Google is forcing us to constantly adapt to the algorithm updates it is constantly introducing. However, one activity remains constant for those who want to optimise their websites for search engines: Keyword Research.
Well, the need for keyword research has remained the same. However, the way you do them no longer does.
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What is Keyword Research?
Keyword Research involves analysing the phrases that users enter in search engines. The aim is to use this data for SEO optimisation or general marketing. Keyword research can help discover the queries formulated to receive specific results, the popularity of these queries, the level of difficulty of positioning according to them and much more.
Why is Keyword Research so important?
Keyword Research provides information on the queries that your target audience actually enters into Google. This information can help you better tailor your strategy for the content you create, as well as your overall marketing. However, keywords alone may not be as important in terms of SEO as you think.
We are hearing more and more about how SEO has evolved over the last 10 years and how irrelevant keywords alone have become in terms of the search engine positioning that people do every day.
To some extent, this is true. Using keywords that exactly match the phrases people search for is no longer the most important SEO factor. Rather, it is about the intent behind the phrases and whether or not the content solves a specific problem (more on intent later in the article).
This does not at all mean that keyword research is an outdated process anymore. Let me clarify:
Keyword Research tells you what topics people care about and how popular they are with your audience. Concept topic is key here - by observing which keywords have more and more searches per month, you can identify and sort your content into the topics by which you want to create content. You can then use these topics to determine which topic you cover and which target audience you want to reach.
By examining keywords in terms of their popularity, relevance and overall intent, you can address the questions that most people are looking for answers to.
Keyword research and SEO strategy
I'm going to give you a keyword research process that you can use to create a list of terms you should be referring to. In this way, you will be able to establish and put into practice a strong keyword research strategy that will help you find the terms you care about.
Step 1: Make a list of important topics based on what you know about your business
Think about the topics you could use. Choose about 5-10 topics that you think are important for your business. You will use these topics to come up with specific keywords later.
If you're a regular blogger, these are probably the topics you blog about most often. They may also be the topics that come up most often in marketing conversations? Put yourself in the shoes of your visitors - what topics would your target audience be looking for that you want to attract to your site? If you were, for example, a company selling marketing software, you might choose topics such as:
- inbound marketing (21K)
- blogging (19K)
- e-mail marketing (30K)
- lead generation (17K)
- SEO (214K)
- social media marketing (71K)
- Marketing analytics (6.2K)
- marketing automation (8.5K)
- SEO Copywriting course (1K)
See those figures in brackets on the right? That's their monthly search volume. This data will allow you to assess how important these topics are to your audience and how many sub-topics you may need to create content to sufficiently address the keyword. To elaborate on these sub-topics, we move on to step 2....
Step 2: Match these topics with keywords.
Now that you have selected the topics you want to focus on, it is time for you to find some keywords that match each of these topics. These are keywords that you consider important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages), as your target customer is likely to be searching for these specific terms.
For example, if I were to choose that last topic for a marketing software company - marketing automation - I would think about some of the keywords that I think people would type into a search engine looking for that topic. These could be, for example:
- marketing automation tools
- how to use marketing automation software
- what is marketing automation?
- Do I need marketing automation software?
- lead nurturing
- email marketing automation
- best automation tools
And so on and so forth. The purpose of this step is not to create a definitive list of keywords. We simply want to create a list of phrases that you think potential customers might use to search for content related to this particular topic. We will narrow this list down later.
Despite the fact that more and more keywords are being scrambled by Google every day, another good idea to find relevant keywords is to check which ones are already on your website. For this you will need web analytics software such as Google Analytics. Once you have it set up on your site, you can find the keywords that bring users to your site.
Use this tool for all your chosen topics. Remember, if you're struggling to find the right terms, you can always reach out to your sales or customer service colleagues and ask them what terms their prospects are using or their most frequently asked questions. These are often great starting points for keyword research.
Step 3: Understand how user intent influences Keyword Research
As I mentioned in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most important factors in getting your website to rank well in search engines. Nowadays, it is more important that your website solves the problem that the user intended to solve, rather than just having the keywords the user used in it. So how does this affect Keyword Research?
It is easy to consider keywords as the most important factor in SEO. Unfortunately, specific keywords can have many different meanings. Because user intent is so important to your search engine ranking, you need to interpret keywords very carefully.
For example, let's say you are researching the phrase „how to start a blog” against an article you want to create. „Blog” could mean a blog post or the blog site itself, and what the intent behind that phrase is will affect the group your article will reach. Does the searcher want to know how to start an individual blog post? Or does he or she want to know how to actually launch a web domain for blogging? If your content strategy is only aimed at people interested in the latter, you need to be sure of the intent of the phrase before you start using it.
To find out what the user's intention is for a particular phrase, it is a good idea to simply type it into a search engine yourself and see what kind of results come up. Make sure that what the search engine returns is closely related to the material you want to link to the specific phrase.
Step 4: Related enquiries
You may have come across this when creating your keyword lists. If not, this is a good way to supplement those lists.
If you are struggling to come up with more key phrases to search for on a particular topic, take a look at the related terms that appear when you search for them on Google. When you type in a phrase and scroll to the bottom of the search results, you will notice some search suggestions related to the original post. These phrases can become a source of ideas for further ones to consider.
Want more? Type in any of these suggestions and take a look at the related queries.
Step 5: Use keyword research tools
Tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush i Ubersuggest can help you gain more ideas for additional keywords based on the ones you have chosen so far. In this way, you can get keywords that you had not previously considered.
How to find and select keywords for your website
Once you know what keywords you want to use to position your website, it's time to concretise your list based only on the ones that are best for your strategy. Here's how to do it:
Step 1: Familiarise yourself with the three main factors in choosing good keywords
Before you choose keywords and use them for search engine positioning, you need to rank for three things:
1. significance
Google evaluates content in terms of relevance. This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only be ranked for a keyword if it matches the searchers' needs. Furthermore, your content must be the best material in relation to the query in question. After all, why should Google rank your content higher if it has less value than other content on the web?
2. authoritativeness
Google will boost in the search results those content it deems authoritative. This means you need to do everything you can to become an authoritative source, enriching your site with helpful, informative content and promoting it to increase their social media interactions and get backlinks. If you are not seen as authoritative, or if the search results are overloaded with big sites that you can't compete with (such as Forbes), you are less likely to rank highly. Unless your content is exceptional.
3. number of searches
You can be in the first place in the search results for a particular keyword, but if no one is searching for it, it won't bring traffic to your website. It's like opening a shop in a deserted town.
The number of searches is measured using MSV (eng. monthly search volume), which represents the monthly number of keyword searches by all users.
Step 2: Check that you have selected the main key phrases and long-tail phrases appropriately for all topics
If you don't know the difference between main and long-tail phrases, let me explain. Master phrases tend to be shorter and more general - usually between one and three words in length, depending on the need. Long-tail phrases, on the other hand, are longer - containing three or more words.
It is important to make the main phrases and long-tail phrases tie together as this will create a strong keyword strategy that is well balanced both short and long term. This is because main phrases tend to be more frequently searched, making them often (not always, but often) more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail phrases. We can look at it this way: Even leaving aside concepts such as search volume, which of these phrases would be more difficult to position?
- how to write a good blog post
- blogging
If you chose No. 2, you are absolutely right. But don't be discouraged. While the main phrases get more searches (which means more potential to generate traffic), frankly, the traffic you generate through the term „how to write a good blog post” will be rather more desirable.
Why?
Because someone looking for something specific is likely to be a more advanced searcher of your product or service than someone looking for something really general. And since long keyword phrases tend to be more specific, it's usually easier for searchers to determine what they're actually looking for. Someone who searches for the phrase „blogging” may be doing so for a whole range of reasons, not necessarily related to your business.
Then make sure you have the right mix of long as well as short phrases in your keyword list. You certainly want to achieve high rankings quickly by phrases that are easier, but you should also try to position your site by more difficult phrases over a longer period.
Step 3: See what the competition is up to
Just because your competitors are doing something, doesn't mean you have to too. The same is true for keywords. Just because a phrase is important to your competitor doesn't mean it should be important to you. However, discerning what keywords your competitors consider important is a great way to get your chosen keywords right.
If your competitors are showing up in the search results for certain keywords, it makes sense to try to rank highly against them. However, don't ignore those phrases that your competitors don't care about. This may be the way to get your site to appear prominently.
Achieving a balance between phrases that are a little more difficult due to competition and those that are a little more realistic to target will help you strike a balance similar to that of mixing main and long-tail phrases. Remember, the aim is to create a list of keywords with which you can achieve as much as possible.
How do you know what keywords your competitors are targeting? As well as manually searching for keywords in incognito mode and seeing which positions your competitors are ranking for, you can use tools such as Ahrefs, which are able to generate reports for you on the most important keywords for the site you are entering. This is the quickest way to find out which terms your competitors are positioning themselves by.
Step 4: Use Google's Keyword Planner to trim your keyword list
Once you have the right mix of keywords selected, it is time to narrow down your list a little with the help of additional information. There are many tools developed for this purpose. I will introduce you to one of them.
A good combination is the Keyword Planner from Google and Google Trends.
In the Planner, you can obtain information on the number of keyword searches and estimated traffic based on these. You can then supplement this information using Google Trends.
Using the Keyword Planner, tick off those phrases on your list that have too little (or too much) search volume and won't help you maintain your balanced mix we talked about earlier. But before you give up on anything, check their trend history and predictions in Google Trends. You can, for example, see if what is an unpopular keyword now will benefit you later.
Or maybe, just maybe, your list is a bit overgrown and you need to reduce it a bit... Google Trends will help you identify which phrases are trending upwards and are therefore worth more attention.
Best keywords for SEO
There are no „best” keywords. There are only those that are more frequently searched by your potential customers. With this in mind, it is up to you to develop a strategy that will help you position your pages and create traffic.
The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authoritativeness and search volume. You should find frequently searched keywords by which to position your site, based on:
- The level of competition you face
- Your ability to create content that surpasses in quality what is currently ranking high.
And... that's it!
Congratulations! You now have a list of keywords that will help you focus on the right topics for your business, which will help you achieve long- as well as short-term benefits.
Repeat this discernment every few months. A good practice would be to do it quarterly, but some companies find themselves doing it even more often. As you gain more and more authority in the SERPs, you can add more keywords to your listings to start appearing in more and more areas, while maintaining your current position.
