Jim Payne, Author at ProdSens.live https://prodsens.live/author/jim-payne/ News for Project Managers - PMI Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:20:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 https://prodsens.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/prod.png Jim Payne, Author at ProdSens.live https://prodsens.live/author/jim-payne/ 32 32 Python Web Scraping: Best Libraries and Practices https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/python-web-scraping-best-libraries-and-practices/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=python-web-scraping-best-libraries-and-practices https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/python-web-scraping-best-libraries-and-practices/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:20:32 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/python-web-scraping-best-libraries-and-practices/ python-web-scraping:-best-libraries-and-practices

The word data should no longer sound strange to you, it’s a four-letter word that holds so much…

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The word data should no longer sound strange to you, it’s a four-letter word that holds so much importance in today’s world. Accessing the right information or data is essential for startup firms, individuals, developers, or website owners, having the right content to drive traffic to your site can be crucial or seem out of your reach but that’s untrue having Python Web Scraping at your beck and call.

In this article, we’re going to delve into the most important and widely used Python libraries, implementing the best practices involved in scraping the web, dissecting what web scraping means in its entirety and so much more. So join me as we explore the world of Python Web Scraping together!

Introduction to Web Scraping

In simple terms, Web Scraping means extracting contents from a webpage whether authorized or not. This extracted content performed by a user is usually for a specific purpose; for example, a user might need information about weather forecasts, or the latest technology news for a blog. There’s a wide range of needs for scraping the web, from gathering data for research to automating data collection for business insights.

A notable application of web scraping can be extracting names, addresses, and phone numbers of individuals from a website. While this might seem beneficial for profiling and targeting new customers as a business owner, it’s crucial to consider data privacy and ethical considerations in using such scraped data.

It’s important to note that scraping the contents of websites is not universally accepted. Many companies or website owners drastically frown against scraping the contents of their websites; some have built-in security measures that protect their contents from unauthorized access. Therefore, if you need to scrape a particular content without getting blocked, you can refer to companies like ScrapingBee which offer the best practices and pricing to suit your needs.

Getting Started with Python for Web Scraping

Python is considered a high-level programming language, known for its readable syntax making it easier to learn and master, it boasts a vast library and it is an open-source software, allowing its users to contribute to its already amazing features.
To begin using Python for Web Scraping, you’ll need to have Python3 and pip3 installed. If you’re on a Linux Operating system such as Ubuntu 20.04 you can do that with the command below in your terminal 

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3
sudo apt install python3-pip

# Install Python package installer
sudo apt install pip3

Now that you have Python and pip3 installed, here’s a list of common Libraries used for Web Scraping in Python. In this article, we’re going to focus on the most important and frequently used Python libraries for Web Scraping which include:

  • Requests: In Python web scraping, the request module is considered a top choice, allowing the user to send HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests. These requests can be made with various methods such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc. and then a response is received from the web server to which the request was made. As an essential tool for extracting web content, other libraries used for web scraping often rely on its usage.

pip3 install requests

Example usage:

     import requests

     # Send a GET request and print the response content
     response = requests.get('https://example.com')
     print(response.text)
  • Beautiful Soup: Who doesn’t like a good meal eh? As its name implies it performs its task beautifully. This remains my favorite Python module for scraping, Beautiful Soup is quite a popular tool used in Python web scraping, with it, you can target specific tags and attributes in HTML when requesting a webpage. It also supports the HTML and LXML parser included in the Python standard library. It can be installed using the command below:

pip3 install beautifulsoup4

Example usage:

     from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

     # Parse HTML content and print the title
     soup = BeautifulSoup(html_content, 'html.parser')
     print(soup.title)
  • Pyquery: Ideal for scraping JavaScript-rendered contents, Pyquery uses LXML to manipulate HTML and XML making it suitable for dynamic web pages.
    First, you need to install Pyquery:

pip3 install pyquery

Example usage:

     from pyquery import PyQuery as pq

     # Create a PyQuery object and print text content
     doc = pq(html_content)
     print(doc('p').text())
  • Scrapy: Scrapy is a powerful Python library for scraping large data. In Scrapy, Requests are scheduled and processed asynchronously, this implies that Scrapy doesn’t need to wait for a request to be processed before it sends another allowing the user to perform more requests and save time. The term “Spider” or “Scrapy Spider” is often used in this context. Spider refers to Python classes that a programmer defines and Scrapy uses the instructions to extract content from a website.

pip3 install scrapy

Example usage:

     import scrapy

     # Define a Scrapy spider and parse response
     class MySpider(scrapy.Spider):
         name = 'example_spider'
         start_urls = ['https://example.com']

         def parse(self, response):
             # Your scraping logic here
  • Selenium: Selenium helps the user have more control over requests made to websites, allowing more user interaction such as filling forms on sites, clicking links, and navigating through the available pages. Like Pyquery, it allows you to scrape from sites that render JavaScript content helping with automation. It’s often used alongside other modules such as Beautiful Soup. Selenium supports headless browsing meaning you can browse websites without the user interface. To be able to use Selenium it can be installed along with the browser drive you intend to use:

pip3 install selenium

Example usage:

     from selenium import webdriver

     # Launch a Chrome WebDriver and print page title
     driver = webdriver.Chrome()
     driver.get('https://example.com')
     print(driver.title)

Key Features and Considerations:

  • Each library has its strengths and is suited for different scraping tasks.
  • Requests module is efficient for basic HTTP requests.
  • Beautiful Soup simplifies HTML parsing and extraction.
  • PyQuery handles JavaScript-rendered content.
  • Scrapy is ideal for scraping large datasets.
  • Selenium enables automated web interaction.

In sum, each library discussed has its strengths and is suited for different scraping tasks. However, successful web scraping also depends on a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. Since most of the requests made and responses received are going to be in this format. HTML is like the human skeleton but for a website, CSS adds visual appeal and design elements to make HTML more beautiful and appealing. A good grasp of HTML tags and CSS selectors is crucial to navigating and extracting content from any website effectively. By combining the capabilities of these Python libraries with a solid understanding of HTML and CSS, developers can unlock the full potential of Python Web Scraping and achieve their data extraction goals.

Understanding HTML Structure:

HTML is the structural backbone of web content, it comprises elements and tags that organize and present texts, images, and videos arranging and structuring them into sections. Each section is defined by specific elements or tags, such as title, heading, or sub-heading. It can even be an image tag or any other multimedia element as the case may be.

In Web Scraping understanding the structure of a website is crucial to a successful data extraction. Each HTML tag often has a class name or ID assigned for easy identification and extraction of relevant information. For instance

is a div tag with a class name “article-content” and may contain the main contents of a web page facilitating targeted extraction.

In addition, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) affects how a web page is displayed to users. CSS selectors such as class selectors ( .class-name), ID selectors(#id-name), and element selectors (element-name) allow developers to pinpoint and style specific elements on a webpage.

In the context of web scraping, a strong background in CSS elements aids in identifying such structured data and navigating through styled content. Furthermore, CSS can impact JavaScript-rendered content, influencing how it is loaded and displayed. When dealing with dynamic content or interactions driven by JavaScript, considerations of CSS effects are vital for accurate scraping results.

By understanding the structure of HTML with the knowledge of CSS selectors, and how they interact with JavaScript, developers can effectively navigate web pages and extract valuable data for various applications.

Basic Web Scraping Techniques

In this section, we’ll explore some basic techniques of Python Web Scraping using popular libraries such as Requests, Beautiful Soup, and Pyquery.

Example of using Requests

Create a file named request.py and type in the following lines of code then save and exit your text editor. After which you can run the command python3 request.py your output should be similar to mine in the image below. 

# Importing the requests module
import requests

# Specify the URL of the webpage to scrape
url = 'https://dev-tools.alx-tools.com/'

# Send a GET request to the URL and store the response in a variable
request = requests.get(url)

# Check if the request was successful (status code 200)
if request.status_code == 200:
        # Print the HTML content of the webpage
        print(request.text)
else:
        # Print an error message if the request failed
        print('Error:', request.status_code)

Output:

Expected output after running request.py

Example of using Beautiful soup:

Create a file named soup.py and type in the following lines of code then save and exit your text editor. After which you can run the command python3 soup.py your output should be similar to mine in the image below. 

# Importing the requests module
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# Specify the URL of the webpage to scrape
url = 'https://dev-tools.alx-tools.com/'

# Send a GET request to the URL and store the response in a variable
response = requests.get(url)

# Check if the request was successful (status code 200)
if response.status_code == 200:
    # Create a BeautifulSoup object with the HTML content of the webpage
    soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

    # Print the title of the webpage
    print('Title:', soup.title.text)

    # Print a specific element from the webpage (e.g., the first paragraph)
    print('First Paragraph:', soup.p.text)
else:
    # Print an error message if the request failed
    print('Error:', response.status_code)

Output:

Expected output after running soup.py

Example code using Pyquery:

In the case of Pyquery, you need to be careful when naming your file to avoid circular importation errors when running your code. In my case, I created a file named pyquery_scraping.py with the following lines of codes after which I ran the command python3 pyquery_scraping.py 

# Importing the requests module
import requests
from pyquery import PyQuery as pq

# Specify the URL of the webpage to scrape
url = 'https://dev-tools.alx-tools.com/'

# Send a GET request to the URL and store the response in a variable
response = requests.get(url)

# Check if the request was successful (status code 200)
if response.status_code == 200:
    # Create a PyQuery object with the HTML content of the webpage
    doc = pq(response.text)

    # Print the title of the webpage
    print('Title:', doc('title').text())

    # Print a specific element from the webpage (e.g., the first paragraph)
    print('First Paragraph:', doc('p').eq(0).text())
else:
    # Print an error message if the request failed
    print('Error:', response.status_code)

Output:

Expected output after running pyquery_scraping.py

Advanced Web Scraping Techniques

In this section, we are going to see some examples of web scraping in Python using popular libraries like Scrapy and Selenium
Example of Python Web scraping using Scrapy:

First, ensure you have Scrapy installed. If not, you can install it using pip:
pip3 install scrapy

Next, create a new Scrapy project and navigate to the project directory:
scrapy startproject dev_tools_scraper
cd dev_tools_scraper/dev_tools_scraper/spiders
Now, create a new spider inside the spiders( /dev_tools_scraper/dev_tools_scraper/spiders) directory. Let’s name it dev_tools_spider.py: 

import scrapy


class DevToolsSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    """
    A Scrapy spider to scrape data from specified URL
    """

    # Name of the spider
    name = 'dev_tools'


    # URL to start scraping from
    start_urls = [
        'https://dev-tools.alx-tools.com/',
    ]

    def parse(self, response):
        """
        Method to parse the response from each URL
        """

        # Extracting data from the HTML structure
        title = response.css('title::text').get()
        navbar_links = response.css('.navbar-nav a.nav-link::text').getall()
        about_content = response.css('#about .lead::text').get()

        # Yielding the extracted data as a dictionary
        yield {
            'title': title,
            'navbar_links': navbar_links,
            'about_content': about_content,
            }

Save this spider file in the spiders directory of your Scrapy project.

Now, you can run the spider using the following command:
scrapy crawl dev_tools -o output.json
Replace output.json with the desired output file name. This command will execute the spider, scrape the specified URL, and save the extracted data into a JSON file.

You can customize the spider to extract more specific data based on your requirements by using CSS selectors or XPath expressions to target specific elements in the HTML structure.

Output:

Expected output after running raw `scrapy crawl dev_tools -o output.json` endraw or raw `python -m scrapy crawl dev_tools -o output.json` endraw

Example Python Web scraping using Selenium

Again, ensure you have Selenium installed. You can install it using pip:
pip3 install selenium
Also Download WebDriver based on the web browser of your choice:

  • For Chrome: Visit the ChromeDriver download page and download the appropriate version for your operating system.
  • For Firefox: You can get GeckoDriver from the GeckoDriver releases page.
    For other browsers like Edge, Safari, etc., you can find their respective WebDriver downloads from the official sources 
# Import the web driver
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service


# Initialize the WebDriver (assuming you have the appropriate driver installed, e.g., chromedriver for Chrome)
service = Service(executable_path="chromedriver.exe")  # Specify the correct path to chromedriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome(service=service)


# Navigate to a website
driver.get('https://dev-tools.alx-tools.com/')


# Get and print the title of the webpage
print("Title of the webpage:", driver.title)


# Close the browser window
driver.quit()

Save this file in your project directory
After running the script you should have a similar output to mine.

Output:

Expected output after running selenium.py

Best Practices and Tips

You’ve just learned a skill that can save you a lot of time and resources: web scraping with Python libraries, In this article, I used a basic website Holberton School – Developer tools because it’s a free-to-use website for learning purposes. While learning is an important part of our journey as developers, it’s important to learn the right way and approach web scraping responsibly and ethically.
Here’s a list of best practices and tips to consider when engaging in web scraping

Tips:

  • Constant practice ensures mastery. Consider utilizing websites like geeksforgeeks, which offer free Python tutorials on web scraping.
  • When using Scrapy, always ensure that your ‘.py’ file is located in the spider directory to avoid errors such as “KeyError(f”Spider not found: {spider_name}”)”.
  • Download a web driver with the same version as the browser you intend to use, whether it’s Chrome or Firefox. Refer to their official websites for the correct version.

Common Pitfalls:

  • Not organizing your scraping files properly can lead to errors and confusion, especially in larger projects.
  • Not commenting on your code can lead to confusion, employ proper coding ethics
  • Ignoring website terms of service and scraping without authorization can result in legal issues.

Real-World Applications:

Python libraries like Panda and Matplotlib are often used for data processing and analysis by data analysts.
Web Scraping can be used in various real-world applications, such as:

  • Extracting the latest news from a blog site for content aggregation.
  • Gathering product information and prices from e-commerce sites for competitive analysis.
  • Monitoring changes in stock prices or financial data from financial websites.

By following these best practices, avoiding common pitfalls, and exploring real-world applications, you can harness the power of web scraping effectively and responsibly in your projects.

Conclusion:

In this article, we’ve discussed powerful Python libraries for web scraping and provided practical examples of how to use and install them. We’ve discussed the strengths of each tool and when to use them, based on the size of the project and complexity.

However, this is just an introduction to real problems in Python Web Scraping. To deepen your understanding and gain more practical insights, I encourage you to explore additional resources provided below. These resources include tutorials, documentation, and community forums where you can learn from others and share your experiences.

By continuing to learn and practice Python Web Scraping techniques, you can unlock a world of possibilities in data extraction and analysis. Whether you are a developer, data analyst, or website owner, Python opens doors to valuable tools and libraries for your usage.

Now, it’s time to dive deeper and apply what you’ve learned. Happy Scraping!

Additional Resources:

Scrapy Tutorial.
Freecode Camp Web Scraping Tutorial.
How to Setup Selenium with Chromedriver on Ubuntu.
Python Selenium Tutorial
How to Bypass CAPTCHA with Selenium.
Best Practices for Ethical Web Scraping.
Image by Freepik

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]]> https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/python-web-scraping-best-libraries-and-practices/feed/ 0 Is TikTok Becoming the Next QVC? All About TikTok Live Shopping https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/is-tiktok-becoming-the-next-qvc-all-about-tiktok-live-shopping/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-tiktok-becoming-the-next-qvc-all-about-tiktok-live-shopping https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/is-tiktok-becoming-the-next-qvc-all-about-tiktok-live-shopping/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:20:19 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/is-tiktok-becoming-the-next-qvc-all-about-tiktok-live-shopping/ is-tiktok-becoming-the-next-qvc?-all-about-tiktok-live-shopping

When I was growing up, QVC was the channel my mother would watch to discover new products and…

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When I was growing up, QVC was the channel my mother would watch to discover new products and deals. From hair straighteners to trendy blouses to jewelry, QVC would display everything during its 24/7 live broadcast.

Fast-forward to 2024, and I thought the live QVC era was long gone, thanks to the rise of online shopping. However, it looks like it is making a comeback via TikTok Live Shopping.

I can’t scroll for more than a minute without coming across a TikTok Live event showcasing products and services that viewers can purchase directly from the live broadcast.

So what is TikTok Live Shopping, and is it the new QVC? More importantly, should your brand give it a try? Here‘s what I’ve found:

What is TikTok Live Shopping

Why should brands experiment with TikTok Live Shopping?

TikTok Live Stream Shopping vs. QVC

Free Ebook: The Marketer's Guide to TikTok for Business [Download Now]

What is TikTok Live Shopping?

TikTok live shopping allows brands to showcase and sell products in real time during live streams on the platform. The experience enables TikTok users to purchase products without leaving the app.

Viewers can also wait until after the live stream to browse all the items mentioned during the event. This is done by tapping the shopping cart icon in the bottom left corner and selecting the items they want to buy.

Moreover, it allows customers and businesses to interact with each other during the process, fostering a connection between consumer and brand.

For example, I was scrolling through TikTok Live and came across a company called Wicked Misfit Shop, selling quirky handbags and purses.

Viewers commented on the live feed and asked the hosts to pick up different bags displayed in the background to explain to the audience.

The hosts answered questions, told viewers how to style the items, and gave vital information such as the items’ materials, features, and uses.

Why should brands experiment with TikTok Live Shopping?

The better question would be, “Why not?” There are so many benefits to selling products during a TikTok Livestream, so I can‘t see why a brand shouldn’t give it a try. Hosting a TikTok live shopping event can:

Expand your audience.

Many TikTok creators suggest going live at least a few times a week to boost reach and increase follower counts.

TikTok content creator Coach.Stone says going live on TikTok between 3-5 times a week is an underrated technique to expand your audience.

“I recommend going live about an hour after you post a video so that when that video is pushed out to people’s For You Pages, they see that you’re live,” he says. “If they’re interested in your video, they’ll want to learn more about you, pick your brain, and they’ll join your live.”

If your live stream is engaging and entertaining, viewers will want to follow your account to tune in for more. Ensuring your livestream offers your audience some value is critical to making it enjoyable.

In the case of live shopping, the value is your product and how well you showcase it. For example, I often see live shopping events from wig companies like the one below.

Hosts of the streams will typically try on the wig themselves, show how to style it, and discuss the kinds of outfits or events in which the wig would shine best.

And each time a wig is purchased during the stream, hosts often ring a bell or shout out the buyer by thanking them live.

They also answer questions from viewers in the comments.

All of this keeps your audience entertained and will attract followers.

Increase sales.

Most TikTok users are Gen Z, making up 44.7% of the platform’s users. Moreover, 46% of Gen Z consumers in the U.S. have participated in live shopping events.

And finally, 47% of Gen Z consumers in both the US and UK have made a purchase from a live stream. So, what does this all mean?

Well, it means livestream shopping can increase the sales and purchase potential of your products or services, especially since Gen Z’s buying power is growing yearly.

And let’s not forget about us millennials, who make up 33.7% of TikTok’s users. I admit I’ve been influenced quite a few times by social media when purchasing a product.

I bought my favorite skirt from Midnight Hour after seeing it pop up on my Instagram several times, and I’ve made a note to buy this adorable pink clock purse after seeing it promoted in a TikTok Live shopping event.

And I’m not the only millennial influenced. 38% of millennials in the UK and US have purchased via a social media platform.

TikTok Live Stream Shopping vs. QVC

Of course, it’s time to answer the leading question — is TikTok live shopping becoming the next QVC? To answer that, I need to do some comparing and contrasting.

Where They Compare

Both QVC and TikTok live shopping involve showcasing a product during a live broadcast. On both platforms, viewers can purchase the item immediately via the broadcast.

Perhaps the most crucial similarity is that QVC and TikTok Live Shopping feature genuine, conversational approaches to e-commerce. Look at the clip below of a classic QVC moment.

Host and stylist Nick Chavez speaks to a caller about his product, answers her questions, and even laughs off a live tumble.

Conversations and unscripted, authentic moments like the one above made QVC popular among consumers for decades.

And the same can be said about TikTok Live Shopping. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any funny video compilations to share in this post, but believe me when I say TikTok Live can be hilarious, random, and unhinged.

I always wonder what I’m going to see during a live broadcast. Will the host say something wild? Will they accidentally drop a product? Or, will a viewer join the live and completely change the atmosphere?

That’s the beauty of any live broadcast and what makes live shopping all the more fun.

Where They Contrast

Historically, viewers would have to call QVC viewers must call a number on display during the live event to make a purchase or ask the hosts questions. On TikTok, viewers can tap the item on their screen to buy it directly via the TikTok app.

TikTok viewers can join the live by requesting to do so, or they can interact with the hosts via the comments section.

Another difference is the quality of products and sellers between QVC and TikTok. Remember when I said some of my favorite clothing came from shopping on platforms like TikTok and Instagram? Well, it’s not all rainbows and butterflies.

To be a QVC vendor, a businesse must submit an application and meet specific requirements. The opposite is true for TikTok Live Shopping.

TikTok‘s business account and live shopping features are much more accessible and require no proof of the product’s quality.

This means shoppers have to take extra precautions when buying from a business on TikTok because there’s a chance the items may not be as advertised or could be of shoddy quality.

A fashion content creator who goes by Yves Saint Laurel voiced her concern in a recent TikTok.

“I know [live shopping streams] can be weirdly hypnotizing, and I even find myself watching them sometimes,” she says, “but most, if not all, of the brands I’ve seen doing this, are low-quality drop shippers that prey on your impulsiveness and manufacture a false sense of urgency.”

So, if you go the TikTok Live Shopping route, make sure to stand out amongst the scammers and the frauds by being honest about your products, their quality, and what buyers can expect.

OK, enough stalling, so is TikTok becoming the next QVC? In my opinion — yes!

Whether you‘re scrolling through TikTok Live, your For You page, the Shop tab, or the Following tab, you’ll come across someone selling you something, and you’ll have the opportunity to buy directly from within the app.

Social media e-commerce is a growing industry and will likely continue to grow as more consumers use social media on the buyer’s journey. TikTok is revolutionizing e-commerce with TikTok Live Shopping, or the QVC-ification of TikTok.

So, if you‘re a brand looking to expand your audience, boost sales, and further streamline your consumers’ buying experience — consider leveraging TikTok Live Shopping.

Blog - Content Mapping Template

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]]> https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/is-tiktok-becoming-the-next-qvc-all-about-tiktok-live-shopping/feed/ 0 47 B2B Marketing Stats to Know This Year [+HubSpot Data] https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-hubspot-data/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-hubspot-data https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-hubspot-data/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:20:18 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-hubspot-data/ 47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-[+hubspot-data]

Remember the story about Plato’s cave? Here’s a refresher. One group of people lives in a cave only…

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]]> 47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-[+hubspot-data]

Remember the story about Plato’s cave? Here’s a refresher. One group of people lives in a cave only sees shadows; the philosopher who escapes can see things for what they are.

That’s somewhat how it feels when making conclusions about B2B marketing without the right stats.

You simply have no ground to stand on, no lifeline to grab, before the naysayers and doubters sway your decision-making and alter the success of your strategies.

With data, you’re able to see the big picture. Buckle up, leave your preconceived notions about B2B marketing at the entrance, and let’s get into the nitty-gritty. All of the stats below come from HubSpot’s original research.

Download Now: Free State of Marketing Report [Updated for 2024]

B2B Marketing Strategy Stats

  • 66% of B2B leaders and 62% of B2C leaders say their companies have leveraged AI tools, while only 57% of sales leaders responded positively to the same question. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • 74% of B2B leaders and 68% of sales leaders deem AI/automation tools important to their overall business strategy. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • 69% of B2B leaders say they have the necessary data to reach their audience effectively, 19% are unsure, and 12% say that’s not the case. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • A noticeably smaller 68% of sales leaders think they have all the data necessary for reaching target audiences in an effective way. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 68% of B2B marketers say they possess high-quality data on their target audience, while 32% disagree or are unsure. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 74% of them can turn that data into meaningful insights, while 26% can’t or can’t tell with certainty. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 73% of B2B marketers understand the customer journey their leads take, while 27% either don’t or are still on the fence. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • Even though a whopping 76% of B2C marketers say their niche changed more in the past three than in the past 50 years. Only 68% of B2B marketers agree. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 15% of B2B marketers highlighted aligning sales and marketing (smarketing) as their biggest issue, with keeping up with trends, generating traffic and leads, and lack of high-quality data coming in at a close second at 14% each. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 27% of B2B marketers singled out planning ahead in case pivots are necessary, which is the biggest way that the industry has changed. That involves changing plans for major events like recessions, pandemics, and political turmoil. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)

b2b marketing stats

What This Shows

What’s immediately apparent from these strategy-related B2B marketing stats is that B2B leaders have to think ahead. That includes planning for changes in an uncertain market and adapting to new technology like AI.

However, what’s paramount for any AI-powered B2B marketing strategy to work is data.

Although it’s become the new gold, a whopping third of B2B marketers don’t have data that’s good enough, while a fourth has the data but doesn’t know how to turn it into something usable.

So, in 2024, data makes all the difference. That’s especially true when B2B marketing stats keep showcasing the changing nature of the industry. So, marketers should learn how to use that data quickly.

B2B Lead Generation Stats

  • 16% of B2B marketers say that lead generation is the primary marketing goal for 2024. (HubSpot)
  • Lead generation is considered the most important metric for measuring the effectiveness of content strategies, according to 29% of B2B marketers. (HubSpot)
  • 44% of marketers most commonly try to generate leads with landing pages — followed by customers or direct purchases at 34%. (HubSpot)
  • 51% of marketers use social media promotion to drive traffic to landing pages — followed by 44% who use email promotion, 36% who use SEO practices, and 33% who use paid advertising. (HubSpot)
  • According to 39% of marketers, videos on landing pages positively impact conversion rates. (HubSpot)
  • Lead generation is the most important metric for measuring the effectiveness of content marketing strategies, according to 29% of marketers. (HubSpot)
  • AI saves about 2 hours and 16 minutes for manual tasks. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)

b2b marketing stats

What This Shows

Surprise, surprise, another year, another survey where the importance of lead generation is reinforced.

Despite the AI fanfare, the staples are still there — good, fleshed-out landing pages with the occasional video and sufficient social media promotion, of course.

B2B Marketing Team Stats

  • 50% of all B2B marketers deem sharing data with other teams an easy affair.
  • The goodwill works both ways, with 52% of marketers saying getting that same data is easy. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • Even though 56% of marketers said their teams have become more aligned with sales, 31% stated the relationship hasn’t changed. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • At the same time, the importance of alignment has changed according to 53% of marketers, while 33% consider the alignment to be status quo. More alarmingly, 14% state the importance of that alignment has further decreased in 2023. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • Why is this alignment important? 29% of marketers said it benefits lead quality, while 26% each have selected customer experience and strategy execution as one of their biggest benefits of sales-marketing alignment. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • If the machine isn’t well-oiled, calamity ensues. 39% say the biggest damage comes in the form of lost revenue, while 38% believe the poor impression it leaves is crucial. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • But then again, it’s also the area of alignment that’s important. Sharing customer data and overall strategy led the way by being picked by 39% of marketers each, while content creation was the choice of 37% of them. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • Despite all the benefits, 32% of surveyed marketers say that a lack of communication was their biggest obstacle on the road to team alignment. Different tools and the lack of alignment on goals are other culprits, according to 29% of marketers. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)

What This Shows

Contrary to popular belief, Skynet hasn’t subjugated us all, and jobs haven’t been replaced by AI.

It’s the exact opposite, really, with interaction between teams becoming an even bigger factor in the successful implementation of automation-aided strategies. We have more time now, right?

Yes, but almost a third of B2B marketers have stated that their teams haven’t become more aligned with sales teams.

In an environment where production is ramping up, this might present itself as an issue that might manifest in lost revenue and a deteriorating brand image.

Once again, we circle back to the issue of sharing and giving data. Whether it’s due to the creation of data silos, a lack of communication, or simply incompatible software, the gap is still a wide one.

Fortunately, the influx of various AI solutions, as well as open-source LLMs, provides hope that marketing and sales teams will be able to coexist on a single platform, without a hitch in communication.

B2B Social Media Strategy Stats

  • Facebook and Instagram seem to be the best social media channels in terms of ROI — 29% of B2B marketers saw the greatest returns there. YouTube comes in third place with 26%, while TikTok was the most profitable avenue for 24% of B2B marketers. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • TikTok and Discord are the channels that will see the most increases in activity from marketing teams. 53% and 46% of B2B marketers plan to increase budgets for these platforms, with LinkedIn following closely at 45%. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 16% of B2B marketers plan to start leveraging YouTube for the first time in 2024 — slightly ahead of TikTok and Twitter/X at 15%. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • LinkedIn is the hotspot of B2B marketing — 17% of B2B marketers plan to invest the most in this platform, followed by TikTok and Instagram at 13%. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 97% of B2B marketers consider generative AI tools either effective or somewhat effective. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • However, this doesn’t mean that human oversight is unnecessary. When using AI to write copy, 52% of marketers make minor edits to the text — while 41% make significant changes, with an additional 7% changing it completely. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • Surprisingly, a slight minority of companies work with influencers — with only 46% of polled marketers saying that their company worked with creators or influencers in 2023. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • In terms of audience size, micro-influencers (with 10,000 to 100,000 followers) were the most utilized, with 61% of marketers collaborating with this category. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • Micro-influencers were also the most successful category, with 48% of marketers being satisfied with the provided results. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 50% of all B2B marketers deem sharing data with other teams an easy affair.

b2b marketing stats

What This Shows

Meta retains its dominant position as a social media channel for marketing. Although Facebook and Instagram drive the biggest returns, those markets are mature and saturated.

Newcomers in the space like Discord and TikTok are the new frontiers where businesses will vie for visibility.

The rise of TikTok is even more notable. The platform barely lags behind YouTube in terms of popularity. It will also receive plenty of new attention from marketers in the coming year.

To supplement this, it is also the platform that will derive the biggest investments from marketers after LinkedIn.

YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter/X surprisingly seem to be underutilized — with double digits of respondents saying that they will leverage these platforms for the first time this year.

Two more broad insights can be derived from the showcased data. Generative AI tools are broadly accepted as effective, although human oversight and editing are obviously still necessary.

In terms of influencer marketing, micro-influencers, the hot topic of yesteryear, seem to have paid off.

The smaller communities associated with them, such as meme pages, provide better results compared to online presences with larger reaches, like celebrities.

B2B SEO Stats

  • Website and blog SEO is the second-most leveraged marketing strategy in the B2B space, with 32% of marketers reporting having used it. It is only slightly surpassed by physical events and tradeshows at 33%. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • In tandem with this, updating SEO strategies to prepare for generative AI in search (like Google Search’s Generative experience) will cause 40% of B2B marketers to increase their budgets. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • 50% of B2B marketers plan to increase SEO budgets in 2024. An additional 43% plan on investing the same amount as they did before. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • With regard to content marketing, improving SEO performance is a big priority — 11% of B2B marketers singled it out as their biggest challenge. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 39% of B2B marketers consider sales the most important metric for measuring the success of content marketing strategies — 30% consider web traffic more important, and 20% consider conversion rate the most important metric. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 46% of polled marketers believe that the advent of generative AI will make SEO more effective. 39% think it won’t have much of an impact on SEO, while just 15% think it will have negative impacts on SEO. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • Updating SEO strategies for Google’s algorithm changes is being undertaken by 22% of marketers, while updating strategies for generative AI is being leveraged by 21% of marketers. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • This isn’t just being forward-thinking. For 6% of B2B marketers, keeping up with Google’s algorithm resulted in the biggest ROI in 2023. Updating SEO strategies for generative AI was the biggest driver of growth for 8% of marketers. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • 12% of B2B marketers believe that AI-driven SEO optimization tools would help their business the most out of all AI tools. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • Among bloggers and SEOs who use AI tools, automating time-consuming tasks such as meta tags, alt text, and link descriptions is the most common use case, along with analyzing website data. Both uses account for 42% of our polled sample. (HubSpot’s State of AI Report)
  • 80% of polled bloggers and SEOs that already use tools agree that these tools will be able to do most SEO-related tasks completely independently by the end of the year. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • There are also worries in the air — 78% of bloggers and SEOs who use automation tools are concerned that these instruments will eventually make SEO obsolete. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)
  • 69% of bloggers and SEOs who use AI agree that automation tools can optimize a website for SEO better than a human can. (HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report)

What This Shows

SEO is still one of the most dominant approaches to marketing in the B2B space, and updating SEO strategies to better fit search engine changes is a widespread priority.

In terms of AI use, the automation of time-consuming manual tasks and the analysis of large quantities of data are the most prevalent use cases.

Data shows that we’ll see budget increases industry-wide. Metrics that relate to SEO, like traffic and conversions, are notable priorities for B2B professionals.

Making the Most of Data

The B2B industry has undergone a massive change since the pandemic and the advent of AI. AI is seeing widespread adoption.

While it might be a bitter pill to swallow, this is the new normal, and the Luddites among us, like their namesakes, will unfortunately be left behind.

Adapting to these new realities isn’t a matter of optimization or peak performance anymore — it’s a question of being able to just stay in business. Marketers are in broad agreement here.

Learning how to effectively utilize these tools is do or die in terms of staying competitive as a business and retaining employment as a professional.

We’re on the cusp of a significant transformation, and keeping up is essential.

state-of-marketing-2024

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]]> https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/47-b2b-marketing-stats-to-know-this-year-hubspot-data/feed/ 0 How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo-a-beginners-guide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo-a-beginners-guide https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo-a-beginners-guide/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:20:17 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo-a-beginners-guide/ how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo:-a-beginner’s-guide

While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin’ out, one thing…

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]]> how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo:-a-beginner’s-guide

While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin’ out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.

Download Now: Keyword Research Template [Free Resource]

In this post, we’ll define what keyword research is, why it’s important, how to conduct your research for your SEO strategy, and choose the right keywords for your website.

Table of Contents

Why is keyword research important?

Keyword research helps you find which keywords are best to target and provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google.

Insights from these actual search terms can help inform your content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy.

People use keywords to find solutions when conducting research online.

So if your content is successful in getting in front of your audience as they conduct searches, you stand to gain more traffic. Therefore, you should be targeting those searches with content that features those keywords in a meaningful way.

Additionally, inbound methodology focuses less on creating content around what we want to tell people. Instead, we should be creating content around what people want to discover.

In other words, our audience is coming to us for helpful content that provides the answers they’re looking for.

In a nutshell, all of this starts with keyword research.

Conducting keyword research has many benefits, the most popular being:

Marketing Trend Insight

Conducting effective keyword research can provide you with insights into current marketing trends and help you center your content on relevant topics and keywords your audience is in search of.

Traffic Growth

When you identify the best-fitting keywords for the content you publish, the higher you’ll rank in search engine results — the more traffic you’ll attract to your website.

Customer Acquisition

If your business has content that other business professionals are looking for, you can meet their needs and provide them with a call-to-action that will lead them into the buyer journey from the awareness stage to the point of purchase.

By researching keywords for their popularity, search volume, and general intent, you can tackle the questions that most people in your audience want answers to.

Keywords vs. Topics

More and more, we hear how much SEO has evolved over just the last 10 years and how seemingly unimportant keywords have transformed our ability to rank well for the searches people make every day.

And to some extent, this is true, but in the eyes of an SEO professional, it’s a different approach. Rather, it’s the intent behind that keyword and whether or not a piece of content solves for that intent (we’ll talk more about intent in just a minute).

But that doesn’t mean keyword research is an outdated process. Let me explain:

Keyword research tells you what topics people care about and, assuming you use the right SEO tool, how popular those topics actually are among your audience.

The operative term here is topics, plural. By researching keywords that are getting a high volume of searches per month, you can identify and sort your content into topics or buckets that you want to create content on.

Then, you can use these topics to dictate which keywords you look for and target.

Elements of Keyword Research

There are three main elements I have discovered that you should pay attention to when conducting keyword research.

1. Relevance

Google ranks content for relevance.

This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the searchers’ needs.

In addition, your content must be the best resource out there for the query. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it provides less value than other content that exists on the web?

2. Authority

Google will provide more weight to sources it deems authoritative.

That means you must do all you can to become an authoritative source by enriching your site with helpful, informative content and promoting that content to earn social signals and backlinks.

If you’re not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword’s SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can’t compete with (like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic), you have a lower chance of ranking unless your content is exceptional.

3. Volume

You may end up ranking on the first page for a specific keyword, but if no one ever searches for it, it will not result in traffic to your site. It’s like setting up a shop in a ghost town.

Volume is measured by MSV (monthly search volume), which means the number of times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences.

I’m going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with a list of terms you should be targeting.

That way, you’ll be able to establish and execute a strong keyword strategy that helps you get found for the search terms you actually care about.

Step 1. Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.

To kick off this process, think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets.

You’ll come up with about five to 10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you’ll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

If you’re a regular blogger, these are probably the topics you blog about most frequently. Or perhaps they’re the topics that come up the most in sales conversations.

Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas. What types of topics would your target audience search that you’d want your business to get found for?

Image Source

If you were a company like HubSpot, for example — selling marketing software (which happens to have some awesome SEO tools… but I digress), you might have general topic buckets like:

  • “inbound marketing” (6.6K).
  • “blogging” (90.5K).
  • “email marketing” (22.2K).
  • “lead generation” (18.1K).
  • “SEO” (110K).
  • “social media marketing” (40.5K).
  • “marketing analytics” (5.4K).
  • “marketing automation” (85.4K).

See those numbers in parentheses to the right of each keyword? That’s their monthly search volume.

This data allows you to gauge how important these topics are to your audience and how many different sub-topics you might need to create content on to be successful with that keyword.

To learn more about these sub-topics, we move on to step two.

Step 2. Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.

Now that you have a few topic buckets you want to focus on, it’s time to identify some keywords that fall into those buckets.

These are keyword phrases you think are important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target customer is probably conducting searches for those specific terms.

For instance, if I took that last topic bucket for an inbound marketing software company — “marketing automation” — I’d brainstorm some keyword phrases that I think people would type in related to that topic.

Those might include:

  • marketing automation tools
  • how to use marketing automation software
  • what is marketing automation?
  • how to tell if I need marketing automation software
  • lead nurturing
  • email marketing automation
  • top automation tools

And so on and so on. The point of this step isn’t to come up with your final list of keyword phrases.

You just want to end up with a brain dump of phrases you think potential customers might use to search for content related to that particular topic bucket.

We’ll narrow the lists down later in the process so you don’t have something too unwieldy.

Keep in mind that more and more keywords are getting encrypted by Google every day, so another smart way to come up with keyword ideas is to figure out which keywords your website is already getting found for.

To do this, you’ll need website analytics software like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or HubSpot’s Sources report, available in the Traffic Analytics tool.

Drill down into your website’s traffic sources, and sift through your organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords people are using to arrive at your site.

Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you have.

Remember, if you’re having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your customer-facing colleagues — those who are in sales or service. Ask them what types of terms their prospects or customers have questions about.

Those are often great starting points for keyword research.

Here at HubSpot, we use the Search Insights Report in this part of the process. This template is designed to help you do the same and bucket your keywords into topic clusters, analyze MSV, and inform your editorial calendar and strategy.

Download the Template

Step 3. Understand how intent affects keyword research and analyze accordingly.

Like I said in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google.

Today, it’s more important that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve than simply carries the keyword the searcher used. So, how does this affect the keyword research you do?

It’s easy to take keywords at face value, but unfortunately, keywords can have many different meanings beneath the surface.

Because the intent behind a search is so important to your ranking potential, you need to be extra careful about how you interpret the keywords you target.

Let’s say, for example, you’re researching the keyword “how to start a blog” for an article you want to create. “Blog” can mean a blog post or the blog website itself, and what a searcher’s intent is behind that keyword will influence the direction of your article.

Does the searcher want to learn how to start an individual blog post? Or do they want to know how to actually launch a website domain for the purposes of blogging?

If your content strategy is only targeting people interested in the latter, you’ll need to make sure of the keyword’s intent before committing to it.

To verify what a user’s intent is in a keyword, it’s a good idea to simply enter this keyword into a search engine yourself and see what types of results come up.

Make sure the type of content Google is displaying relates to your intention for the keyword.

This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research. If not, it’s a great way to fill out those lists.

If you’re struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword into Google.

When you type in your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google’s results, you’ll notice some suggestions for searches related to your original input.

These keywords can spark ideas for other keywords you may want to take into consideration.

Want a bonus? Type in some of those related search terms and look at their related search terms.

Step 5. Use keyword research tools to your advantage.

Keyword research and SEO tools can help you come up with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you’ve generated up to this point.

Some of the most popular ones include:

1. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Some of the best SEO reports and keyword research I’ve seen have come from SEO experts using Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.

Their webmaster tools offer plenty of detail into any verified domains you own if you’re looking for an overview of backlinks and organic keywords.

2. SE Ranking

I found SE Ranking was not quite as user-friendly to dive into as some of the other options. When I typed in my keyword “keyword research,” I was prompted to set up a free 7-day trial, and it immediately asked for the domain I wanted to track.

While it gave me some good intro data, I had to do some digging to get to the keyword research and keyword suggestion tools. However, when I found them, the resulting data was comprehensive and gave me lots of great ideas.

And, it didn’t make me put in a credit card to take the tool for a spin, which is always a plus in my book.

3. SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool

Semrush is one of the most comprehensive SEO companies out there, so I wasn’t surprised to find that their keyword magic tool was comprehensive as well.

While you do need to set up an account, it’s free. Then, you can type in your keyword, get a list of similar keywords, and sort based on how specific you need your results to be.

4. Ubersuggest

I’ve been a fan of Ubersuggest for quite some time. You get up to three free searches a day, and it’s so easy to use.

In addition to finding out specific keyword performance, you can find related keywords, and you can also do a quick reverse search to find out what your site is already ranking for.

It’s one of the easiest, most comprehensive free options, if you don’t mind the limitations of the free searches.

5. Free Keyword Research Tool

I found Ryrob’s keyword research tool easy to use. When I plugged “keyword research” into the “Explorer” tab as my keyword, it gave me several related keywords that could be solid blog topics.

Then, when I shifted over to the “Ideas” tab, it gave me other keyword cluster ideas that are more likely to be specific search terms that I might want to include in future articles on keyword research.

6. Google Keyword Planner

Google’s tools are always gold. They’re free, and it’s always good to get the info straight from the horse’s mouth. Once you sign in with your Google account, you can search for keyword ideas based on the keyword or your website.

After plugging in my website, I got a list of 637 target keyword ideas, and I frantically started messaging my VA with about two dozen of them and a reminder to “ping me in our next meeting” so I don’t lose track of these ideas!

7. Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere has been highly recommended by several people I know.

Here’s what I learned — it’s a browser extension that’s not quite free and takes a little more setup than some of the browser-based options, but at $15/year, it’s accessible to most people.

Once I installed and configured the extension, it was super easy to sign up for their lowest-tier package.

Better yet, it’s not one-and-done. And I don’t have to log into a platform every time I want to check on keywords.

Every time I do a Google search, I get data about related keywords and similar searches, which gives me lots of ideas for new content. (And, of course, I searched “keyword research.” Why not?)

For the price and the detail, it’s one of my favorite tools.

8. KeywordTool.io

Basically, using KeywordTool.io is exactly what they promise in the headline. When I typed in “keyword research,” I got a list of 502 keyword ideas.

Although I only see search volume, trend, CPC, and competition for the first five, I can see all of the keywords, which provides a solid search starting point.

9. KWFinder

KWFinder is another easy tool. While I quickly found that an account is needed to get started, it’s free and quite easy to dive in. I was able to quickly start finding the top keywords.

10. SearchVolume.io

When I plugged in a handful of keywords into SearchVolume.io, after doing a quick “Are you a human?” check, the monthly search volume immediately popped out.

A quick cross-comparison with other tools showed that the data was consistent with other platforms.

Once you have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank for, now it’s time to refine your list based on the best ones for your strategy. Here’s how.

Step 1. Use Google Keyword Planner to cut down your keyword list.

In Google’s Keyword Planner, you can get search volume and traffic estimates for keywords you’re considering. Then, take the information you learn from Keyword Planner and use Google Trends to fill in some blanks.

Use the Keyword Planner to flag any terms on your list that have way too little (or way too much) search volume and don’t help you maintain a healthy mix like we talked about above.

But before you delete anything, check out their trend history and projections in Google Trends. You can see whether, say, some low-volume terms might actually be something you should invest in now — and reap the benefits later.

Or perhaps you’re just looking at a list of terms that is way too unwieldy, and you have to narrow it down somehow. Google Trends can help you determine which terms are trending upward and are, therefore, worth more of your focus.

Step 2. Prioritize low-hanging fruit.

What I mean by prioritizing low-hanging fruit is to prioritize keywords that you have a chance of ranking for based on your website’s authority.

Large companies typically go after high search volume keywords, and since these brands are well established already, Google typically rewards them with authority over many topics.

You can also consider keywords that have little competition. Keywords that don’t already have multiple articles battling for the highest rank can afford you the spot by default — if there’s no one else trying to claim it.

Step 3. Check the monthly search volume (MSV) for keywords you’ve chosen.

You want to write content around what people want to discover, and checking MSV can help you do just that.

Monthly search volume is the number of times a search query or keyword is entered into search engines each month.

Tools like searchvolume.io or Google Trends can help you find out the most searched keywords over related keyword clusters for free.

Step 4. Factor in SERP features as you choose keywords.

There are several SERP feature snippets that Google will highlight if used correctly.

An easy way to find out about them is to look up the keywords of your choosing and see what the first result looks like. But for a quick overview of the types of SERP featured snippets, we’ll summarize what they are here.

Image Packs

Image packs are search results displayed as a horizontal row of images that appear in an organic position. If there’s an image pack, you should write an image-heavy post to win placement in it.

Paragraph Snippets

Featured snippets, or paragraph snippets, are short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google search results for quick answers to common search queries.

Understanding the searcher’s intent and providing succinct, concise answers can help in winning the placement.

List Snippets

List snippets, or listicles, are snippets made for posts outlining steps to do something from start to finish — often for “How To” searches. Making posts with direct, clear instructions and formatting can assist in winning this placement.

Video Snippets

Video snippets are short videos that Google will display at the top of a search query page in place of text featured snippets.

Posting a video on both YouTube and your website can help you win this placement if tagged in the targeted keywords people are searching for.

Step 5. Check for a mix of head terms and long-tail keywords in each bucket.

Head terms are keyword phrases that are generally shorter and more generic — they’re typically just one to three words in length, depending on who you talk to.

Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases usually containing three or more words.

It’s important to check that you have a mix of head terms and long-tail terms because it’ll give you a keyword strategy that’s well-balanced with long-term goals and short-term wins.

That’s because head terms are generally searched more frequently, making them often (not always, but often) much more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail terms.

Think about it: Without even looking up search volume or difficulty, which of the following terms do you think would be harder to rank for?

  1. how to write a great blog post
  2. blogging

If you answered #2, you’re absolutely right.

But don’t get discouraged. While head terms generally boast the most search volume (meaning greater potential to send you traffic), frankly, the traffic you’ll get from the term “how to write a great blog post” is usually more desirable.

Why?

Because someone who is looking for something that specific is probably a much more qualified searcher for your product or service (presuming you’re in the blogging space) than someone looking for something really generic.

Because long-tail keywords tend to be more specific, it’s usually easier to tell what people who search for those keywords are really looking for. Someone searching for the head term “blogging,” on the other hand, could be searching it for a whole host of reasons unrelated to your business.

So check your keyword lists to make sure you have a healthy mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. You definitely want some quick wins that long-tail keywords will afford you, but you should also try to chip away at more difficult head terms over the long haul.

Step 6. See how competitors are ranking for these keywords.

Just because your competitor is doing something doesn’t mean you need to. The same goes for keywords. Just because a keyword is important to your competitor doesn’t mean it’s important to you.

However, understanding what keywords your competitors are trying to rank for is a great way to help you give your list of keywords another evaluation.

If your competitor is ranking for certain keywords that are on your list, too, it definitely makes sense to work on improving your ranking for those.

Don’t ignore the ones your competitors don’t seem to care about. This could be a great opportunity for you to own market share on important terms, too.

Understanding the balance of terms might be a little more difficult. Remember, the goal is to end up with a list of keywords that provides some quick wins but also helps you make progress toward bigger, more challenging SEO goals.

How do you figure out what keywords your competitors are ranking for, you ask? You can manually search for keywords in an incognito browser and see what positions your competitors are in.

Beyond that, the code Arel=“noopener” target=“_blank” hrefs allows you to run a number of free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you enter.

This is a quick way to get a sense of the types of terms your competitors are ranking for.

Best Keywords for SEO

Understand that there are no “best” keywords, just those that are highly searched by your audience. With this in mind, it’s up to you to craft a strategy that will help you rank pages and drive traffic.

The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on:

  • The level of competition you’re up against.
  • Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what’s currently ranking.

And You’ve Got the Right Keywords for Your Website SEO

You now have a list of keywords that’ll help you focus on the right topics for your business and get you some short-term and long-term gains.

Be sure to re-evaluate these keywords every few months — once a quarter is a good benchmark, but some businesses like to do it even more often than that.

As you gain even more authority in the SERPs, you’ll find that you can add more and more keywords to your list.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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]]> https://prodsens.live/2024/04/05/how-to-do-keyword-research-for-seo-a-beginners-guide/feed/ 0 Merely tactical to deliberately strategic https://prodsens.live/2023/11/29/merely-tactical-to-deliberately-strategic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=merely-tactical-to-deliberately-strategic https://prodsens.live/2023/11/29/merely-tactical-to-deliberately-strategic/#respond Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:25:57 +0000 https://prodsens.live/2023/11/29/merely-tactical-to-deliberately-strategic/ merely-tactical-to-deliberately-strategic

This article is based on a presentation given by Jim Payne at the Product Marketing Summit in Denver.…

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Merely tactical to deliberately strategic

This article is based on a presentation given by Jim Payne at the Product Marketing Summit in Denver. Catch up on this presentation, and others, using our OnDemand service. For more exclusive content, visit your membership dashboard.

Product marketing can be very complicated. We do a lot. Does this long list of tasks look familiar to you? 

That’s a lot, right? While product marketing looks different at every company, you’re likely responsible for at least a chunk of those tasks. It’s a ton of stuff and it can be hard to manage.

Merely tactical to deliberately strategic

It begs a question: Is this strategy? Is doing all of this stuff strategic? 

The answer is absolutely not. 

All those tasks and responsibilities we’re grappling with day to day are merely tactical. It’s time to change that.

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