What Is Keyword Research?
A Comprehensive Guide on how to do keyword research for SEO
Keyword research is the bedrock upon which any successful SEO campaign is built.
Without a firm grasp of the search terms your target audience uses, you’re essentially navigating the digital landscape blindfolded. This guide will take you through the essential process of discovering and analysing these crucial keywords, ensuring that the content you create aligns with what potential customers are actually searching for on Google and other search engines.
Understanding keyword research is more vital than ever, particularly with the introduction of AI Overviews, as it helps you determine which keywords are worth your time and effort to rank for. This process goes beyond simply identifying popular terms; it delves into search intent, helping you to understand why users are searching for specific phrases, and what kind of content they expect to find.
By the end of this guide, you will have a clear understanding of how to find, analyse, and implement keywords. You’ll learn how to revisit your SEO goals, embark on the keyword discovery phase to uncover valuable terms, including long-tail and local keywords, and conduct thorough keyword analysis to narrow down your options. Furthermore, we will explore how to target and optimise your content with these keywords, and the importance of tracking your keyword rankings to measure your progress.
Whether you’re just starting your SEO journey or looking to refine your existing strategies, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools to effectively conduct keyword research and ultimately drive more relevant traffic to your website.
Why is Keyword Research Important?
Keyword research is the cornerstone of any SEO campaign. Without undertaking keyword research, you won’t know which keywords your target audience actually searches for, the search intent behind those queries, or whether those keywords are feasible for you to target and rank for. By understanding the search terms your potential customers use, you can ensure that the content you create aligns with their needs and the language they use, avoiding the scenario of creating content that nobody is searching for. As the introduction of AI Overviews makes clear, keyword research is increasingly vital to determine which keywords are worth your time to pursue.
Ultimately, thorough keyword research is a fundamental part of SEO and the first step in the SEO copywriting process, making it crucial for driving relevant traffic to your website.
Keyword research is also crucial for the following reasons:
Understanding Your Audience
It reveals the specific words and phrases your target audience uses when searching for solutions. This helps you avoid using internal vocabulary that may not match your audience’s language.
Improving Search Rankings
It helps you identify the keywords that your website has a chance of ranking for. By including the same keywords in your content as searchers use in their queries, you can improve the likelihood that your content will rank higher in search results.
Informing Content Strategy
It ensures that you create content that people are actually searching for, rather than content that no one is looking for. This process helps you create content around what people want to discover, rather than what you want to tell them.
Optimising for Search Intent
It helps you understand the user’s intent behind the search query. This ensures that you create content that meets the searchers needs, be it informational, transactional, or navigational.
Driving Traffic
By targeting the search terms your audience actually uses, you increase the likelihood that users will find your site on Google and pay you a visit.
Competitive Advantage
It can reveal keywords your competitors may be overlooking, providing opportunities to gain market share on important terms.
Essential Concepts of Keyword Research
Before diving into the process, it’s important to understand some key concepts:
Focus Keyword (or Keyphrase)
This is the specific word or phrase you want a particular page on your site to be found for in search engines.
Seed Keywords
These are the initial terms you start your research with, based on your products, services, or topics you cover. They act as a foundation for discovering other relevant keywords.
Long-Tail Keywords
These are more specific and less commonly searched phrases (usually more than three words) that focus on a niche. They are often easier to rank for because they have less competition.
Search Intent
This refers to the reason why a user enters a specific query into a search engine. It can be informational, transactional, navigational, or commercial.
Search Volume
This is the average number of times a keyword is searched for per month. It can help you assess how popular a keyword is and the potential traffic it could generate.
Keyword Difficulty
This is a score that measures how competitive it is to rank for a given keyword.
Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD)
This metric measures how hard it is for your domain specifically to rank for a given keyword.
Traffic Potential
This metric shows how much search traffic the top-ranking page for a particular keyword gets, including all variations of that keyword.
Keyword Clusters
This is a group of related keywords that can be targeted on a single page.
How to Conduct Keyword Research
A Step-by-Step Guide
Here’s a detailed step-by-step process for conducting effective keyword research:
Define Your Goals
Before starting your research, identify your SEO and broader business objectives. Determine whether you want to increase brand awareness, generate more leads, or increase conversions. Your goals will influence the type of keywords you target.
Brainstorm Initial Keywords
Begin by listing important topics related to your business. Think about the words and phrases that your potential customers might use to find your products or services. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas. These are your seed keywords.
For example, if you run a pizzeria in Los Angeles, your seed keywords might include “pizza,” “take out,” and “delivery”.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Utilising keyword research tools is essential for efficiently and effectively identifying the search terms your target audience uses. These tools help you move beyond guesswork by providing valuable data and insights. For example, tools like Semrush possess vast databases of keywords, allowing you to discover related terms and questions based on your initial ideas, often referred to as seed keywords. These tools reveal crucial metrics such as search volume, indicating how many times a keyword is searched for monthly, and keyword difficulty, which estimates how challenging it would be to rank for a specific term.
Google Keyword Planner, while primarily designed for paid advertising, can still provide keyword ideas and search volume estimates for organic research. By using these tools, you can analyse your competition, seeing which keywords they rank for and potentially uncovering keyword gaps. Ultimately, keyword research tools significantly streamline the process of finding, analysing, and prioritising keywords, enabling you to make data-driven decisions for your SEO strategy and content creation.
Some popular tools include:
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Planner is Google’s own tool is free, providing keyword ideas based on a keyword or website.
Moz Keyword Explorer
The Moz Explorer tool helps you find traffic-driving keywords, and can show how competitive they are.
Semrush
The Semrush tool provides a large keyword database with various match types, including broad, phrase, exact, and related keywords. and keyword difficulty.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers a vast amount of keywords with metrics like search volume & traffic potential. It can identify keywords that your competitors rank for but you don’t.
Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that displays keyword data whenever you do a Google search.
Google Suggest
This is a feature of Google search that provides related search query suggestions as you type your initial search query.
Google’s People Also Ask
A Google SERP feature that provides users with additional questions related to their original search query.
Analyse Keyword Metrics
Once you have a list of keywords, it’s important to analyse the data. Use keyword tools to evaluate each term for:
Search Volume: Identify keywords that have a high volume of searches per month. However, remember that low-volume keywords can also be valuable.
Keyword Difficulty: Assess how hard it is to rank for each keyword. You may need to balance high volume with lower difficulty for a better chance of ranking.
Personal Keyword Difficulty:
Consider how difficult it will be for your website specifically to rank for each keyword.
Traffic Potential: Check how much traffic the top-ranking page for your chosen keywords gets, including all the different variations.
Understand Search Intent
For each keyword on your list, determine the search intent. Is the user looking for information, a product, a specific website, or something else? Make sure that the content you create matches the intent of the searcher.
For example, someone searching for “black basketball shoes” probably wants to make a purchase, while someone searching for “how to sink a three pointer” is looking for information.
Analyse the SERPs
Search for the keywords you are considering, and analyse the search engine results pages (SERPs). See what types of content are ranking for those keywords. Are there featured snippets, image packs, video carousels, or AI overviews? This helps you understand what kind of content Google thinks searchers want.
Find Long-Tail Keywords
Look for specific long-tail keywords. These keywords may have less search volume, but they tend to be easier to rank for. They often have a higher conversion value.
For example, instead of “hiking boots,” target “hiking boots for bunions”.
Check Competitors
See what keywords your competitors are ranking for. You can use the “Competing Domains” report in tools like Ahrefs to find websites that rank for similar keywords. You can also use the “Content Gap” report in Ahrefs to find keywords that your competitors rank for, but you don’t.
Cluster Keywords
Group related keywords into clusters. You can then target these clusters on individual pages.
For example, “whipped coffee” and “whipped coffee recipe” can be clustered, as they have very similar search results.
Prioritize Keywords
Decide which keywords to target first. Prioritize keywords with a good balance of search volume, relevance, and low to medium search difficulty. Also consider the business potential of each keyword.
Keyword Targeting and Optimisation
Once you have conducted your keyword research and have a list of suitable keywords, the next crucial steps are keyword targeting and optimisation. Keyword targeting involves deciding which of these identified keywords you will focus on ranking for first, often starting with the “easy wins” – keywords with incredibly low search difficulty and reasonable traffic – to gain initial momentum. You might then prioritise keywords with high commercial intent that can lead to conversions, followed by high-volume, top-of-funnel keywords to attract a larger audience. Once you have determined your target keywords, keyword optimisation is the process of putting your research into action by strategically integrating these keywords into your website content.
This includes creating high-quality content that aligns with the search intent behind each keyword, using your chosen keywords and related terms naturally throughout your text without engaging in keyword stuffing.
Key optimisation tactics also involve ensuring your primary keyword is present in vital on-page elements such as the title tag, meta description, H1 heading, user-friendly URL, and alt text for images.
For more competitive terms, building backlinks to your page may also be necessary. Effective keyword targeting and optimisation are fundamental to SEO, ensuring that your website has the best chance of ranking for the search terms your target audience is actually using.
Keyword Mapping
Match each keyword to the appropriate page on your site. Make sure each page targets a set of keywords with a specific search intent.
Content Creation
Create high-quality content that provides solutions to your users’ problems. Make sure that your content is relevant, accurate, and easy to read.
Strategic Keyword Placement
Use your primary keyword naturally in your content, especially in the title tag, H1 tag, meta description, URL slug, and within the first paragraph. Include secondary keywords within the body content and subheading tags where relevant. Avoid keyword stuffing.
Semantic Keywords
Use related terms and phrases to deepen and broaden the understanding of your focus keyword.
Internal Linking
Build internal links to other relevant pages on your site, using keyword-rich anchor text.
Tracking and Refreshing Your Keywords
Keyword Tracking
Monitor your keyword rankings regularly using tools such as Semrush or Accuranker. This helps you measure your improvement and identify areas for optimisation.
Refresh Your Research
Re-evaluate and update your keyword research periodically. Search trends and user behaviour can change over time. You may need to add new keywords and update your content to stay relevant.
Additional Tips for Keyword Research Success
Don’t Ignore “Zero Volume” Keywords
These keywords may bring few visitors individually, but they can add up to a significant amount of traffic when targeted across multiple articles.
Prioritise Content Quality
Creating high-quality, valuable content is essential to ranking well in Google. The best content will satisfy search intent, provide a great user experience, and demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
Adapt to Search Trends
Stay informed of any changes in algorithms and user behaviour, and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Utilise AI
Use AI tools to help with keyword research, content optimisation, and search intent analysis.
Be Patient
Building a strong SEO strategy takes time. Don’t expect to see results immediately.
Keyword research is an ongoing process that is essential for driving traffic to your website and achieving your SEO goals. By following this guide, you can develop a robust keyword strategy that helps you connect with your target audience, rank higher in search results, and achieve your business objectives. Remember that it is an ongoing process and needs to be constantly re-evaluated, as search trends and user behaviour can change. By continuously refining your approach and adapting to new trends, you can increase your visibility and stay ahead of the competition.
Now you have your keyword research in hand, it’s time to start your on-page optimisation