How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
Keyword research has remained stable for inbound marketers seeking to optimise their websites for search. We can understand what keyword research is, why it became important, how to conduct your research for your SEO strategy, and select the right keywords for your website from this article.
What is keyword research?
This is a way of finding and analysing search terms that people enter into search engines with the aim of utilising that data for a particular need, mainly for search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing. Keyword research can exhibit queries to target, the popularity of these queries, their ranking complexity, and more.
Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research offers important insight into the queries that your target audience is really searching on Google. The insight that get into these actual search terms can help inform content strategy along with your larger marketing strategy.
Individuals make use of keywords to find solutions when running research online. You stand to gain more traffic if your content is successful in getting in front of our audience as they conduct searches. As a result, you should be targeting those searches.
Conducting keyword research has many advantages, some of them are:
Marketing Trend Insight
Conducting productive keyword research can support you with insights into present marketing trends, and assist you centre your content on appropriate topics and keywords your audience are in search of.
Traffic Growth
The moment you find the best fitting keywords for the content you publish, the more you’ll rank in search engine results, the higher traffic you’ll engage to your website.
Customer benefit
Does your business contain content that other business professionals are looking for? Then you can meet their requirements and offer them a call to action that will steer them into the buyer journey from the awareness stage to the point of purchase.
You can tackle the questions that most people in your audience want answers to by researching keywords for their search volume, popularity and general intent.
Keywords and Topics
It is well known how much SEO has evolved over the past few years, and how inconsiderable keywords themselves have become to the capacity to rank well for the searches people make daily.
This is true, up to a point, but in the point of view of an SEO specialist it’s a different approach. Reasonably, it’s the intent backing that keyword, and certainly a piece of content solves that intent.
But this does not make a reason keyword research is an outdated process. Keyword research conveys what topics people want, assuming you use the appropriate SEO tool, how popular those topics actually are among your audience. The operative term here is topics, by researching keywords that are attaining a high volume of searches per month, you can understand and sort your content into topics that you want to create content on. After that, you can utilise these topics to determine which keywords you look for and target.
Elements of Keyword Research
There are three main elements to keep in mind while conducting keyword research.
1. Relevance
With relevance Google ranks content. Here the idea of search intent walks in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it fulfils the searchers’ requirement. Along with that, your content should be a good resource out there for the query.
2. Authority
Google offers more weight to sources it estimates authoritatively. Which means you should do everything you can to become an authoritative source by improving your site with useful, detailed content and encouraging that content to gain social signals and backlinks. You have a lower chance of ranking if you’re not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword’s SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can’t compete with, unless your content is exceptional.
3. Volume
You might conclude ranking on the first page for a particular keyword, but it will not result in traffic to your site if no one ever searches for it. Volume is measured by MSV, monthly search volume that means the amount of times the keyword is searched each month over all audiences.
Researching Keywords for Your SEO Strategy
Given below is a keyword research method that you can follow to help you come up with a number of terms you should be targeting. By this method you’ll be able to set up and execute a powerful keyword strategy that helps you get found for the search terms.
Step#1: create a list of essential, appropriate topics about what you know about your business.
Assume topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You will have to pop up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are relevant to your business, and then you’ll use those topic buckets to help come up with some particular keywords later in the method.
Put yourself in your buyer personas, what kind of topics would your target audience look for that you’d want your business to get known for?
Step#2: Fill in topic buckets with keywords.
After having some topic buckets you will have to focus on a few keywords that fall into those buckets. These are keyword phrases you think are crucial for ranking in the SERPs (search engine results pages) as your target customer might be searching for those particular terms.
Even though many keywords are getting encrypted by Google day by day, the other brilliant method to pop up with keyword ideas is to find out which keywords your website is already getting found for. All you need is a website analytics software like Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report, available in the Traffic Analytics tool. Analyse your website’s traffic sources, and sort out through your organic search traffic bucket to find the keywords people are using to get to your destination which is your site.
Do this method for as many topic buckets as you have. Keep in mind, if you’re having trouble coming up with appropriate search terms, you can always direct over to your customer-facing colleagues, people who are in Sales or Service and enquire what types of terms their prospects and customers use, or common queries they have. These are usually great starting points for keyword research.
Step#3: Know How Intent Affects Keyword Research and Analyse Correspondingly.
User intent is now one of the most important characteristics in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google. Presently, it’s very essential that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to rectify rather than simply carries the keyword the searcher used.
It’s easy to take keywords for face value, but keywords may have various meanings below the surface. As the intent behind a search is a pivotal part of your ranking potential, you have to be very cautious about how you interpret the keywords you target.
Step#4: Use keyword research tools which will benefit you.
Keyword research and SEO tools will assist you to approach with more keyword ideas depending on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the concept you’ve produced to date. Some of the familiar ones are:
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Ubersuggest
- Moz
- SECockpit
- Google Keyword Planner
- Keywords Everywhere
- KeywordTool.io
- KWFinder
Finding and Choosing Keywords
If you have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank for, then improve your list with the best ones for your strategy. Here are the steps:
Step#1. Use Google Keyword Planner to cut down your keyword list.
You can get search volume and traffic estimates in Google’s Keyword Planner for keywords you’re holding. Take the details you get from Keyword Planner and use Google Trends to fill in some blanks.
Utilise the Keyword Planner to mark any terms on your list that have little or too much search volume, and don’t help you manage a healthy going. But check out their trend history and projections in Google Trends before you delete anything. You can notice if some low-volume terms may actually be something you must invest in now, and acquire the benefits afterwards.
Or maybe you’re just looking at a list of terms that is way too unhandy, and you have to narrow it down somehow. Google Trends will help you understand which terms are trending, and you can focus on it more.
Step#2: focus on low-hanging keywords.
Prioritise keywords that have a probability of ranking based on your website’s authority.
Huge companies generally go after high search volume keywords, and as these brands are well settled, usually Google rewards them with authority over many topics. Consider keywords that have little competition as well. Keywords which do not have multiple articles fighting for the highest rank can give you the spot by default, if there’s no one else trying to claim it.
Step#3: Analyse the monthly search volume (MSV) for keywords you’ve selected.
MSV can help you to write content about what people want to discover, and checking. MSV is the number of times a search query or keyword is entered into search engines each month. Tools like Google Trends or searchvolume.io can help you figure out the most searched keywords clusters for free over related keywords.
Step#4: Factor in SERP features as you select keywords.
There are various SERP feature snippets that Google will focus on if used properly. A simple method to figure them out is to look up the keywords you’re selecting and observe what the first outcome looks like. Given below is a quick overview of the types of SERP featured snippets:
Image Packs
These are search results exhibited as a horizontal row of images that can be seen in an organic position. You should write an image-heavy post to win placement if there’s an image pack.
Paragraph Snippets
Paragraph snippets are small snippets of text that become visible at the top of Google search results for fast answers to common search questions. Knowing peoples intent and providing brief, meaningful answers can assist in winning the placement.
List Snippets
Listicles or list snippets, are snippets developed for posts outlining methods to do something from start to finish, usually for “How To” searches. Creating posts with clear, direct instructions and formatting can help in winning this placement.
Step#4: Research related search terms.
This step is a creative one you may have already thought of when doing keyword research.
While struggling to find more keywords people may be searching about a particular topic, have a glance at the related search terms that can be seen when you plug in a keyword into Google. When you enter your phrase and scroll down Google’s results, you’ll find some suggestions for searches connected to your original input. These keywords give idea for other keywords you might want to take into concern.
Video Snippets
These are short videos that Google will exhibit at the top of a search query page in place of text featured snippets. Both YouTube and your website can help you win this placement while posting a video, if tagged in the targeted keywords that people are looking for.
Step#5: Check for a mix of head terms and long-tail keywords in each bucket.
Head terms are keyword phrases that are usually shorter and more common; they’re actually one to three words in length, based on who you communicate with. On the other hand, long-tail keywords are longer keyword phrases typically including three or more words.
It’s essential to analyse that you have a blend of head terms and long-tail terms as it’ll give you a keyword plan that’s well maintained with long-term objective and short-term wins. As more frequently, head terms are usually searched making them often much more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail terms.
Confused about writing a great blog post?
Blogging
A blog is the belonging of one’s thoughts, ideas, experiences and more all in one place on the web. Blogs are simple to use and with a few clicks you can share opinions, thoughts, news or whatever you want. Your blog is a root of who you are, the ultimate expression of you on the web. But why is it important?
Anyone who is looking for something that specific might be a much more qualified searcher for your product than somebody looking for something really common. As long-tail keywords become more specific, it’s really simple to tell what people who search for those keywords are actually looking for. People looking for the head term “blogging,” on the other hand, could be searching for a complete host of reasons which are not related to your business.
So all you have to do is examine your keyword lists to ensure that you have a healthy blend of head terms and long-tail keywords. You surely want some fast wins that long-tail keywords will afford you, try to make an effort at more difficult head terms over the long haul.
Step#6: Observe how competitors are ranking for these keywords.
You don’t have to whatever if because your competitor is doing something doesn’t mean you need to. The same goes for keywords. It doesn’t mean the keyword is important to you if that is important to your competitor. Anyhow, knowing the keywords your competitors are trying to rank for is one such way to help you give your list of keywords another evaluation.
Make sure to re-evaluate these keywords every few months, some businesses like to do it even more often. When you get even more authority in the SERPs, you’ll figure out that you can add many keywords to your lists to approach as you work on supporting your current presence, and then raising in new places on top of that.
