The online business world is a bustling marketplace. From blogs to e-commerce sites, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial in helping businesses stand out in this digital landscape. At the heart of SEO lies a powerful tool—keyword research. Using the right keyword is essential for marketers, as the Search Engine Robots crawling over your page will pick up the keywords from your content and inform the search engines about the type of information your webpage is providing. This will help create a way to rank and suggest your website.
Even though the Google algorithm has 200 Google ranking factors, in this article we will focus on the most applicable ways of conducting keyword research for better user experience, SEO, and ranking in SERP.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is finding and analyzing the terms people enter into search engines to use that data for a specific purpose, often for SEO or general marketing. It’s about understanding your potential customers’ language and matching your content to these searches.
Why you should consider Keyword research?
When done correctly, keyword research provides a roadmap for content strategy and SEO efforts. It allows you to:
- Understand your audience: Knowing the terms your potential customers are searching for helps you understand their needs, desires, and problems.
- Create targeted content: By figuring out your audience’s exact keyword for search query you can create content that will serve their need for informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional query.
- Provides insight into marketing trend: Through keyword research, you will get to know whether the topics you are searching for have search volume or not and how it is doing in the market.
- Increase organic traffic: Using targeted keywords in your content can significantly improve your visibility in search engine results, leading to increased organic traffic. Organic traffic is sustainable rather than paid traffic or ads.
- Improve conversions: If you are selling products or services, knowing and targeting the keywords potential customers use when they are close to making a purchase can increase your conversions. Using modifiers such as “best”, “buy”, “compare”, and “price” will help you attract audiences with purchasing intent.
Using high-quality keywords in your content such as in articles, blog posts or product descriptions will increase the chances for your website to rank in SERP (Search Engine Result Page). This in turn will help you get a broader audience surpassing your competitors.
Steps to follow in order to conduct Keyword Research
1. Understand Your Niche
Before searching for keywords, you need to understand your niche fully. What are the key topics or themes? Who are your main competitors, and what keywords are they using? These insights will help guide your keyword research.
2. Identify Seed Keywords
Seed keywords are the foundation of your keyword research. They define your niche and identify your competitors. If you were launching a fitness blog, your seed keywords might be ‘fitness,’ ‘exercise,’ ‘workout,’ ‘nutrition,’ etc.
3. Use Keyword Research Tools
Keyword research tools can help expand your seed keywords into a comprehensive list. Some of the most popular tools include Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs. These tools can provide important data such as search volume, keyword difficulty, etc.
4. Analyze Keyword Metrics
Understanding keyword metrics is crucial in deciding which keywords to target. These metrics include:
- Search Volume: The average number of times a keyword is searched monthly. Higher search volumes indicate higher demand but can also mean more competition.
- Keyword Difficulty: This measures how difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword. The higher the score, the more difficult it will be to rank on the first page of search engine results.
- Cost per Click (CPC): This metric is crucial for paid advertising campaigns and shows how much each click on an ad for a particular keyword will cost.
5. Choose Long-tail Keywords
Try to go for long-tail keywords instead of focus keyword or seed keyword. Long-tail keywords are three or more word phrases that are very specific. They usually have lower search volumes but less competition and a higher potential for conversion because they are specific. Use Google Keyword Planner to shorten your keyword list.
6. Compare keyword ranks with your competitors
After doing keyword research you might have covered most of the keywords used by your competitors. By using the Content Gap report in Ahref’s you will get a list of keywords your competitors are getting ranked for but you aren’t.
7. Consider Searcher Intent
Understanding the intent behind the keywords your audience uses is important. For example, someone searching for ‘best digital cameras’ is likely in the research phase, while someone searching for ‘buy Canon EOS 5D’ is probably ready to purchase.
8. Implement Keywords
After you’ve completed your research, it’s time to implement those keywords in your content. Use them in your titles, headings, URL, meta descriptions, and throughout the content. But remember, always prioritize user experience and readability.
FAQ: How can I retain my keyword ranking and visibility in SERP?
By monitoring and adjusting you can keep your position of your keyword ranking and visibility in SERP. SEO is a long-term game. After implementing your keywords, monitor your site’s performance. Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to see how your pages rank and how much traffic they bring in. Based on these insights, you can adjust your strategy as needed.
Conclusion
Keyword research is an essential part of SEO and content marketing. By understanding and using your customers’ language, you can create content that meets their needs and improves your online visibility.
Whether you’re an established business or just starting, investing time in keyword research is a step towards achieving your digital marketing goals.