Keywords research and analysis is undoubtedly the foundation of an SEO campaign. Every single strategy and all the modifications we would perform as an effort towards search engine optimization is a derivative and is dependent on the keywords you narrow down upon.

As SEO professionals, we rely heavily on Keyword Research tools and Web Analytics tools in order to discover core keyword phrases, which are commonly used across all of the commercial web search engines. Though we look at a number of factors and user search statistics during this analysis such as the competition, search volumes; there is an entire facet of reason we tend to ignore. This is – the connection between User Search Trends and Usability.

In a purer sense of the term usability means a users reaction to any website. Yes, a positive experience would include ease of use, appeal of the interface etc. but by far Relevancy is the most important factor to consider.

Keyword research tools reveal search behaviors based on which we would rebuild a site’s information architecture. We can also tailor ads and landing pages for Pay per Click marketing to searchers who typically use a single, targeted search engine. But does our web analytics data validate our keyword research? Is the particular keyword phrase appropriate for that type of website? Are we reaching our correct target audience?

As an astute SEO Company we realize that our work is not an exact science, but a combination of keyword research tools, statistical knowledge and intuitive judgment. We should understand when it is appropriate to implement keywords into a site’s information architecture with the perspective of the user as well. We do monitor the effectiveness of keyword-driven traffic via web analytics data. But without the correct user perspective of the target audience Keyword research data and Web analytics search data can be easily misinterpreted.

“Stickiness” is a metric that which can be measured by the number of page views per visitor via search engine traffic and the average time on site. Stickiness of the keyword along with the current global search trends (on a time relative graph) are effective parameters to be used in periodic iterations of Keyword Analyses.

In conclusion the most important aspect of an SEO campaign, the Keyword Research and Analysis, should be carried out with a good balance of the science (the data) and art (the intuition) that is SEO.