Keyword Research is all about finding relevant terms to your business or your website. The idea is to create content that will attract users via search engines, typing in terms that are highly relevant yet oftentimes non-obvious.
Keywords and keyword phrases that are being searched by potential customers. Finding those terms is a constant process and involves a lot of brainstorming, the use of keyword research tools, the analysis of your competitors and last but not least common sense.
Keyword Research is one of the most important and essential practices of Search Engine Optimization professionals. This article will give insights on how to do keyword research and will reveal some of our best practices.
Keyword Research oftentimes starts with the Google Adwords Keyword Planner
What is the meaning of keyword research?
A keyword or search phrase is basically any combination of words that you type in search engines like Google, Bing and Baidu. It shows what people or potential customers are looking for or even want to acquire.
There are search databases like the Google Adwords Keyword Planner that can show you which phrases people are typing in, and also how many people approximately search for specific keywords and keyword phrases.
So, what is so important about this information when you are building a website or just about to write a single a blog post?
Using relevant keywords makes sure that you will have the chance to attract relevant users and readers who are actually looking for your content. Moreover, the use of right keywords make your website content more interesting and complete. It determines what your content should be about and how you need to structure your content.
Doing a proper keyword research also determines what companies and other websites you are competing with, and what your niche market is. Tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs and Sistrix not only give you great insights about which keywords you could target but also which keywords are being used by your competitors.
Hence, keyword research is also very important when it comes to competitor analysis.
Youtube-Video: Search Engine Optimization Tips:
How to Do Organic Keyword Research for Google (a Beginner’s Guide)
Every article that deals with keyword research has their own way of dealing with this topic. Like how to start up and what are the essential processes for attempting on creating a successful website. Most of the stuff that I’ve written here are from all those articles that I’ve actually read, like on Ahrefs and Kissmetrics, for example.
At the same time, I have tried to combine those new insights with some of the best practices that I have learned at rueth online. Here are some tactics and procedures on how to choose a good keyword.
The concept of “Seed Keywords”
First, you need to brainstorm on what you really want your website to become, and of course what it would be all about, in order to pick your first good keywords. They are called “Seed Keywords”, which for me is somewhat like a personification for the seed itself. Because seed keywords serve as the starting point in choosing a keyword which identifies your niche and serves as a foundation for your keyword research.
If you have already started a business and wanted a website about it, coming up with seed keywords would be easy. You just need to put in what your business is all about, and that’s it. It’s as easy as describing that product your business offers with your own words or brainstorming how other people might search for it.
Think about other Keyword Ideas
So if you already have your seed keyword, the next thing to do is to “Generate a group of related keywords ideas”. Also, if you are to pick the related keywords now, you should understand your niche and what people search for in search engines.
Find more keyword ideas with Google Suggest
There are actually some tactics that you could apply in generating keyword ideas, like: searching for what keywords you already rank for using keyword tools as mentioned above, see what your competitors already rank for, and also studying your niche well by putting yourself in their shoes.
The next thing you need to do is to identify the best keywords on your list. You should understand the keyword metrics and try to decide which keywords deserve to be shortlisted. To help you in choosing which keywords you should choose, there are some things that you should consider.
It’s search volume which shows you the overall and total demand of the certain keyword, how many people click on that keyword, the traffic potential, keyword difficulty and also the cost per click (CPC).
So after you shortlist all those keyword ideas, the next ideal thing you do is to segment them into groups; the keyword with the highest volume, the keyword’s intent and the keyword’s business value. If you already did the aforementioned steps, then it is natural for you to prioritize your best-chosen keywords.
Some Keyword Research Tips
It is true that ranking for search engines is not an easy task. With the fast-growing industry of online marketing comes along a lot of competitors. So here are some tips that may be of help to you and your website:
- Never aim for more traffic, aim for more leads and sales.
- Try to use some synonyms for your keywords ideas
- Study your niche and users to give them satisfaction because Keywords are more about the actual user intent. Try to really understand what the user wants to find while typing in a certain search phrase
- lso, try to first focus on some long-tail keywords. There have been articles that say that long-tail keywords convert more than the short-tail ones.
- Most importantly, aim for a good content for the readers themselves, not for the search engines.
The best SEO Keyword Research & Analysis Tools
The Google Adwords Keyword Planner is probably still the best free keyword research tool online. It gives you a great starting point, and you can easily export the keyword ideas you found as well as their search volume and estimated CPC.
Of course, those numbers are only approximations but give you already a good idea about what to go for and what not. You can easily add more relevant keywords via Google Suggest and searches related that will usually displayed on the bottom of a SERP. Another great addition is Google Trends that will help you to find even more keyword ideas.
Google´s related search terms will complete your keyword analysis
Apart from SEMrush, Ahrefs and the German SEO-tool Sistrix, I can also recommend serplab which will allow you to create free account that will keep track of specific keywords, and that will also give you ideas about the search volume.
Finally, I would like to mention keywordtool.io which will give you a great list of keyword suggestions that you could use in your content.
Do you have any suggestions? Did I forget any keyword tool? I am looking forward to your comments and helpful tips!