If you have ever searched for something related to SEO, you must have seen the “keyword research” term. So, what keyword research is about? And why we should learn about it before writing in a blog? Understanding this is challenging yet very important. Keyword research is one of the most important parts of the SEO strategy. So, if you skipped understanding it, you’ll suffer. Luckily, choosing keywords is not by luck. So, here we are going to tell you how to choose the keywords that suit your articles.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of determining the phrases you need to choose on your website’s page SEO strategy. However, SEO is not only about appearing in Google’s search results, but it is also about appearing in results for the keywords that people are searching for. Therefore, before optimizing your website, you have to understand what are the words or phrases do people search on usually. So, keyword research is about knowing these keywords which makes it the essential step in the SEO strategy.
Why Your Website Needs to Use The Best Keywords
Just like any research process, keyword research takes a big amount of effort and time. So, why would you spend all this time and energy on this process? Why can’t you just choose any keyword just because you understand your customers’ minds? If you know your industry and your target audience, spending a lot of time researching for some words might look like a waste of time. However, even if you know your audience so well, keyword research is a basic step that you can’t skip. When you choose keywords based on information, you will be achieving your goals more effectively than at any other time.
1. Attract qualified traffic
Keywords identify the quality of the traffic that your website would attract, not only the amount. Not all visitors are your target audience, not all of them are clients. So, having visitors who are not potential clients is considered low-quality traffic. They will never impact your business or make you achieve your goals either profit or the number of sales. However, high-quality traffic is visitors who are also considered clients. These are your real target audience and potential customers. So, choosing your keywords has an essential influence on your traffic and who are the people your website is attracting. When you learn more about your audience’s searching practices, you can customize the strategy to suit the words you’re using. So, you will not only optimize your website for more traffic, but also for these who you designed your strategy for, to buy your product or service, or considered a lead.
2. Reach searchers at every stage of the buying process
When you think about how users search for a product, you may concentrate basically on the transaction words, such as: “Sign up” or “buy”. While these can catch traffic, most people do not usually use them up to the time of buying. Keyword research may also assist you in knowing the words that will support you link them at all levels of the purchasing process.
Most clients take almost the same essential three steps. Firstly, they search for informative content to study the industry and what types of solutions they need. Secondly, they assess the organizations that offer those solutions and identify which are most appropriate to what they are searching for. The last thing, they reach the company for more details or to buy the product or service. So, if you are just creating content and optimizing your website for the actions that happen in the last step, you’re skipping participating in the first two steps which means that you might lose your potential customers and they will go to your competitors. That happens because they are not even a part of your research process.
So, keyword research helps you understand more about what are the phrases your audience use at every step of those 3 steps. So, you have to create content for them all to indicate that your company is the best choice from the beginning.
3. Address your audience’s questions and needs
Besides, these keywords will effectively help you identify your clients’ needs. For instance, if you want to catch more people to your laundry shop which is located in Dubai. You will use keywords such as “Laundry shop in Dubai” or “Laundry service in Dubai”. However, if you need to complete the first and middle of your funnel, you will need to put more informative keywords.
So, for example, if you found that the sentence “how to wash my silk scarf” is searched often, the intention is obvious. People who search for this phrase are suffering from washing their expensive clothes and they don’t want to damage them. However, they still don’t know what to do with that. So, you might write an article about how sensitive silk fabric is and publish it on your website. So, when they ask for something, they will find the answer they need on your site. This is useful for your audience and also for your business.
Users will get the information they need for free, and you will get a potential customer that is actively searching for related information. After that, if this user knew after reading your article that he has to send his clothes to the laundry that is located close to him, they will reach you to make an order. And if they are not willing to take an action currently, you have still built a brand that has a good source of information. So, if they need at any time to send their clothes to the laundry, they will choose you to make them this service, because you’re a reliable source for them.
How to Do Keyword Research
Keyword research can be complicated.
However, with the next 6 steps, you can detect the keywords that will support your SEO goals.
1. Identify niche topics
To get high-quality traffic, you have to use the words and phrases your audience usually search for. This needs to identify what types of ideas they’re looking for that are linked to your business. The best way to do this is to review Google’s feature of related search at the end of the search results page. Initially, search for a major target keyword or phrase that you know your audience might look for. Then, go to the end of the page and look at the related searches. The recommendations are real data from the searches users used to look for. For instance, the related search for “the best watches for women”
These are some searches that people look for usually when they want to know more about women’s watches. So, for a watch seller, you will need to know these keywords.
2. Use keyword tools to see the competitors
Competitors most probably are also using SEO, and during this, it means you have the challenge to win to get the best rankings. Also, it means you have to begin from scratch to find relevant keywords. That is mostly correct if you utilize a tool for competitor research such as SEMrush. You can place the domain name of your competitor. Then, view a report with the keywords they are ranking for now. Also, the search numbers and level of competition of every keyword.
Many of the keywords will make sense for your business. Therefore, add them to your list and make sure that you are not skipping any chance your competitors have discovered.
3. Find both long-tail keywords and head keywords
For an SEO strategy to be effective, you have to target keywords of different specificities and lengths. Long-tail keywords might be the easiest ones to rank, and also long phrases that have a particular purpose. You may check out these types explained in the next graph.
Generally, the shorter the keyword is, the bigger its monthly search size. This might drive you to know that these are what you have to focus on with all your effort and time though. It’s very important to know that these keywords are usually challenging to rank for. On the other hand, long-tail keywords have less monthly search yet easy to rank for. Besides, if you want a clearer search intent, use more specific keywords.
4. Consider search volume, keyword difficulty, and other metrics
Just when you create a potential keyword list, you can use search volume and level of competition as metrics to estimate the volume of your business. You can reach this information by using Keywords Everywhere tool for example. Take a copy of the keywords list in the feature “Bulk Upload” and you will know every keyword’s search volume monthly. Also, the competition level from 0 to 1 scale.
The perfect keyword is what has the highest monthly search volume and has a low level of competition. When you value your keywords, you will probably discover that this is an unusual set — yet you can utilize the information to make accurate choices about where to concentrate the largest part of your attempts.
5. Create a list
When you research potential keywords, you will need to have a major list of the options and the main information about every one of them and how you will use them on your website. In the beginning, it might look like a useless step. But you will collect many keywords and this list will be a significant resource for you in the future. Luckily, with some tools such as Keyword Planner, you can forward your research in sheets easily. And then, take a copy of them to your tracking file.
After that, you may utilize this file to optimize the strategy and will know how you perform keywords on your website. Also, the results you view from each one.
6. Learn how to prioritize
When you establish your keyword list, you will determine a lot of them need to be worked on. Not just adding to a title tag while using. Every one of these displays w new chance for your website, yet you will need to set your priorities. You may use search volume or competition levels as metrics to ease the process. However, you will need to know the possibility each one has for your business aims. Concentrate on keywords with obvious intentions as they will be the best chances to achieve your particular goals. The more obvious your keyword is, the surer you will be that your article will be the relevant result for people who search for this keyword. Also, this will help you a lot to transfer these connections into sales.
6 Keyword Research Tools
Discovering and estimating keywords for a site may be a difficult task. Luckily, there are many tools you can utilize to discover the perfect keywords for your company. So, We will provide you 6 of them.
1. Google’s Keyword Planner
Google AdWords users tool for keyword research is Keyword Planner.
I was available for free to all people in the past, but now it is just available for advertisers who run advertising campaigns. Yet if you are using AdWords already, it can be a very useful tool in the process of keyword research. Also, it will be useful if you want to run a campaign just for getting access to keyword planner. You can use one of its features “Find New Keyword” to know potential keywords related to your list of ideas and topics. Then, you can get into the search volume and information about competitions for your list’s keywords.
2. Ubersuggest
Another free keyword research tool is Ubersuggest which you can use to determine accurate phrases and keywords to aim in the strategy. Put a significant keyword and you will see ideas set in a list related to the suggestions google does for your data.
After that, you may include any accurate keyword to the list and do the process again for different ideas connected to your company’s goals.
3. Keywordtool.io
Keyword Tool is a famous tool for discovering long-tail keywords recommendations based on Google Autocomplete information. Put a keyword and a list of keywords and phrases will appear on your search data.
The level of competition and search volume data is only accessible for users who get the premium plans. However, you can simply make a copy of the list in other tools for more information about every keyword.
4. SEMrush
SEMrush is one of the best tools available for competitor research.
Put the URL of your competitor, and all keywords they are ranking for will appear to you. Also, the places they rank on the result page.
5. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is the most famous back-link analysis tool, yet you can utilize it for your competitor research.
Click on “Organic keywords,” when you search a competitor’s domain. Then, a list of the ranking keywords will appear. Do this process for every one of your competitors and you will see all the chances for your website.
6. Moz
Moz’s Keyword Explorer provides an amount of data that may assist you while doing the process of keyword research.
Begin with searching for a target keyword, then, an overview of the keyword’s volume, opportunity, difficulty, and potential will appear. Also, a SERP analysis and a set of recommendations for related keywords.
If you want a deep analysis of the keywords you are looking for, this way is the best.
How To Find Keywords Using Google Analytics?
Google Analytics was offering a complete report of the keywords people search about before reaching your website. And it was a useful way to know the kinds of keywords and phrases that were relevant to your website. So, your SEO can utilize this to choose other related words.
Sadly, now, this is not the case, and a lot of keywords are shown as (not provided) in the reports.
However, getting this data is not as easy as having a report, you still need to identify how searchers are discovering your website.
Conclusion
Keyword research is the most important step in the SEO process. It is the ideal way to make sure that your SEO strategy catches high-quality traffic. When you’re selecting keywords that have a significant influence on the visitors of your website. A complete keyword research strategy will assist you to reach users as clients in every step they take before buying and to answer all their questions to see you a relevant source of information. You have to determine the most significant ideas for your company, use tools to accumulate data, keep metrics like volume of search and competition levels in mind, and choose a group of short and long keywords and phrases. However, if you keep these steps in mind, you can be sure that you are improving your website with keywords that will help you achieve all your business aims.
