Target relevant growth with in-depth keyword research & planning

The goal of SEO isn’t simply to rank high on Google. It is to rank high on Google for relevant search terms. Our keyword research tells you exactly what those terms are.

Speak the same language as your customers

Your aim is simple: get to #1 on Google.

For many businesses, the chase for top spot is predicated on keywords that their target audience doesn’t actually use. Sure, your website might be moving up the search engine results page (SERP), but if you rank for the wrong keywords, what’s the point?

You need to identify the most relevant keywords and phrases: the ones that your target audience is using at key points in the buying journey. Enter keyword research – the process that forms the foundation of quality SEO strategy.

At Growth Partners we do keyword research differently. We trade traditional approaches for a unique and extremely effective strategy built around proprietary technologies like our DigitalArchitect SystemⓇ.

The result? We get your website ranking high for the search terms your target audience actually uses. In the process you secure new customers and business growth.

Todd Stephenson

Director, Patient Engagement & Experience, Johnson & Johnson

It was a pleasure to work with Growth Partners. The depth of their research into user search behaviour was eye-opening. Over 4M data points were identified and analysed and yet they managed to distill large amounts of data into easy to digest and actionable insight.

We now have a clear pathway to increase customer engagement and build a trusted voice with more of our ideal audience. I would recommend Growth Partners to any business who wish to improve their online performance.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of understanding how your target audience uses search engines to find things relating to you, your products and services and your industry. By identifying the most relevant and commonly used keywords you can feature them in your website, which helps you rank high when the term is Googled.

If you are a plumber in Auckland, you’ll want to come up as a result when someone types ‘Auckland plumber’ into Google. But keyword research may also indicate that the same person is likely to type in ‘how to fix a burst pipe’, ‘how to switch off mains water’, and perhaps even ‘cost of water damage’.

Keyword research must recognise that the keywords used by your target audience will change through the Awareness, Consideration and Transaction stages of the buyer journey. When done well, it helps you engage with prospective customers across multiple touch points, which helps to increase the likelihood of a sale.

Mark Dawson

Director, Performance Marketing, Siteminder

We’ve been working with Sam & the team at Growth Partners for almost a year now, & we’re thoroughly impressed with the level of expertise within the team & their dedication to understanding our business, our objectives, & collaborating with us to achieve great results across both Little Hotelier, & now SiteMinder. Sam & the team understand SEO inside out, & having worked with Sam for a number of years I have a huge amount of respect & trust for the way he & the team work & their level of expertise in this area.

Since engaging with Growth Partners we’ve seen strong improvements in our web traffic globally, as well as incremental lead growth from the new pages & topics we’ve published content around, & improvements in our rankings across key terms. The team are producing relevant content at a rapid pace, & have worked closely with us to align our ways of working & processes to achieve results quickly.

Why is keyword research important?

What are your customers searching for? How are they searching for it?

Many businesses either don’t know or simply assume how their target audience searches for them. But you may be shocked at the difference between the words you use and the words your customers use.

If you develop your digital marketing strategy without keyword research, you will struggle to drive:

  • Traffic to your site.
  • Sales of your product/service.
  • Return on your marketing investment.

By using keyword research to gain a deeper understanding of the customer, you’ll drive all of the above and be better at identifying issues and opportunities. If the research reveals that your target audience is regularly Googling ‘How to fix [problem]’, you’re well placed to offer a solution.

Keyword research forms the blueprint for your search marketing efforts and also influences your broader digital marketing strategy. Solid keyword research makes everything down the digital marketing path more efficient and effective.

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The problem with traditional keyword research

Most marketing firms take the same approach to keyword research – extracting information from Google Keyword Planner. But there are a number of issues with this method:

  • Insights are shallow and limited – effective keyword research demands a deeper understanding of a business.
  • There is no competitive advantage in using the same approach as your competitors.
  • You are asking Google to hand over the keywords you need to succeed on Google.

At Growth Partners we have conducted extensive testing of Google’s tool Keyword Planner. We found its effectiveness can vary wildly, often returning zero search volume for keywords that we know have small but significant monthly impressions. This typically happens for low competition but high intent terms that can drive great results.

We knew there was a better way, which is why we utilise a deep data suite to identify opportunities that other agencies often overlook.

A growth-focused approach to keyword research

Developed and enhanced over years, DigitalArchitect features our Awareness, Consideration, Transaction (ACT) approach to keyword research, which breaks down the customer journey funnel into three distinct stages. We then look at the purpose, desired buyer behaviour and targeted business outcome within each.

How exactly is the ACT approach different from traditional keyword research?

Unearth a wealth of unique insights

Our keyword research is built to generate a wealth of unique insights, including:
  • How prospective customers search for products or services.
  • The volumes associated with each keyword.
  • The locality of search queries.
  • The seasonality of search queries.
We use these insights both for SEO and to create buyer personas that guide the development of your broader marketing strategy.
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Target blended search results

Certain keywords trigger blended search results in Google – when videos, images and information boxes are included on the search engine results page. We can identify these trigger keywords, then develop content that gets you displayed as one of these rich results. This is a super effective way to increase your visibility and enhance your reputation.
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Identify common FAQs

By understanding the questions that your customers ask most frequently, you are perfectly placed to address their needs, concerns and pain points. We identify your 20 most common FAQs, then work with you to answer each in the most compelling way possible. The results form the basis of your content strategy, further helping your SERP ranking and your position as an industry authority.
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Growth Partners’ approach to keyword research is comprehensive. It makes our subsequent digital marketing efforts incredibly efficient and effective, designed to grow your business from the ground up. But in truth, the value of keyword research isn’t limited to your digital marketing strategy.

The insights generated by our research are so deep that many clients have used them to steer their broader business strategy:

  • Understanding who customers are, what they are searching for and how they search.
  • Identifying untapped markets and in-demand products.
  • Learning about search locality and product seasonality.

Capitalise on keyword research

Looking for continuous, sustainable growth? Keyword research forms a key 
part of our holistic strategies, which have already generated $100+ million
in revenue for businesses just like yours

FAQs

A keyword is the term the digital marketing industry uses for a Google search or, in other words, a search term or query. It is the word or words you type into the Google search bar to find whatever you’re looking for online. The term ‘keyword’ can be used to describe anything typed into the search bar, no matter how many words are included, i.e. plumber is a keyword, and emergency plumber Auckland is also a keyword.

If you’re wondering how to find keywords, there’s a simple way: keyword finder tools. But while there are a wealth of easy to use keyword research tools available, all share the same problems:

  • They provide you with the same keywords as your competitors.
  • They don’t take the nuances of your business into account.
  • They prioritise volume over more important factors such as intent.

The Google search engine results page is the ultimate battlefield, where you compete against the rest of the world for the prime real estate at the top. But you’ll never win if you use the same basic approach as your competition.

At Growth Partners we offer something different: keyword research based on the behaviours of the exact users you are targeting, that delves deeper into your business than any off-the-shelf keyword tool ever could.

Many organisations are tempted to conduct their own keyword research, whether for cost-cutting reasons or for the belief that no one knows the business, its needs and its customers better than they do.

But there are a number of reasons why Growth Partners’ keyword research can prove a far wiser investment:

  • When done well, keyword research is a deep and rather complex pursuit that demands a highly tuned set of skills.
  • Hiring an expert ensures you avoid organisational blindspots and gain an objective third-party view of your situation.
  • Keyword research isn’t a cost – it’s an investment in your business… and one that offers incredible ROI.

The use of topic clusters is a relatively new but very effective SEO content strategy, because in recent times Google’s algorithm has been tweaked to favour what the company calls ‘topic-based content’.

The topic cluster model sees a ‘pillar’ page act as the centrepoint for a broad topic. Any pages that feature content relating to that topic then link back to that pillar page. The idea is that the pillar page can gradually build authority on the topic and rank higher for it over time.

At Growth Partners we use topic clusters and a number of other cutting edge SEO strategies to shape your online presence in a way that maximises your visibility, leading to more traffic, more leads and ultimately more sales.

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