Do you know that if you want to get the best from search engine optimization, you need to do keyword research?
I’m sure you didn’t know!
If you want people to be able to find you when they search for you, your business, and what you write about, you should consider keywords as they help you to get traffic from Google and also show up on the search engine result page.
As a business owner, you might have wondered how can you achieve more visibility for your business, or as a career person, you might wonder how possible it is that when people search for the skills and knowledge you have, they will be able to find you.
What you need to do is to leverage keywords for your business brand and for your personal brand as well. This is one good thing about SEO, it is not only limited to business or corporate organizations, it also applies to individuals with personal brands.
It is not enough that you exist, people should know you exist and reach you without having to meet you physically, keyword is one of the important tools that can make this happen if you leverage it.
To leverage keywords for digital representation and visibility for your business, or your personal brand, you should do keyword research.
If you are wondering how to do keyword research, then you are in the right place because, in this article, I will be sharing with you:
- What you need to know about keyword research
- Why it is important
- How it works
- How to do keyword research
- Examples of keyword research
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You see, reading this article or many more on keyword research is not enough especially if you are looking to grow your business or personal brand, you should be able to practice, implement and acquire more knowledge that would help you to produce the results you desire.
This is why in our 90% practical digital marketing course, we teach you will learn, understand and practice how to do keyword research and apply it to the content you will be creating for your business and you will also get to learn another aspect of digital marketing that would help you grow your business when you implement them.
Keywords are what you build your content on either as a business owner or as a content marketer, mind you, content is not limited to written content, it expands to audio, video, images, and infographics.
If you will read it till the end of this article, I will be sharing how you can use keyword research for other content that is not written.
Keyword research is the basis of any online marketing campaign, with the goal of identifying what your target audience is searching for and what you have to do to make sure you are visible when they do.
If you cannot identify what they will be searching for, you might not be able to position yourself well to be seen, your website might not be well optimized and you won’t know the kind of content that would be appealing enough to your target audience.
This brings us to proper understanding what is keyword research.
What is keyword research?
A keyword is used to describe a word or a string of words an internet user uses to search on search engine like Google or in a search bar. Keywords are the core of any copy written for the web.
A keyword can also be said to be a word that describes the content of a particular document, in an internet search. From both definitions, we can see that keywords can be used to identify and recognize content across the internet.
Keywords determine what your business is known for and the more often you use a keyword the more relevant your content appears.
This brings us to the definition of research.
According to Wikipedia, research is the creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It has to do with the collection, organization, and analysis of information to increase understanding of a topic or issue.
Bringing both definitions together, we can say that keyword research is the creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge of keywords to get a sufficient understanding of the specific keywords.
The other definition of keyword research is that it is the process of identifying and analyzing what internet users use to make a search on search engines with the goal of using the data gathered.
Most times it is often used for search engine optimization as it help to uncover queries that you can target and many more.
See, for example, this screenshot I shared below.
From this keyword, you can see that there is a keyword, using myself as an internet user, that is what I want to know about.
I got the result for my search because this website or content that is on the search result page has done keyword research to know what their target audience will be asking for and when they discovered it, they leveraged it which is why you can see it in the link and also as the title of an article.
As a business owner who is either just starting out or already existing or as a content marketer who wants to learn how to use keyword research, it is important for your website link or any link lining to any of your portfolio or stores should carry the name of your business or your professional name, this way internet users will be able to identify, recognize you for what you do.
This brings us to the importance of doing keyword research in digital marketing. Yes, it is a tool/term in digital marketing.
It cannot operate in a traditional marketing system because traditional marketing does not involve the use of the internet and gadgets for marketing to take place.
Digital marketing is the use of the internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach customers. Basically, it is marketing done on the Internet and it is completely different from traditional marketing.
Talking of search engines, they are the reason why keyword research has to be done because they are the platform where an internet user uses keywords to make inquiries.
For these search engines to include your business content on the search results relating to the keywords from the internet users, the search engines crawl through the web for keywords on the website or contents that are accessible on the web and have a sufficient allocation of a particular keyword and index them.
The next time an internet user comes looking for that particular keyword, it shows in the search result. For you to get your business to rank on the first page of the search result, keywords are part of the strategies that must be in place.
Importance of keyword research
- It is the only way to figure out what people are typing into search engines. This will help you not to create content that nobody is asking for or searching for.
- It has a huge impact on every other SEO task you will be carrying out. Keyword research is the foundation of anything you want to do as long as you desire to use digital marketing to grow your business.
- It helps you to identify the likely number of traffic you will be generating from that particular keyword. If you can identify the possible number of traffic you will be getting, you will be able to recognize and put in the required efforts to get the traffic to your website.
- You also get to figure out if the people searching for your keyword will likely buy from you
- Keyword research also gives you vital information on what keywords you can easily rank for and also what your competitors are ranking for.
Keyword research is as important to your business as a cup of coffee, tea or water is to your health. It determines your business reach and influence and in a digital world, like we now have, you can’t afford to ignore the impact this will be having on your business.
Like I said keyword research is not restricted to written content, every other kind of content also needs this because you can’t afford to do an audio recording of what nobody is asking for especially if you want to use it as a medium to grow your business.
There are a couple of search engines that exist but before I share them with you, I want to quickly show you the definition of a search engine
The example of search engines that exist include:
For the many search engine that exists, keyword research and how to do it applies to them, the tools might be different but the process is still the same. I’m sure, you want to get started with knowing how to do this keyword research
How to Do A Keyword Research
Keyword research also helps you to understand your target audience and their needs. It starts with thinking about what your potential customers might be searching for and how it relates to your business or the content you want to create.
Before starting your business, I’m sure you must have done market research to be sure there is a market for the product you want to sell or the skills you have to offer.
I’m sure the results you got are part of your business identity and your products are tailored in the right way. Also, this research is what you can expand using keyword research tools to determine how to position your business for growth.
Doing keyword research is pretty simple and easy to carry out, although you need some contributing factors such as:
- Good and sound knowledge of your industry
- Propper and sufficient understanding of the keyword research tools and how to get the best out of them.
With these factors in place, you will be able to understand the following steps to do keyword research.
The first step is to create a list of topics that are related to your business, the topics you want your business to rank for, or the content you are creating.
You can come up with a good number of topics that you think are important to your business, with this you can come up with some specific keywords later on. It helps to have resources from where you can draw from in place.
For someone who is interested in blogging or youtube videos, this topic can be around what you talk about frequently or what you want your brand to represent.
You might want to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and see what they may search for that would bring them to you.
Basically, for whatever you are creating or planning for your target audience, you should have them in mind, think like them, and in fact have a fictional representation of them so you can identify their need. It is this identified need that you can select topics around that would attract them.
Don’t create the topic list in your head, you can create a spreadsheet, and input these topics into them, create a column where you can add suggested keywords to each topic.
2. Find keywords
The topics in your topic bucket are not keywords yet but they will serve as guidelines for you to develop keywords that you want to research on.
You can now go ahead with identifying the keywords that fall into these buckets, the keywords should be important to rank for in the search engine result pages because your target audience is using that particular keyword to search on search engines.
Take, for instance, my business is a food distribution company and one of the topics in my topic bucket is food production, I will have to look for a keyword that would relate to what I do and what my customer may likely ask for. They may be:
- Basic knowledge of food production
- Importance of food production
- Types of food production etc.
The main reason for this stage is that you now have a list of possible keywords that is related to your business but you don’t know if your target audience will be using this keyword yet.
Another way you can develop keywords is to check for the keywords that your website is being found for using Google Analytics.
3. Research Competitor Keywords
Another way to do proper keyword research is to monitor the keywords your competitors are ranking for. Start by identifying your main competitors, you can input our main keyword on Google to see those who rank well for the topics relevant to your business.
Next, copy the URL and paste it into tools like SEMrush, and Ahrefs, to analyze their websites and discover which keywords they are targeting. Look for keywords that drive significant traffic to their sites and assess their search volume and competition level.
This analysis can reveal valuable insights into gaps in your own keyword strategy and highlight potential opportunities. When you understand what works for your competitors, you can use that to refine your approach and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.
4. Use keyword research tool
Since you now have your identified keywords, you can now use keyword research tools to do your research. There are different tools that you can use to achieve your desired result.
They can help you to come up with more ideas based on the exact match keywords and the ideas you have generated before you got to this point and also give you alternatives that you might not have considered.
These tools will help you to do successful research and the results from this research are what you have to implement on your website and on the content you will be creating.
5. Select the Best Keywords
Selecting the best keywords is important if you want to rank your website higher. Start by evaluating your compiled list based on three key factors: relevance, search volume, and competition.
Relevance ensures that the keywords align with your content and target audience’s intent. High search volume indicates that many users are searching for those terms, while low competition suggests that it’s easier to rank for them.
Aim for a mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords to capture both broad and specific searches. When you prioritize those that offer the best potential for driving targeted traffic to your site, it helps you improve your online visibility and engagement.
6. Integrate Keywords Strategically
Having the right keywords is not enough, you need to know how to integrate those keywords strategically into your content is important for optimizing your website for search engines.
Begin by placing primary keywords into areas such as the title, headers (H1, H2), and the first 100 words of your content. This helps search engines understand the main topic of your page. Additionally, use secondary keywords naturally throughout the text to support your primary keywords without keyword stuffing.
You can also incorporate the keywords in your meta descriptions, alt text for images, and URLs for better indexing. Finally, you need to remember that the goal is to create engaging, informative content that flows naturally while still being optimized for search engines.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SEO and keyword research?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a broad strategy aimed at improving a website’s visibility in search engine results. It encompasses various techniques, including on-page optimization, link building, and content marketing. Keyword research, on the other hand, is a specific component of SEO that focuses on identifying the right keywords to target. It involves analyzing search terms that potential customers use to find products or services, helping to inform content creation and optimization strategies. Essentially, keyword research is a foundational step within the larger SEO framework.
How to start keyword research?
To start keyword research, begin by brainstorming seed keywords related to your business or industry. These are broad terms that represent your core topics. Next, use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to generate a list of related keywords and analyze their search volume and competition levels. Consider your target audience’s needs and questions to refine your list further. Organize your keywords into categories based on relevance and intent, which will help you create targeted content that meets user expectations.
Can I do keyword research for free?
Yes, you can conduct keyword research for free using various online tools. Google Keyword Planner is one of the most popular options; it allows you to find keyword ideas and see their search volumes. Other free tools include Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic, which provide insights into related keywords and user questions. While free tools may have limitations compared to premium options, they can still offer valuable data to help you identify effective keywords for your SEO strategy.
How do I find the most profitable keywords?
To find the most profitable keywords, start by analyzing search volume and competition levels using keyword research tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. Look for keywords that have high search volume but lower competition, as these are often easier to rank for. Additionally, consider the intent behind the keywords, and focus on those that indicate a strong likelihood of conversion, such as “buy,” “best,” or “reviews.” Long-tail keywords can also be particularly profitable since they often attract users with specific needs who are further along in the buying process.
Conclusion
As you have read in this article, keyword research is very important and is vital for my business that wants to grow with digital marketing. As I said, reading is not enough if you want results, implementation is the effort you put in place to get your desired results.
In our 90% practical digital marketing course, you will learn how to do keyword research and how to use your results from the research to grow your business alongside other digital marketing strategies that you can use to grow your business.
To get the best results, you need to continuously refine your keyword strategy to stay ahead in search rankings and ensure that your content meets the evolving needs of your audience.
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