How to find and use keyword questions

Posted by Jo Cameron on 4 Mar, 2015
View comments Content
Are you using keyword questions to build your brand's authority and reach online?

A great technique for building your brand's reach and authority in your market is to address commonly searched questions.

So how do you know what people are searching? And how do you give them - and Google - what they want?

Finding keyword questions

I (obviously) use Wordtracker Keywords tool. Signing up for the 7 day free trial takes about 35 seconds and typing in a word and filtering by “keyword questions” takes about 25 seconds, so you can dig out some really valuable queries in 1 minute flat. Just click the blue 'try free' button above - how’s that for a sales pitch!?

A few other ways you can keep an eye out for industy specific keyword questions are:

  • Monitoring your social media accounts and relevant hashtags
  • Keeping active on relevant forums
  • Recording reocurring support queries

So, I’ve typed ring into the Wordtracker Keywords tool and filtered by “keyword questions”.  238 of my 10,000 results qualify as questions.

questions

Considering how many different definitions ‘ring’ has, quite a few of the questions relate to jewelry in some way or another so I’ll focus on those. I’ll now go and pop those questions back into Google and see who is addressing these queries and how well they’re doing.

You can follow this process to identify your own industry specific keywords and use the results as inspiration for content for your own site and analyze your competitors.

Images, charts and graphic content

Q1. “What do the mood ring colors mean?”

For this query the results page populates some color charts from Google Images which means there is an opportunity to create a nice visual chart or graphic which is great for encouraging shares. Helpful charts are very popular on Pinterest so think about creating a board around this topic. Adding a "pin" button to your website also to makes it easier to share!
Don’t forget to optimize your images correctly by using keywords in your file names and alt tags.

search result for mood ring colors

Top organic result: bestmoodrings.com
Bestmoodrings provides some thorough content which lists each of the colors and their meanings. It also has a jpg colour chart with meanings explained in German, English, French and Spanish. This helps spread reach on Facebook and Pinterest.

On page SEO:
Title contains “mood rings meaning”
Description contains “mood rings” but no real strong call to action.
Links internally to another post about mood rings with relevant anchor text.

If your finding questions in your industry that can be answered with a fun colorful chart then start drafting. If you don't yet have the skills in design software you'll find plenty of skilled people on Fiverr.

Targeted apps

Q2. “How to measure ring size?”

We can see in the results that this is another instance of Google Images displaying on the result page, remember this is an opportunity to create some nice visual content. But you'll see below that the top result is in fact a nifty little app which makes it easy to find your size without leaving the computer.

ring size search

Top organic result: findmyringsize.com/
Findmyringsize contains almost no copy but has a strong call to action button. The next page contains so many adverts I can’t see how to continue with the process before I get bored. But with adblocker installed on my browser this little site is very effective and obviously quite popular.
Without understanding more about their backlinking profile it looks like there is a need for people to measure their ring size on the computer screen, and this site has a very effective description which is drawing in clicks.

On page SEO:
Title is a bit repetitive but does contain “ring size and ring sizer”
Description contains strong call to action “...measure your ring size instantly. No need for printing, or waiting for mail delivered ring sizer.”

Is there an opportunity for an app that will satisfy the questions being asked in your industry? We found out previously that 46% of shoppers are less likely to shop around when they're using a company's app.

Questions answered by Google

Q3. “Who has the most Superbowl rings?”

This is one of those quiz type queries where the searcher is generally more interested in receiving the answer and then going about their day. Google has pulled in the answer from statista.com and displays it in the results:

 

Results for who has the most Superbowl rings

In addition to the rich SERP content, the top 2 organic results are from Wikipedia, so very tough to beat. This might be one for engaging your followers on social.

Questions fulfilled by the business

Q4. “Who buys diamond rings?”

With a search term that contains both ”buy’ and “diamond rings” we’ve entered the very competitive engagement ring market. The top 3 results are PPC and the first page of results don’t really answer the question in itself, but what the sites that are ranking are doing is saying “we do”.

Top result: wpdiamonds.co.uk
The content contains a video of their process which keeps people on the page and builds trust, google loves rich content. Other great features include a step-by-step guide to selling your diamonds, as well as a downloadable ebook, reviews and testimonials, and accreditation logos.
They have certainly earned their place at the top with a very well put together web page - but then the diamond ring marketing is much more lucrative than the mood ring market (just by a little bit).

On page SEO:
Title tag contains “we buy diamonds”
Description contains “buy rings... diamonds”

So after half an hour of research we’ve gained some real insight into how we can find the questions people are searching and how they are being addressed by some top ranking sites through their content and on page SEO. I hope you’ve picked up some pointers on how you can use keyword questions to build authority for your brand.

What types of keyword questions will you be answering in your next blog post?

Recent articles

Google says AI-generated images in Merchant Center must be labeled as such
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 4 March 2024
Microsoft’s guide to using prompt engineering for your ad copywriting
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 2 March 2024
Google cracks down on misrepresentation in Ads
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 20 February 2024
New Google Analytics feature detects gradual data trend changes
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 19 February 2024
Google's new resources on SEO and how Search works
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 16 February 2024