If you need a helping hand when it comes to how to do keyword research, this keyword research step by step guide is exactly what you’ve been looking for.
From how to do keyword research for SEO, to understanding the different keyword research types, to optimising your website, this guide covers it all, so keep reading if you want to become a master at SEO research and see your website on that elusive first page of Google.
What Is Keyword Research?
Before you conduct keyword research, you first need to know what it is. In basic terms, it’s the process of finding out which words and phrases people in your customer target audience use when they look for businesses like yours on internet search engines – more notably, Google. As such, you need to know how to do keyword research in SEO and then use the correct words and phrases to enrich your web-based content if you want your business and its pages to appear high on Google’s search results.
Why Is Keyword Research Important for SEO?
Keyword research forms a huge part of SEO strategies, which helps any given website or page appear higher in search engine results. Proper use of keywords enables internet users to search for and find your site, thus driving traffic to your page and further boosting your Google ranking.
Although it’s extremely important, keyword learning can sometimes be challenging, and it isn’t something that can be done overnight for any given niche. Still, it’s vital for rising up Google’s prestigious ranks. What’s more, the keyword ideas SEO strategies employ will pertain directly to your specific industry, so there’s no clear-cut, one-size-fits-all approach; however, at the base of every successful SEO technique is the same effective keyword use, no matter a company’s industry – and this is why it’s crucial to get it right.
How Does Keyword Research Work?
It’s not just as simple as clicking a keyword icon and a batch of terms magically appearing; there’s a bit more consideration than that. Keyword research works by identifying the words and phrases that best describe the content on your website, social media page, or post. By using these words and phrases in your content, you can rank better and higher for the searches that people conduct using search engines like Google. Despite this concept seeming fairly straightforward, there’s actually a lot more at play than matching words and phrases and using them in your pages’ text.
You have to put your head into the same space as the customers who search for businesses and pages like yours. Naturally, you know your business better than anyone, but this means the way you think of it and approach it is different from how your customers do. The words and phrases you would use to find your business or the products and services might well be different from the keywords that internet searchers use.
Of course, you might believe that the keywords you yourself would use will bring customers to your website; however, web users searching those terms could be on the hunt for something else entirely or might be at a different stage of the buying process, which means their keyword use could be slightly different.
When you do keyword brainstorming, you need to consider the intent behind the buyer’s use of words and phrases when using search engines to locate what they are looking for. Then, once you have fathomed this, you have to check whether the content on your site matches what people are searching for based on their individual intents.
As a general rule of thumb, there are four primary types of search intent, which are:
- Informational – the searcher wants to learn something
- Navigational – the searcher is looking for a specific website, business or company
- Transactional – the searcher is comparing certain products and is almost at the point of purchase
- Commercial – the searcher is ready to buy whatever it is they are looking for right now
These unique search engine user intents are crucial to factor in when optimising your keyword content. Once your content matches the searcher’s intent, it’s more probable that they will stay on your website for longer, thereby helping you rank higher on Google’s search results pages.
How to Do a Keyword Search
There are several steps in doing good keyword research in SEO. Plus, there’s also language to take into account. If your business is UK-based, you may prefer to use British spellings of keywords, which means undertaking UK keyword research rather than American. A keyword tracker UK businesses use for British-language internet users will normally be better tailored to people in that demographic, so it’s important to factor this into any keyword research
Whatever the case, here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you learn keyword research tactics.
Step 1: Identify how searchers can find your business online
This is a crucial step in keyword research, as you need to know different avenues that users might take to find your business online if you want to target the best keywords.
Start by asking yourself the below questions when pondering how to conduct keyword research:
Who are your customers?
Why do they use your product or service?
What questions do your customers ask prior to making a purchase with you?
It can also be a good idea to talk to your existing customers and find out what terms they would use to describe your business and the product or service you provide.
Knowing your niche and your target customers is vital when trying to establish how to do keyword search as the foundation for your overall SEO strategy.
Step 2: Define your end goal
Before you think about hiring SEO experts to help you rise in the ranks of Google, it is vital that you first think about what your company goals are:
Do you want to increase the number of subscribers to your site?
Do you have a set end of year sales target you want to hit?
Or do you need some instant short-term conversions to boost revenue quickly?
In order to answer these important questions, it can be a good idea to think back to what you set out to achieve when you first launched your business.
What was your brand about?
What was your USP?
What did you promise to offer your customers that your competitors could not?
Step 3: Make a list of relevant topics
Now that you have a clear idea of what your business wants to achieve, you can start to brainstorm some topics that directly relate to your brand.
For example, if you are a business wanting to know how to do keyword research for eCommerce sites and you specialise in men’s clothing, some topics related to your brand may be:
- Men’s jumpers
- Men’s fashion trends 2020
- Designer clothes
Make sure you focus on topics that are directly related to your business and to your buyer personas.
Step 4: Create a list of seed keywords
Seed keywords are primary keywords, also known as head keywords or main keywords, and usually only consist of one or two words.
These keywords need to be directly related to your listed topics and, arguably, more importantly, must match the terms that your target audience might be searching for on Google.
For this step, it can be a good idea to check out the websites of your search competitors to see what keywords and phrases they are using.
Step 5: Use Keyword Research Tools
When brainstorming keyword tools, you ideally need to select one that you would find easy to use. Whether you wish to master keyword research in 7 days or 7 hours, these tools are invaluable to the process and are one of the key SEO research types that you should never overlook. Using keyword research tools can also be helpful if you are struggling to know how to do keyword research for niche sites, especially if you do not have many competitors to compare with.
Using keyword tools, you can identify and expand on existing keyword ideas and data, acquiring a broad understanding of your audience and what they are searching for. If you’re finding keyword identification and use challenging, keyword tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads Keyword Planner and the HOTH keyword research tool can assist by narrowing your keyword search and offering new keyword ideas that will enrich your website’s content from an SEO standpoint. Also, free tools such as Google Business Profile can help you enhance your local SEO by including effective keywords in your website’s descriptions and pages.
Overall, these tools are highly valuable and can increase your keyword lists and help you come up with other related keywords people are using when they search for businesses like yours and the kinds of products or services you offer.
Furthermore, using a keyword researching tool is incredibly beneficial for the vast amount of additional information you can get, including keyword volume, which shows how many people are searching each month, and CPC, which tells you how many people are paying when a particular keyword is advertised.
All of this information and data can get you insight into your audience, who they are, what they want, and what they search for. When you know all of these key elements, you can tailor your website and its pages accordingly to boost your web presence, improve your search engine rankings, and attract users to your site.
Step 6: Think about search intent
As touched on briefly above, another vital part of SEO research is understanding why internet users search for a specific term – this is the key to turning clicks into conversions.
There are many driving factors behind why people search the internet and you should consider:
Why are they searching?
Do they have a question they need an answer to?
Are they looking for a specific website?
Are they looking to make a purchase?
When thinking about search intent, it can be beneficial to try and put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
It is also worthwhile to know that Google looks favourably on informational content that provides added value to users, such as how-to-guides or lists.
Step 7: Think about trends
Trending content is highly popular, so it makes sense that when creating an SEO strategy, you take trending keywords into consideration. You can find out what keywords and phrases are trending by using Google Trends.
Don’t forget about seasonal keywords, as in words or phrases that are highly searched at specific times of the year, such as at Christmas or during Black Friday sales.
Step 8: Identify long-tail keywords
Of the different SEO keyword types, long-tail keywords are more descriptive than seed keywords and often relate to some of the smaller, more specific topics that you identified in step three.
For example, instead of “men’s clothing,” which would be your seed word, your long-tail keywords might be “what is the best men’s waterproof jacket.”
Long-tail keywords are crucial, as they target users that are ready to make a purchase, meaning that they often result in a higher conversion rate.
Step 9: Create your content
Now that the hard part is over, you can enjoy creating your content and optimising it for SEO. You can add your chosen keywords to your existing content, as well as create new content that they can be placed in.
Don’t forget to focus on link building, as this can greatly improve your site’s visibility, provide you with referral traffic and give you brand authority.
Step 10: Check your progress
This may not be what you want to hear, but the process of how to do keyword research is an ongoing one. You won’t suddenly stumble on the perfect formula and be able to sit back and watch the sales comes rolling in.
You need to continually strive to improve your SEO strategies, finding out what works best for you and what doesn’t.
Did you know that in 2018, Google made a whopping 3,234 “improvements” to the way its search works – that’s an average of nine a day!
Fortunately, the Google Analytics and Google Search Console tools can be incredibly useful for analysing your SEO performance, allowing you to see what keywords drive traffic to your site and which ones are resulting in sales and conversions. If you’re unsure how to do this yourself, you can always use a keyword research company instead – easy!
Are you ready to start your journey to becoming a master at SEO research? Contact us today.
