How to Do Keyword Research – Strategy You Didn’t Know
You are here to know how to do keyword research. SEO aims to get your content to show up in the top results on search engine results pages (SERPs) for keywords that are relevant to your business. Doing this successfully can enhance your organic traffic and build brand awareness.
While Google holds us on our toes with all the algorithm updates, they keep rollin’ out, and one thing has stayed much consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the method of identifying the words and phrases you want to target in your site’s on-page SEO strategy. After all, SEO isn’t just about showing up in search results — it’s regarding showing up in search results for the keywords your target audience is searching for.
So before you optimize your site, you require to know which words and phrases potential customers and clients use when they’re looking for information about your industry, products, services, or business. And keyword research is how you reveal those keywords — making it a necessary initial step in SEO strategy.
How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
Keyword research can be a complex process. But with the following six steps, you can reveal the keywords that will help you reach your SEO goals.
Identify niche topics
To attract quality traffic, you need to use the exact words and phrases as your target audience. This requires determining what kinds of topics they search for related to your products, services, and industry. One of the best approaches to do this is to check out the related searches feature at the bottom of Google’s search results.
First, search for one of your primary target keywords or a phrase you think your target audience might search. Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and take a glance at the related searches. These suggestions are based on actual user search data — meaning that they’re what users are searching for most often.
For example, take a look at the related quests for the phrase, best women’s watches. These are the quests that users perform most often when they want to learn more about their choices for women’s watches — so for a retailer selling them, this list is a keyword goldmine.
Use keyword tools to see the competitors
The possibilities are high that your competitors are already using SEO. And while this means that it may be challenging to achieve the rankings you need, it also means that you don’t need to start from scratch when it comes to finding keywords. That’s particularly true if you use a competitor research tool like SEMrush.
You can enter a competitor’s domain name, then view a report with all of the keywords they’re currently ranking for, as well as the search volume and competition level of each one.
If any of the keywords make sense for your business — and several of them should — you can add them to your list and be confident that you aren’t buy cheap klonopin online missing any of the possibilities your competitors have found.
See a mix of long-tail keywords and head keywords
An effective SEO policy requires targeting keywords of varying length and specificity. Some of the most specific keywords to rank for are long-tail keywords or lengthy phrases with a particular intent. Short-tail, or “head” keywords, are short, broad terms on the other end of the spectrum.
In general, the shorter a keyword, the more leading its monthly search volume. And while this may lead you to believe that these are where you should focus most of your efforts, it’s essential to recognize that these keywords are often tough to rank.
On the other hand, long-tail keywords have a lower monthly search volume but will be simpler to rank. Plus, the more precise a keyword, the clearer a searcher’s intent — meaning that these phrases often lead to higher conversion rates.
Consider search volume, keyword difficulty, and other metrics
Once you’ve put together a list of possible keywords, you can use metrics like search volume and competition level to evaluate their value for your business.
You can access this data utilizing tools like the keywords everywhere extension. Copy and paste a list of keywords into the Bulk Upload feature, and you’ll view each keyword’s monthly search volume, as well as its competition level, on a scale from 0 to 1.
The ideal keyword is one with a nearly high monthly search volume and relatively low competition level. As you assess your keywords, you’ll likely find that this is a rare combination — but you can use the data to make informed decisions about where to focus most of your efforts.
Create a list
As you research possible keywords, you’ll want to keep a master list of all of your options, as well as key data about each and how you’re using them on your site.
While it may seem like an additional step, in the beginning, you’ll likely accumulate a few hundred (or thousand) keywords, and this list will become a valuable resource for you and your team.
Fortunately, with tools like Keyword Planner, you can simply export your research into spreadsheets, then copy and paste your data into a master tracking document. Then, you can use this document to develop your strategy and track how you implement keywords on your site and the results you see from each.
Learn how to prioritize
As you create your list of keywords, you’ll likely identify many that require more work than simply adding to an existing page’s title tag to use. Each of these offers a new opportunity for your business — but you’ll need to prioritize them.
You can utilize metrics like search volume and competition level to simplify this process. But beyond that, you’ll require to consider the potential each has for your business’s goals. Focus on keywords with clear search intent, as these are your best opportunities to meet a particular need.
The clearer a keyword, the more confident you can bet that you’re content will be precisely what searchers are looking for — and that you’ll be able to but connections that ultimately translate into sales.
