulate a keyword plan and tells us the next steps for content marketing. In many ways, I’d say this is the very first step so put a lot of time and effort into this.

How would you recommend someone to do keyword research?
Assuming they don’t already know about the fundamentals, I’d say start with the basic tools just to get a feel.
The first step in keyword research is to understand what keywords people are using when they search for the type of information your business offers. You can do this by looking at Google Keyword Planner (GKP) or using a tool like SEMrush, SEOmoz or Ahrefs.

Once you know what keywords people are using, it’s time to find out how often those keywords are searched for. This will give you an idea of what topics or concepts might be popular among potential customers who want your product or service.

How has Stergo Media helped its clients increase their traffic?

We have been working with clients from all over the world for 7+ years now. We have learned a thing or two, to put it mildly. Basically, for the best conversions, lead captures, and sales, you need a multi-step process.
It begins with a good user experience. This means a good website, good app UI, a seamless hassle-free checkout workflow, a neat content hierarchy, fast loading website, etc.

You need to add to that good, problem-solving content that helps you gain organic traffic from search engines. Here at Stergo we have helped hundreds of clients with their SEO needs. SEO is a whole beast in and of itself. This is where keyword research comes into the picture. Proper keyword research helps you win big. You also need to spend some time on SMM at this point.

Lastly, you need to make sure you improvise, learn from your mistakes, learn from your competitors, and keep optimizing every aspect. Optimizing and remarketing are surprisingly more profitable than diversifying or launching a new product, actually.