Have you ever wondered how websites, videos, and games appear when searching for them online? Well, it’s all thanks to SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Keyword research is the first step of SEO, finding the right keywords for the audience to search for their stuff. In this article, we’re going to explore 10 Keyword Research Techniques. Ready? Let’s dive into the best effective keyword research techniques, their importance, keyword volume, etc.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is a way to find queries that users search on search engines, which means it has a high volume. Research means finding relevant keywords to its page to match the users’ queries.
Keyword research has different categories for queries, such as commercial, informational, navigational, and transactional. Search engines provide the solution to each query of users, such as:
- Users want to know how to write a blog, and they find in-depth information about it.
- Customers want to buy any product and can see the product page on the search engine.
Is keyword research important for SEO?
A search engine is a system built around the queries that users ask by typing on the search engine to find relevant information to that query. The primary focus of a search engine like Google is to satisfy the users with the best answer.
Good keyword research is fundamental for any industry to start online and connect with its target audience. A business strategy: Any business plans to understand its audience’s needs, such as what they want. How to solve a problem? Once they know their needs, they work on their problems and find the solutions.
Keyword research helps you find new topics and prioritize where to focus your attention.
Important points to consider while doing keyword research
1. Monthly Search Volume:
Monthly search volume is one of the metrics to consider if you search for any keyword. But high-volume keywords don’t mean they are the right keywords to rank on. However, sometimes, low-volume keywords can be more valuable. Collect the keywords with a good search volume, but also analyze the quality of traffic that keywords bring.
2. User Intent
User intent means what type of answer they want to see when they search for a query. Understand the intention behind the user searches and choose the keywords.
The primary focus is creating website content that provides information according to the user’s search query. There is no meaning in creating content of your choice; the users only care about their needs.
For example, If you have created a page of SEO history, but the users want to know about the strategy to do SEO for their websites, then there will be no click on that even if you rank on the first page.
Focus on the user intent to get traffic.
3. Relevancy
When Google considers which pages to show, the algorithm will look at other pages users click for that query. Be sure that the keywords are relevant to the content.
If the user searches for the SEO, then Google shows results such as What is SEO? Beginner’s Guide to SEO? Do you need an SEO? Look at these results; you can get an idea of user intent.
Choose the relevant keyword and then search that on Google to find users’ intent. Reviewing the results should be part of keyword research.
4. Long-Tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are few-word queries with low search volume but more clear intent. Both the users and sites get better results.
For Example, SEO is the term, and How to do SEO? is the long tail keyword.
Add the long tail keywords in your strategy because they are often easier to rank for when you have a new website. This approach is more stable than focusing on high-volume keywords.
Types Of Search Query
Keyword research categorizes the user intent into four sections, which help plan the strategy.
- Informational: Users want an answer to a question. Example: How to make money online?
- Navigational: Users are looking for a specific website or brand. Example: “Amazon website”
- Commercial: Users are checking out brands, products, or services. Example: “Best selling cars 2024.”
- Transactional: Users are ready to buy or take action. Buy iPhone 14 online.”
How To Do Keyword Research?
Now, you can start your keyword research and strategy.
1. How To Find Keyword Ideas?
When looking for keyword research, we start with basic ideas for seed keywords, and there are many ways to do this.
Target Audience: Consider the user’s needs, problems, and pain points. Create a collection of all the words, ideas, and topics that should be around your niche and business.
Think About Questions: Question-type queries are essential to help you rank higher in the search engine result pages. Here are some modifiers that will help you start your list:
- What [keyword]?
- How to [keyword]?
- What is [keyword]?
- When is [keyword]?
- Where is [keyword]?
Google Search Console Queries: If you have a website history, then the search console gives you some search queries for which users are searching. Check for keywords with positions equal to or greater than 10, have some clicks, and are relevant to the website.
It is one of the best opportunities to grab by optimizing the pages for the query.
Competitors’ Keywords:
- Search for the competitor’s website that is already ranking on search engines.
- Spy on that website for the ranking keywords by using various tools.
- Do the keyword gap analysis to help you find the keywords on which you can start working.
Seed Keywords: Start working with the seed keyword, then work on the related queries around the seed keyword. For example, the Seed seed keyword is “SEO”, and its associated keywords are SEO Strategy and Technical SEO.
Once done with this process, you will have the raw list of potential keywords.
2. How To Analyze Keywords?
Once you have your raw list, it’s time to analyze and sort by value and opportunity. Now, Start studying the selected keywords.
Search Volume: You should focus on the long tail keywords for quick results and then work on the competitive keywords with high volumes.
Seed keywords with high volumes are better options to focus on from the start. Moreover, if any SEO tool shows zero keyword volume, that doesn’t mean you should ignore that keyword. If the keyword is displayed, then there can be some value to consider it. Also, check your users’ intent. Users intend that that zero-volume keyword is relevant to go ahead.
Search Intent: Once done with the search volume process. It’s time to check the intent of each keyword of the list which you want to target. Check the search engine results for clues on how to create content.
3. How To Choose Organic Keywords?
After doing all the above processes, it’s time to decide the chance of ranking by looking at the competition on each keyword.
Keyword Difficulty: There are various SEO tools in the market to check the keyword difficulty, which means it gives a score for each keyword.
You can also use the Google Keyword Planner Tool to check the CPC and difficulty level of the keywords. The higher the CPC, the higher the competition. Star works on the low-competition keywords that are easy to grab a position on the search engine 1st page, then builds a strategy to work on more competitive keywords.
Free Keyword Research Tools
For in-depth keyword research, you need an SEO tool to find the best keyword you have yet to think of. SEO keyword research tools are free versions you can start with without any investments.
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Trends
- Answer The Public
FAQs About Effective Keyword Research Techniques in SEO
1. How do I determine the relevance of a keyword?
Relevance is key! Consider the main topic of your website or content. The more closely a keyword aligns with your content, the more relevant it is. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help identify keywords related to your niche.
2. What are long-tail keywords, and their essential?
Long tail keywords are specific and usually longer phrases people use when searching. While they may have lower search volumes, they often indicate a more targeted search intent.
3. How can I find out the competitor’s keywords?
Analyzing your competitors’ keywords can provide valuable insights. You can use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to see which keywords drive traffic to their websites. This information can help you identify gaps or opportunities in your keyword strategy.
4. Is keyword research a one-time task, or should it be ongoing?
Keyword research is an ongoing process. Regularly updating the keyword strategy ensures your content remains relevant and competitive. New trends, technologies, or shifts in user preferences may introduce new keywords that you’ll want to incorporate into your strategy.
