Did you know that 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine? It’s really quite fascinating. Before a consumer purchases running shoes, schedules a trip, or hires a consultant, Google is typically their starting point.
However, the harsh truth of the matter is that if no one searches for the subject matter you’ve written about, no one will find your content, no matter how insightful, witty, or valuable it might be. You’d be essentially yelling in the void.
This is where SEO keywords can save the day. SEO keywords are like a connection between the searches your potential customers make and what you have on your website. Knowing how to do keyword research is more than just a technical skill—it is a basic marketing need.
We will cover the basics in this guide and beyond. We will understand the psychology behind people’s search queries, go through the most effective keyword research tools and plan a strategy on how to find keywords that will not only bring in traffic but will also bring in sales.
What is Keyword Research and Why is it Important?
Essentially, Keyword research refers to the method of identifying and evaluating the words that users type into search engines because you want to use those words to enhance your content for the users as well as for ranking purposes.
Nevertheless, it is a mistake to consider keyword research to be merely an SEO initiative. Actually, it is a type of top-tier market intelligence. It is more than just finding keyword matches; it is about getting to know your market.
The moment a user enters a question in the search engine, that query is essentially the user’s testimony revealing his/her real problems, needs, and desires. By studying those search queries, you can receive direct evidence of your customers’ perspective.
The ROI of Research
Why invest a considerable amount of time in sorting through data? The answer is that correctly using keywords wisely will point the traffic to your site to “qualified” traffic.
It is a common thing to get distracted by vanity metrics. You may manage to get the #1 ranking position for a generic keyword that yields lots of traffic to your website but if none of these visitors is interested in what you are selling, then that traffic will do you no good. On the other hand, a keyword that is very specific might only generate a hundred visitors but if twenty out of them buy your product, your investment will be well worth it. Properly done keyword research will lead you to differentiate between browsers and buyers.
Learning About Keywords Categories
Not every single question on a search engine is the same. In order to form a good strategy, you need to be familiar with the essence of the three main types of keywords categorized by their length and specificity.
Short-tail (Head) Keywords
These are very generic and broad keywords that are usually 1 to 2 words long.
- Such as: “Shoes” or “Marketing.”
Head terms have tremendous search volume, sometimes up to millions. But at the same time, they are very competitive in which case it is fairly hopeless for most businesses to try to compete locally by ranking for a term like “shoes” against Nike or Amazon. Also, the intention of the query is unclear: Does the searcher want to buy shoes? Repair them? Look at pictures? It cannot be confirmed.
Middle-tail (Body) Keywords
These are a little bit more detailed phrases, consisting of two or three words.
- Examples: “Running shoes” or “Digital marketing tips.”
The best thing about these is that they offer a pretty decent compromise. The search volume is good, the terms are more specific than head keywords, and therefore, you get a pretty good idea of the user’s intention.
Long-tail Keywords
These refer to the exact, detailed phrases of 4 or more words.
- Example: “Best running shoes for flat feet” or “How to improve SEO for small business.”
Contrary to what their name might imply, long-tail keywords usually have very low search volume individually. However, they are the real drivers for your conversion. A user who searches for such a term has a particular problem or need. If you happen to answer it correctly, you will gain trust immediately. Because of search query’s specificity, competition is by and large lower, hence ranking for such keywords is less complicated.
LSI Keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing)
You can also read about LSI keywords which are the words related to your main keywords that help search engines better understand the context of your content. For instance, if you are writing about “Apple,” LSI words that Google would expect to see could be “pie,” “fruit,” and “orchard” if it is the fruit you are talking about or “iPhone,” “Mac,” and “tech” if it is the company.
The Secret Sauce: Search Intent
Let me stress again that the one thing I would want you to remember from this entire write-up is that Search intent outweighs layers over search volume.
Search intention or user intent is basically the reason behind the search being done. What is the goal of the searcher? Nowadays, Google algorithms are so smart that they can almost perfectly understand the intent of a query, and therefore, they give priority to the content that perfectly satisfies it. Generally, we can say there are four main intents:
1. Informational Intent
Here, the user is either looking to acquire knowledge or solve a problem.
- Query Examples: “How to fix a leaky faucet,” “History of Rome,” “What is keyword research.”
- Strategy: Such queries should be answered with comprehensive guides, blog materials, and instructional videos. A very good method for getting the brand name out there and attracting the initial audience.
2. Navigational Intent
When a user is certain of the place to which he/she wants to go, Google is only a means of getting there.
- Query Examples: “Facebook login,” “YouTube,” “Apple support.”
- Strategy: Ranking for those queries is very difficult unless you are the brand itself that people are looking for. Therefore, you should make sure that your site is optimized for your own brand so that consumers can find you easily.
3. Commercial Investigation
The user has a shopping mind but is still considering his/her options.
- Query Examples: “Mailchimp vs. ConvertKit,” “Best laptop for students,” “Top rated coffee makers.”
- Strategy: These are the types of queries that you can answer through comparison pages, “best of” lists, and in-depth reviews of your products. Here, you have the chance to influence a consumer’s decision.
4. Transactional Intent
The user is set to make a purchase and most likely has already obtained his/her credit card.
- Query Examples: “Buy noise-canceling headphones,” “Subscription box coupon,” “Nike Air Max size 10 sale.”
- Strategy: Focus on perfecting your product landing pages. Make the purchase process as easy as possible.
Actionable Tip: You should always ensure that the format of your content matches the purpose or intent of the user. Do not attempt to sell a product to a person typing in “what is a CRM”. They merely want the definition of the term and if they get a sales pitch, they will bounce off your site immediately.
Best Keyword Research Tools
You cannot conduct a thorough keyword research by mere guessing. The great thing is you can rely on a few powerful keyword research tools to get you through.
Free Tools
- Google Keyword Planner: Undoubtedly, the best tool to get the most accurate data is the one that comes straight from the source. However, this tool that is created for advertisers (Google Ads) also provides excellent data on monthly search volume and competition levels.
- Google Trends: The tool does not provide exact search count but presents the trend of a topic. It’s great considering the fact that you can predict the topic seasonality (e.g., when people actually start searching for “Christmas gifts”) as well as spot the rising topics before they get saturated.
- Google Autocomplete: This is a treasure chest for discovering natural long-tail questions that people genuinely ask. All you have to do is type your keyword into the Google search bar and the suggestions that show up are real queries users have.
Paid Options (Industry Leaders)
If SEO is what you are truly interested in, then committing to a paid tool will be a wise decision at some point. Paid tools provide you with a wide range of benefits such as deeper insights, competitive intelligence, and easy-to-use features to monitor your progress over time.
- Semrush / Ahrefs: These two tools are considered gold standards in the SEO world. They provide you with competitive research features that allow you to see your competitor’s ranking keywords, keyword difficulty scores, and you can even follow your own rankings over time.
- Ubersuggest: This is a mid-level tool created by Neil Patel. For the most part, it is cheaper than the other two paid tools and has a very friendly interface making it an ideal choice for beginners.
Visualization Note: Look for the User Interface (UI) dashboard when utilizing these tools. While paid keyword tools display a “Keyword Overview” screen showing volume, difficulty (KD), and cost-per-click (CPC) altogether, free counterparts often require a bit more manual operation to access these data.
Ways to Select Proper Keywords for Your Business (Step-by-Step)
Having comprehended the fundamentals and assembled the tools, let’s proceed with the actual workflow of target keyword selection.
Step 1: Brainstorming Topics
Initially, think of a few seed keywords that would represent the base topics of your business/products/services. For a coffee shop, the seeds might include coffee beans, espresso machine, french press, etc.
Imagine yourself being a customer. What type of questions do they have in their mind before making a final decision? For example, some common questions that potential buyers might have regarding espresso machines are whether “how to make a latte at home” or “is an expensive espresso machine worth it?”
Step 2: Metric Analysis
When you have gathered a couple of keywords, feed them into your keyword research tool so that you get to see what is going on.
- Monthly volume: How many times a month is this searched for? Here, you have to be careful and not immediately discard low volume keywords as if a keyword only gets 50 searches a month, but the searches are highly purchase-intent ones, then, it is still very much worth targeting.
- Keyword Difficulty (KD): There is usually a scale from 0 to 100 applied to indicate the level of difficulty for a website to rank on the first page of the search results for a specific keyword. If you are a newbie entering the industry with a new website that doesn’t have high authority, then you should be targeting low KD keywords to shoot some quick wins.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): You might come across a keyword with high search volume; however, Google may display its answer right on the search page (for instance, through a Featured Snippet or Instant answer), thus, in such a case, the actual clicks on the websites may end up being quite low.
Step 3: Gauge the Competition
Don’t ever neglect this part. Put your keyword to the test on a search engine.
Check out the top 3 results and analyze who the domains are. If the top 3 consist of Wikipedia, Amazon, and The New York Times, then it will most likely be impossible for you to outrank them. Nonetheless, if the main competitors on the first page are forums, low-quality blogs, or outdated articles, then you are indeed lucky. How do you answer these questions: Could I produce something better, more comprehensive, or more recent?
Step 4: Making Your Final Decision
Make a simple “Keyword Matrix” or just a spreadsheet. Try to strike the right balance among Volume, Difficulty, and Intent.
Focus on a single piece of content and choose one primary keyword (the main focus) and 3-5 secondary keywords (related long-tail keywords). Don’t put 50 keywords in one post.
Using Your Keywords in the Right Places to Get the Biggest Results
You researched the market, and you plucked your terms. But where exactly do you throw them down? On-page SEO is all about strategic keyword placement so that search engines are able to quickly comprehend what your page content is about.
- Title Tag & H1: These are the highest weighted areas. Your primary keyword should be here, and if possible very near the start.
- Within the first 100 Words: Search engines especially Google pay more attention to the top most part of the page. So Signal your content’s relevance right away by mentioning your main topic in the introduction paragraph.
- Headers (H2, H3): Consider this as an excellent spot for your secondary keywords. Besides, it helps organize the post visually for readers and it gives another signal to Google of the subject matter depth.
- URL Slug: Make your URL clean and include relevant keywords. Steer clear from domain.com/p=123. Instead, go for domain.com/keyword-research-guide.
- Meta Description: The presence or absence of the keyword in meta description is not a direct ranking factor but a well-constructed meta description that features the keyword can boost your organic click-through rate.
- Image Alt Text: Use keywords when describing your images. If it is pertinent, you may do this multiple times. Besides which, this practice caters to accessibility and image search SEO as well.
Conclusion: The Cornerstone of SEO Triumph
Think of keyword research as the blueprint creation of your content strategy. Without it, you would be likened to someone trying to construct a building without laying the foundation first. Sure, your endeavor may be visually appealing but it would crumble easily under the circumstances or in this case, competition.
Keep in mind that SEO should be treated as a long-distance race rather than a walk in the park. Search trends are bound to change. User behavior will also change. So your keyword strategy has to be an evolving organism that you continuously revisit and polish over time.
Would you like to start? Here is your task: Choose one “seed” topic associated with your business for today. Have a 20-minute session on a free tool such as Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest, and find 5 long-tail keywords around which you can construct your next blog post.
The traffic is waiting out there. What you really need are just the right words to catch it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What within a keyword is a good search volume?
There is no fixed “good” figure. It depends on the nature of your niche. In a highly specialized B2B industry, 50 searches a month might be considered very good. On the other hand, in a broad lifestyle niche, the figure may be 1,000+ to gain noticeable leverage. Basically, give priority to relevance and intention over sheer volume.
Is it possible to target the same keyword on multiple pages?
No, the same keyword cannot be used for multiple pages as it would be a case of keyword cannibalization. If you end up having two pages that equally target the same keyword then you actually make your pages compete against each other and that often results in lower ranking for both. So just assign each page on your site a unique primary keyword.
What is the ideal number of keywords in a blog post?
Try to concentrate on one main keyword accompanied by maybe 3 to 5 additional secondary (related) keywords. The main keyword should be incorporated naturally with probably a density of 1-2% being safe. Stay away from “keyword stuffing” (overusing the keyword in an unnatural way) because it might get you into trouble.
How frequently should I perform keyword research?
You need to do new keyword research each time you develop a new content cluster or launch a campaign. Additionally, it is a good idea to conduct a 3-6 months audit of your ranking to check if there are new trends coming up that you have to target.
What differentiates SEO keywords and PPC keywords?
SEO keywords are used when you want to appear in free organic search results. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) keywords are keywords that you use in an ad campaign when you pay to get the ad served to the people. Although the research process is the same, the approaches are different; PPC is mostly concerned with the cost of immediate conversion, whereas SEO is geared towards long-term traffic growth.
