Keywords are the core of any SEO strategy. Unless your content doesn’t answer what people are searching for, it won’t attract search engine traffic, no matter how much effort you put in to optimize it.
Mastering keyword research is essential for crafting an effective SEO strategy. Missteps in this process can lead to wasted time and resources, as targeting the wrong keywords will yield minimal results. But don’t worry—keyword research isn’t as complex as it may seem. In this guide, you’ll learn the fundamentals and advanced techniques to excel in keyword research, ensuring your SEO strategy delivers results.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is done to identify and analyze the search terms or words your target audience enters in the search box when searching for a product, service, or information. By understanding what these words are, you will be able to create content that meets user needs and appears higher in search engine results.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
Without keyword research, your content runs the risk of falling into that 90.63% of pages on the internet that get no traffic from Google, as was brought out in an Ahrefs study. By targeting the proper keywords, you make your content meet search demand so that your pages attract consistent quality traffic.
How to Find Keyword Ideas
Keyword research begins with the ideal understanding of your audience’s needs and the terms they use to find solutions online. This process combines brainstorming, competitive analysis, and using keyword research tools to your advantage.
Begin with Seed Keywords
Seed keywords form the base of your research. They are broad terms that define your niche and represent the products or services you offer. Say, if your business has to do something with coffee, then some of your seed keywords could be:
- Coffee
- Espresso
- French press
- Coffee beans
Seed keywords are not necessarily those to be targeted directly. Nevertheless, they are crucial for the development of a wider list of keyword ideas. They can be regarded as a starting point for deeper exploration.
Analyze Competitor Keywords
Understanding what keywords your competitors rank for can provide valuable insights. Begin by identifying competitors who offer similar products or services. Use tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to discover the pages driving traffic to their sites and the keywords they target.
For example, you can find highly relevant keywords for your business from a competitor’s top pages report. In addition, other tools such as the Content Gap report can find keywords the competitors rank for that you don’t, which will offer opportunities to fill gaps in your content strategy.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Keyword research tools automate this process by providing very long lists of keyword suggestions, added with helpful metrics such as search volume, difficulty of ranking for the keyword, and possible traffic. Popular tools include:
- Google Keyword Planner: Free tool, perfect for seeing the search volume and coming up with keyword ideas.
- Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer: Premium tool that provides millions of keyword suggestions, comprehensive metrics, and insights into related terms.
- Answer the Public: A tool that visualizes questions and queries related to your keywords.
For instance, entering the keyword “coffee” within Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer can yield millions of ideas for related keywords, ranging from informational queries to high-intent commercial searches.
Use Niche Forums and Communities
Online communities, forums, and Q&A sites, be it at Reddit, Quora, or some other industry-specific platform, can give unique keyword ideas. These spaces highlight the language your target audience uses and show, in detail, specific pain points. For example, a thread about AeroPress techniques on the r/coffee subreddit might inspire content that targets niche terms like “AeroPress coffee to water ratio.
How to Evaluate Keywords
Not all keywords are worth targeting. To prioritize effectively, analyze potential keywords based on four key metrics:
Search Volume
Search volume reflects the average number of searches a keyword receives per month. It helps gauge the potential traffic a keyword can drive. However, search volume is not a direct indicator of traffic—ranking for a keyword rarely captures more than 30% of its total search volume.
Traffic Potential
The traffic potential takes into consideration not only the primary keyword but also related terms. For example, a page that is optimized for “coffee brewing methods” may rank for several related terms, which, taken together, drive more traffic than the primary keyword alone.
Keyword Difficulty (KD)
KD measures the competitiveness of a keyword based on the number and quality of backlinks to the top-ranking pages. For example, Ahrefs’ KD score estimates how many unique referring domains are needed to make it to the top 10 results.
Search Intent
Search intent refers to the goal behind a search query. These are the intents that keywords can represent :
- Informational: These users are searching for knowledge, such as “how to brew coffee”.
- Navigational: These users are looking for a specific site, such as “Starbucks menu”.
- Transactional: These users want to buy something, such as “buy coffee grinder”.
Understanding intent ensures that your content aligns with what searchers are looking for, which is crucial in improving the chances of ranking and driving conversions.
How to Group and Target Keywords
Once you have keywords, figure out how to group and target them effectively, including the following:
- Identify Parent Topics
Parent topics can help you group related keywords. For example, “French press brewing” and “best French press coffee recipe” probably have the same parent topic. You can often improve your ranking potential for multiple related terms by targeting them with a single, comprehensive page.
- Analyze SERPs for Search Intent
Look at the search results for your targeted keywords and note the dominant content type, format, and angle. For example:
- Type: Blog post, product page, category page, etc.
- Format: Listicle, how-to guide, review, etc.
- Angle: Unique selling points, such as “eco-friendly” or “beginner-friendly.”
Matching your content to the dominant intent and format gives it better relevance and ranking potential.
How to Prioritize Keywords
With a long list of potential keywords, prioritize based on your business goals:
- Short-term Goals: Focus on low-difficulty, high-volume keywords to gain quick wins.
- Medium-term Goals: Target moderate-difficulty keywords with good traffic potential.
- Long-term Goals: Invest in competitive keywords that align with high-value business objectives.
Apart from that, evaluate the business potential of each keyword. For instance, a keyword like “best espresso machines” shows commercial intention, whereas purely informational keywords, such as “history of coffee,” are not that valuable.
Conclusion
Keyword research forms the basis of a successful SEO strategy. The ability to learn how to find, analyze, and prioritize keywords allows you to create content that aligns with user intent and creates consistent organic traffic. Be it high-volume terms or more niche long-tail keywords, finding this sweet spot needs to delicately balance data insight with business objectives.
With the right approach, this needed keyword research reduces guesswork to a minimum and becomes more of strategic planning in itself to ensure SEO efforts yield measurable results.