What are Heuristics?
Heuristics are a set of methods for problem-solving and decision-making developed over time through trial and error. They have become widely used in the SEO industry to analyze search engine algorithms and the effects of various SEO strategies. Heuristics provide a means of detecting patterns in data and making assumptions based on these patterns to understand the underlying system better.
How does Heuristics Help in SEO?
In the world of SEO, heuristics is about finding untapped performance improvement opportunities. Using heuristics, it is possible to quickly identify keyword opportunities and more accurately target specific keywords in SEO campaigns while uncovering issues that could negatively affect a website’s ranking.
What Do we mean by Untapped Opportunities?
In typical keyword research, we focus on 3 key metrics to determine whether a keyword is worth targeting in an SEO campaign. However, 15% of all daily search queries in Google are completely new.
Also, every day, there are new and new search queries that are becoming significant in terms of search volume every day.
What if there was some way of predicting such potential keywords before they gain significant search volume?
Fortunately, the ability to detect keyword trends can be achieved through Google’s own tools for free!
Advantages of Heuristics in SEO Analysis?
1. Easier to Rank.
Untapped keywords uncovered are still in the nascent stage with low search volumes but trending upwards. These will be relatively easy to rank.
2. Heuristics can be the Key to Viral Traffic Growth.
The right keywords and predictions can generate heavy traffic returns in a few years.
3. Allows Product/Service Expansion
A Heuristic Evaluation can also uncover specific products or categories or segments that can be targeted with less competition and a great potential for growth.
Steps to perform a Heuristics Keyword Analysis
In this segment, we will use Google Keyword Planner; however, the same process can also be performed with Google trends.
Step 1:Create a List of Seed Keywords
For Ecommerce, the list of all product categories can suffice. For service or other types of websites, it is advisable to list the core services or products the business offers.
In this example, we are taking a particular product category, “sliding glass wall, ” which we consider a seed keyword for our analysis.
Step 2 Put those Seed Keywords in Google Keyword Planner.
Step 3: Sort the Results in the descending order of YOY Change
Step 4: Shortlist and export all keywords with YOY change more than 100%
Step 5: Rinse and Repeat
Rinse and repeat the same process for all remaining seed keywords and categories until we can generate a healthy list of keywords for our keyword strategy.
Conclusion
Keyword planner YOY change metric shows those keywords trending upwards in search volume. Keywords with a YOY change of more than 100% can potentially become significant keywords in the near future.
Hence that makes them potential candidates for our Keyword and content strategy.
