Keywords are the soul of any SEO campaign. They are the yardsticks that guide the audience on the internet to your website. No matter how great your services are and how well-made your website is, visitors will never be able to land on your site if they do not enter the right keywords while doing searches.
This makes keyword research extremely important for a successful SEO campaign. This blog will discuss the importance of keyword research and how to do keyword research for SEO.
Here is an overview of the topics discussed in this blog:
- What Do You Mean By Keyword Research?
- Why Is Keyword Research Important?
- Driving More Traffic
- Understanding Marketing Trends
- Better Customer Acquisition
- How To Do Keyword Research For SEO?
- Make A List Of Relevant Topics
- Look For Keywords For The Topic Brackets
- Analyze The Keywords Based On Intent
- Look For Related Search Terms
- Choose The Right Keyword Research Tools
- How To Choose Keywords For Your Website?
- Use Google Keyword Planner
- Look For Keywords With Less Competition
- Look For The Monthly Search Volume Of The Chosen Keywords
- Focus On SERP Snippets
- Look For A Mix Of Head Terms And Long-tail Keywords
- Analyze The Keywords Used By Your Competitors
Let us start by understanding what keyword research is in brief.
What Do You Mean By Keyword Research?
In simple words, keyword research is searching for suitable keywords by understanding the language your target audience uses for searches. The scope of keyword research is much more than merely picking words and phrases for your campaign.
Effective keyword research involves analyzing the interests of your target audience, the words they use for searches, the opportunities you can tap into, and the type of content your audience is looking for. Once you find the right words used by your customers and prospects on search engines, you can make them organically discover your website.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
Driving More Traffic
One of the biggest reasons keyword research is important is that it allows you to drive more traffic to your website. More footfall on your website would naturally increase the chances of conversions. The process helps you understand the words and phrases used by the audience on the internet, allowing them to find your website easily.
Understanding Marketing Trends
Along with driving traffic to your site, efficient keyword research allows you to understand popular marketing trends. The searches made by your audience help you understand their likes, needs, and preferences. Along with your SEO campaign, this data can also be used for charting other marketing campaigns across multiple platforms.
Better Customer Acquisition
Keyword research allows you to understand what your target audience is looking for. Using this data, you can get the content ideas of your website in a way that is in sync with the needs and preferences of the visitors. When the visitors find exactly what they are looking for on your website, you can acquire more customers by persuading them to follow your calls to action.
How To Do Keyword Research For SEO?
If you are wondering how to do keyword research for your SEO campaign, here are some important steps you can follow to get the best possible results:
1. Make A List Of Relevant Topics
To kickstart your keyword research, make a list of topics that are related to your website and your business. Make sure these topics are in sync with the products/services you deal in and what your customers are looking for.
Coming up with these topics would provide you with a sense of direction and guide your keyword research accordingly. This would also help you stick with the core of your business without misguiding your target audience.
You can find words or phrases from blogs related to your business, the words you use in your regular business conversations, or simply the words that describe your offerings precisely. You need not think too much about getting these topics. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think of searches you would make if you are looking for the products/services offered by your business.
For example, if you run an IT company in India and are working with an SEO company in India to conduct thorough keyword research, these are some topics you should come up with:
- IT services
- IT service management
- Information technology
- IT infrastructure
- Cloud computing
Once you have such bracket topics, you can find out the search volume of every topic using a suitable software platform. This would help you understand how popular every topic is on the internet.
2. Look For Keywords For The Topic Brackets
Once you have made a list of topic brackets related to your organization, you can narrow your search by adding precise keywords for every topic. Pick a topic and think of all possible searches that can be made by your target audience while looking for your offerings. This will bring you closer to your prospects and customers browsing the internet.
For example, if you use the topic of “IT services” listed in the previous step, here are some ideal keywords that would fit the bracket:
- What are IT services?
- IT services in India
- IT services definition
- IT services cost
- Best IT service providers
Several keywords you can add to these topic brackets make sense. This step intends to arrive at the final list of keywords you want to go ahead with. Even if you have many options, there is no need to worry, as you can always narrow your research down further.
3. Analyze The Keywords Based On Intent
User intent is of the utmost importance while carrying out keyword research for your SEO campaign. Along with the words and phrases used by your target audience for searches, the intention behind making the searches also matters in leading them to your website.
Search engines like Google do not take keywords at face value. They understand the context in which they are used in your content and lead visitors to your website based on the same. Instead of simply adding specific keywords to your website, ensure that they are added in a way that serves the visitors’ intent.
The best way to get the intent of your content right is to type the keywords in the search engine and go through the top-ranking results. Make sure the content you create using the concerned keyword(s) is on similar lines and caters to the intent of your audience.
4. Look For Related Search Terms
If you cannot develop more keywords about your business and its offerings, you can look for related words and phrases to bring the internet audience to your website.
Google shows related user searches at the end of its search engine results pages (SERPs). You can refer to these keywords and target the same along with your core keywords.
5. Choose The Right Keyword Research Tools
Even if you have no idea how to do keyword research for SEO, a good keyword research tool will guide you through every step. Once you are ready with your topics, keywords, and intent, you can look for a suitable keyword research tool to get more ideas about finding the right keywords, analyzing the chosen keywords, and improving the chances of the audience landing on your website.
Once trusted keyword research tools approve your keywords, you can go ahead with your SEO campaign and target the chosen keywords.
How To Choose Keywords For Your Website?
Now that you are well-versed with how to do keyword research for SEO let us understand how to choose the right keywords for your website. After keyword research, you will have a lot of alternatives to choose from. Naturally, it is not possible to fit every possible keyword in your website content. Google would never rank a site that is stuffed with a lot of keywords. It is important to identify the right keyword for your website but sometimes, others may find it difficult and makes errors since the don’t fully understand the process. Therefore, it is important to be patient and to learn seo as much as possible so that you can ensure you are using the right keywords for your website.
Here are some important steps you can follow in choosing the most suitable keywords for your website:
1. Use Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is the best tool to shortlist the best keywords to be added to your content. Make all your keywords through the tool and choose the ones with the maximum search volume. By adding a specific keyword, the tool would provide you with the traffic estimate and search volume for the same.
Google Keyword Planner would help you eliminate the keywords you thought were effective but are not searched too often by the audience.
2. Look For Keywords With Less Competition
Especially if you are planning to create a new website for your business, choosing keywords that have not yielded multiple blogs and articles on the internet is advisable. This would make these keywords exclusive to your business and lead the audience to your website. However, ensure you find an ideal balance between low competition and good search volume.
3. Look For The Monthly Search Volume Of The Chosen Keywords
You can always check their monthly search volume using the right keyword research tools to select the most suitable keywords to add to your website. Choose the keywords with higher search volume to drive more traffic to your website. As the name suggests, this would provide you with the volume of searches made by internet users for a specific keyword over a month.
4. Focus On SERP Snippets
When a search is done, Google often highlights different snippets related to the keyword used. For choosing the right keywords, you can make a Google search using them and see if any snippets are highlighted in the result pages. Based on your snippet, you can highlight your content to be featured in the same.
Here are the common snippets highlighted by Google:
- Image Packs – Image packs are the series of images that Google displays on its result page when specific keywords are searched. If an image pack is highlighted for your keyword, creating image-heavy content for your website is advisable.
- Paragraph Snippets – These are the snippets of specific paragraphs taken from websites that provide quick answers or information about the searches made. If a paragraph snippet is highlighted for your keywords, you can add a paragraph answering a specific question within your website.
- List Snippets – As the name suggests, these are the snippets that highlight a series of steps or pointers related to specific searches made. If your keyword leads to list snippets, add similar lists to your website content.
5. Look For A Mix Of Head Terms And Long-tail Keywords
As you shortlist the keywords to be used in your website, make sure you select an ideal mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. Head terms are shorter keywords with one to three words. On the other hand, long-tail keywords are longer keywords that are more specific.
Businesses often mistake choosing only head terms as they are more frequently searched. The right mix of head and long-tail keywords will create an excellent and balanced keyword strategy. It would cover all kinds of searches made by your target audience for the selected keywords. However, it is important to note that these keywords are also highly competitive, making it difficult for your site to rank high on the SERPs.
6. Analyze The Keywords Used By Your Competitors
The keywords used by your competitors and the ranks they receive play an important role in choosing the right keywords for your website. Make sure you choose the right mix of keywords targeted successfully by your competitors (as it allows you to improve your rank) and the ones ignored by them (to have your exclusive market share).
The Final Word
These were some of the most fruitful and noteworthy ways to undertake SEO keyword research. If you plan to build a powerful SEO campaign for your business, ensure you give immense importance to seo service provider such as Movinnza, as it can instantly make or break your campaign!
