Mistakes to Avoid During a Keyword Audit

A well-executed keyword audit is the foundation of a solid SEO strategy. However, even seasoned professionals can make mistakes that compromise the audit’s effectiveness and, consequently, SEO results. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid…

Ignoring User Search Intent

Search intent is the Holy Grail of keyword auditing. It represents the underlying reason why a user performs a query. Understanding this intent is crucial to offering the most relevant content and satisfying user needs. Neglecting this fundamental aspect is a costly mistake.

There are mainly four types of search intent:

Informational: The user seeks to learn something, to get information. Examples: “how to do a keyword audit,” “SEO definition.”
Navigational: The user seeks to access a specific website. Example: “Facebook,” “Sephora online.”
Transactional: The user intends to make a purchase or take action. Examples: “buy running shoes,” “book cheap flight.”
Commercial Investigation: The user is researching before making a purchase.

Examples: “best smartphone 2024,” “cordless vacuum reviews.”

When performing your audit, ensure the content you offer matches the intent behind the keyword. For example, targeting the keyword “keyword audit” with a product page selling an audit service would be inappropriate. Users searching for this term generally want to understand how to perform an audit, not necessarily buy one.

For each keyword on your list, ask yourself these questions:

What is the user’s motivation?
What type of content will best satisfy their needs?
Does my current content address this intent?

By aligning your content with search intent, you’ll improve user experience, increase your conversion rate, and boost your ranking in search results.

Focusing Solely on High-Volume Keywords

While high-volume keywords may seem attractive due to their significant traffic potential, targeting them exclusively is a common strategic mistake. In reality, a volume-only approach can lead you to miss valuable opportunities and waste resources.

Here’s why focusing solely on high-volume keywords is a limited approach:

Strong competition: These keywords are generally highly contested, making it difficult and expensive to reach top positions in search results. Established sites with large budgets often dominate these queries.
Less qualified traffic: Generic keywords often attract a broader, less targeted audience. The traffic generated may therefore be less relevant to your business and have a low conversion rate.
Missed opportunities: By ignoring low-volume keywords, you’re missing out on more specific and intentional queries that can generate more qualified traffic and higher conversions. We’re talking about long-tail keywords here.

It’s imperative to adopt a balanced approach, combining high-volume keywords with lower-volume but more targeted keywords.

The latter allow you to reach a specific audience with clear purchase intent and improve your conversion rate. Remember, it’s often more profitable to attract 100 highly qualified visitors than 1000 visitors with little interest in what you offer.

Favor a strategy that considers volume, relevance, competition, and especially search intent.

Neglecting Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords, often composed of three or more words, represent very specific queries users use when close to a purchase decision or seeking very precise information. Neglecting them during a keyword audit is a costly mistake, as they offer considerable advantages.

Why Are Long-Tail Keywords Important?

While you must certainly pursue main keywords one way or another, “small streams make big rivers.” Long-tail keywords will be a significant source of traffic.

Reduced Competition: Fewer websites optimize their content for these very specific queries, making it easier to achieve good positioning in search results.
Qualified Traffic: People using long-tail queries generally know exactly what they want. By meeting their specific needs, you attract traffic more likely to convert into customers.
Better Conversion Rate: With clearer search intent, visitors from long-tail keywords are often closer to purchase decisions.
Targeted Content Opportunities: Long-tail keywords provide valuable insights into your audience’s questions and needs, making it easier to create highly relevant content that directly addresses their concerns.

How to Identify Long-Tail Keywords?

Beyond keyword analysis lies the long tail. And unfortunately, it won’t appear in any data you extract from SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions Analysis: Examine forums, blog comments, and social media to identify questions your potential customers ask. These questions can serve as a basis for long-tail keywords.
Keyword Research Tools: Explore keyword research tools, filtering results to display longer, more specific queries.
Internal Search Data Analysis: Examine queries made on your own website to identify long-tail keywords users already use to find information.

Long-Tail Keyword Examples:

Instead of just targeting “running shoes,” you could target “women’s marathon running shoes for wide feet” or “best long-distance trail running shoes.”

By integrating long-tail keywords into your SEO strategy, you can attract more qualified traffic, improve your conversion rate, and gain a significant competitive advantage. You’ll just need more pages than you initially planned, but hey, that’s what blogging is for!

Not Updating the Audit Regularly

A keyword audit isn’t a one-time event but an ongoing process. SEO constantly evolves: search engine algorithms update, search trends change, new competitors emerge, and your own business grows. Neglecting regular updates to your keyword audit can make your SEO strategy obsolete and ineffective.

Why Is Updating Your Audit Important?

Without going so far as to start everything from scratch, once every 6 months, it’s worthwhile to run your tools again to verify you’re up to date…

Trend Evolution: Popular topics and user queries change over time. What was relevant yesterday may not be today.
Algorithm Modifications: Search engines frequently adjust their algorithms. An updated audit helps you adapt to new game rules and avoid penalties.
Competitive Analysis: Your competitors don’t stand still. Regular monitoring helps you watch their keyword strategies and identify missed opportunities.
Business Evolution: Adding new products, services, or offers requires updating your keyword list to reflect these changes.

How Often Should You Update the Audit?

Ideal frequency depends on your industry and how quickly your market changes. However, quarterly updates are good practice for most businesses. For very dynamic sectors, monthly updates may be necessary.

How to Proceed with Effective Updates?

Revisit your existing keyword list: Evaluate each keyword’s performance in terms of traffic, ranking, and conversions. Remove obsolete keywords and update data.
Conduct new research: Identify new keywords relevant to your business using previously mentioned tools.
Analyze competition: Study keywords your competitors use successfully and identify potential opportunities.
Monitor trends: Follow your industry news and search trends to identify new popular topics and queries.

By integrating regular keyword audit updates into your SEO routine, you ensure your strategy remains relevant, effective, and aligned with your potential customers’ needs.

Ignoring Competitor Keywords

While it’s essential not to focus solely on what your competitors do, completely ignoring their keyword strategy during your audit would be a serious mistake. It’s not about blindly copying but understanding the forces at play and identifying opportunities.

Why Is Competitive Analysis Important?

Come on, I know you have a nemesis. A competitor you don’t like, or a rival you want to surpass. There’s no shame, competition is healthy, and you need to know how to motivate yourself…

Identify Untapped Opportunities: Your competitors may target keywords you’ve overlooked. Analyzing their strategy helps you discover queries relevant to your business.
Understand Positioning: Studying keywords used by your competitors reveals their market positioning and customer segments they target.
Assess Difficulty: Competitive analysis helps you evaluate keyword difficulty. If a keyword is dominated by major players, it may be preferable to focus on more accessible queries.

How to Analyze Your Competitors’ Keywords?

We’ve already discussed this in previous articles, but a little reminder doesn’t hurt.

SEO Tools: Use keyword analysis tools to identify keywords for which your competitors rank well. (Many keyword analysis tools already exist, refer to the appropriate section of this article to discover them).
Content Analysis: Study content on their best-ranked pages to understand how they use keywords and what type of content they offer.
Backlinks: Analyze your competitors’ backlinks to identify websites that cite them and topics they cover. (This point is related to a broader content creation strategy, but backlink analysis provides an overview of topics related to competitors’ activities).

Interpretation Caution

Don’t just copy your competitors’ keywords. Analyze their strategy, understand why they target these queries, and adapt your approach based on your own objectives and target audience.

The goal is to identify gaps and opportunities, not become a carbon copy of your competitors. It’s essential to understand search intent, search volume, and target long-tail keywords, all aspects already mentioned previously in this guide.

Next article: The influence of a keyword audit on UX and UI