A Keyword Research Service for an AI-Driven World

In the constantly changing landscape of digital marketing, businesses are constantly seeking the most effective way to understand their audiences and reach them with the right message at the right time. One of the key elements most companies overlook is keyword research – a practice that has evolved dramatically with the introduction of companies like OpenAI bringing ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the masses.

Keyword research is not a new concept, especially with the growth in popularity of search engine optimization–AKA “being found on Google”. But these recent AI advancements have changed the way keyword research is done and will continue to change the marketing landscape.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Why implement an SEO Keyword Strategy?
3. Why Use a Paid Keyword Research Tool Supplemented with AI
4. Top AI-Powered Tools for SEO Keyword Research
5. Key Stats
6. Why Work with a Keyword Research Agency that is Changing the Digital Marketing Landscape

Before these major technological advances, the task of identifying the right keywords was often manual and labor-intensive, and done by industry experts based on simple matching of words or phrases. Today, however, the rise of AI-powered services mixed with keyword research tools has helped automate this practice.

This leads me to introduce you to the concept of semantic search. What is semantic search and how does it change the game of keyword optimization? In everyday terms, semantic search is about understanding the context and (primarily) the intent behind a user's search, rather than focusing exclusively on the exact words they use.

Why Implement an SEO Keyword Strategy?

When using an AI keyword strategy, this approach delivers the right message to the user at the exact right time because it goes beyond traditional keyword matching to deliver more relevant and personalized content, shaping the future of SEO strategy. This shift, largely driven by AI, is enabling keyword research services to create an indispensable tool for businesses to invest in this new approach to content creation, SEO, and digital marketing. In Ascend2’s report: State of Marketing Automation 2022, you can see this shift in digital marketing become even more apparent.

SEO is more than just including high-volume keywords in your content. When Google first started becoming popular with searchers, SEO professionals began using techniques to exploit the algorithm and its use of “Latent Semantic Indexing” (or “Salience”). Search Engine Journal’s definition is summarized as “a method of analyzing a set of documents to discover statistical co-occurrences of words that appear together which then give insights into the topics of those words and documents.” Meaning they could create a page with relevant content and insert a relevant high-volume keyword and rank on the first page.

Over many algorithm updates, it has become clear the most important SEO strategy is understanding your audience, knowing what information they're seeking, and making the content easily discoverable. This opens the door to a keyword research tool that can ensure your content will rank for the correct search terms.

Why Use a Paid Keyword Research Tool Supplemented with AI

Keyword research tools are an almost priceless asset to any SEO strategy because they provide deep insights into the terms your potential customers are using when they're searching for products, services, or information. They offer visibility into trending keywords, long-tail phrases, and even competition around these terms. 

These tools often provide data on the search volume and potential traffic associated with keywords, helping businesses gauge the effectiveness of their SEO efforts. Another important use case for using a keyword research tool is it can easily highlight gaps in your current SEO strategy and offer actionable data allowing you to use precise adjustments which can significantly boost your site's visibility. 

This in turn will drive more targeted traffic, and ultimately, increase conversions. In an ever-changing digital landscape where visibility is crucial to “being found”, investing in a robust keyword research tool can be the key to standing out in crowded search engine results. See the list below for more detailed explanations as to why keyword research when supplemented with AI is extremely beneficial.

Improved Long-Tail Keyword Discovery: Traditional keyword research tools often focus on primary or short-tail keywords with a focus on high search volume. AI-driven tools can better understand and identify relevant long-tail keywords. These are often less competitive and more targeted, leading to better conversion rates.

Semantic Analysis and Keyword Clustering: AI can better understand the semantic relationship between different keywords. This can be used to cluster related keywords together, allowing you to create more comprehensive and relevant content that covers a topic thoroughly.

Predictive Keyword Performance: Algorithms, such as Search to Sales, can analyze past keyword performance and online trends to predict how well a keyword will perform in the future. For example, we integrate your website’s user analytics data and match it with past keyword performance. This can help you stay ahead of trends and adapt your SEO strategy proactively.

Understanding User Intent: AI can analyze search query data to better understand the intent behind a search. This can help you select keywords that align with the user's intent, making your content more relevant and likely to convert.

Competitor Analysis: AI can analyze the keyword strategies of competitors to identify gaps and opportunities. This can give businesses a competitive edge and help them target keywords that their competitors are overlooking.

Personalized Keyword Suggestions: By analyzing your website and content to provide personalized keyword suggestions that are highly relevant to your business and audience. This can make the keyword selection process more efficient and targeted.

Content Optimization: Some AI-driven tools can even suggest how to optimize your content based on your target keywords. They can provide insights on where to place keywords, how often to use them, and other factors that can improve your SEO performance.

Top AI-Powered Tools for SEO Keyword Research

Convinced you want to try a paid keyword research tool to supplement your digital marketing strategy? Each tool listed below has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice will depend on your specific needs and budget.

1. Search to Sale
   

   We are taking basic keyword research to the next level because we do not just offer basic keyword data such as search volume, ranking difficulty, or SERP data, we add additional layers of analysis by integrating your website’s own analytics. Our SEO Reporting Software integrates data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Hubspot, Ahrefs, and OpenAI to track your website's performance across all content and all relevant keywords. Sometimes it is a struggle to wade through lists of hundreds of potential keywords, so we took the guesswork out of it. 

   Then we formulaically rank every keyword's opportunity to drive traffic for your business and help plan future content which allows us to measure the impact of the new content. This allows you to see the whole picture at once rather than having to constantly navigate and compile data from each of these sources to make informed strategy decisions. Other keyword research tools do not have this additional insight customized to your exact business needs.

2. SEMRush
   Provides a similar offer as Search to Sale but misses the key integrations of using your own website’s data to provide potential keyword opportunities and recommendations on how to improve the ranking of your current content. They provide basic data such as search volume, CPC estimates, potentially related keywords, and difficulty.
   
   
3. Ahrefs
   Primarily focuses on backlink and backlink acquisition, rank tracking, and keyword research which includes the basic search volume, difficulty rating, and potentially related keyword suggestions.
   
   
4. Moz
   A paid service (with a free keyword research tool available) that provides search volume data, potential keywords in question format, keyword difficulty, and some competitive keyword analysis.

Don’t fall behind the times and watch your website rankings slowly decline by not integrating a powerful AI keyword research tool into your digital marketing strategy.

Key Stats To Back This Up

According to an Influencer Marketing Hub survey conducted in 2023 - 

• 61.4% of marketers have used AI in their marketing activities.
• 44.4% have used AI for content production.
• 19.2% of marketers spent more than 40% of their marketing budget on AI-driven campaigns 

Another survey conducted by SEMrush found that - 

• 48% of marketing leaders say AI is making the most significant difference in how customers interact with them.
• 64% of B2B marketers consider AI to be valuable in their marketing strategy
• 80% of marketers in 2020 already had chatbots as part of their customer experience strategy.

With a paid keyword research tool, the digital marketing landscape is no longer about guesswork and intuition; it's driven by data, precision, and technological innovation. The statistics above clearly show the growing trend of using AI to craft winning marketing strategies. 

The changing landscape of digital marketing has seen many growing companies shift to AI-powered tools and strategies. This transition isn't just about maintaining current visibility and website rankings—it's a proactive step towards future-proofing your digital strategy. Utilizing a paid keyword research tool allows you to enhance your SEO efforts and make data-driven decisions based on AI's precise insights. The benefits extend beyond mere SEO performance, enabling streamlined content production and empowering you to navigate effectively in an increasingly AI-driven world. 

Work with a Keyword Research Agency that is Changing the Digital Marketing Landscape

The adoption of AI-infused keyword research tools is not a sprint, but rather a journey— a gradual process that invites us to keep pace with evolving technology and stay relevant amidst the changing tides. With Search to Sale, we improve your keyword research efforts by formulaically ranking every keyword’s opportunity to drive traffic to your business by taking into consideration not only the basics but also adding additional layers of analysis. Other services will provide you with basic volume and difficulty data, but neglect to integrate your own site’s past performance for specific keywords. With our additional layers of data from your own Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Hubspot, and Ahrefs, we categorize keywords into clusters to help plan content and measure the impact of content based on previous and potential future keyword performance. 

If you are still nervous about implementing this strategy yourself, we also provide an additional level of service as a keyword research agency. We will do the research based on your data and provide you with recommendations to improve your search engine rankings. Don’t miss opportunities to get in front of customers with the right messaging at the right time with Search to Sale’s SEO keyword research service.