Keyword Research Tips For Life Science Content Marketing
Finding the right keywords for life science and biotech brands can be quite a challenge. This post will tell you all the tips and tricks you need to know when doing keyword research, so that you find those seed and focus keywords that will boost your SEO strategy, and get your content seen.
Online content marketing is all the rage nowadays. Considering most of our daily activities having moved online since the pandemic, it goes without saying that online content marketing has boomed across all industries. Businesses that aren’t willing to adapt are doomed to be outgrown by competitors.
When planning out a life science content marketing strategy, the key to success is to create content that is both interesting, and accessible enough, to address a diversified range of audiences. The latest tendency of pharmaceutical and health industries is to enable transparency, openness and communication, not only with scientists and industry experts, but also with patients and regular individuals. But it’s exactly this broad range of target audiences that makes keyword research so challenging. Sometimes, the same brand will need to target two very different audiences at the same time, so their head keywords have to be chosen accordingly.
If you’re asking yourself “how do I research keywords like a pro?”, you’ve come to the right place. The following keyword ideas and tips can help marketers in the health space target the many subfields of life sciences, and the different types of audiences and online traffic.
Implementing a Strategy For Keyword Research
Developing and executing a life science content marketing strategy compiled with search engine optimization techniques provides lots of advantages, including:
- Increased visibility
- Solutions to the problems clients are facing
- Added confidence for clients to buy your products or use your services
- Differentiation in the eyes of prospects
- A shift of business landscape
- A deeper understanding of what your prospects want to know
Here are some keyword research tips when planning out your content:
- Find seed keywords that serve as the core foundation for the rest of your keywords on the site. These keywords are used to grow the list that will become your keyword strategy. Aim for high search volume and low difficulty/competition.
- Search for focus keywords that help direct your content and increase your competitiveness in search rankings. These are used to supplement your seed keywords.
- Adapt to Google’s changing algorithms
- Learn how to use long tail keywords to capture bottom-of-funnel searches
- Do some competitor research and make a keyword list of what they rank for and the keywords they target
- Make use of SEO keyword research tools, like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, and SurferSEO
- Understand the importance of relevance. Every keyword needs to be highly relevant to the topic. Look at examples of focus keywords that others are using with success, and always do a quick Google search to ensure you are capturing the right intent.
To give you a better understanding of how each one of these keyword research tips can improve your content strategy, let’s go over them one by one.
Find The Right Seed Keywords
Seed keywords, also known as “head terms”, are the starting point of any keyword research you perform. Getting this right in the beginning will save you time later when planning out your content strategy. The most important tip we can give you for when performing keyword research is to know all your audiences. From scientists to wholesalers, distributors or patients, before choosing the best keywords for your website, you first need to understand the audiences you are optimizing for.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What is my website about?
- What products and services do I provide?
- Who do they address?
- What keywords would I like to rank for?
These questions will help you understand your audience and what topics are relevant to them, and thus narrow down the keyword phrases that are most likely to draw them to your site.
What Are Focus Keywords And How They Can Help
Focus keywords are additional terms or keyphrases you want your post or page to rank for, and which are strongly related to your seed or main keyword. And while keywords are targeted by SEO specialists, focus keywords are the actual search terms that end users enter in the search engines.
Wondering how to find the right focus keywords?
The same way you would do when performing keyword research, just that you’ll search for any terms that might seem relevant for your customers. You can also use an app like Surfer SEO that will find all the terms for you. These terms are aggregated from the top 10 search results for your primary or seed terms, meant to support the article with foundational language. The tip when using focus or LSI keywords is to use them just a few times in your articles, not to over optimize or compete with your seed terms.
Keep Up With Google’s Ever-Changing Algorithm
Google’s main goal is to provide the best possible results for every query, and is constantly changing its algorithm. Because of this, it pushes webmasters to keep their content relevant and up to date. If you are working in the digital marketing field, you probably know by now that Google is reported to change its search algorithm a little every day, with a total of around 500 to 600 times each year. Algorithm changes can affect your website greatly in the following ways:
- Search results ranking and visibility
- Organic search traffic
- Conversions – leads and revenue
- Return on investment (ROI)
So how can you use this in your favor when performing keyword research? These following tips might prove helpful:
- Follow SEO experts like MOZ or Neil Patel
- Work with a reputable digital marketing strategist for life sciences when preparing your content strategy
- Make sure your content is always up top to date, relevant and credible
- Don’t copy/paste from other websites
- Track Google algorithm updates
Long Tail Keywords And Why You Need Them
Although avoided by many marketers, long tail keywords should be your focus in 2021. A long tail keyword is less competitive, naturally has less search traffic since it’s more specific, but it will usually have a higher conversion value as they are considered bottom-of-funnel keywords. Among all our keyword research tips, this one regarding the use of long tail keywords can be highly beneficial for life sciences. So don’t hesitate for one second and start using them immediately. They can help you out when there’s a lot of competition in your market, or a lot of competition for the main keywords you want to rank for.
Do Your Homework On Your Competitors
The life sciences and biotech fields are highly competitive. With so many players in the market, if you want to make sure that you occupy a unique spot, you need to be aware of what your competitors are up to. Start by doing a competitor analysis and to get a wider picture and get a more clear idea about where you fit. Don’t limit yourself solely to their web pages, but check out also their blog posts and social media accounts.
So why would knowing your competitors fit among our keyword research tips?
It’s simple. Once you manage to identify the top players on the market and your direct competitors, look at what seed and focus keywords they are using. That’s what you’ll want to target too. You’ll also be able to start seeing the keywords that are actually searched, rather than the ones you think are searched. Understanding the terms that your competitors are using in their own SEO efforts is a great way to gain insight into their success and what’s currently working.
Not sure how to find out which keywords you should be focusing on?
Take a look at what your competitors websites are targeting by using Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush for further ideas.
Use SEO Intelligence Platforms
All throughout the digital marketing world, people have been trying to game the system and convince search engines that their website is important. Other than the tips we already outlined up to now, using SEO tools for keyword research can be quite helpful for you.
Some of these tools like Ahrefs, Google Search Console, SEMrush, or Moz, can save you from time consuming keyword research and data analysis. They can also provide reports about how you measure up to competitors, where the greatest opportunities lie, and also measure search performance countries, regions, or languages.
Make Relevance Your Main Priority
Relevance enables the marketer to focus first on the keywords that mean the most to their audience. When performing keyword research for life sciences, relevance is an absolute must. But with such a diversified audience, you must realize that your content cannot be equally relevant for everyone. And since there’s no relevance without knowing the end goal, create a buyer persona for scientists and one for regular patients. These personas should comprise the basic essence of who is buying your product or using your services. Don’t just think that you understand your audience. Try to be as precise as you can by going deep into their mind, and try to address their problems, questions, concerns, and interests.
Conclusion
Keyword research is not only about creating great content, it is also about defining goals. Finding the right terms to use is nothing if you don’t make sure to write something that your audience will find interesting, useful, and most importantly, authentic. When your end goal becomes understanding your clients and creating useful content for them, the information you’ll share will most surely meet your users’ needs.
We hope that you found our keyword research tips helpful and relevant.
For more great advice regarding life science marketing, check some of our other posts:
