{"id":1570,"date":"2023-10-24T12:11:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T12:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lowfruits.io\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2023-10-24T12:11:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T12:11:46","slug":"most-common-keyword-research-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lowfruits.io\/blog\/most-common-keyword-research-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"The 14 Most Common Keyword Research Mistakes: Here’s How to Avoid Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Avoid<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keyword research is a complicated process that takes months, if not years, to master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it's easy to make mistakes, especially as a beginner SEO. There are many pitfalls that a rookie can fall into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we will go over the 14 most common keyword research mistakes that you should be looking to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will also go over what you should be doing instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Mistake #1: Ignoring Search Intent by not looking at the SERPs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Not going after the correct content type<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some queries require an article. Other queries require a sales page. And some queries even require a category page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of the keyword ”winter perfumes”. What kind of user intent does it have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though it sounds like people might be interested in buying a perfume in winter, the SERPs show us otherwise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The correct content type for this query would be an article in a listicle format – outlining the different perfumes and then linking to sales pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not double-checking if the keyword is a branded name<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some searches may be navigational, even if they don't appear to be at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example here with “Boots”, a brand in the UK:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Improve<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not paying attention if a keyword is singular or plural<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For some keywords, there is a big difference between their singular and plural form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be the difference between transactional and commercial investigation intent, as we can see in the following example of searching for a software agency:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Avoid<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These 3 reasons are why you should be manually checking the SERPs while (or after) conducting keyword research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to make sure that you are creating content that satisfies search intent.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #2: Blindly following ”keyword difficulty” as a key metric<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SEO tools such as Semrush provide SEOs with the ”keyword difficulty” (KD) metric during the keyword research process to determine the difficulty of a keyword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even though it's a good start, it's not a metric that you should be basing your entire content strategy around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just because a keyword has a keyword difficulty of 15 does not mean that you can rank for it with your niche website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will need to analyze the SERPs<\/a> and see who are your competitors, and how well they have covered the topic in order to determine if it's really an ”easy” keyword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use LowFruits<\/a> to extract the SERPs of your keywords to determine which keywords have weak domains ranking on the 1st page of Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #3: Focusing only on high-volume keywords <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

High-volume keywords are naturally hard to rank for. This is because the whole industry is after them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you are working on a website that has low domain authority, you should be opting for long-tail keywords that have weaker competition.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #4: Focusing only on info-intent keywords<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most websites tend to go after informational-intent keywords since it's generally easier to produce content around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Info intent keywords also build authority in the industry, and you might get good traffic as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you are missing revenue on the table by not going after commercial investigation and transactional intent keywords:<\/p>\n\n\n\n