Decision stage keywords are a crucial aspect of any marketing strategy, they help businesses target consumers that are in the process of making a purchase decision. In fact, 94.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer.
These keywords provide valuable insight into the specific language and phrases that consumers use when they are ready to buy and allow businesses to optimize their marketing efforts and messaging to reach these consumers at the right time.
In this article, we will delve deeper into what decision-stage keywords are, how they help the buyer’s journey, and how businesses can use them to improve their marketing efforts.
What are Decision Stage Keywords?
Decision stage keywords refer to the specific language and phrases consumers use when they are in the process of making a purchase decision. These keywords may include phrases such as “compare prices,” “reviews,” “discounts,” “best,” and “top rated.”
These keywords can be used by businesses to optimize their marketing efforts and target their messaging to consumers who are most likely to make a purchase.
Decision stage keywords are a type of keyword used in search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. These keywords help businesses target consumers who are in the process of making a purchase decision.
Some examples of decision-stage keywords include:
- “Buy” or “purchase”
- “Compare prices” or “price comparison”
- “Discount” or “coupon”
- “Best” or “top-rated”
- “Reviews” or “testimonials”
- “Where to buy” or “find a store”
In SEO, businesses can use decision-stage keywords in their website content and meta tags to optimize their website for these keywords and increase the likelihood that their website will appear in search results when consumers use these keywords.
In PPC (paid-per-click) advertising, businesses can use decision-stage keywords in their ad campaigns to target consumers who are searching for these keywords.
It’s important to note that decision-stage keywords can vary depending on the industry and products. For example, in the automotive industry, decision stage keywords might include phrases like “test drive” or “financing options”, while in the fashion industry, it might include phrases like “new collection” or “sale”.
Overall, by understanding the decision-stage keywords that consumers are using, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns and improve their chances of making a sale.
What are Awareness Keywords?
Awareness keywords are words or phrases that are associated with a specific topic or issue and are used to increase visibility and understanding of that topic.
These keywords are often used in marketing and advertising campaigns, as well as in public relations and social media efforts, to help raise awareness of a product, service, or cause. Examples of awareness keywords might include “breast cancer awareness,” “climate change,” or “voter education.”
People in the awareness territory often use “issue or opportunity” terms. Corresponding with the awareness stage of the conversion funnel, these keywords are used to answer questions about a particular problem or opportunity.
Examples of awareness keywords include terms such as “how to,” “what is,” “best,” “top,” “cheap,” “free,” and “reviews.”
Additionally, employing Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) can be a powerful tool to discover related keywords to your seed keyword. Many tools employ some form of LSI, allowing you to target your awareness keywords more.
How Do Decision Keywords Help The Buyer’s Journey?
Decision keywords can help the buyer’s journey by providing targeted information to consumers at the appropriate stage of their decision-making process.
In the early stages of the buyer’s journey, consumers are typically in the “awareness” stage, where they are researching and gathering information about a product or service. During this stage, consumers use keywords such as “what is” or “definition of” to learn more about the product or service.
As consumers move through the buyer’s journey, they enter the “consideration” stage, where they are evaluating different options and comparing products or services. During this stage, consumers use decision keywords such as “compare prices” or “reviews” to help them make a decision.
Finally, in the “decision” stage, consumers are ready to make a purchase. Decision keywords such as “buy” or “purchase” are used to help consumers find the best deals or the most reputable suppliers.
By understanding the decision keywords that consumers use at each stage of the buyer’s journey, businesses can create targeted marketing campaigns that provide the information that consumers need at the appropriate time, helping them move through the buyer’s journey and make a purchase.
Additionally, decision keywords also help businesses to refine their target audience and reduce wasted ad spending by only targeting people who are in the decision stage.
How Do You Create Content for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey?
To create content for each stage of the buyer’s journey, you should first create buyer personas to understand the needs of your target audience.
They might look similar to this:
Then, you should identify topics that match each stage of the buyer’s journey, like awareness, consideration, and decision. Content targeting the awareness stage should aim to educate, define, contextualize, clarify, and inform.
For the consideration stage, you can use ebooks, downloadable resources, comparison videos, blog posts, articles, webinars, and live demonstrations. Finally, for the decision stage, you can use blog articles, email campaigns, infographics, e-books and guides, white papers, and case studies.
Additionally, you can use interactive content to tend to different customers and push them further along their journey.
What are the four types of keywords?
There are 4 types of keywords: short-tail, longtail, short-term, long-term, product defining, customer defining, geo-targeting, and intent keywords. Pay-Per-Click & Paid Search Keywords also include negative keywords, broad keywords, phrase match keywords, and exact match keywords.
Additionally, there are 9 types of keywords:
- short tail
- longtail
- short-term
- long-term
- product-defining
- customer-defining
- geo-targeting
- intent keywords
- market segment keywords
- customer-defining keywords
- product-defining keywords
- product keywords
- competitor keywords
- long-term keywords
Furthermore, there are 4 different types of SEO keywords, including short keywords, long-tail keywords, LSI Keywords, and Geo-targeted keywords.
Lastly, conversational keywords are also important when writing out content. Actually, around 8% of search queries are phrased as questions.
What are LSI keywords?
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Keywords are conceptually related terms that search engines use to deeply understand the content on a webpage. They’re not synonyms (different words that mean the same thing), though.
They’re closely related words that help to define the topic of a page. LSI stands for Latent Semantic Index(ing). This is a computer program that learns a wide variety of synonyms based on context. This is important because almost half, about 46.08% of clicks in Google Search Console go to hidden terms.
LSI keywords are important for SEO because they help search engines to better understand the content of a webpage, and thus, rank it higher on the search engine result page.
Keyword Tips
Here are some tips for using keywords in your content:
- Focus each piece of content on a different keyword phrase and don’t use the same keyword more than once.
- Include your primary keyword in the first sentence of your meta description and in the article title if possible.
- Write for your audience, not for SEO – focus on providing value for the reader rather than optimizing for search engines.
- Mix it up – use synonyms and related terms to increase the diversity of your content.
- Utilize your keywords in blog posts, social media posts, metatags, and website content.
- Spread your keywords evenly throughout the content in the headers, body, and conclusion.
- Include a keyword phrase in the opening sentence of your content.
- Use keywords in your Headers, content body, alt-text, and slugs.
- Use an appropriate keyword phrase in the meta description to accurately describe the page content and motivate searchers to click.
Wrapping Up Decision Keywords
The Buyer’s Journey and using the best keywords for each stage can be a bit difficult at first. However, with dedicated learning, you can increase your conversation rate and organic traffic in SERPs.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you’re super confused, I got you! And, don’t forget to share your experiences in the comments section.
