Did you know that the best way to reach your prospects is through using the right words and phrases they are searching for on the internet? You should know. But maybe you are asking how. This is where keyword research comes in.
You must acknowledge the importance of creating brand awareness if you have a business. This article looks at keyword research, types of keywords, the importance of keyword research, and a step-by-step guide on conducting keyword research.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is analyzing and finding search phrases your audience uses on the search engines to utilize the information for general marketing and optimization purposes. Keyword research has the potential of unveiling target queries, fame, and the possibility of ranking for the questions.
Importance of keyword research
SEO keyword analysis can give you useful information about the Google searches that people in your target demographic are making. When finding SEO keywords, you may use your knowledge of these search phrases to inform your smaller-scale marketing plan and content strategy team.
When conducting an internet search, people utilize keywords to discover answers. Therefore, you stand to get more traffic if your information successfully appears in front of our consumers while they conduct searches. As a result, you ought to concentrate on such SEO research.
According to the inbound technique, we should design content upon what people would like to learn rather than what we would like to tell them. Or, to put it another way, our audience comes to us when we conduct proper keyword analysis on SEO. Here are the benefits of conducting keyword research;
- Market Research Trends
Comprehensive keyword research and analysis may give you information about current trends in the market and assist you in focusing your material on the pertinent subjects and search terms that your audience is using.
The more relevant keywords you choose for the material you post, the better you appear on search engine result pages and the more visitors your website will receive. Finding a keyword related to your area of specialization is better.
Suppose your company offers the information that other industry professionals need. In that case, you may fill their needs and give them a call to action, which will take them through the purchasing journey from the introductory stage to the time of purchase.
Through SEO keyword research, you may address the questions that most people in your market want to find answers to by studying terms for their prominence, search volume, and overall intent.
Elements of keyword research
- Authority
Sources that search engines consider authoritative will be given more weight. This means you should establish yourself as an authoritative source by enhancing your website with educational, quality content and promoting it to gain social impulses and backlinks. Unless your material is extraordinary, you have a decreased chance of ranking if you’re not regarded as an authority in the field or if a keyword’s SERPs are stacked with reputable sites you cannot compete with.
Relevance affects how search engines rank material. The idea of search intent enters the picture at this point. Your material will appear for that term if it satisfies the users’ needs. Additionally, the query’s greatest resource has to be your content. How, after all, should Google give your article a higher ranking if it offers lesser quality than other online content?
Similar to opening a business in a deserted location, even if you have a keyword that ranks high in search engine results, it will not lead to traffic to your website if no one is searching for it. Ensure that you use keywords with high search volume to increase your website’s traffic. To achieve this, you must conduct a thorough SEO analysis of keywords.
Types of keywords
When learning how to do google keyword research, you will realize that there are different kinds of keywords. The keyword you intend to use for your content depends on the traffic you want to invite to your website. The longer the keyword gets, the lower the search volume. However, the rest of the metrics, like conversion rates, go in hand with long tail keywords. Here are different types of keywords;
- Long tail keywords
Long tail keywords have five words or more. The keywords have a lower search volume but less competition. The conversion rate for the keywords is high because they are very specific to the searcher’s intention. Consider them when compiling keyword search engine optimization.
Long tail keywords are a perfect choice when conducting keyword research for a new website or when you are targeting your sales to a certain group of people. This is because there are a lot of untapped opportunities to optimize your content.
Choosing longtail keywords is an excellent way to improve your pages to generate more traffic. Popular brands avoid long tail keywords as they do not seem important to them. They would rather spend resources and time on short tail keywords with high search volume.
Middle tail keywords have a length of between three to four words. The words have average competition and search volume. The conversion rate between the keywords is moderate; they are targeted more by searchers.
The keywords are perfect when doing keyword research. This is because they are unexploited terms and phrases in the market. You will likely find several terms that can easily rank on search engine result pages.
Short tail keywords range in length from one to two words. While there is the most competition for these keywords, there is also the most search volume. Nevertheless, since these terms are not as focused, the conversion rate is very low.
It can be expensive and time-consuming to compete for short-tail keywords on search engines because they are difficult to rank. Therefore, unless you’re performing search engine optimization for a sizable and well-known business, it’s preferable to avoid these phrases when conducting your keyword analysis for SEO.
The process of doing keyword research
- Come up with a list of relevant topics based on your knowledge about a business
Consider the subjects you would like to rank for in terms of overall categories to start this process. You may create five to ten topic buckets that you believe are crucial to your company, and you will use those subject buckets later on to help you choose precise terms.
These are presumably the subjects you write about most often if you are a consistent blogger. Or possibly the most frequently discussed topics in sales interactions. What themes could your target audience look for that you want your company to be found for?
Before developing keyword research reports, step into prospective customers’ shoes. If your business sold marketing technology, as HubSpot does (which also seems to have some amazing SEO capabilities), you might well have generic topic buckets like these:
- Lead generation
- Inbound marketing
- Social media marketing
- Marketing automation
- Marketing analytics
Check the keywords’ search volume to allow you to gauge the topics’ importance to your prospects. You will also know the different subtopics you need to succeed on each keyword.
- Fill in the topic buckets using keywords
It’s time to determine some phrases that fit within the topic buckets you have chosen to concentrate on. These are keywords that you believe are crucial to rank for in the search engine results pages since your target audience is likely searching for them.
For instance, if you chose the final topic buckets for a digital advertising software provider, “marketing automation,” you would come up with a list of possible search terms that you believe users might enter concerning the topic. These could consist of:
- Automated tools for marketing
- Using marketing automation software
- Lead nurturing strategies
- Top tools of automation
- How to know if you need automation software in marketing
This stage is not intended to generate your final selection of targeted keywords. You want to put together a list of words and phrases you imagine clients could use to look for material under that certain topic category. So that there isn’t something overly cumbersome, you will subsequently refine the listings.
Finding out the terms your site is already being discovered for is a good technique to generate keyword ideas, even though Google encrypts keywords daily. Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Source report, accessible in the Traffic Analytics tool, are required. To determine the phrases users are typing to find your website, dig deeper into the lead generation for your website and sort through the organic results traffic category.
With as many subject categories as you have, duplicate this technique. And never forget that if you’re struggling to come up with pertinent search phrases, you may always go to the colleagues in service and question what kinds of keywords their customers and prospects use or what frequent issues they have. These are frequently excellent places to begin finding keywords for SEO.
- Recognize how intention impacts keyword research and conduct analyses as such
User intent is currently one of the key elements determining how well you perform on search engines like Google. Today, it’s more crucial for your website to answer the issue a searcher was trying to solve than it is to merely contain the keyword they chose. How does this impact your keyword research, then?
Taking keywords at face value is simple, but they might mean many different things beyond the surface. It would help if you were very cautious about how you understand the phrases you target since the searcher’s intent is so crucial to your chance of ranking.
For instance, if you are doing keyword research for “how to start an article.” An article can mean a blog post or a website. And the intention of the searcher can influence the direction of your writing. Does your audience want to know how to start an individual article or launch their website domain for blogging purposes?
Identify the intention of the searcher before committing to a keyword. To know the searcher’s intent, enter the keywords to the search and note the results that will appear. Ensure the results are closely related to what you want to write about the keyword.
You might already have a creative idea when finding SEO keywords for this phase. It’s a terrific way to add to those lists. If you have no idea how to find out the most researched keywords on google, look at the similar search terms that show up when you enter a keyword into a search engine.
You will find some search recommendations for your first term when you type it into Google and scroll to the bottommost of the results. These keywords can provide suggestions for additional keywords you might want to consider.
- Use keyword research tools
Based on the concepts you have already developed, keyword research and Search Engine Optimization tools can assist you in generating more keyword suggestions using exact matches and phrases that match keywords. The most well-liked SEO tools for keyword research consist of:
- Ahrefs
- Ubersuggest
- SEMrush
- Google keyword planner
- KW finder
- Keywordtool.io
- Moz.
- Keywords everywhere
- SEOCockpit
Finding and choosing keywords for your website
After getting an idea for keywords analysis SEO and the keywords you want to rank for, you can refine your list founded on the best ones on your list of keywords.
- Apply google keyword planner to reduce your list
If you do not know how to check keyword search volume, worry not. You may estimate the traffic and search volume for keywords you are thinking about using Google’s Keyword Planner. Then, utilize Google trends to connect the dots using the knowledge you gained from the Planner.
Apply the Keyword Planner to highlight any words on your listing that have an abnormally low (or excessively high) search volume and do not support you in maintaining the balanced discussed before. Check their development histories and predictions in Google trends before you erase anything. You can determine, for example, whether some low-volume keywords would be something you can concentrate on now and profit from later.
Or perhaps you are just faced with excessively long conditions and need to condense them effectively. You can use Google trends to identify the terms that are rising higher and merit your concentration the most.
- Put low-hanging fruit first
Prioritizing low-hanging fruit means giving top priority to keywords for which you have a probability of ratings based on your website’s authority. Large businesses frequently target terms with good search volume. Since their brands are already well-known, Google often rewards companies with power across various topics.
You might also think about using less competitive keywords. If no one else is vying for the top spot for a keyword, this can be yours by design if there aren’t already numerous articles competing for it.
- Check the monthly search volume for keywords chosen
Checking Monthly Search Volume can assist you in producing content that is focused on what readers want to learn. The number of times a search term or phrase is typed into search engines every month is known as the monthly search volume. Free resources such as searchvolume.io and Google Trends can assist you in determining the most popular terms within comparable keyword clusters.
- Consider search engines result in pages features
If implemented properly, Google will highlight several SERP feature elements. Please search for the terms of your choice and check what the top result seems like to learn more about them. However, this article briefly describes the different kinds of SERP highlighted snippets.
Image packs are results that show up naturally and are presented as a single row of images. You should create a photo post if an image package is included.
Short text passages called paragraphs or featured snippets are displayed at the top of most search results to provide rapid answers to popular search queries. Gaining the placement can be facilitated by comprehending the searcher’s intention and offering succinct, clear responses.
Listicles or list snippets are made for posts that outline the steps of a certain process from the beginning to the end. “How to” search intents. You will likely win the placement if you make a post with clear and direct instructions.
These are short videos that search engines display at the top of a page to explain certain queries. Posting a video on your website and YouTube can assist you in winning this placement if you have used the keywords many people use to search for something.
- Mix short tail and long tail keywords
It is crucial to ensure your keyword strategy is well-balanced with long-term objectives and immediate successes by providing a mixture of head phrases and longtail terms. Because short tail keywords are typically searched for more often than longtail tail keywords, they are frequently considerably more competitive and challenging to rank for. Consider this: Which one of the following phrases do you believe would be more difficult to rank for, even without considering search traffic or keyword difficulty?
- Writing
- How to write an interesting blog
You will agree that the second phase is likely to get more traffic. This is because it addresses a specific issue. Someone searching for “writing” is likely looking for a range of things. Check your list of keywords to ensure you mix long-term and short-term keywords.
- Check how competitors rank for the keywords
You don’t necessarily have to do something just because your rival is, likewise with keywords. A keyword may not be significant because it is relevant to your competitor. To assist you in reevaluating your list of keywords, it’s a wonderful idea to know which keywords your rivals are attempting to rank for.
It makes efforts to stick to raising your ranking for specific keywords if your competition is already doing so for those on your listing. Don’t disregard the ones your opponents don’t appear to be concerned about. You can also have a wonderful chance to gain market share on important terms.
You can maintain a similar proportion to what the combination of longtail and head phrases permits by recognizing the ratio of terms that might be trickier due to increased competition to those that could be even more realistic. Remember, the objective is to develop a list of phrases that help you move toward more ambitious long-term SEO aims and offer some quick wins.
Where to put keywords for SEO
Now that you know how to do keyword research SEO and the type of keywords to choose, it is also important to understand how to use them and learn how to look for keywords on a website. Here are the places to use your keywords;
- Meta description
A meta description is a hypertext mark-up language tag that summarizes the content on a certain page. It is a text snippet that should be around 160 characters. It appears below a page in a search engine result page.
A meta description helps search engines to determine how relevant a page is. As a result, it is a brilliant idea to insert keywords in a meta description. A meta description helps a searcher decide whether to visit your page or not.
A Meta title or a metatag is a text that appears on a search engine result page to show the topic the webpage addresses. It is important to place your focus keyword in a Meta title to help search engines know what your page is about.
- Withing the first paragraph
Ensure you use your main keyword in the introductory paragraph. The first paragraph of a blog should show the problem you are addressing. This helps crawlers and readers understand what you are talking about in the entire blog.
Using Google keywords for SEO in your subheadings makes your content scannable. Any person who does not have time to read through your blog can look at the subheadings and understand what you are addressing.
Create a URL with the focus keyword. Please do not use special characters while making the URL to make it easily readable. This helps to push up your page in the search engine result pages.
In a nutshell
Congratulations for reading to this point. You now understand how to do keyword research for SEO, the types of keywords, and where to use the keywords. When doing keyword research, consider long phrases that users are searching on the internet concerning your industry. Use longtail keywords to ensure you satisfy the specific needs of the researcher.
Do you still need help in keyword research or article writing? Reach out to our expert writers at seoptimizedmarketing.com. We provide quality SEO content to all types of businesses at reasonable rates.
