Well the short answer is, as long as people are searching for information, asking questions, looking for products, and in needs of online services, keywords will remain relevant.
The long answer however, goes into a little more of a journey as to why keywords and relevant, and how you target them might be changing.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is when someone interested in SEO starts looking at key phrases internet users might be using to find services or products similar to theirs. Take for example, someone looking for a digital marketing agency in Corby. Simply put, the keyword would be "digital marketing agency in Corby". But obviously it's more complicated than that, as not everyone looking for that particular service will use those exact words or phrase.
This is where your keyword research comes in. Using tools such as Google Ads campaign planner, Semrush, Ahrefs, Answer the Public and a whole host of others, you can start to build a rough idea of which keywords and phrases are the most popular for your service or industry.
Keyword research gives you a clearer picture of the alternative options, along with how often each keyword/phrase is being searched on a monthly basis, a rough idea of how difficult the ranking environment is, and also a guess at what the searcher's intent is.
What is searcher intent?
Understanding the goal of the average searcher is a great way to understand what kind of page or content is going to rank for a particular keyword. For example, let's say you search "what is SEO?" into Google. It's unlikely you are looking for an agency at this point in time to carry out SEO for you. What you want, is a helpful guide as to what is SEO. This makes your intent for informational as opposed to transactional. Bearing this in mind, the kind of content that Google will be placing at the top of those search results will be hugely informative. Lots of SEO-related questions will appear in the featured snippets, and long blog articles are likely harbouring the top spots.
On the flip side, should you search "seo agency in Corby", you're more likely looking for an agency to help you out with your SEO strategy. This makes you search intent much more transactional. In this scenario, Google is more likely to display service landing pages to help the searcher understand what's on offer in their local area.
Without deep diving into your keyword research, analysing top results and getting a better idea of the search engine landscape around particular keywords, your SEO strategy is just going to flop.
How is AI affecting keyword research?
The search environment is changing for sure. When the first search engine optimisers started working their magic, they would simple fill a page with heavily stuffed content using the same keyword over and over. Times have changed and search engines are getting smarter. Understanding the difference between " SEO agency in Corby" and "Corby SEO agency" is by-the-by, and website owners no longer need to create pages for every individual keyword they wish to to target.
However, understanding the hierarchy of similar keywords is a great way to ensure your page ranks as highly as possible. You may have 2-3 variations of a particular keyword, but which one do you use in your meta title, or page title, or most heavily in the content? Conducting your keyword research will ensure you're focusing on the best possible option first, while using natural variations within your content to create smooth-sailing content that doesn't annoy your reader (or Google).
When it comes to AI and keywords, yes there are definitely tools out there that can help you find the perfect phrases for your SEO strategy, but nothing beats human intuition (at this point anyway!). Putting in the hard work now will allow you to reap the benefits later. Do your own research, get a solid picture of the first page of Google and plan your SEO strategy around your findings. AI can help along the way, but letting it do everything will only hinder your efforts.
Do I need to do keyword research in 2024?
Well yes. That's the crux of it. Whether users are relying on voice search, text search or even image search, keywords are behind it all. You can't walk into a library and ask for a book and expect to be giving the one you're looking for (that I'm feeling lucky button never really took off!). Providing as much detail as possible in your query, "I'm looking for a fantasy novel suitable for a teenager" is much more likely to get you what you want - a the same goes for Google. Targeting keywords that bring users to your content when it's exactly what they're looking for is the best way to increase your visitor to lead ratio - the golden result for SEO.
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