Just to let you know, Google caters to 70,000 search queries every second. And, speaking of a day, a humongous 5.8 million searches get triggered.
So, as you can see, competition is high. No matter how big of an enterprise level business you are, you need to keep up with SEO in order to hold your positions on the SERPs. And, if possible, better them.
Search engine optimization used to be all about performing keyword research, identifying them and using them in your content in order to drive qualified traffic to your website and convert them into customers.
However, after the Hummingbird update from Google, digital marketeers are wondering if keyword optimisation is still viable.
Today, conversion has become tough. There are a lot of people on the web who have no idea if they need your product or service. How are you going to let them know about your presence? All you can do is be where they are and wait until they come to you. You surely would not want to spam their emails which would lead them to ignore you completely and mark you as a nuisance.
Here what you can do is targeting keywords that have low search volume and create educational, insightful and interesting content with them in place. This will help you grab complete attention of people who are searching using low search volume keywords. The best part is, this type of traffic is free and is likely to successfully convert into customers.
No matter how big or small a business is, no matter how big or small their marketing budget is, all of them love to have organic traffic from the web. The reason is pretty simple. It costs no penny and might convert, increasing the ROI for your business.
Keeping that in mind, let’s find out how every business, no matter their size, can utilise low search volume keywords to optimise their content, and generate qualified and fruitful leads.
What Are Low Search Volume Keywords?
Google marks those keywords as low search volume which are responsible for generating very less amount of search traffic. In simpler words, if a keyword has minimal search history, then it called as a low search volume keyword.
Now as these keywords are not in use like other high-volume keywords, Google marks them as outdated and keeps them inactive. They cannot trigger your ads. So, even if you invest in these keywords for paid ads, their inactive status would not let your ads appear in Google’s searches.
Clearly, these keywords have no place in your Google Adwords keyword list. It is better to remove them until sufficient traffic returns to them increasing their search volume.
Still, the question persists. Should these keywords be a part of your SEO strategy?
How Can Low Search Volume Keywords Turn So Vital?
As we got to know from Google’s definition, a very less amount of global web traffic search gets triggered using these low search volume keywords. That’s what the name suggests too.
Now, it is not always necessary that these keywords are not relevant at all which is why people find no use in searching with them. But it can also be that these keywords are way too specific or should we say, niched.
So, if your business falls under the latter scenario, then congratulations, you have found yourself an SEO goldmine.
Niched or in other words, highly specific keywords are the ones that can pull your drowning ship out of the water. Yes, they can really drive your sales and help you skyrocket your revenue even when you haven’t yet established your website with a high DA.
Brands with low brand awareness or new businesses who do not have the rich resources like their well-established competitors can also make good use of these keywords to generate high revenue on investment.
If you plan to target these low search volume keywords, then you do have a chance to grab the first position for searches triggered using keywords that are more intent-specific. It is an amazing thing as it will help you grow bigger than using Google Ads or social media ads.
How cool is that?
And, this pandemic of COVID-19 has clearly helped us understand that SEO can help generating more ROI when regular marketing tactics come to their knees.
But, good for you that there is more left to implementing these keywords to your SEO strategy than just running after them. You need to understand which keywords to focus on and to create content that can cater to the people searching using them.
So, let’s get started.
How To Use Low Search Volume Keywords to Improve Your SEO
Using low search volume keywords has proven to be very effective in a variety of niches, but has made the most impact for the B2B industry.
And, here is how you can make good use of it for your B2B business.
- Start with searching for keywords that have a low search volume. Pick keywords that are most likely to be the bottom-of-the-funnel followed by segmenting buyer persona so that you do not miss out on the long tail keywords that are highly relevant. These long tail keywords play a crucial part in order to pushing prospects down the conversion funnel as they have a high consideration intent.
- Now what you have to do is creating a robust marketing strategy with these keywords. This is very effective as it makes the overall idea clear in your mind, starting from targeting focus keywords, streamlining your overall approach as well as developing a proper action plan.
- Focus on creating skyscraper content and mostly with bottom-of-the-funnel keywords. Because, this will help you create a niche specific buyer persona and winning a good lot of qualified leads, easily.
Now you must be wondering that how to take it to the next steps, i.e., creating content with middle-of-the-funnel and top-of-the-funnel keywords.
For that, you can start working on that too, once you have a strong base ready for generating qualified leads.
- Now, it is time for you to incorporate keywords that have higher search volume into the content plan that you have created. Low search volume keywords will help you get a steady stream of organic traffic, that you can generate by incorporating them in your bottom-of-the-funnel and middle-of-the-funnel content. When you are done with this, incorporating higher search volume keywords will help you meet the holistic needs of qualified traffic that you have generated.
- The main purpose of focusing on the low search volume keywords to create high quality content is establishing your business as a thought leader for your target market. Your main focus has to be on spreading brand awareness and scaling your content as per needs.
Explore the depths of your niche, share the views of your business on several industry-related topics and that will move you forward to fulfilling your agenda, successfully.
Now, let’s talk about the entire process in detail.
Step 1: Research and Pick Low-Volume Keywords Keeping Your B2B Industry Audience in Mind.
Know your target market.
The first and foremost thing that you need for creating a robust SEO strategy to skyrocket your brand’s growth is knowing the depths of your target market.
In order to succeed with your marketing strategy, having a clear idea about your audience and particularly, the buyer persona is quite imperative.
For this, you need to chalk out the buyer’s journey, find out what they expect from you, what pain points they face and considering all of it, proposing a considerable quote for the solution that you offer.
And, when it is about a B2B business, segmentation of buyer persona goes even further.
Now, if you are wondering, why, then let us tell you that while preparing and pitching your solution, you need to keep in mind that the buyer is not just an individual, but a committee. And, this committee consists of the buyers, the users and the people who decide on it.
Keep in mind that the jargons for every industry is different. A designer would not search with the same keyword that an admin manager or a CEO uses. Hence, segmentation is important.
For instance, if you are creating a solution that helps in maintaining Customer Relationship, you need to create content for the marketing guys, the sales guys as well as for the CEOs.
The overall approach needs to be customer centric. And, that will help you in picking the right keywords that can drive qualified traffic to your website.
Perform keyword research
Once you are ready with your buyer persona, you need to start with keyword research to find out what your target audience is looking for on the internet. You can check the image below to find out how it works.
Using any keyword research tool, search for “customer relationship management tools”. And, see what comes up.
The results that come on top are the ones that have high volume now, when you scroll down, you will find these
Here you will find a stark difference between these two lists. In the below image, you will find searches that got triggered by people who are at the bottom of the funnel. The ones who are at the consideration stage, will be searching with the term itself as they are already acquainted with the term. And, that is why their searches and usage of keywords is quite specific.
You might consider that the low volume of certain keywords might be negligible, but, in reality, when you cater to those keywords with your content you will reach out to a set of audience who are bound to convert.
Increasing Market Share
You can also spread your product to new markets using low search volume keywords.
Aim your product or service towards SMBs and entrepreneurs with your choice of keywords if you wish to target new B2B companies. This will be quite an effective strategy when you can offer a free trail or a free service/product with certain paid features.
For that, design a buyer persona accordingly and search for relevant keywords.
Here you will find most keywords that are triggered by people who belong from the top of the funnel.
Now, let’s check what lies in the rest of the keyword list.
Again, here you will find keywords, that are triggered by people who belong to the bottom of the funnel. So, clearly, it is better to target the audience who are more likely to convert, than competing with industry giants for more website traffic.
Step 2: Develop a Robust Content Strategy Based on the Keywords
Now it is time to incorporate your keywords into your content strategy.
Always perform keyword research before starting with your content strategy. Also, only consider keywords that have a search volume of 10 or less. This is a very effective strategy for websites which have low DA as the competition for these keywords is less. Hence, ranking becomes easy.
Also, it is completely a waste of time to craft content ideas beforehand and then looking forward to incorporating keywords. They might not align properly. It is important to understand how (keywords) your audience speaks and what they type in in the search box. Once done with the same, you can craft your content strategy.
Now it is time to organise your keywords according to the type they are: bottom of the funnel, middle of the funnel or top of the funnel. Try to look for a high number of keywords as that will help you for a good long time with creating content.
While creating content, do not overlap your keywords, keep your buyer persona in mind and make sure that your whitepapers do not compete against each other.
If you have blogs, whitepapers or other pieces of content that are relevant to this list, then place them accordingly. This will lessen down your work load and you can just fill the gaps with our content strategy.
Step 3: Skyscraper Content Creation
All your experience in the regular search engine optimization and content marketing will help you as here, you need to create content.
Start with crafting content with the bottom-of-the-funnel keywords and make sure that it encompasses the buyer personas. This strategy will help you generate maximum ROI in the least timeframe and you can easily put more effort in your overall marketing plan.
Utilise Skyscraper Technique
Skyscraper technique can help you easily outrank your competitors; hence this should be the technique that you need to begin with. Longer content containing high quality backlinks perform fairly well in the SERPs.
Here you can craft comprehensive guides that can enlighten the BOFU traffic with quality information and insights. So, the way to become a thought leader in your industry turns into a cakewalk.
Analysing your competitors and checking the articles that are ranking in the SERPs is quite important too. Find how they are approaching their target audience and look for loopholes and scopes for improvement. This will pave the way to create a better content.
Add CTAs and Interactive Elements
CTAs play a vital role in generating revenue from content.
Optimise your CTAs in your content in order to convert your bottom-of-the-funnel traffic. The CTAs that perform the best here are links to product landing pages, booking demos and free resources.
This will help you in gathering quality information about your qualified leads.
Now, speaking of interactive elements like quizzes, they help you in keeping your audience on your website for longer durations and bringing down bounce rates. Use storytelling to keep them engaged and providing a clear idea about your brand and most importantly, your solution.
Timing Your Content
When you have finished working on your bottom-of-the-funnel content, start working on the middle-of-the-funnel content.
Start with creating comprehensive product guides that contain more detailed information as well as use cases. Refurbishing your industry pages is also a good idea to consider.
Speaking of timing your content, aim to spend around a month to audit your website for SEO, developing your buyer persona, performing keyword research and planning your quality content.
Spend the next couple of months working on bottom-of-the-funnel keywords and lastly spend another couple of months on middle-of-the-funnel keywords.
Step 4: Incorporate Higher Search Volume Keywords
Once you start ranking for bottom-of-the-funnel and middle-of-the-funnel keywords, and gaining a good amount of consistent traffic, you should start incorporating higher search volume keywords.
These pieces of content containing such keywords will be catering to the top-of-the-funnel audience. Educating such audience is more important here rather than selling as they are less likely to convert. So, craft content accordingly.
Focus on providing quality information with your content in order to cultivate relationships with your potential buyers and push word-of-mouth, gaining value and recognition.
Step 5: Scale Your Business Effectively
In order to become a thought leader in your niche, turning into a go-to forum is quite important. Try to reach out to your audience with a broader aspect with quality information, instead of trying hard to convert them. So, avoid niche specific topics.
Establish confidence, authority as well as awareness for your brand in the minds of your target audience. And, in order to achieve the same, you content is your channel.
If you can perform it all, your sales graph will surely take an upward turn.
Low Search Volume Keywords Are Essential
Most businesses out there, tend to overlook these low search volume keywords, however, when used in a proper and organised way, they can skyrocket your ROI.
These keywords are so useful that despite having a low DA, business can do fairly well.
So, it is your chance to start looking for low search volume keywords in your niche and make the most out of them.
