Keyword research is the first and the most crucial part of your SEO strategy. Choosing the best SEO keywords for your content is half the battle when it comes to driving organic traffic to your website. (The other half of the battle is creating quality content!)
Before you begin writing content for your website, you must identify appropriate high-volume search terms.
SEO keywords will guide your content, ensuring that the content produced will be relevant and easily searchable on Google. That, in short, is what keyword search is all about.
It's usually a pretty tedious task that involves a lot of effort to dive into the details, numbers, and comparison of long lists of keywords. But it is incredibly important to do it right. Thorough keyword research will be the foundation of your SEO strategy and content development.
Over 50% of shoppers use Google to research before they buy. The search engine giant uses these search keywords or phrases to find related results. And if your business isn't ranked on the first page, you won't get much organic traffic.
So how to find the best SEO keywords?
The goal is to increase the volume of targeted organic traffic to your website. If you want to know how?, read our 8 tips for choosing the best SEO keywords.
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Why Is Keyword Research Important?
It's not enough to find high-volume search terms. You need to make sure that the SEO keywords used in your content match your brand, product, or service and the keywords your customers use. And of course, that's where keyword search comes in.
Once you have done proper and thorough research, you will be able to develop a viable SEO strategy. With a good SEO strategy, you can then create a detailed action plan to achieve your goals.
For example, if your business is renting out vacation homes, your content may contain the keyword "vacation home". But without proper keyword research, the keyword used could be "vacation house."
While this is a technically correct term, it may be out of sync with what your potential customers are searching for on Google.
The keywords you choose to use should be what your target audience is searching for. Only then will the effort of optimizing your webpage be worthwhile.
More significantly, two similar keywords often have different search volumes, trends, and levels of competition. Choosing a more relevant and higher volume keyword could give you better results compared to its other semantic or related keywords.
How To Do Keyword Research
There are several ways to do this, either manually or by using a keyword research tool like Keyword Tool. But whichever method you choose, there are a number of important steps you should follow.
From defining your goals to executing your keyword plan, follow this detailed step-by-step guide to conducting a proper and thorough SEO keyword search:
Step 1: Study your niche
Before determining the best SEO keywords to optimize your webpage, it's best to start by diving deep to learn more about your topic or niche. This can give you some fresh ideas and help you discover aspects of your marketing and SEO strategy that you may not have thought of before.
Below are some ideas on how to study your niche:
- Speak with your existing customers and get to know them better. Find out what terms they use to describe your brand, company, product, or service.
- Try thinking from the perspective of your potential customers. If you were to tell a friend about the brand's offering, how would you talk about it?
- Get involved in online communities in your topic or niche, such as forums and social media networks. Read the discussions and find out what pain points are being mentioned about your niche.
Step 2: Define your goals
A plan should always start with defining the end goal. But before that, you need to ask yourself important, introspective questions like:
- Who are you?
- What does your brand stand for?
- What makes you unique?
- What is the theme of your website?
- What promises do you make on your website?
Once you have effectively answered these questions, you then need to clarify what your brand's mission is. Do you want to increase the number of subscribers? Or do you have a sales goal for a certain date?
It's important to define your goal because it will give direction to your SEO strategy. The search terms you eventually use should be aligned with your goals, ideally segmented into different content marketing funnels. Your goals will also determine the purpose of your SEO writing and content.
Put your goals in writing. Draw charts. Document them. They will provide the framework and direction for your high-level content and online marketing strategy.
Step 3: Build a list of relevant topics
Based on your brand's main category and the goals you want to achieve, break it down into smaller groups of topics. Make a list of all the topics related to your brand that you want to appear on Google.
For example, if you are a consumer brand specializing in men's personal care products, here are some topics related to your brand:
- Men's facial cleanser
- Anti-perspirant deodorant
- Male pattern baldness.
These should be topics that are important to your business and relate to your buyer personas. Think about what type of topics your target audience will search for on Google. These topic categories can then be broken down into keywords related to those topics.
Step 4: Create a list of seed keywords
Now that you've broken down your main category into different subtopic categories, you can start creating a list of seed keywords. These keywords should be related to your different topics and, most importantly, be terms that your target audience might search for on Google.
Seed SEO keywords, or target keywords, are important because they form the basis of your keyword research. They define your niche and determine who your competitors are.
If you're wondering how to find the seed keywords for your brand or product, it's actually much easier than you think. Just describe your offering as simply as possible and think about how people might search for it on Google.
Step 5: Use good keyword research tools
You may be thinking "shouldn't keyword research begin with the use of a keyword research tool?". There isn't a right or wrong answer to this question, to be honest. But there is a clear benefit to researching SEO keywords from the perspective of your brand or business first.
It keeps you from getting overwhelmed by keywords and helps you get a broader perspective of your content and SEO strategy.
Once you've identified your goals, topics, and a list of seed keywords, it's time to use keyword research tools to refine your search terms.
One option is to use Google keyword planner. Unfortunately, Google only gives approximate search volumes. As an alternative, you can use a tool like Keyword Tool. It will give you much more detail and help you find the right direction for your search terms. In addition, it can also give you additional ideas on related keywords.
Just type the topic (or the seed keyword) into the search field and you will get a list of alternative keywords, including those containing prepositions and questions.
Step 6: Search intent optimization
It used to be fairly easy to insert high-volume keywords to improve a page ranking. But it's not so easy these days. Today, Google's machine learning search algorithms compare search terms to user queries to learn about search intent.
Search intent is defined as the intention or reason why users search for a specific term. Internet users' search patterns are based on many factors, including:
- Why do they search?
- Are they seeking because they have a question and want an answer to that question?
- Are they seeking a specific website?
- Are they seeking because they want to buy something?
Think about your target audience. Why would they search for your topic? How will they enter the terms? Are they looking to buy something? Or do they seek a service to solve a specific problem?
Once you have a good idea of the search intent of potential readers or customers, you can use it to refine your keyword search. Obtaining a list of high-volume keywords related to your brand or topic is fine. But finding keywords that directly match the search intent of your target audience is even better.
Step 7: Identify long-tail keywords
Seed keywords are often shorter search terms that are closely related to your brand's main topic or category. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are more descriptive and often related to smaller groups of subtopics within your brand. It's much easier to match your target audience's search intent with long-tail keywords than with seed keywords.
For example, if your website publishes content about golf equipment reviews, using long-tail keywords such as "what is the best 9-iron golf club" will attract a more relevant audience than the keyword "golf club."
Long-tail keywords generally receive fewer clicks, but because they are focused on a specific topic or product, they often get a higher conversion rate.
Step 8: Find out about your competitors
It's far from enough to do a Google keyword search on your brand. You need to be aware of what your competitors are doing as well. The better you understand the content landscape in your industry, the better for your SEO optimization.
Understanding the competitiveness of different keywords will also allow you to identify search terms that may be too difficult to rank for. Most importantly, you will be able to find keyword opportunities. These opportunities occur when you find related keywords that are related to your brand or industry with a low to medium level of competition.
To find these keyword opportunities, you can perform a keyword search on your competitors. The paid version of Keyword Tool Pro has a competitive analysis feature that does just that. Enter your competitor URL in the search field and the results will show all the keywords the webpage is ranked for.
How To Find Best SEO Keywords Summary
SEO Keyword search is defined as the activity of analyzing and finding a list of useful keywords for the purpose of SEO copywriting. Keywords, or search terms, often become a guide for the direction of your content and marketing strategy.
Once you have completed the steps above, you should have enough information to develop a good content and SEO strategy. You will also have obtained adequate data for SEO writing of your content.
Whether you run a content-driven blog, a small business, or a brand marketer, you'll need keyword research to kick-start your content and marketing activities.
Keyword research can be a time-consuming task. But more often than not, it pays off in the long run.
FAQs About SEO Keywords
How many keywords should I use for SEO?
You should focus on one main keyword per page while including two or three keyword variations for SEO. Each of your pages should focus on a single topic and include the most important keywords for SEO. Therefore, choose one to three keywords for each page.
Which keywords are best to target in SEO?
The best keywords for your SEO strategy take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to identify highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on: The level of competition you face. Your ability to produce higher quality content than what is currently ranked.
Are keywords important for SEO?
Keywords are still important and useful for SEO, but they are not the most important factor. In fact, SEO is much more complex than just placing keywords on a page. And because SEO is constantly evolving and search engines are continually updating their algorithms, marketers must change the way they use keywords.
