The Power of Keyword Research: Boosting Revenue through Effective SEO

Keyword research is the crucial first step in developing an effective content marketing and SEO strategy. Yet many businesses fail to dedicate enough time and resources towards understanding their target keywords. Without selecting the right keywords to focus on, you run the risk of wasting effort creating content that fails to attract your ideal audience and drive conversions.

This guide will walk through a strategic, goal-oriented approach to keyword research services. By starting with your end revenue goals and working backwards, you can determine the precise volume and positioning of keywords needed to achieve your objectives.

Are you aware that the phrase "Keyword Research Services" alone generates hundreds, if not thousands, of search queries on Google every month? When you consider all the different variations of this search, we're talking about several hundred queries each month.

What can we deduce from this information?

It suggests that a significant number of business owners and executives, like yourself, are actively seeking ways to increase web traffic, generate more leads, and ultimately boost revenue through their website and digital efforts.

Moreover, it appears that many are starting to realize that traditional forms of advertising, such as billboards, television, radio, and print ads, are outdated and no longer effective.

Consumers nowadays prefer a more engaging and attention-driven approach. When it comes to capturing attention, Google holds the key. If you want your products and services to be discovered online, it is crucial to abide by Google's rules, which include over 200 ranking factors. Some of these factors include having a secure website, mobile-friendly design, and fast page loading speed.

However, even if you tick all the boxes when it comes to ranking factors, you may still fall short of your goals. This could be due to various reasons, but ultimately, it boils down to your strategy. Surprisingly, many new websites and content are launched without careful consideration of keyword selection. It is even amusing to see digital agencies disregarding keyword research. So, don't worry, you are not alone in this, even among the so-called "experts."

Now, you might be wondering how to properly conduct keyword research services. What does it entail? Let me guide you through the step-by-step process I follow when providing keyword research services for my clients.

1: Start with the end goal in mind

Begin by envisioning your ultimate objective. Determine the amount of a specific product or service that you aim to sell through digital platforms. To exemplify, let's assume your organization intends to generate an additional $5 million in recurring revenue within the next year by introducing a new product and service offering.

Let's determine the number of units you need to sell in order to achieve your revenue goals with that specific product or service. For this example, let's assume that the annual customer value is $50k. In order to reach $5 million in sales, you would need to secure 100 new customers.

To determine your opportunity to customer close ratio, it's important to make some assumptions, especially if you're offering a brand new product or service. I recommend having both a conservative and aggressive estimate to work with. For instance, in our example, let's consider a conservative close ratio of 10%, meaning that you win 1 out of 10 deals, and an aggressive ratio of 25%, where you win 1 out of 4 deals.

In a similar vein, we need to determine the number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) that our marketing team must generate to create enough opportunities and achieve our revenue goals. To provide context, let's assume that within a 12-month timeframe, we can elevate approximately 30% of our Marketing Qualified Leads to the status of Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs).

At this stage, it is crucial to assess the correlation between your current web traffic volume and the number of leads generated. Conversion ratios in different industries typically range from 1% to 5%. For our scenario, let's assume that we achieve a 3% conversion rate from web traffic to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

There are several tools on the market that help with determining keyword search volume and rank difficulty; I personally love SEMRush however it may be a bit pricey for a novice just starting out. A great free tool for performing small queries is Keywords Everywhere. It’s a plugin for Chrome or Firefox that provides results right in your browser. I use both of these tools combined with Google Search Console data to come up with solid estimates for keyword volume.

After identifying the keywords we want to target, it's essential to determine the expected performance based on industry competitiveness and the authority of your website. If your domain is new and you're going after highly competitive keywords, this strategy may not be successful unless you have a substantial budget for acquiring backlinks through guest posting. For the purposes of this example, let's assume that we will achieve a top 3 ranking for 50% of our targeted keywords.

The final piece of information we’ll need to determine is your Customer Average Selling Price over a defined period of time. All you have to do is divide your sales by the number of units sold, say during a 12 month period. For example, if you sold 100 units and had sales of $100,000 your average selling price is $1,000.

Now let’s run the calculations against our keyword targets to get a sense around how our inbound campaign might perform.