The world is crowded with cybersecurity companies, and with 80 to 90 million cybersecurity threats per year, it’s no wonder that there are so many. Unfortunately, that means that standing out online as a relevant cybersecurity company can be a struggle. So, how do you make sure that potential clients find you before your competitor?
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), keywords are the “key” to making your organization visible online. Such a crowded space requires you to perform careful and specific keyword research to find the terms most relevant to your sector.
These steps are relevant to just about any B2B company in the tech space, as long as you fine tune based on the personas you’re targeting and the verticals you work in.
Step 1: Brainstorm
First and foremost, you should gather team members from every facet of your company and hold a brainstorming meeting. During this meeting, you will discuss the company’s target personas and ask each team to present their take on who you’re targeting.
For example, your HR team might focus on “privacy laws” while your IT department talks about “phishing” and “scareware.”
The key during this step is to bring every idea to the table and then narrow down your list to the terms you believe are most relevant to your business model and more importantly are searched by your potential customers.
You should drop some of the less interesting audience terms and focus on those keyword phrases that are closest to the center of your target audience. To figure out which keywords are most relevant, try searching them and see what comes up.
Tip: Always search Google for the keywords you’re considering, by seeing what the first page results are, you’ll get a very good idea on what people are looking for when they use these keywords.
For example, let’s assume you are a customer support business for cybersecurity. You don’t offer software but live monitoring services. Then, let’s say that one of your chosen keywords was “live malware protection services” but when you perform a Google search for that keyword, every result is for software services not live monitoring.
In that case, a more relevant keyword or keyword phrase would be something to the effect of “malware protection services live monitoring” so that the search results better suit your business.
Step 2: Choose a Cybersecurity Keyword Research Tool & Refine Your Keyword List
Once you have a list of cybersecurity keywords, you need to figure out if they have any search volume, and how difficult it is to rank for them. That’s where a research tool comes in handy. There are three tools, in particular, that we recommend:
· Google Adwords Keyword Planner
· SEMrush Keyword Research Tool
These tools will provide you with key information about each of your potential keywords. You can determine how many people search for them monthly, how difficult the competition to rank for them is and if your competitors are using them. These tools will also help you develop keyword phrases (long chain keywords) for far more specific SEO placement.
A keyword phrase could be a series of terms such as “zombie computer protection software” while a similar keyword would be, “zombie computer.”
Then, with that information, you can narrow down your list.
Using your chosen keyword tool, refine your keyword list to only those terms that make sense for your business.
In most cases, this means you should choose keywords that have a healthy balance between volume (the number of people who search for that particular word),difficulty (how hard it will be to get your website to rank high for that keyword) and CPC (the higher the cost-per-click to advertise the more difficult it will be for your keyword to rank for SEO purposes, so you should always look for a lower CPC to improve your SEO ranking ).
The best keywords are searched often but don’t have a lot of competitors, so you have a chance of ranking highly.
Step 3: Check Out Your Ecosystem
If you’re a small or medium-sized company, it’s almost impossible to compete with large organizations such as Palo Alto Networks or Norton. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them.
With a tool such as SEMrush or Moz, you can check in on your direct competitors to see what cyber security keywords they’re using and what their landing pages look like to get ideas as to what works. This can also help you avoid the keywords they’re using and find other you hadn’t thought of.
Step 4: Look at Search Volume
As mentioned in step two, during your cyber security keyword research “volume” is an important factor. Volume helps you to determine consumer demand because allegedly,there’s no reason to use a keyword that no one is searching for.
However, that’s not always the case. In cyber security, being on the cutting edge can be key to success. There are cases where the tech is so niche or new (think of “drone jacking”) that within your keyword research there won’t be much volume. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon the phrase.
Instead, it’s a great idea to be one of the first to use the keyword in preparation for the day when it does get volume. By being a first actor you have the best chance for success.
Even 10 searches a month can result in a client a quarter…
Step 5: Analyze the Space
Put all of your cyber security keyword research together and analyze the entire online space.
Make sure the keyword means the same thing to you as it does to your customers. For example, within your business, you might use the term “cyber crimes” to refer to phishing attacks, ransomware, and more while your customers might use the same term to only refer to money schemes. Before choosing your keyword, confirm that you and your audience use a term the same way. If not, add specificity so you don’t waste an SEO opportunity.
If you follow the step-by-step list above, you should be well on your way to improving your company’s SEO. Just remember, keywords aren’t enough. You’ll want to make sure that you’re optimized for engagement as well, but that’s a new blog for a new day.
‘Till next time!