Getting Started with SEO Keyword Research

For your website to stand out from the crowd, you need to conduct thorough, high-quality keyword research. Google's search algorithm uses over 200 factors to rank websites. Your pages will shoot up the search engine rankings and generate reliable organic traffic if you find the right keywords that appeal to your target audience.

Here's an in-depth guide to keyword research and how to find the best keywords for your content so that they align with user intent and ensure your content is search engine optimized. You can jump directly to any of the sections below if you want to focus on a particular topic.

Keywords: what are they?

To establish and develop online content, keywords, also known as SEO keywords, are terms and phrases. From the potential customer’s perspective, they are words entered into the search bar that best describe the products or services they are seeking or the question they wish to find an answer to. Marketers use keywords carefully chosen for their content to inform search engines about the content on their web pages, enabling them to rank and suggest your site.

Insights gained from keywords reveal vital information such as what your audience wants and why they want it, revealing vital information about them. Incorporating the right keywords into your content can drastically improve your business's success, whether it is for search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing. It's important that a customer's keywords match the keywords on your site.

Keyword research: why is it important?

Keywords define your business and what you sell on your website. Search engines like Google determine where to display your website on a search engine results page (SERP) based on the number and quality of keywords contained in your content. You will get more traffic and reach if you rank higher on the SERP. According to Google, 32% of all clicks go to the #1 result. For the first few results, it is still worth trying even if you can't rank at the top. You will attract more and more clicks over time as the number of people searching online for products and services keeps increasing. The 1,000 most visited pages experienced a 22% increase in traffic between 2019 and 2020.

In keyword research, you can find in-demand but still niche keywords, guessing what consumers want and providing them with it before they even realize it, thereby increasing traffic to your website. When you include high-quality keywords in articles, blog posts, and product descriptions, you can boost your ranking, attracting a larger audience and beating your competitors. As a result of organic traffic generated from the SERP, you can generate leads long after you've published your content, outperforming even paid traffic or ads.

Researching keywords: Getting started

In order to optimize your content, you need to know some basic keyword research fundamentals. First, you need to understand the difference between focus keywords and long-tail keywords.

Focus keywords are the words or phrases that you deliberately include in the title, URL, meta description, and text of your website with the hope that search engines will recognize them.

On the other hand, long-tail keywords are words or phrases that shoppers use when they are further along in the buying cycle and have a clearer idea of what they want, bringing in more qualified traffic. Long-tail keywords become particularly valuable when there is a lot of competition in the market; they offer websites a way to differentiate themselves from the competition. It is easy to imagine which search term will yield more precise results for "toaster" and "4-slice chrome toaster".

A comprehensive keyword search should include the following concepts:

Keyword intent

As a business owner, you may not share the mindset of your target audience, but knowing how keyword intent plays into keyword research is a crucial part of developing a keyword strategy. Putting yourself in the shoes of potential consumers and understanding the purpose of their search is what it takes to understand keyword intent.

You should consider whether your content matches the consumer's intent when conducting SEO keyword research. If they are looking for information, a specific company, or a specific website, do they want to learn something? Are they comparing products and almost ready to buy? Or, are they ready to buy immediately? If the consumer stays on your page longer, you'll rank higher on SERPs.

In order to use trigger phrases in your long-tail keywords, you need to learn your audience and understand why they want what they want. Make sure your keywords are tailored to different types of consumer intent by utilizing trigger phrases. When selling a product, for example, transactional and commercial trigger phrases like "best", "buy", "join", and "compare" can help you rank higher for searches where people are more likely to make a purchase decision.

Monthly search volume (MSV)

You can find the average monthly search volume for a keyword using keyword research websites and tools. You can even narrow down your search results to a particular city using keyword research tools and websites. Higher MSVs indicate that your website has more potential traffic, but they also indicate more competition.

Topical authority

Search engines are improving and more emphasis is placed on natural language, related terms, and quality content. You want to highlight your website's expertise by providing in-depth, interconnected content. Consumers are more likely to click on your website if they consider it to be a trustworthy source of information. You will rank highly on SERPs if your content is authoritative and you have a good reputation.

Researching keywords

After getting familiar with some of the most important terms and concepts associated with keyword research, you are ready to get started. In order to attract the audience you want, you should target the following keywords and create a foolproof keyword strategy.

1. Prepare a list of broad topics related to your topic

Your first step is to create a spreadsheet that contains general categories or buckets based on the keywords you wish to rank for. If you blog from time to time, you may already have some topics you cover regularly. These could correspond to product categories or anything you think your target audience would be interested in.

If you're looking for a product or service, imagine yourself as a buyer and keep your list short and simple.

2. Include phrases your customers might use for each topic

Having identified these general categories, it's now time to identify the terms and phrases your target customer may use to find information, products, or services.

Utilize your organic search traffic bucket to identify keywords consumers are already using to arrive at your website if you have data from website analytics software like Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report.

This is not intended to be a final list of keywords, but rather an opportunity to brainstorm data points to make your research more targeted.

3. Search for related terms

Adding keywords to your list can be done in many creative ways.

Enter a keyword phrase in Google and scroll down the page to see related search phrases highlighted in bold.
You can explore the list Google suggests at the bottom of the second page by clicking on one of the related searches.
You can use AnswerThePublic to search for phrases related to your topic up to three times per day for free.
Use Google's Keyword Planner or one of the paid tools below to find out what other relevant terms people use with your keyword phrase.

4. Check your keywords' strength

Using Keyword Planner or a paid keyword research tool is the easiest way to accomplish this next step. Some of the most popular tools include Ahrefs, Semrush, Wordtracker, and Ubersuggest.

This is how your keyword analysis should look.

Ensure that your keyword phrase matches the exact search phrase people use when searching.
In order to structure a strategy around a keyword phrase, you need the highest search volume possible.
You want a high search volume with low organic search competition. That's the sweet spot. The paid tools differentiate between paid ads and organic search.
Make sure you check for related terms that have low organic search competition and high search volume.

5. Analyze your industry's ranking

Your keyword strategy should change if you're competing against big brand names on the first page of Google for most of the terms you've identified.

You’ll want to refine your list with long-tail keywords if the SERPs for your most desired search terms are filled with brands with more influence and market share than your company (at the moment).

You might be able to outrank your competitors even if they spend more money marketing their brand if you've been publishing quality content.

6. Intent verification

Consumers use Google to search for something, and every question needs a matching response.

Type your keywords into a search engine to understand your customers' intent. What pages already rank for that phrase and what products do they offer?

It's true that a buyer looking for information may click on your site, but they'll bounce quickly, hurting your ranking. However, if the buyer is ready to purchase, they'll gladly make a purchase if you deliver a product page.

You might make a habit of checking the intent of each keyword phrase before creating content with it in your spreadsheet, or you could establish a rule that requires you or your team to do so.

Taking Away Points

In order to identify trends and blind spots, understand user intent, and create content around the right keywords, conduct keyword research. However, keyword research is just one aspect of your SEO strategy. To really stand out, make sure your blog posts, articles, and product descriptions are more valuable, readable, and complete than your competitors. Make your website easy to scan and mobile-friendly by paying attention to layout and on-page SEO.

Although you may rank quickly for specific terms or phrases, organic SEO is a long-term process.

Got questions? Visit us @ www.sirkle.com and we’re happy to help.