Keyword Research In A Nutshell
Keyword research is collecting and evaluating search phrases that people enter into search engines intending to leverage that information for a specific purpose, most commonly search engine optimization (SEO). It provide searches to target, their popularity, ranking difficulty, and other data.
Keywords are typically divided and classified based on the number of words in query phrases. So the more words there are in a keyword phrase, the easier it is to rank for the term because there is usually less relative competition.
Understanding Keyword Types
You can use a few different keywords depending on who you ask. We’ll review four typical keyword forms and explain how each can help you rank higher and boost your SEO efforts.
Fresh Keywords
New keywords provide increasing search traffic surrounding a popular word or topic. They don’t last long, so you’ll need to evaluate their efficacy and make changes once the initial buzz has died down.
Long-Tail Keywords
These keywords are more specialized and lengthier than short-tail keywords. Using long-tail keywords to attract a particular demographic searching for your products or services is one way of upgrading your content strategy.
Short-Tail Keywords
As the name implies, these keywords are brief, usually three words or less. These are more universal and are designed to attract a wide range of users to your website.
Evergreen Keywords
Evergreen keywords are always relevant. Even if you post an article centered on an evergreen term a few years later, it will still be authoritative, even if it may require minor updates now and again.
Importance of Keyword Research in SEO
Keyword research provides essential data about the concerns that your target audience searches for on Google. The insights you may gain from these actual search phrases can guide and inform both your content strategy and your overall marketing plan. However, keywords may not be as vital to SEO as you believe.
How To Do Effective Keyword Research for SEO?
Make a list of important, relevant search terms based on what you know about your business and your product.
Use 'seed' or core keywords
Seed keywords are the center of the keyword research strategy. They assist you in establishing your specialty and identifying your competition. Every keyword research tool needs a seed keyword, which it then uses to build an enormous list of keyword possibilities (more on that shortly).
Coming up with seed keywords is simple when you already have a product you want to market online. Consider what consumers will enter into Google to find what you have to offer.
Research keywords your competitors rank for
The easiest method to begin keyword research is to look at which terms are already sending traffic to your competition. However, you must first identify those competitors. This is when your keyword list from strategizing comes in handy. By simply search Google for one of your seed keywords to see who ranks first.
In either case, you must use your judgement while determining competing websites. If you see big businesses like Amazon or The New York Times ranking for your seed term, don’t automatically consider them competition. Always look for sites similar to your own—or the direction you want to take it.
keyword research tools
Keyword ideas might be generated from competitors. However, there are other keyword phrases that your competitors are not targeting, which you can discover utilizing keyword research tools.
All tools operate in the same manner. You enter a seed keyword and then generate keyword suggestions from their database based on that particular phrase.
The most well-known keyword research tool is Google Keyword Planner. It’s free to use, and while it’s mostly for marketers, you can also use it to identify SEO keywords.
If you’re serious about keyword research, you should skip the free tier and start with a ‘professional’ tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
Know your niche
Everything we’ve explored thus far is sufficient to generate an almost infinite number of keyword suggestions. However, the method effectively keeps you “in the box.” It’s constrained by your seed keywords and the size and freshness of the database of your chosen keyword tool. As a result, you will almost surely miss some good ideas.
You can solve this by researching your niche in greater depth. A place to start is to look through industry forums, organizations, and Q&A sites. This can assist you in identifying additional issues that your prospective clients are experiencing that did not appear in keyword tools and that none of your competitors cared to address.
Keyword Research Analysis
Before adding them to your content calendar, use SEO metrics to narrow things down and separate the wheat from the chaff.
Here are the five keyword metrics you can use to do this:
Search Volume
The average number of times keywords are searched each month is shown by the search volume.
Given that search traffic is an annual average, it’s a good practice to look at the trend graphs in Keyword Explorer for keywords you’re interested in. Search volume is not the best predictor of month-to-month traffic if terms’ popularity is seasonal, climbing, or waning.
Searches for holiday items are a fantastic example. They all peak in December before plummeting to nothing in February, although search volume does not reflect this.
Number of Clicks
Although many individuals search Google for something, this does not imply that they all click on search results and visit the top-ranking pages. This is where Keywords Explorer’s Clicks metric comes in help. It displays the average monthly clicks on a keyword’s search results.
Be on the lookout for keywords where paid advertising “steals” a large number of clicks. For example, 23% of clicks for “Braun coffee maker” go to sponsored advertisements, suggesting that phrase may be a better PPC target.
Keyword Difficulty
SEO pros often manually assess a keyword’s ranking difficulties. That is, they will examine the top-ranking pages for their chosen keywords. They consider various elements to determine how difficult or easy it will be to rank.
This procedure differs from person to person because there is no agreement on what is and isn’t relevant here. One person may consider DR vital, while another may believe that relevance is more important. It lacks of ambiguity makes it difficult for keyword research tool developers to reduce the ranking difficulty of keywords down to a single number.
Knowing how KD works, many users abuse the score by changing the filter from 0 to 30 and focusing entirely on the “low-hanging fruit.”
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost Per Click (CPC) indicates how much advertisers are ready to pay for each ad click generated by a term. It’s a metric for advertisers rather than SEOs, but it can be a good proxy for a keyword’s worth.
As an example, the keyword “office coffee” has a reasonably high CPC of $15. This is because most users are trying to purchase coffee equipment for their offices. It can cost thousands of dollars more. But it’s a different scenario regarding “how to make a decent espresso.” This is because most searchers aren’t trying to buy anything. They’re looking for information on how to make espresso.
However, one thing to keep in mind concerning CPC is that it is far more volatile than Search volume. While the search demand for most keywords is consistent from month to month, the CPC might alter at any time. The CPC numbers displayed by third-party keyword tools are snapshots in time.
Keyword Prioritization
This isn’t the final phase in the keyword research process. It’s only something you should do as you move through the steps above. As you search for keywords, analyze their metrics, and group them,
Consider the following:
Want to learn more about Keyword Research? Here’s a link to Neil Patel post about Keyword Research — it will definitely point you to the right direction on elevating your Keyword Strategy!