Market Research for SEO

Name: Market Research for SEO
Author: Rick Hart

Learn how market research can determine your SEO efforts

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 4 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(bright music) To succeed in search engine optimization, especially link building, you'll want to develop content that your market is looking for. Research your market to determine what problems are waiting to be solved, customer needs, wants, and preferences, and hot topics in the market. If you're an expert in your segment, you may already know which way you want your content to go. Perhaps you're also a participant in that market, so you have the same needs and wants. Then you'll ask yourself what it means for people like you. If you play a sport, you probably know the problems, the players, and the pain that a player understands. You know the joy that comes from the sport as well. You're already thinking about your market. You know what equipment has helped you the most and where you like to play. You're probably also aware of what challenges you experience practicing your sport, and whether or not many others in the market have the same experiences with that challenge. You know about good accessories for the game and where to find a good deal shopping for those accessories. You also know about fan favorite players. Your understanding of your market and empathy for the people in that market sharpens the focus of your research. You'll dig deeper into the key phrases that searchers use in your market from there. You might build a list of seed keywords at the start of your research process. These seed keywords generate related phrases in your keyword research tool of choice. Put all of these seed keywords into a column on a spreadsheet. Don't worry yet about the other columns. Just build that list from your own understanding of the market. Put in any and all words and phrases you see as related to your market. In sports, for instance, we might start with equipment for the sport, lessons, coaching strategies, and places the sport is played. Now, take those seed phrases and do a search with them. What we're looking at is what the search engine results page, or SERP, looks like for these phrases. Track how the SERP changes with different phrases. Do different sections come up based on the type of phrase? Maybe the number of pages return will vary too. You'll likely see a change in types of websites with different types of seed phrases. Some will be more commerce based than others, and some will be from bigger companies than others. You'll also want to take already running on those keywords and the kinds of images the search engine generates on those phrases. The algorithm looks for the intention behind the phrase and changes the results. You'll see variations in the SERP with different search terms. For phrases with more commercial intent, there will be more e-commerce results and ads. For more general terms, there may be more images and videos with fewer ads. People are searching for answers based on the question or problem implied by the keyword. It aims to give the searchers what they want when they don't know what that is yet. Another column to add to your spreadsheet is what you learn about your competition. For each search phrase you research, of the organic section of the SERP. Put that page URL in your second column. In another column, note who is in the first position of the ad section of the SERP. Put that company in the third column of your spreadsheet. Try this for all your seed keywords when you want a sense of what's going on in your market for different search terms.

Intermediate Provider : Rick Hart 4 Lessons · 17m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

Search engine optimization begins with creating quality content. It also helps to keep in mind that, when it comes to search engines, content quality is relative to the other content that you’re competing with. If Google finds better content, it will rank that content higher. Understanding where the quality bar is in your market makes way for successful SEO. To rank higher than the competition, SEO professionals figure out how to create better content. To find out where that quality bar is, these professionals engage in market research. This allows them to learn which other pages and sites are ranked high and why they rank high in the search engine results page. Effective SEO professionals understand what customers care about.

In Market Research for SEO, we will discuss the importance of market research in defining your SEO efforts. We will also look at how knowing your customers and doing competitive market research can affect SEO.

What You'll Learn

Understand SEO marketing and how content quality is relative to competing content
Analyze market research to define and inform your SEO efforts
Conduct competitive research to learn which pages and sites rank high and why
Identify what your customers care about to guide content creation
Apply lessons from a sample website to evaluate the quality bar in your market

Key Takeaways

Search engine optimization begins with creating quality content, and content quality is relative to the other content you are competing with.
Understanding where the quality bar is in your market makes way for successful SEO, since Google ranks better content higher.
SEO professionals engage in market research to learn which other pages and sites rank high and why.
Effective SEO professionals understand what customers care about.
Knowing your customers and doing competitive market research can affect SEO.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

Market Research for SEO discusses the importance of market research in defining your SEO efforts, and looks at how knowing your customers and doing competitive market research can affect SEO.

Who is this course for?

It is geared toward SEO professionals who want to find where the quality bar is in their market and create content that ranks higher than the competition.

What skills will I gain?

You will build skills in market research, marketing analytics, quantitative marketing research, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization.

What topics are included in the lessons?

The lessons cover knowing your market, competitive research considerations, knowing your customers, and learning from a sample website.

What are the main learning objectives?

The objectives are to understand SEO marketing, analyze market research, and learn competitive SEO.