Keyword research is one of the most important steps in SEO. Knowing how to conduct keyword research will help your blog to rank high on SERPs. In this article, you will easy way to do keyword research for your site.
Keyword research should be the very first step on your path to search engine optimization. This is very important in two common cases:
- Getting to know your Niche – When launching a new website, keyword research can provide a great overview of what subtopics are interesting to people in your niche or industry.
- Finding new Content Ideas-Keyword research can help you find the most profitable keyword options and plan your content strategy.
What is Keyword Research?
This term refers to the process of identifying the keywords that users use when searching on search engines. Using the information obtained during the research, you can create more content or optimize the content on your site.
For your SEO strategy to deliver great results, you need to choose the right keywords and focus on them. Keyword research will help you do this because it is based on the power of data. By selecting those words or phrases that have a good search volume, and low competition, you can prioritize your SEO efforts.
Why Is It So Important to Do Keyword Research?
This is a fundamental aspect of any SEO strategy. It guides all other aspects of your SEO. This will help you understand which keywords need to be focused on so that you can optimize your site’s existing content and increase its visibility for relevant search queries.
In addition, it will be easier to create a content plan that is focused on your potential and current customers. But why increase the site’s visibility on Google? To answer this question, let’s take a look at this graph that illustrates a click on a link for Google search results. When you review it, keep in mind that every page on Google shows 10 results:
Pay attention to the sharp decrease in the number of clicks after position 10. This is because most users will never miss the top three results in a Google search, how many more get past the first page.
In fact, more than 75% of ALL clicks occur in the top three results. Only 0.78% of Google users click on sites who is on the second page. Starting from there, the numbers go down.
The best place to hide a dead body is on the 2nd page of Google
If you want to get traffic through search engines, you need to be on the first page. More importantly, you should be among these top three results. Finding and using the right keywords as part of your SEO promotion strategy will help you achieve this.
And here’s why… Improving your presence in Google organic search is the # 1 priority for 65% of marketers worldwide. The simple truth is, SEO is the most profitable marketing weapon in your Arsenal. When you rank first in the search results for keywords in Google, your site’s visibility increases. More visibility means more search traffic. And an increase in traffic ultimately leads to an increase in profit.
You don’t have time to target ALL the keywords. So, how do you find the best keywords to focus on? The ones that will really benefit your business? Stick to the following formula to get exactly the ones that are right for you.
Types of keywords
You’ve used Google and know that you don’t need to search for the same type of stuff. The questions and needs probably cover a wide range of topics.
Sometimes you’re looking for basic details about a movie that’s fun to watch. In other cases, you want a new phone, or you need some advice on building links.
There are four reasons why people search on a search engine. And knowing which of these reasons will help to structure your content in order to attract the users you hope to attract.
Here are the four main types of search intent::
#1. Informational
The first type ( the highest level) of search that people conduct on the Internet is informational. This is a good category for most bloggers who aim in providing information, tips, and instructions to people who are looking for guidance on a particular topic.
Information search is usually conducted to find tutorials, tips, solutions, and other mechanisms that help the searcher learn about a particular topic. Examples:
#2. Navigation goals
The second type of search is navigational. This type of search is done by people who already know where they want to go or what they want to do, but use Google to help them get to a specific website or find a brand.
They may not remember the actual URL of the website, or it’s easier to type it into Google and get an accurate result.
Examples of navigation searches include:
- Ideapify
- Tumblr
- Quora
#3. Commercial goals
Commercial search is performed by people who want to get a product or service but stuck between options and looking for pros and cons. Examples:
- 6 Best Cheap Web Hosting Sites For Beginners
- Best Free Blogging Apps For Android & iPhone
- Blogger Vs WordPress
- Spotify Vs Deezer
#4. Transactional goals
People who do this type of search are willing to buy. They’ve already researched what they’re looking for and are now ready to buy.
Transactional search includes words or phrases like this:
- Buy Web Hosting
- Buy domain
- Buy land
- Buy a laptop
If there’s a specific product or service you’re selling, transactional keywords are valuable terms for thoughtful keyword research and investing in search engine optimization to boost your rankings (and revenue).
How To Do Keyword Research
“First, focus on the intent of the users performing the search. This should be at the heart of all your research, creation, and distribution activities. What is the user actually trying to achieve and how does your content help them achieve this goal? »Simon Ensor, SearchEngineWatch.com
1. Competition– Once you find the keywords you want to rank for, you’ll need to figure out how difficult it is by evaluating the keyword competition. This is usually expressed by the keyword competitiveness metric. Some tools rate it in numbers (0-100), the lower it is, the easier it becomes to rank in the top 10 results for a keyword.
2. Keyword Search Volume: This is the number of times a keyword is searched on Google.
#1. Explore your Blog Niche
Before you figure out what are the best keywords for your page optimization, try diving deeper to learn more about a topic or niche.
This will help you gather insights and discover hidden places for marketing and SEO strategies.
Here are some ideas on how to explore your niche:
- Customers present in the business or blog visitors with whom you keep in touch, try to conduct a short survey through comments.
- Involve your clients in the discussion and get a better idea of what people want. Find out the words that are used to describe your blog, brand, company, product, or service.
- Imagine the point of view of potential customers and think from this angle. If you recommend a blog or product to a friend — how would you describe it and what words would you use?
- Take part in niche online communities, such as forums and social networks. Read the discussion and try to find out the points that are mentioned in relation to your niche.
#2. Define your goals
The plan starts with defining the end goal. Ask and answer questions:
- Who you are.
- What your brand is about.
- What makes you special.
- What your blog is about.
- What will promote your blog.
It is important to identify the goal because it will give direction for the SEO strategy and plan. For example, the goal of Ideapify is to help beginners start blogging and make money online.
This will help you identify your target audience and understand who you want to attract to your blog and what they will search for on Google. Goals will also determine the SEO process, copywriting, and content.
#4. Create a list of source keywords.
Now that you have divided the main category into groups, create a list of the original keywords.
What are “Seed keywords” or “Seed Word” / “Source Keywords”?
Source keywords are basically keywords that are called both: “head keywords”or” main keywords”. Almost 100% of the seed keywords contain one or two words. One of the important indicators of Seed words is the absence of a modifier.
Conversely, long-tail keywords acquire a modifier that is added to the seed keywords. These keywords are linked to various topics, and what is important is the condition that the target audience enters into Google search.
Example of the source keyword / Seed keywords — “Blogging”
Example of the seed keyword with the modifier/keyword with a long tail — “Blogging for beginners”:
The seed keywords, or focus keywords, are important because they will form the basis of keyword research. SEEDS define a niche and identifies competitors. The main words or focus keywords of a brand or product are much easier to find than you think:
“Describe the blog topic or your commercial offer in simple words. Words that are used in everyday life.”
For example: “My blog is dedicated to how to start a blog, here I will tell you how to start a blog and make money via Google AdSense.”
“how to start a blog — the seed keyword
“how to start a blog + make money via Google AdSense— the seed keyword + modifier = keyword with a long tail
#5. Use keyword research tools
Once you have done the aforementioned, it’s time to use a keyword research tool. I will use Wordtracker, Google trends and SERP for this example, this is how I did Keyword Research for this article you are reading. This is my topic ”Keyword Research”. Let’s get started; follow these steps:
- First, I have to do keyword validation. This is to ensure that the keyword I want to write on is still relevant (has a growing interest) to users and also to discover new keywords. I copied the seed keyword and paste it into the box of Google trends.
From the result, the query keyword research is decreasing currently but it is still a good topic to write about because it doesn’t indicate a sharp decrease. It is in a zip zap (increasing and decreasing) pattern for the past 12 months. So, it is not a keyword that will soon go on extinct. - Next, go to Wordtracker, paste the keyword, select your location and search.
- From the result, I will choose a query that is more relevant to my topic which is how to do keyword research.
- I will copy the query and paste it into Wordtracker again to discover queries with lower or 0 competition. It is best to always go for keywords with 0 competition for a new site.
- From the keyword research tool, there are 40 keywords with 0 competition. Out of the keywords, I will only concentrate on the keywords that have my seed word in them. So the easy way to do that is by pressing CTRL+F if you using a PC and typing in your seed word.
- Only 16 sentences contain my seed word.
- Next, I will filter out any sentence that doesn’t fit the content I want to write, examples are :
- how to do keyword research for youtube
- how to do keyword research for ppc
- how to do keyword research for adwords
- how to do keyword research for google ads
- how to do local keyword research
- how to do amazon keyword research
- So, the remaining are 9 which are:
- how to do keyword research for SEO
- how to conduct keyword research
- how to do keyword research for free
- how to do keyword research 2019
- how to perform keyword research
- how to do keyword research for blog
- how to do keyword research for blog posts
- how do you do keyword research
- how to do google keyword research
- Next, is to evaluate these terms on SERPs, the goal is to see the terms that:
- has lesser results
- Not included in the title of the first 10 results.
- Out of all the terms, the bolded terms above met these criteria but I will go for how to conduct keyword research because it has the lesser result on Google.
The ideal blog title shouldn’t be more than 60 characters but this is just 31 characters. It means that I can include other keywords (SEO, free, blog, blog posts or Google) in the title of my blog post. So that is how I got the title How to Conduct Keyword Research For SEO In a Blog,
There are many ways or tools to do keyword research, whichever method you use is valid as long you discover easy to rank keywords.
Keywords Research by Season
There are keywords that are only useful at a particular time of the year, examples are:
- Mothers day
- Mothers day
- Children’s day
- Christmas day
- Independence Day
- Workers’ day and so on.
In one of my blogs, Once it’s September, I start writing Christmas related articles in order to get traffic to my blog during Christmas (December).
Keywords Research by Region
This is simply targeting or using keywords based on location. For examples:
- Best web hosting company in Canada
- List of Markets in Lagos
- Best rapper in U.S.A
The best tool for location-based keyword research is Google Trends. Google Trends lets you know when and where a particular keyword is located.
It provides amazing information on how popular keywords are by region. Broken down into cities, subways, and suburbs that have a particularly high (or low) search volume to help you know which geographic areas to focus on for long-tail keyword research.
I use Google Trends for my location-based blog.
Tips/Checklist For Keyword Research For Dummies
- Know your search intent before you start researching
- Identify the main topics related to your products or services
- Find niche keywords for your main topics. They should be relevant to the products you offer, without being too generalized.
- Use the keyword research tools to determine the ranking opportunities for keywords
- Use “gold mines” such as forums, Wikipedia, Google Trends, Reddit, and Quora to get more ideas about keywords
- Go for keywords with low competition.
- Use Google trends to discover new keywords and validation.
- Analyze SERPs for the keywords you want to rank for.
Thanks for the tip.
So a new site can’t rank well for KD 10-15?
I love the Article sir. I’m music Bloggger. I have being searching for how to do keyword research. Thanks for I will implement it.