Best Free Keyword Research Strategies and Tools
Keyword Research Strategies: How to do Keyword Research for SEO
Is your site not showing in the SERP? Here is a useful article that will help you get rid of this problem.
Before we dive deeper into keyword research strategies, we must first know - what is a keyword? And what are the best strategies we should adopt while doing keyword research? In this post, we will discuss all these things step-by-step in detail.
What is a keyword?
A keyword, also known as a focus keyword, is a term that best represents the content of your website or article. This is the search keyword for which you want a specific page to rank. People should be able to find that page on your website when they search for that keyword or phrase on Google or other search engines.
Why Keywords are important for SEO?
One of the things Google sees when ranking a page is the content of that page. It looks at the words on the page. Now, look at this, for example, if every word, for example, a blog post about a digital camera is used 2 times, then all the words are of equal importance. Google will not have a clue which of these words is important and which is not. The words you are using are clues to Google; It tells Google and other search engines what the page or post is about. So if you want to convince Google or other search engines what your page is about, you have to use it quite often.
Types of keyword
- Head Terms: Head term keywords are generally shorter and more generic, typically one to three words in length. Head Keywords are less likely to rank in search engines because they are difficult keywords for beginners to begin with.
- Long-tail Keyword: Long-tail keywords are longer keyword phrases consists of three or more words. If you are a beginner, I suggest starting with long-tailed keywords.
How to do Keyword Research for best SEO
I'm going to design a keyword research methodology that you may use to generate a list of keywords to target. In this manner, you'll be able to create and implement a powerful keyword strategy that will help you identify the search words that are most important to you.
The steps involved in the best keyword research strategy are as follows:
Step #1: Based on what you know about your niche, make a list of key, important topics
Consider the topics you want to rank as a general bucket to begin this approach. You'll create roughly 10–20 topic buckets that you believe are relevant to your niche, and you'll use those topic buckets to assist you to come up with some specific keywords later on.
These are likely topics that you blog about frequently if you are a regular blogger. Or maybe those are the things that come up most frequently in sales interactions. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer: what kinds of topics do you want your target audience to look for in order to locate your business?
Step #2: Fill in those topic buckets with keywords
Now that you've decided on some topic buckets to concentrate on, it's time to look for keywords within those buckets. These are keyword phrases that you believe are vital to rank for in the SERPs since your target consumer is most likely searching for them.
The goal of this step isn't to compile a comprehensive list of keyword phrases. You just want to come up with a list of terms that you believe potential consumers could use to find content relating to that certain topic bucket. Later in the process, we'll condense the listings so you don't have to deal with anything.
While Google is encrypting more and more terms every day, another clever technique to come up with keyword ideas is to see what terms your website already receives. You'll need website analytics software like Google Analytics, which is included with the Traffic Analytics package. Examine your website's traffic sources and filter your organic search traffic bucket to find out what terms visitors are using to find your site.
Repeat the above processes for as many topic buckets as you have. If you're having problems coming up with relevant search phrases, send your customer-facing affiliates - those in sales or service - to them and ask them what their prospects are. What language do customers use, and do they have frequent questions? They're frequently excellent places to start when looking for keywords.
Step #3: Understand the impact of intent on keyword research and analyze the results accordingly
User intent is now one of the most critical variables in your ability to rank high on search engines like Google, as I said in the last section. Today, it's more vital than ever to address the problem that the searcher is trying to solve, rather than merely the terms that the searcher typed in. So, how does this influence your keyword research?
It's all too easy to take keywords at face value, yet they can have a lot of distinct meanings beneath the surface. Because the intent of the search is so critical to your ability to rank, you must be extremely cautious in how you interpret the keywords you target.
Let's imagine you're writing an article and you're looking for keywords like "how to start a blog." The keyword "blog" can refer to a blog post or the blog website itself, and the purpose of the searcher will determine the path of your content. Do you want to learn how to start a blog post from scratch? Or do they want to know how to set up a website domain specifically for blogging? If you're just targeting folks who are interested in the latter, you'll want to double-check the keyword's intent before using it.
It's a good idea to type a term into a search engine and check what kind of results come up to determine what the user's intent is in that keyword. Check to see if Google handles the type of content you intend to publish for keywords.
Step #4: Do Research for Related Search Terms
This is a unique step that you may have already considered while researching keywords. If not, this is an excellent method to add to your to-do list.
If you're having trouble coming up with new keywords, keep in mind that people will be searching for a specific topic. When you type a keyword into Google and scroll down to the results, you'll notice some suggestions for searches that are linked to your original input. These keywords may spark thoughts for further keywords to consider.
Put these search suggestions in Google search and analyze the search result.
Step #5: For more advantage use Keyword Research Tool
Based on the keyword ideas you've developed so far, keyword research and SEO tools can assist you to come up with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords. This activity may provide you with choices you hadn't considered before.
By now you have collected too many keywords. But the question is - which of these keywords should be used for your blog or website? Let's learn how to do this...
How to Find / Choose Keywords for Your Blog or Website
Once you've determined the keywords you want to rank for, it's time to narrow your keyword list based on the most effective keywords for your strategy. Now learn how to execute this strategy in few steps.
Step #1: Understand the three most important parameters to consider when selecting keywords.
You must curate keywords for three factors before choosing keywords and expecting your content to rank for them:
- Relevance: Google will rank your content based on its relevance, which means that it will only rank your content if it meets the needs of searchers. Furthermore, your content should be the most relevant to the search. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it has less value than other content on the web?
- Authority: Google will put more emphasis on authoritative sources. This means that you should make every attempt to establish yourself as an authoritative source by adding relevant, interesting content to your site and marketing it to gain social cues and backlinks. Unless your content is extraordinary, you will have a limited chance of ranking if you are not considered as an authority in the area or if the SERPs for a term are crowded with heavy sources with whom you cannot compete.
- Volume: You can rank on the first page for a term, but if no one ever searches for it, your site will not receive any traffic. It's like opening a store in a deserted area.
Monthly search volume (MSV) is a metric that measures how many times a keyword is searched per month across all audiences.
Step #2: Examine Competitors Website - How They Rank For These Keywords
You don't have to do anything just because your opponent is. Keywords are the same way. It is not true that just because a keyword is essential to your opponent, it is also significant to you. Understanding which keywords your competitors are attempting to rank for, on the other hand, is a terrific technique to assist you to evaluate your keyword list further.
If your competition is ranking for some of the same keywords as you, it makes sense to work on improving your ranking for those phrases. Do not, however, overlook individuals who are uninterested in your competitors. This could be an excellent opportunity for you to win market share on keywords.
Understanding the difference between terms that are more challenging due to competition and words that are more realistic will help you maintain a comparable balance that allows for a mix of long-tail and top words. Remember, the idea is to come up with a list of keywords that will give you some small victories while also assisting you in achieving larger, more difficult SEO goals.
You may wonder how you may find out the keywords your competitors are ranking for. You may use Ahrefs to conduct a number of free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you specified, in addition to manually searching for keywords in a secret browser and seeing the status of your competitors. This is an easy approach to find out what kind of conditions your competitors are dealing with.
Step #3: Narrow down your keyword list using Google's Keyword Planner and Google Trends.
Now that you've found the ideal combination of keywords, it's time to refine your lists with some quantitative data. You can do this using a variety of tools, but I'll show you how I prefer to accomplish it. Google's Keyword Planner and Google Trends are two tools I like to use.
You may acquire search volume and traffic predictions for the terms you're considering using Keyword Planner. Then, using the information from the Keyword Planner, fill in some of the gaps with Google Trends.
Use the Keyword Planner to highlight any keywords in your list that have a very low (or very high) search volume and don't assist you to maintain a healthy mix as we discussed before. But, before you delete anything, go to Google Trends and look at their trend history and estimates. You can check to see whether some low-volume words are something you should invest in now and profit from later.
Maybe you're just looking at a long list of words and need to condense it somehow... Google Trends can assist you in determining which phrases are moving upwards, indicating that you are deserving of more attention.
What are Best Keywords for SEO
Understand that there is no such thing as a "great" keyword; simply those that your target audience uses frequently. With this in mind, it's up to you to devise a plan that will assist you in ranking sites and increasing traffic.
Relevance, authority, and quantity will all be factors in determining the optimum keywords for your SEO approach. You're looking for highly searched terms on which you can compete effectively:
- The level of competition you will face.
- Your ability to create higher quality content than previously ranked content.
Conclusion:
You now have a list of keywords that will assist you in focusing on the correct topics for your business and will provide you with both short- and long-term advantages.
Make sure to reevaluate these keywords every few months - once a quarter is a decent starting point, although some organizations prefer to do so more frequently. As your authority in the SERPs grows, you'll be able to add more and more keywords to your lists to concentrate on retaining your current presence while also expanding into new areas.
