58% of digital marketers not ‘on trend’ when it comes to keywords
Only 42% of digital marketers feel that they are ‘on trend’ when it comes to keyword trends for marketing campaigns, research has revealed.
The research, by Software-as-a-Service marketing technology provider Hydra, found that 55% of the 300 UK based digital marketers surveyed did not know what key words and phrases were worth spending money on as part of a campaign.
Hydra maintains that keyword research - identifying the words and phrase combinations consumers could potentially type into the search box when they go online to find products and services - is vital to the success of digital marketing campaigns.
The research was carried out as part of Hydra’s white paper “Where to begin - the discovery phase”, in which the company says that digital marketers tend not to have the resources to be able to conduct thorough research into the possible combinations of words that may be used.
Ruth Zohrer, solutions consultant at Hydra, said: “Keyword research makes the difference between the vendor's goods and services being immediately visible to the searcher or their being swallowed up and lost in the myriad of returned search results.
“Ultimately, the lack of thorough keyword research can prove costly as it leads to vendors failing to maximise on the online opportunity both in terms of directing potential sales leads/traffic to their site and garnering revenues from the online channel.”
The white paper suggests that researchers should begin with a ‘discovery phase’ to uncover what customers will use to find the product or service when they go online. Next is keyword-page mapping, to allow the vendor to understand how the site and the target keywords relate and highlights any gaps that may need to be addressed for optimum performance in search engines for a specific term. The keywords can then be prioritised based on the size of the opportunity they offer.
Zohrer said: “The discovery phase is essential in ensuring campaign goals are met within budget and within a reasonable timeframe and in preventing costly mistakes like targeting the wrong keywords or overlooking your own site's limitations.”