Keyword Research: An 8 Step Guide to Guaranteed SEO Success
90% of web pages receive no organic traffic from Google, and the reason for that is often simple: poor keyword research. This means that you could spend weeks creating the most informative, well-structured, and engaging article - yet it sinks into the abyss of the search engine results. So frustrating! However, what if I told you that keyword research isn’t that complicated and that you just need the right information and steps?
Let’s delve into the basics first, like what keywords are, the importance of determining information, and the purpose of a search engine. Then, exactly how you can do SEO keyword research, advanced keyword research techniques everyone should use, keyword tools, common challenges along with their solutions, and real-life applications to help you get started. This guide delves into how to improve business SEO, why it’s so important, the best SEO tools, and the secrets to successful marketing.
Table of Contents
Overview of Keywords
Seo and keywords are closely connected. You cannot rank high without keywords, making them one of the most essential techniques in marketing.
MotherTyperWhat are Keywords?
Keywords are words or phrases people type into a search engine like Google. This is to look for information, products, or services online. So, these keywords act like the bridge that connects what is being searched with the content that provides the answer or solution.
They can be divided into four different categories, such as:
Short-Tail Keywords
- Definition: These are broad keywords that only consist of one or two words. They have high search volumes, but they are very competitive.
- Examples: “workouts”, “food”, “digital marketing”
- Purpose: It targets a wide audience, but because it lacks specificity, they are harder to rank for, and the chances of conversion are pretty low.
- Best Used for: Attracting a large amount of traffic and building brand awareness.
Long-Tail Keywords
- Definition: These keywords are much more specific. Their search volume is lower, but they are less competitive, meaning they are easier to rank for.
- Examples: “low-intensity workouts for seniors”, “healthy food for weight loss”, “what is digital marketing”
- Purpose: Long-tail keywords focus on user intent. They attract users who are either close to making a decision or seeking specific information.
- Best Used for: Improving conversion rates, driving high-quality traffic, and targeting niche audiences.
Branded Keywords
- Definition: Keywords that include a brand, company, or product. People who use them are looking for specific brand offerings.
- Examples: “conbody workout plans”, “woolworth healthy food”, “coursera digital marketing course”
- Purpose: Capture traffic from users who are already looking for your product and also prevent competitors from poaching potential clients.
- Best Used for: Maintaining control over your brand’s visibility and avoiding traffic loss.
Geo-Targeted Keywords
- Definition: These keywords target specific locations by combining a keyword with a geographic reference.
- Examples: “best gym in cape town”, “restaurants with healthy food option in johannesburg”, digital marketing agency in south africa”
- Purpose: To attract local audiences or users who are searching for something in a particular area.
- Best Used for: Increasing local visibility or catering to a specific community or region.
How this works is search engines for keywords to determine how relevant the content is to the user’s query. So, if someone searches for “how to start your own business”, search engines look for content that contains those terms and display the best matches.
Why Is It Important to Determine Your Information Topic and Keywords?
It’s important for several reasons, such as aligning content with audience intent, improving rankings, helping you target the right audience, preventing wasted efforts, and providing a clear content direction for you. The time spent determining your information topic and keywords is well worth the end results. Sources say the first five organic results get almost 70% of all clicks [Backlinko]. That means that you could look at increased visibility, higher website traffic, better lead generation, competitive edge, increased revenue opportunities, as well as better insights and feedback.
The Primary Purpose of a Search Engine When You Use It On The Internet
The primary purpose of a search engine result is to provide users not only with accurate results but also relevant results for queries. Search engines sift through millions of web pages and display results according to three things. They are relevance, quality, and searcher’s intent.
When a question or keyword is typed in, it uses complex algorithms to scan web pages to determine which pages will most likely meet your needs by reviewing things like keywords, backlinks, and overall content structure.
Understanding how search engines work only gets you closer to real results.
8-Step Process to Performing Keyword Research
Google keyword research involves identifying the terms and phrases your target audience uses to search for information, products, or services related to your business. So, how do you look for them, and then what do you do?
Step 1: Start with a Broad Topic or Idea
Which broad topics are relevant to your business or website? Don’t think too much about it – it just has to be general themes. For example, if you are in the fitness industry, a broad topic might be “health and wellness” or “workouts”.
Now, choose a number of topics for you to focus on, like 3-5. This will serve as the foundation for your keyword research.
Step 2: Use Keyword Research Tools
Have your topics ready? It’s time actually to start looking for those search terms. But you can’t do that without the right tools. They give you insight into search volume, competition, and trends.
The most popular tools include the following:
Type your broad topic into one of these tools, and you’ll get suggestions for keywords related to your topics. A good strategy is to look for both short and long-tail keywords but just make sure that they aren’t too competitive. This way, you have a good chance of ranking!
Step 3: Analyze Competitor Keywords
It doesn’t stop with getting a few keywords for SEO purposes – you also have to take a look at what your competitors are doing. It starts with identifying who your competitors are. Just simply search for those broad topics in Google discussed earlier and then note down which sites are doing well (in other words, the ones that appear at the top of the searches).
You’ll need two things to get inside information into what keywords your competitors are actually using and ranking well for. They are one of the above keywords tools (except Google Keyword Planner) and the competitor’s domain, subdomain, or URL.
How you find the competitor’s information regarding keywords will depend on the platform you use. For instance, if you are using Ahrefs, go to the site explorer and put the domain in, and if you are using SEMrush, go to their Domain Analytics for all the juice insight. They all work more or less the same. So, if you decide to go with Moz and Ubbersuggest, they work similarly.
Here, you can find the gaps in their strategy. What does that mean exactly? If they are ranking well in the SERPs (search engine ranking pages), but their content isn’t comprehensive or up to date, you could create something better to target that keyword. You can also see what they are ranking for that you haven’t covered, giving you an idea of what content you need to focus on.
Step 4: Assess Search Intent
Review your keywords and find the intent behind them. This is important as you’ll craft your content according to the category. This increases your chances of ranking by meeting the user’s needs.
The different search intent categories include:
- Informational: Users are looking for information on their topic, such as how to bake a cake.
- Navigational: Users want a specific website, like the Facebook login page.
- Transactional: Users are ready to make a purchase. For example, the keyword search would be “buy running shoes online”.
- Commercial: Users are comparing products or services, such as “best SEO tools”.
SEMrush makes this step so easy with their keyword research icons next to the keyword – you won’t have to guess the intent. This makes it one of the best beginner-friendly tools on the market.
Step 5: Analyze Keyword Metrics
Once you have a list of potential keywords, analyze them using metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click.
Here’s a better look at these metrics and why they are the key to this whole process:
- Search Volume: The number of monthly searches a keyword receives. The higher the search volume is, the harder it is to rank for the keyword. But there are two sides to this: it can also mean more potential traffic.
- Keyword Difficulty (KD): This helps you understand how difficult it actually is to rank for these keywords. If you would like to have this function, consider tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush when doing your research.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC): This applies if you are running paid search campaigns! They show how much advertisers are willing to pay for a click on that keyword.
Step 6: Prioritize and Organize Keywords
So, you have a list of about 4-10 keywords for 1 article? You have to decide which one will be your focus keyword, and there’s a very good reason for that: not all keywords are equally beneficial. Make this choice based on the search volume, KD, search intent, and relevance to your business. The best keyword must always be at the top of your list and topic!
Once you have prioritized your keywords, organize your keywords into different categories or groups. This makes your SEO strategy easier.
Here’s how to do it:
- Topic Clusters: Group related keywords together. For example, “best keyword tool”, affordable keyword tools”, and “free keyword tools” could all fall under the topic of keyword research.
- Search Intent: Separate your keywords by information, transactional, navigation, and commercial because your forms of content will change when you have different search intents. Blogs for informational, product pages for transactional, etc.
- Content Types: Assign keywords to different content types like blog articles, landing pages, product descriptions, and frequently asked questions (FAQs).
- Funnels or Stages: Group keywords into the customer’s journey. Will it be awareness, consideration, or decision?
Geotargeting: Where applicable, combine keywords by location. Phrases like “best coffee shop in cape town” and “best restaurant in cape town” can be grouped under Cape Town.
The best practices of internal linking include the following:
- Using descriptive anchor text when linking. This means that the text has to clearly describe the page that is linked.
- Linking needs to be relevant! The way you’re adding value to the reader and improving SEO.
- Sticking to a reasonable number of links. Too many links can do two things: overwhelm the reader and dilute the link equity.
- Ensuring all internal links are functional. This is important because you can negatively affect both the user’s experience and SEO. They make it hard for crawlers to crawl the site, often resulting in dead ends [Stan Ventures].
Step 7: Create Content Around Keywords
It’s time to create! Take those researched keywords and integrate them naturally throughout your content. Google favors those who don’t stuff their keywords and add them in all the right places.
Here are the sweet spots you shouldn’t miss when posting:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Headings and subheadings
- Body content
- URL
- Image alt text
Step 8: Monitor and Adjust Strategy
Here’s the thing about keyword research: it’s not a one-time task. You need to regularly monitor rankings and adjust your strategy based on the performance of those keywords. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you keep track of your progress and make changes where needed.
SEO Marketing Services
To find keywords can be tricky. But with time, it does get easier. Keyword seo tasks have their own challenges. The secret, however, is in your solutions.
Here are the challenges and ways to overcome them:
Creating Content that Satisfies Users
Sometimes, you have the right keywords and a great strategy, but your numbers just aren’t increasing. You have to create content that satisfies what users are looking for and a big part of that keyword research. But you also have to align your intent with these keywords.
If the keyword is “how to burp a baby”, the content has to include things like when to burp, different techniques, what to do if it isn’t working, mistakes to avoid, etc. So, you cannot be writing about anything else. When you have a broader topic, analyze the SERPs by searching for the topic on Google. What are the top pages doing and writing about? Use this as your basis or guideline. Just to be sure to make it your own!
Overcoming High Competition
Popular keywords with high search volumes usually have stiff competition. So, it’s difficult for smaller businesses to rank. But there are a few ways to solve this issue.
They are:
- Focus on keywords with low difficulty instead of targeting ones that are too competitive.
- Find gaps in competitor’s content and create in-depth resources to fill them.
- Create high-quality content and focus on earning backlinks to build authority.
Handling a Large Volume of Keywords
Keyword research can quickly become overwhelming when you have hundreds or thousands to sort through. The solution here is simple: spreadsheets. They help you keep everything organized with columns for search volume, difficulty, intent, and assigned content types. Some tools like SEMrush allow users to export keyword data directly into spreadsheets, which saves a lot of time.
Balance SEO and User Experience
Integrating keywords into content can be challenging, especially when you’re working with a long list of keywords that need to be included. Overloading your content with keywords can leave it feeling unnatural or disjointed, which makes it harder to engage with your message. Ironically, it can hurt your SEO performance, too. Search engines are prioritizing content that provides a seamless user experience, meaning that keyword stuffing is a long strategy.
Here’s how to manage balancing both SEO and user experience:
- Use Semantic Keywords: Instead of forcing exact-match keywords, incorporate related terms or synonyms. This signals relevance to search engines while keeping your content more natural.
Focus on Readability and Value: Readers should always feel like they’re gaining something when reading your content, and it should also be easy to read. The focus is always on these two aspects, and not keyword placement, even though it is important.
Conclusion: Keyword Searches for Results
Keyword research is really important, no matter the industry you are in. They increase your visibility, improve lead generation, give you a competitive edge, increase your revenue opportunities, and you can even expect high website traffic. Great results, right?
In your keywords search, you’ll come across issues like creating content that satisfies users, competing, handling a large amount of keywords, and balancing it all. The good news is that there are solutions to all these challenges.
Need help?
Pia Vosloo
CEO | Founder of MotherTyper
