Google’s search algorithm relies on more than 200 factors to decide which websites to rank higher. To make your site stand out, it’s crucial to do thorough keyword research.
By finding the right words that your target audience uses, you can create a keyword strategy that boosts your website’s visibility and brings in organic traffic.
In this guide, we’ll explain why keyword research matters. We will also show you 12 keyword research techniques to find the best keywords. So, let’s get going!
What are keywords?
Keywords, also known as SEO keywords, are words and phrases used in online content to describe products, services, or topics.
For users, they’re what they type into search engines to find what they need. For marketers, keywords signal to search engines what their content is about, helping their websites rank higher.
Keywords reveal valuable insights into your audience’s interests and intentions. The goal is to align the words users search with the content on your site.
Why is keyword research important?
Keywords define your website’s purpose and offerings. The quality and quantity of keywords in your content influence where your site appears in search engine results. Higher rankings mean more visibility and traffic.
The top result on Google gets about 32% of clicks, so aiming for the top few results is worthwhile. As online searches increase, a good ranking can drive significant traffic over time. From 2019 to 2020, traffic to the top 1,000 pages rose by 22%.
Keyword research helps you find popular yet niche terms, anticipating what users want and providing it. Using these keywords in your content boosts your rankings, attracts more visitors, and helps you stay ahead of competitors.
Organic traffic from search results can outperform paid ads, generating leads long after publication. Keyword research involves identifying the words and phrases people use on search engines that relate to your business.
This process involves analyzing the keywords and then using them strategically in your website content. The aim is to grasp what users are searching for so you can market your product or service to them.
12 Simple Tips & Techniques For Effective Keyword Research
Starting with keyword research is crucial for any SEO effort and forms a cornerstone of your website’s SEO strategy.
Keywords provide insights into your target audience and their preferences. This insight should inform the rest of your SEO plan, including on-site optimization, content creation, outreach, and promotion.
To aid you in effective keyword research, we’ve compiled a list of 12 helpful keyword research techniques and tips.
1. Start with Topic Brainstorming
To kickstart your keyword research, it’s wise to brainstorm a list of topics relevant to your business’s products or services. This initial step helps narrow down the types of keywords you should be searching for. It provides a general direction to begin with.
For instance, if you’re in the travel agency industry, topics such as hotels, flights, destinations, tours, excursions, car rentals, and travel packages might come to mind. While these are not keywords themselves, they serve as a solid foundation for delving deeper into keyword research.
2. Focus on Specific Funnel Stages & Searcher Intent
Understanding the sales funnel is crucial for effective keyword research. In addition, it aids in optimized content creation for Google. The three key funnel stages to target are awareness, consideration, and decision. Tailoring your content to match the searcher’s intent at each stage helps optimize your content strategy.
- Awareness Stage: Educate users with informative content to build a relationship.
- Consideration Stage: Provide detailed information about your offerings to help users evaluate their options.
- Decision Stage: Highlight why your product or service is the best choice to encourage conversions.
Research searcher intent across different stages of the funnel in your industry. Tools like Google’s “Customer Journey to Online Purchase Tool” can assist in this process.
3. Utilize Keyword Research Tools
Numerous tools are available to streamline the keyword research process. While we can’t cover them all, here are some popular options:
- Google Keyword Planner: Provides keyword suggestions and search volume data directly from Google.
- SEMrush: A keyword generator that offers research across multiple platforms and helps categorize keywords.
- Ubersuggest: Paid tool focused on competitor analysis, allowing you to identify competitor keywords and gaps in their strategy.
Choose the tool that best suits your needs and budget to enhance your keyword research efforts.
4. Employ Creative Research Methods
In addition to keyword research tools, consider creative methods to generate keyword ideas:
- Explore Wikipedia: Use the Wikipedia search bar to find broad topics and discover subtopics listed in the table of contents.
- Tap into Reddit: Search for relevant topics on Reddit and browse through comments to identify popular keywords missing from your strategy.
Consider using topic research tools that leverage natural language processing to generate related keywords and content ideas efficiently.
5. Leverage Google and YouTube Suggestions
To find the right keywords, you can also use YouTube and Google’s search engine. You can do so in the following ways:
- Type a keyword into the search boxes and review the auto-populated suggestions, which indicate popular search queries.
- Explore the “Searches related to” section at the bottom of Google search results for additional keyword inspiration.
These methods can help you discover popular and relevant keywords to enhance your SEO strategy.
6. Analyzing Multiple Metrics:
When selecting keywords, it’s crucial to consider various factors and analyze multiple metrics. Here are a few key ones to focus on:
- Search Volume: This represents the number of monthly searches for a particular keyword. While aiming for higher search volume is ideal for driving traffic, what constitutes high or low volume varies by industry. It’s essential to utilize effective keyword research techniques to gauge the significance of search volume according to industry standards.
- Keyword Difficulty: This metric indicates the difficulty of ranking for a specific keyword. If your website is new or has low domain authority, targeting keywords with lower difficulty scores increases your chances of ranking. However, it’s important to note that different vendors use proprietary metrics for calculating difficulty, so these figures should be viewed as guides.
- Organic Click-Through-Rate (CTR): Organic CTR indicates the likelihood of a searcher clicking on an organic search result for a keyword. Factors like featured snippets and paid ads can affect organic CTR. Targeting keywords with high Organic CTR improves your chances of success.
7. Keyword Length and Difficulty:
Keywords are categorized into head terms, body keywords, and long-tail keywords, each with varying traffic and ranking difficulty:
- Head terms: These are typically one or two-word keywords with high traffic and competition. However, searcher intent is often unclear, leading to lower conversion rates.
- Long-tail keywords: These are longer, more specific variations of major keywords, often comprising 3-4 words or more. While they may have lower search volume individually, they face less competition and exhibit clearer searcher intent, increasing conversion likelihood. Long-tail keywords constitute the majority of online searches.
Long-tail keywords, although less searched for, can be valuable for ranking well with less effort due to their lower competition. Their specificity makes them ideal for aligning with user intent and for content marketing strategies.
8. Seasonality:
Businesses with seasonal variations in sales should target different keywords accordingly. Recognizing these fluctuations helps tailor keyword strategies to maximize effectiveness throughout the year.
9. Trending Topics:
Targeting trending keywords and topics capitalizes on current public interests, driving more traffic to your site. Tools like Google Trends and ExplodingTopics help identify trending search terms relevant to your business, enabling timely content creation.
10. On-Site Search:
Analyzing on-site search queries provides insights into visitor preferences and needs. By employing keyword research techniques, Google Analytics Site Search Tracking feature reveals what visitors are searching for, helping identify new keywords to target and optimize on your site to enhance user experience.
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) offer various avenues for discovering new keywords:
- Autocomplete Keywords: Typing a keyword into search engines like Google, Bing, or YouTube provides autocomplete suggestions based on user searches, indicating popular terms.
- People Also Ask Keywords: These are questions related to the search query, offering insights into user intent.
- Related Searches: Located at the bottom of SERPs, these suggest additional terms associated with the original search query.
- Trending Keywords: Identifying keywords gaining popularity can be valuable in keyword research, especially targeting emerging trends before they become competitive. Tools like Exploding Topics are useful for identifying such trends.
These methods offer effective ways to expand keyword research and stay ahead in SEO strategies.
By considering these metrics and factors, you can refine your keyword strategy for optimal results.
11. Bulk Keyword Research:
Bulk keyword research involves generating a wide array of keywords, including variations and combinations of different phrases. However, it’s not just about quantity; it’s crucial to refine this list by identifying terms with low competition and high search volume.
When utilizing a keyword research tool for bulk or broad match keyphrases, it must provide data on search volume and keyword difficulty. Yet, analysis beyond these metrics is necessary to gauge search intent accurately.
Keyword analysis for SEO is a significant skill in digital marketing, requiring more than just data analysis. Experience, insight, and industry knowledge play crucial roles in effective keyword research. It’s vital to ensure that identified terms align with the content or service being offered.
12. Competitor Keyword Research:
Examining competitors can provide valuable insights into effective keyword strategies. By analyzing their keyword rankings and traffic-driving keywords, one can identify gaps and opportunities in their strategy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, keyword research serves as the cornerstone of a successful SEO strategy. It’s essential to continuously refine your approach to uncover new, high-quality keywords that drive qualified traffic to your website.
By testing the keyword research techniques provided, you can develop an outstanding keyword research plan.
Remember to stay vigilant by monitoring your progress on the SERPs and adjusting your strategy as necessary. The most effective research process involves exploring all options.
Looking to expand your knowledge further? Explore our guides on SEO and local SEO for additional insights and strategies.
If you’re seeking professional SEO assistance, contact us today! Let us help you discover how we can assist you in finding the right target keywords for your business’s success.