Doing keyword research for search engine optimization

Doing keyword research for search engine optimization

Words and phrases that individuals employ in their online searches for content and information are known as keywords. They also stand for the concepts and motifs that define the nature of a webpage's content.

In order to determine if a page's content is relevant to a user's search query, Google employs keywords. Your material is more likely to be found online if it is more closely related to a certain keyword. Check out our guide on keywords in SEO for comprehensive details on what they are, how they function, their history, etc.

One of the most crucial things you can do in your continuing SEO efforts is to choose the appropriate keywords for your website. If you choose the incorrect keywords, you will heedlessly waste time and money. Not usually until after money and time have been invested.

Researching keywords is necessary to prevent selecting and using the incorrect ones.

Website owners, SEO novices, multichannel marketers, agencies, and other digital marketers may benefit from this guide:

Understand the meaning of keyword research

Analyze the effectiveness of your existing keyword strategy.

Look for available possibilities and possible outcomes.

Arrange Your Search for Keywords

Look for fresh keywords for your website.

genuinely choose the appropriate keywords for a website

Find out which keywords are being used by your competition.

Use WooRank's Keyword Tool to Benefit from Quicker Keyword Research

Describe keyword research.

Finding terms and phrases that people use while looking for information and material online that are relevant to your website and company is known as keyword research. In digital marketing, keyword research will serve as the cornerstone for your link-building, content, and conversion optimization strategies.

Your website's ability to rank for the appropriate keywords will determine its success. In addition to identifying the appropriate keywords to target, keyword research will reveal to you what your target market needs and wants from your offerings. Conducting keyword research may assist you in increasing product sales as well as customer support and retention.

How to do SEO keyword research

After going over the fundamentals, it's time to investigate your existing prospects, identify new keywords, and choose the best keywords for your company.

We'll also go over some tools and other sites we've found helpful in our keyword research, and we'll guide you through how you should utilize your keywords.

Only individuals who have an established website that has been operational for some time will be able to use the first two phases. The remaining four are applicable to any website.

1. Examine how you're doing right now.

Gathering as much information as possible about an existing website is the first step in doing keyword research for it. This entails finding out which keywords your website now appears for. With its Google Search Console, Google itself is the ideal place to start.

Your website ought to be ranking for a few keywords at the very least if it has been up for some time:

The new Search Console's performance reports include useful information.

Starting with data from Google Search Console has two major advantages:

You may see how consumers use Google and the keywords they use to get information about your company, including the queries they pose, the issues they need resolved, and the content they are looking for. maintain, how they use your merchandise, etc.

You may see how Google evaluates the subject matter knowledge, authority, and credibility (EAT) of your material.

With a few little adjustments, Search Console may also provide information that might boost your SEO.

The primary drawbacks of the search console data for your website are that it only provides a maximum of 1000 searches and does not contain search volume, meaning that you have no idea how many people are utilizing these queries. This isn't a major problem for many websites, but it may be a problem for really large websites (news, e-commerce, massive content providers, etc.).

2. Locate Current Keyword Possibilities

Let's examine the performance report of a home products e-commerce website:

Opportunities for E-Commerce Keywords in the Google Search Console Performance Report

Based on this data, "floral bedding" and "cotton bedspread" are two prominent keyword prospects.

We can tell they're excellent chances because of the following:

There have already been a good amount of impressions on the website.

Although there is already a fair quantity of traffic generated by these inquiries, but:

Pages on websites don't appear on Google's first page of results.

These kinds of keywords need to be your main focus when you first start optimizing. The only things our home goods store could do are make a few on-page edits, add a few more backlinks, speed up the page load time, or do anything internal since it currently ranks rather high and receives a significant amount of traffic for these keywords. a little drama together, you may reap even bigger rewards. establishing links.

Compared to writing and advertising original content for keywords for which your website does not yet rank or is not visible, this is a considerably simpler and easier procedure.

To find these chances, WooRank clients and test users may also use information from the Suggested Keywords area of their Keywords tool in addition to Search Console.

Later in this tutorial, we'll go over this functionality in more depth.

3. Make "buckets" of keywords depending on pertinent subjects.

Whether your website is new or has been up for some time, this is the initial step towards locating and optimizing for new keywords. Your content and SEO strategy will be defined after these buckets are created.

In this phase, there are two methods to consider. Which option is best for you will depend on how your company runs.

The Monetization-First Method

This is a really simple choice. Establish your buckets according to the categories, goods, and/or services that your company offers.

Let's examine the St. Louis, Missouri, dentist's office navigation menu:

The Office navigation menu of Dentit prioritizes keyword monetization.

A cursory glance at this office's offerings provides some guidance on how to construct some high-level buckets:

preventing care

techniques for restoration

Operation

aesthetic procedures

periodontal therapy

By expanding the preventative care area, we may target more keyword clusters within that category:

More chances for preventative care in dental offices

Putting monetization first will assist guarantee that your SEO efforts are always in line with your company's more revenue-focused initiatives.

niche-first strategy

Starting with the general niche of your website (industry, company type, thematic emphasis), the niche-first method digs further and deeper into longer tail keywords until it uncovers prospects for your website.

A website that posts evaluations of music, for instance, might begin with the term "music review". Next, you may identify fresh keywords related to this issue by using different keyword research tools. Alternatively, you may search Google directly for fresh keyword ideas.

On Google, type in "music review" and then go to the bottom of the page.

Music-related Google searches

Additionally, "indie music reviews" and "rock album reviews" are our two new keyword buckets. Click the "Rock Album Reviews" link and scroll to the bottom of the search results for a more thorough examination of rock albums:

Google queries pertaining to reviews of rock albums

We moved from having no keywords to having two keyword groups—one of which now has three new keywords for our music blog—with just one search and click.

Given how wide these phrases are, it will likely be difficult to rank for them without making significant efforts in SEO and link building. They will also be quite competitive. Continue clicking using the niche-first approach until you locate relevant queries for which you have a reasonable chance of ranking.

Of course, you may target those really competitive keywords if you're one of the major players in your industry, such as Spotify or Pitchfork for our music review sites.

4. Look for fresh keyword concepts.

It's time to research fresh keyword ideas to make it easier for visitors to locate your content now that you have a starting list of relevant keywords and a list of themes your website targets. This stage may be completed by carrying on with the niche-down approach until a spreadsheet is full with potential keywords.

However, doing so might make you overlook crucial search volume information.

You will need to employ a specialized keyword research tool in order to aid broaden and expedite the process. Fortunately, there are many of free ones available. Google's Keyword Planner for Ads is a great place to start.

The procedure is the same whether you're using a monetization-first or niche-first strategy: Click "Find new keywords" and input your themes. When doing keyword research for a pet store in the UK, I would type the following:

Use Google Keyword Planner to find fresh keywords related to pet care.

The 1,641 related keywords that people use in Google to discover information about dog toys are shown in the Keyword Planner results for these subjects.

I'm going to order these results by "competition" to display the simpler keywords first since my website is still rather new:

Relevance-ranked keywords are suggested by Keyword Planner.

It won't take long for you to see that this data is not perfect. To begin with, Google only shows a very broad range of monthly search traffic; in order to get precise statistics, you must reach a certain ad spend level. Also keep in mind that Google Ads pay-per-view is the source of all of this data. -Ads get clicks from users. Therefore, competition data is based on the number of advertisers bidding for that place when searches and volumes apply.

Nevertheless, it remains unaffected by biological competition. It may be integrated and serves as a suitable foundation.

offline resources for fresh keywords

Not all keyword sources, meanwhile, can be found online. Internal sales, marketing, and customer service departments are excellent sources for keywords.

Start there if you're utilizing buyer personas, which you most likely are. Their duties, challenges, questions, and intended objectives have already been established. Put these into your keyword list.

Request voice recordings or notes from your support staff during conversations with clients and potential clients. Even if they are merely basic inquiries like "What's the point of using a product like this?" jot down any question people have about your goods. If they are contacting you directly or asking a sales representative over the phone, you can be sure they are also looking it up on Google.

A paid tool, if you're ready for one, will provide you further information about the competition, ranking difficulties, and expected search volume for your new term. When it comes to removing keywords that you will probably never rank for, this data is really useful.

Here's an example of a keyword analysis from the paid service Ahrefs:

This would be a useful term for me if I had a baking blog or similar website:

My new site will rank higher if it has less difficulties.

High traffic indicates a wealth of openings for new users.

The majority of clicks go to organic (unpaid) results, hence the ROI is greater.

5. Select the appropriate keywords.

Selecting the best keywords involves more considerations than just search volume and complexity. Additionally, your keyword approach should be in line with your entire marketing plan. How will you draw customers in at each step of the purchase cycle and assist them in moving on to the next?

As a result, every bucket you find should include terms for all search purposes in any decent keyword research.

Thus, the keyword profile of a general contractor situated in Cambridge, UK, for instance, might have the following:

"How to Choose the Right Contractor for Your Job"

"What does a general contractor do"

"Why do I need a general contractor"

"Home Repair Cambridge"

"Insurance Repair Cambridge"

"Electrical Works Cambridge"

People use the first three keywords when they are initially considering hiring a contractor or when they are determining whether they even need a contractor. Those that are actively looking for a service provider in their region utilize the other three.

It takes both sets of keywords to fully enhance a company website. By asking thought-provoking informative questions, you may create leads that your sales staff can close and increase brand recognition and trust. Asking transactional and commercial screening questions will bring in highly qualified visitors who are ready to buy from your website.

Targeting any kind of term may be highly beneficial for affiliate or lead generation agreements and partnerships, even for content providers (websites that solely post material and don't sell any things).

6. Examine your rivals.

Researchers for keywords are also being done by your rivals. It's likely that they've discovered some exclusive keyword possibilities that you haven't. Fortunately, there isn't any obstacle preventing you from stealing them.

There are two categories of rivals in SEO:

The folks you are in competition with for sales are your immediate rivals.

Everyone who has the intention of ranking for your desired keywords.

You may look for the latter by using Google to search for your seed keywords. You can then crawl their websites, highlighting the terms they are targeting on "blogs, category pages, etc."

This also holds true for your immediate rivals. You also have the additional advantage of learning about their brand positioning, messaging, and content strategy, which will help you understand the advantages and strengths of the product.

You may be able to establish your profile and effectively bypass the first five phases of the keyword research process if your competition are bigger. You should still do your own research, however, since you could find keywords that your rivals haven't.

Begin researching keywords.

The Keyword Tool data contains current keyword possibilities for projects that WooRank clients and test users may discover. Users may add keywords for which the monitored site currently ranks by using the keyword suggestions function when adding keywords to the Keywords tool.

When a term shows up in this list, it means that the monitored site is ranked in the top 100 results for users who typed the keyword into the designated Google domain.

identifying the most advantageous prospects among those that already exist

To identify the greatest possibilities for your website, the keyword recommendations function filters out the noise that comes from using other keyword research tools, like Google Search Console.

top 100The term Tool provides you with pertinent information for each term so you can choose the best one for you:

Volume: The term "Estimated Monthly Volume" refers to the straightforward computation of the frequency with which users searched for a certain phrase across a subset of Google domains. This indicates the possible number of individuals your website might reach by using this term as its goal.

Data on suggested keywords' search volumes

Position: For a particular term, we get your site's real ranking position in Google search results. Keywords that you currently show up for in search results are excellent candidates for SEO, as we previously discussed.

Recommended terms average position information

CPC: "Cost per click" is what CPC stands for. This is the sum that a Google Ads campaign operator pays when a searcher clicks on the advertisement shown for the given term. Although CPC and SEO are unrelated, it does provide you with a wealth of information regarding commercial value, search intent, possible return on investment, and level of competition for your chosen phrase.

CPC information for recommended keywords

URL: The exact page of a website that appears in search results for the given term. When it comes time to decide which pages to optimize based on keywords and when you're attempting to align page content with search intent, this information may then serve as a shortcut.

The URL of the webpage that the recommended keywords are presently ranking for

Visit our blog article to discover more about the keyword suggestions feature and how to use the keyword tool to get a website's keyword research started.