Once you’ve figured out the basics of SEO, you can start planning your content to amplify your SEO efforts. To do this, you’ll need an understanding of Keyword Research which you can use to create more content. If you’re having a particular bad week for inspiration, research can help you find a good topic to write about that can potentially get you even more traffic too.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of discovering keywords and keyword phrases related to your niche that users are more likely to type into search engines. It can help you to discover and determine the keywords that matter most for the objectives of a given website or page. It allows you to find not only the keywords you want to rank for, but also the ones you should rank for (what people who want what you have to offer actually search for). It’s aim is to help you figure out how people can potentially find you online through SERPs.
Why is Keyword Research Important?
Do you ever write a piece of content and just think “how can I get this in front of people?”. Well if you instead start from a different perspective of “what content are people looking for” it allows you to cater your content to an audience that is already there. If you’ve already figured out your target audience then you’re also already a step ahead.
You can’t write relevant content if you don’t know the phrases that your audience will use to discover it – or the phrases that Google associates with that content and so after knowing your audience you can figure out what they’re looking for. You can then optimise your pages after knowing which phrases you should optimise for.
If properly done, keyword research can also unearth the topics for which you should be creating content on your blog. Keyword research enables you to understand specific terms people are using to solve their problem as well as the context behind those terms, allowing you to be the problem solver. It is important to research keywords to reduce misunderstandings or assumptions about your audience’s needs and the language they use to express them. Keyword research informs your content optimisation every step of the way.
Competitive analysis is an area closely related to keyword research, which we won’t cover in this post. However we will at a later date.
The Importance of Finding the Right Keywords
It’s not just about finding any keyword to rank for, but finding the right keywords for your content and blog as a whole. You may have an idea for the concepts you want to resonate with you potential visitors, but keyword research can help cement which keywords and phrases they’re using to look for the concept. Different keyphrases are scored n popularity and volume of searches, but you need to ensure your content is ranking for the two or three which have the best balance of volume and people who will want to click on your content.
Once you’ve done your research, compiled your list of keywords, and ranked them in order of importance or popularity, you know exactly how to create content that will resonate with your potential users – and that’s also seen as relevant by Google’s algorithm. So your keyword research finds out what your audience is looking for, not just the search engine.
Do Keywords Need To Be An Exact Match?
Previously SEO relied on an exact match keyword or phrase, however with tecn advancement and Google’s algorithm, search engines can now match via intent rather than exact match. The evolution to entity-based search means you don’t have to worry about exactly matching search phrases instead, you need to match the intent behind the search which is the main concept of what the searcher is looking for.
When you’re doing your keyword research, it’s not just about finding the words people use to find a piece of content like yours but also understanding the intent behind the search and whether your content meets those needs.
Six-Step Guide to Keyword Research
To get started with Keyword Research it’s important to put a process into place (so you have some guidance, but also don’t repeat the same research by accident and waste time). This process should allow to to meet your goals, but should also be repeatable and SEO is a continuous process. Situations are constantly changing for most niches, and some changes can be caused by:
- Shifting needs/desires of your target audience
- New queries and search terms being used for your offering
- New competitors in market
- Changes to algorithm or search engine features
1. Analyse Current Keywords
If you’ve already got a blog, you will probably already be ranking for a few keywords if your site is indexed on Google. Use Google Search Console to determine which (if any) keywords you’re currently ranking for and their performance. This will allow you to create a baseline in your head for the niche you’re writing about, and a goal to improve your keywords over time.
Split out your “good” performing keywords, and poor but worthwhile keywords. Poor-but-worthwhile performers are keywords that have search volume and impressions but have lower ranking and/or click-through rates and these are the keywords (and pages) you can try to optimise for at a later date.
2. Formulate Goals
Before fully starting your research, give yourself a sense of direction when researching keywords by setting yourself goals. A keyword may be easy to rank for, and easy for you to create content on but does it meet your overall blog goals? No? Then don’t use it.
Ask yourself:
- Who is your target audience? Do they have user intent for the keyword you’ve found?
- What are the needs and desires of your audience?
- Do they have secondary needs that aren’t directly related to your current topic?
- What does your audience want to know?
- What keywords and phrases can you imagine them using?
3. Build a Keyword Wishlist
Now that you have goals, and have an understand of current keywords to your site you have enough basic info to build a keyword wishlist. Using the answers to the above, start to create a “wishlist” for what you want to rank for. Think about different stages of life too, write keywords for just knowledge, education and awareness and write keywords for when they want to take action too. This guidance can help determine which of these matter to your blog overall and helps you easily move through your research later.
4. Assess Competitors
One of the best sources to find keywords you should be ranking for but aren’t yet is your competitors. Many SEO tools will show you the top-ranking keywords for a given domain, but you may need to invest in one of the paid tools to delve deeper into them.
When using a free tool like Google Search Console, you can identify top online competitors online by searching for your unique selling points, niche or topic you’re researching for. Search using the site function (site:competitorURL) and your common keyword/product name to see revelant content for you.
Using a paid tool like ahrefs can let you see which keyword your competitors are ranking for, as well as how hard it is to rank for it. The keywords to look out for are keywords you both rank for where you rank lower than them – so that you can work on boosting that content later on. Then you should have a look through keywords you don’t rank for but they do, and question whether it’s keywords you should aim for.
5. Expand your Keyword Horizons
With your wishlist and competitor lists, you should have a list of keywords and keyphrases that you want to work on. However there’s other ways of finding keywords such as using AnswerthePublic, Keyword Explorer, Keywords Everywhere, or AlsoAsked. These help discover the search terms and questions searchers use most frequently for a given topic or keyword.
Once you have a list you think is big enought to work on, you should then pick out topics and group keywords together. This will let you organise your internal linking later on, which helps give you broader topic relvance on your blog.
6. Prioritise opportunities
With your list of keywords you should prioritise them based on the information you have. This could be average search volume, impressions or clicks if you use a paid tool – or it can be popularity over time on Google Trends. Keywords that are consistently high performing may be harder to rank for, those that are growing in search volume may be easier so you should choose some of each to give yourself more chances. Then write using the higher priority keywords in mind.
Then finally you should set regular time aside to repeat Keyword research to make sure you’re on top of the current trends. Remember this is a continuous research project.