What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of finding out which are the most popular terms used by people when they are looking for something in search engines like Google. This is done with the intent of including these words in any content you may write so that you can rank higher on a search engine results page. You can also use this to find out which terms have been used by a lot of other businesses on their web pages, which would then make it hard for you to rank as well.
How is it connected to Search Engine Optimisation?
Search engine optimisation is the process of making your site more visible and helping it gain more traffic by making sure it ranks highly on search engine result pages. Keyword research is one of the most basic steps when it comes to SEO as it will not only tell you which keyword terms will help you rank but will also help you figure out which keywords will not.
How is it done?
There are a series of steps that allow you to find out which keywords are best suited for your needs. These have been listed below:
Find keyword ideas
Finding keyword ideas is a pretty simple process, and there are many ways to go about it. First, you can take a look at what your target audience wants. It will give you a few basic keywords you can further build off of.
Next, you can start thinking about questions. Question-based keywords are quite useful, as they not only use the featured phrase but also double as a way to rank higher on keywords that are popularly used.
You can also take a look at your competitor sites since they might have already taken the time to research this. It is anyway a good idea to keep an eye on the competition so you will have an idea of the type of content they are putting out and hence the terms they target. You will also be able to find out which keywords they have not targeted and, hence, use them for yourself.
The most useful way is to find seed keywords. A seed keyword is a word or term that will serve as a starting point for variants. They are usually “big” words that can then be incorporated into other search terms.
For example, a seed keyword could be “cupcake” and topics related to it could be “cupcake recipe”, “cupcake ingredients”, “chocolate cupcakes”, etc.
Analyse the keywords
Now that you have a base list of keywords, it’s time to rank them according to how useful they will be for you. Once again, there are several ways of doing this.
We can begin with search volume. This will tell you if people are actively searching for the term.
The next step would be search intent. As the name implies, this refers to assigning intent to the keywords chosen. Taking a look at the search engine result page will help you understand how you should construct your content for it to rank better.
Then you should group the keywords into something called “topic clusters”. This can be done by having one really popular keyword and a bunch of support keywords. This will help you make your site a strong topic authority.
Choosing Organic keywords
Once you have chosen your keywords and analysed them, the next thing you need to do is check out the extent of competition there is for the keywords.
One of the ways to check if your chosen keyword has a lot of competition is by using keyword difficulty. Keyword difficulty can be easily deduced by determining whether or not using a particular keyword requires a lot of money for it to rank. It is a lot easier to target the lower-competition keywords and then go for the higher ones once you have established yourself.
What are the benefits of keyword research?
Marketing trend insights
When you are researching which current keywords are most popular, you will also be able to figure out what the current trends are. This will help you focus your content on the most relevant topics and target the correct keywords for your customer base.
Traffic growth
As you start publishing content using the keywords you have found to be the most popular, your website will start ranking higher on a search engine result page. This will result in more traffic coming to your page.
Customer acquisition
Targeting keywords that are most used by your customer base will make it easier for users to go from browsing to buying. It will also ensure that you can provide answers to the most frequently asked questions in that area.
Prioritising your time
Finalising a list of keywords will make it much easier for you to put out content that will bring in traffic and customers. You will not have to waste time writing content that will not help you be seen.
Conclusion:
And that’s that! Keyword research is where most sustainable and successful SEO content strategies begin. Generating content with the right keywords is the simplest way to pave the path to more visibility.
Hopefully, through the course of this blog, you have gathered how keyword research is one of the most fundamental parts of SEO. Ensure that you follow our tips to carry out keyword research in simple and easy-to-follow steps, and you’ll benefit from the numerous advantages explored above.
