Keywords are the backbone of successful SEO strategies. If you don’t target the right terms, even your most well-written content may never reach your intended audience, and that’s why keyword research plays such a critical role in an SEO strategy’s success.
Identifying keyword terms that people are actively searching for will help you drive traffic to your website and improve your search rankings. In contrast, choosing the wrong keywords may lead to wasted time, effort, and missed opportunities.
Keyword research isn’t as complex as it may seem. In fact, you can grasp essential keywords in just 20 minutes. However, there are some common pitfalls and myths of SEO keyword research that you need to avoid to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is discovering and analyzing what your target audience is searching for on Google. By understanding these search behaviors, you can create content that aligns with user intent, boosting your site ranking in search results.
Keyword research is a vital component of any successful SEO strategy and an essential step when creating fresh content. For instance, if you’re a pet retailer, using keyword research tools like Ahref can reveal some key insights, such as:
- Thousands of users search for “how much food should I feed my dog.” monthly.
- It’s more competitive to rank for “royal canin dog food” than “royal canin cat food.”
These insights allow you to allocate resources wisely, optimizing efforts to drive more organic traffic to get better business outcomes. If you’re new to keyword research, free keyword research tools are a great starting point for exploring your SEO potential.
Why is Keyword Research Crucial for SEO?
Keyword research shows what your target audience is actively searching for, helping you tap into valuable ranking opportunities.
By crafting content that meets users’ specific needs, you can improve the chances of ranking organically in search results and drive more meaningful traffic to your site. Inserting well-researched keywords into content can boost your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google emphasizes the importance of content relevance, which means, your content includes keywords that people search for. Understanding these exact terms helps you align your content more effectively with user intent to improve your content rankings.
Understanding the Core Elements of Keyword Research
Below are three essential elements of keyword research that can boost your content search engine ranking.
Relevance: Meeting search intent
If you want to rank a specific keyword, it must have readers searching for it. The core factor here is you understand what your audience wants to produce content that meets their needs. If you want your content to rank higher on Google, you have to make it the most useful resource available.
Authority: Building trust
Google prefers websites that are deemed authoritative. If you aim to become a trusted source in your market, you must have high-quality content that appeals to backlinks and social shares. The more people link to your content, the more Google recognizes your website as an authority. Well-established sites like HubSpot or Forbes can dominate rankings because they’ve been building their reputation over time.
Even if you’re not on their level, you can still grow your authority by regularly publishing insightful content and promoting it effectively to gain traction. As you grow your site even with free keyword research tools, it still can gain trust and higher ranking potential.
Volume: Finding the right balance
Volume is the number of searches a keyword gets each month. Ranking for a highly searched keyword might seem ideal, but the competition is fierce, making it difficult for smaller sites to break through. You should consider targeting lower monthly search volume (MSV) keywords with less competition to capture more traffic.
For example, you might rank well for “Instagram marketing for small businesses” rather than struggling to compete for “Instagram marketing”. Ahrefs or other keyword research tools can help you identify potential keyword opportunities and provide valuable insights, especially if you’re just starting.
By focusing on relevance, authority, and volume, you’ll have a clearer path to optimize your keyword research and enhance your SEO strategy.
>> Read more: 5 Steps to Crafting an Effective Marketing Strategy
How to Effectively Conduct Keyword Research for SEO
In this guide, we’ll walk you through a simple yet effective process for conducting keyword research that helps you target the search terms that matter most to your business.
Step 1: Identify key relevant topics
To begin your keyword research process, you need to create a list of core topics that are directly related to your business. These topics should reflect your target of promoting your brand and focus on your audience’s interests. You should come up with five to ten general topics to have a better keyword selection.
Then, you need to think about the focused topics in your business market. If you regularly produce content, such as blogs or articles, you should consider the topics you cover most often. These are likely the themes that are most relevant to your audience’s search intent.
For example, if your business offers digital marketing services, your core topics might include everything about:
- SEO
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- CRM software
By establishing these broad topics, you can then uncover specific keywords that align with these topics, making sure that your content reaches the right audience.
Step 2: Fill your topic buckets with keywords
Once you have your core topic buckets, the next step is to populate these buckets with relevant keyword phrases that can rank on search engine results because your potential customers are likely searching for them.
For example, if your topic bucket is “marketing automation,” you might consider keywords like:
- AI marketing tools
- Marketing automation tools
- How to use marketing automation software
- What is marketing automation?
- Lead nurturing
- Top automation tools
At this stage, the goal isn’t to finalize your keyword list. Instead, you’re gathering ideas – terms that you think potential customers might search for. Then, you need to narrow this bucket down to avoid overwhelming your strategy.
As Google continues to encrypt more search data, another excellent way to find keyword ideas is using Google Analytics or Google Search Console. These tools help you know which keyword research for SEO terms is driving traffic to your site. By analyzing your organic search traffic, you can discover keywords people are using to find your content.
Additionally, you can consider reaching out to your sales or customer service teams. They often have valuable insights into the questions or terms prospects and customers use, they are great resources for generating keyword ideas.
Tools like HubSpot’s Search Insights Report or other keyword research tools can assist you in organizing your keywords into topic clusters, analyzing search volume, and informing your editorial calendar and SEO strategy.
Step 3: Understand how intent influences keyword research and its analysis
User intent defines how well your page ranks on search engines like Google. It’s not enough to just use the right keyword; your content must solve the searcher’s problem effectively.
So, how does intent shape your keyword research?
Keywords often carry multiple meanings, and it’s easy to overlook the nuances of user intent. However, understanding the searcher’s goal behind a keyword can significantly impact your SEO strategy.
For example, let’s take a look at the keyword phrase“how to start a blog.” This phrase might refer to starting a single blog post or launching a blog website.
Does the user want to know how to create one blog post, or are they searching for a guide to building an entire blog website? If your article caters to the second target, you need to first confirm the intent behind the keyword before you create content.
A good practice is to input the keyword directly into a search engine. Upon searching, you will see that most results guide users on creating a blog website, not just an individual post.
You should also make sure that the content Google ranks aligns with your keyword goal. This careful approach helps your content meet user needs and strengthens your ranking potential.
In the keyword research journey, researching related search terms is often overlooked but it’s a highly effective step. This method not only expands your list of potential keywords but also lets you understand how users think and search for a specific topic.
When you input a keyword into Google search, you should pay attention to the related search terms that show up at the bottom of the results page.
For example, while researching “AI tools dropshipping”, you can see that users are also searching for “Best free AI tools for dropshipping”. These additional terms can lead to valuable insights for SEO, allowing you to uncover opportunities you may not have initially considered.
Extra tip:
You can further refine your search by clicking on those related terms to find more options. For instance, “Best free AI tools for dropshipping” reveals that people are also interested in “AI dropshipping website builder free”.
In general, incorporating these strategies into your keyword research will let you have a more comprehensive approach and make a significant difference in your SEO efforts.
Step 5: Leverage keyword research tools effectively
Whether you’re targeting exact-match or phrase-match keywords, keyword research tools are essential elements that give you valuable keyword ideas. By working on these tools, you can expand upon the keyword concepts you’ve generated so far and refine your SEO strategy.
Here are some popular tools to consider:
- Google Keyword Planner
As one of the most trusted names, Google’s Keyword Planner is a must-have tool for gathering keyword insights directly from Google. Google’s Keyword Planner is free to use.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
It’s one of most SEO experts’ favorite tools for producing detailed keyword research reports. This tool offers in-depth insights into backlinks, organic keywords, and domain performance for verified websites, making it one of the top choices for SEO keyword research.
- Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest offers up to three free keyword searches daily and is known for its user-friendly interface. In addition to its basic keyword research capabilities, Ubersuggest allows reverse searches to identify your site’s current rankings. It’s a comprehensive free tool and ideal for users who don’t mind the search limitations.
- SE Ranking
While SE Ranking gives users comprehensive data once they research keywords. You can explore new keyword opportunities and gather actionable insights thanks to this tool’s stunning functions. Although its initial interface is not very appealing, its rich data makes it worth the effort.
- SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
SEMrush has one of the most extensive SEO tool sets available. Its keyword magic tool delivers vast keyword suggestions, which are categorized by specificity. Although SEMrush is a paid tool, its usability and depth make it a valuable resource for keyword research.
- Rank Tracker
Rank Tracker by SEO PowerSuite is powerful for search. It’s an excellent tool for finding keyword gaps and analyzing search engine performance. Rank Tracker’s free version also offers testing and experimentation opportunities.
- Free Keyword Research Tool by Ryrob
Ryrob’s tool is simple and straightforward. It can quickly show related keyword ideas that are helpful for future blog posts. By exploring keyword clusters in the “Ideas” tab, you will explore more specific and relevant terms for ongoing content creation.
- KWFinder
KWFinder makes the keyword research process easier. It gives users an intuitive platform to find top-performing keywords in no time. Besides, KWFinder’s friendly interface makes it suitable for both beginners and professional users.
How to effectively choose keywords for your website
After having a list of keywords you’d like to rank for, the next step is refining your list to align with your SEO strategy. Here’s a guide on how to find the most valuable keywords.
Step 1: Use Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a great tool for estimating keyword search volume and traffic potential. After gathering important data, you should cross-check it with Google Trends to get a better sense of which certain keywords are worth focusing on. Keyword Planner can also help you filter out terms with too high search volume to ensure a balanced keyword mix.
One more useful tip is, before discarding any keywords, you should analyze a keyword’s history trend with Google Trends. Some low-volume keywords might show upward trends, signaling future potential, so you may want to invest in them early.
If your keyword list is overwhelming, Google Trends can help you pinpoint which terms are currently gaining traction, so that you know which keyword to focus on to get better results.
Step 2: Focus on low-hanging fruit
One of the best keyword research tips is to focus on keywords you can realistically rank for based on your website’s authority. Large, well-established companies often dominate high-volume search terms due to their strong presence in Google’s rankings.
However, there’s still an opportunity in lower-competition keywords. You can target keywords with less competition, where few others are producing content. These keywords’ chance to rank higher is easier and it also helps you build authority over time.
Using keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to target less competitive terms and create a long-term success keyword research strategy.
Step 3. Evaluate monthly search volume (MSV) for your selected keywords
Evaluating the monthly search volume (MSV) of your chosen keywords is the key to crafting good content. MSV is the times a keyword or query is entered into search engines each month, giving you insights into how popular certain terms are.
For instance, searchvolume.io or Google Trends, Ahref enables you to identify highly searched keywords and their related clusters. Here’s an example from Ahrefs: “SEO keyword strategy” has an MSV of 400, making it a valuable target for content creation.
Step 4: Consider SERP features when selecting keywords
When conducting keyword research, you should keep SERP features in mind. Google often highlights certain snippets, and leveraging them can significantly enhance your site’s visibility.
A simple way to find which SERP features are available for your target keywords is by searching them and analyzing the top results. For a quick reference, let’s explore some common SERP features you should consider for SEO keyword research.
Image Packs
Image packs are displayed as a horizontal gallery of images in the organic search results. If you notice an image pack ranking for a keyword, such as “cat detective agency”, you should consider creating image content to improve your chances of appearing in the search results.
AI Overviews
One of the newest additions to Google’s SERP features is the AI Overview, where an AI-generated summary is shown for select searches. This feature still keeps evolving, but understanding its presence is vital during keyword research for maximizing your content’s relevance.
By identifying these features, you can optimize your content to improve your chances of being shown in the search results. Use these insights alongside your favorite keyword research tools to enhance your SEO strategy without overloading your content.
Paragraph snippets
Paragraph snippets (or featured snippets) are brief blocks of text that Google displays at the top of search results to answer users’ questions directly. For example, if you ask Google, “Where do elephants live?” it will return a concise response in a paragraph snippet. If you’re confident that you strongly know your user’s intent to offer clear and precise answers, your content has a higher chance of winning this prime position.
List snippets
List snippets, or listicles, are ideal for step-by-step guides, especially for “How To” searches. Structuring your post with clear instructions and simple formatting increases the likelihood of capturing this spot.
Video snippets
Video snippets are short videos that can help your content get higher rankings in search results. By uploading a video to YouTube and embedding it on your website, you can improve your chances of being featured-particularly if you optimize your content with relevant keyword research.
Step 5: Evaluate your keyword mix
To have a more effective keyword research plan, it’s essential to include different keywords in your strategy. This means mixing both head terms and long-tail keywords in each research category.
Head terms are typically shorter phrases, usually consisting of one to three words, and having general meanings. Conversely, long-tail keywords are longer phrases that usually contain three or more words with specific search intent.
A balanced mix of these keywords supports a robust keyword strategy that addresses both long-term goals and immediate opportunities. Head terms often receive higher search volumes, have tough competition and are more challenging to rank for.
For instance, you can consider the difference between “dropshipping” and “How to start dropshipping for free”. The latter is more specific and tends to attract a more qualified audience, making it easier to convert those audiences into customers.
Experts emphasize the importance of focusing on long-tail keywords, particularly for new blogs that lack domain authority. These keywords generally present lower competition, letting you carve out a niche and improve your site ranking in search results.
Therefore, you need to review your keyword lists to keep a healthy combination of both head terms and long-tail keywords. While long-tail keywords can provide quick wins, working on more competitive head terms can yield significant traffic over time.
Step 6: Analyze competitor keyword rankings
When conducting keyword research, your competitors’ strategies don’t have to dictate your own. A keyword is performing well on a competitor’s site doesn’t mean it should be a priority for your site. However, examining which keywords they target can provide valuable insights and allow you to refine your keyword list.
If your competitors are ranking for specific keywords that align with your list, it’s worthwhile to enhance your ranking for those terms. Experts said that “Understanding that landscape well – and then using those same content pillars to build out a content library” is crucial for developing a strong content strategy.
Don’t overlook keywords that your competitors aren’t focusing on; these can represent untapped opportunities to capture market share in niche areas. Striking a balance between pursuing well-trafficked keywords and exploring less competitive terms is key. The ideal outcome is a curated list of keywords that brings quick wins and supports your long-term SEO objectives.
To efficiently assess the keywords your competitors rank for, consider using free keyword research tools. You can conduct a manual search for your target keywords in an incognito browser window to see where competitors stand in search results. This method will show you their ranking positions and guide your strategy moving forward.
FAQ
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is finding and analyzing the terms people use in search engines to look for information, products, or services. It helps businesses understand what their target audience is searching for, allowing them to create relevant content that ranks higher on search engines.
Can you do keyword research for free?
Yes, you can do keyword research for free using several tools, such as: Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, Google Trends.
How to choose the right keywords?
To choose the right keywords, follow these steps:
- Understand your audience
- Analyze search volume and competition
- Focus on relevance
- Target long-tail keywords
- Check keyword intent
- Review competitors
Conclusion
Mastering keyword research is very important to craft a successful SEO strategy that drives traffic and improves your website’s visibility. By understanding what your audience is searching for and aligning your content with their intent, you can ensure your efforts are not wasted.
The core elements of relevance, authority, and search volume are critical in selecting the right keywords. Utilizing the right tools and techniques can simplify the process and uncover valuable opportunities that enhance your content strategy.
As you embark on your keyword research journey, you need to keep in mind that it’s not just about finding popular terms; it’s about understanding your audience and delivering valuable, relevant content that meets their needs.
Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your existing strategy, these insights will empower you to make data-driven decisions that elevate your SEO game.
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