So basically successful keyword research will help you to accomplish two things. It will enable the right people to find you online and it’ll improve the search engine ranking of your website (posts and pages). Done correctly, you won’t have to spend as much money on pay-per-click (PPC) ads either!
In case you didn’t already know, keywords are the terms and phrases your potential customers use when looking for the products and services you sell. They reveal vital information, including the mindset of potential customers when they try to locate what you sell, and can impact the success of your business. Incorporated into your content, they are used for search engine optimisation (SEO) and general marketing.
→ Check out our Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimisation
Keywords on your website let Google and other search engines know what your business is about and what you sell. This improves the probability that those search engines will display your website in the results when potential customers search for products or services that your company offers.
Keyword research is essential because the higher you rank in search results, the more free clicks your website receives - it’s as simple as that! According to a study undertaken by Backlinko, only 0.78% of Google ‘searchers’ click on the second page. So, even if your most important keywords land you on page 2, that traffic is split unequally across all results on that page.
So how do I search for keywords?
Here are our six-step quick tips on how you can get the most from your keyword research.
Step One - Make a List of Relevant Keywords
Make a list of keywords that are relevant to your business. That could be the sector that you sit in, your product range or topics of conversation that you already have incorporated into your brand. There’s no need to go overboard here, try to keep the list to a maximum of 10 keywords at the most. Some people find it easy to create a spreadsheet or some will brainstorm with colleagues and use sticky notes to create a visual list. Try whatever is best for you.
You can keep up with the latest trending searches with the help of trends.google.com
Step Two - Identify Common Phrases Related To Your Keywords
Let the brainstorming continue! Now you can use your initial list of keywords (topics) to identify the terms or phrases your target customer might use to locate information, products, or services within each of your general categories.
Still not sure about how people are finding you? If you have access to tools like Google Analytics, then now is the time to look through your organic search traffic bucket to identify keywords consumers already use to arrive at your website.
Step Three - Use Keyword Tools on the Web
You can use what’s already out there on the web to bolster your own list and ensure that you’re along the right lines. The best thing to do is simply search your keyword phrase(s) in Google and scroll to the bottom of the page, this is where you’ll see a list of related search phrases in bold. You could end up down a rabbit warren though, so be careful, because one will lead to another and then to another and you could find yourself writing for irrelevant keywords! Nevertheless, it is a helpful practice to undertake.
You can also type your keyword phrase into Google’s Keyword Planner or one of the keyword tools that are available online.
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Paid tools |
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Step Four – Check the Strength of Your Keywords
So now it’s time to analyse the strength of your key words and phrases using either a free online tool like Google’s Keyword Planner or paid for SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Wordtracker. It is worth noting that Wordtracker and Ubersuggest both have free versions you can use to start off with.
These tools will demonstrate your keyword phrase actually matches the precise search term people use and how high the search volume is. If the phrase is ranking low and no one searches for it, then it’s not worth pursuing. Look for the highest search volume available because you want a higher search volume with lower organic search competition. Those are your golden goose eggs!
Volume vs Competition
Low-competition keywords are search queries that have fewer companies and websites overtly competing for high organic rankings with SEO. By targeting low-competition keywords with helpful content on your website this can help you to achieve your organic traffic goals with less off-page strategy or social media promotion.
Yet, competition for the most popular keywords is very high. There’s no sense in trying to rank for keywords you have no chance of ranking for. You need to find that balance between a keyword’s search volume and its competition level.
Discovering low-competition, high-volume keywords will require hard work and patience. But if you are lucky enough to find a strong list of these search terms and implement them throughout your site, you’ll have a very good chance of ranking high for these high-volume search terms.
No need to fret though because you can quickly find long-tail keywords and specific questions people search for online by making the most of metrics provided by Semrush like keyword difficulty, competitive density, and volume.
In just three easy steps on Semrush, you can build a juicy list of keywords with high volume and low competition—even if you’ve never tried it before.
Other helpful tools
AnswerThePublic listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google, then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword. Tools like this will become increasingly more important when carrying out SEO research with the rise of Voice AI and the public asking more and more questions through voice activated systems like Siri and Alexa.
Step Five - competitor analysis
At this point it’s important to determine how you rank against your competitors and the biggest names in your industry. If you’re competing against big brand names that already take up the first page of Google for most of the terms you’ve identified, you might want to alter your strategy. They’ll have some pretty hefty budgets that can keep them there and you’ll just end up wasting your time and hard earned money. For example, if you’re the owner of a holiday cottage you’d struggle to compete against the budget of AirBnB.
The one exception to this strategy is if your competitors haven’t been publishing quality content. If you know you can outdo their content in length, quality, and layout, then you may be able to outrank them even if they spend more money marketing their brand.
Step Six - adapt your content for human intent
When a potential customer enters their search query into Google, they are looking for something and therefore in an ideal world every question needs a matching answer.
Make sure you understand your customers’ intent by typing your keyword phrase into the search engine. What pages already rank for that phrase and what do they offer?
Make a note in your document about the buyer intent for each keyword phrase and keep tabs on it and its intent before creating content using that keyword or phrase.
Don’t forget that SEO is not only for search engines like Google but it’s predominantly for humans. It’s so important to focus on people-first content and Google does in fact provide long-standing advice and guidelines to create content for people, not for search engines. We also have a great blog post that talks about the recent updates made by Google around SEO performance.
Keyword research is an important first step. Content that your users enjoy and find valuable makes them stay longer on your website, which in turn informs Google you are doing a good job. So then everyone’s a winner!
Wave is here to help if you need us
Many web design agencies are super skilled at code and design (which is great!) but they’re out of touch with the audience and how businesses actually work. The Wave team all come from a variety of marketing backgrounds which means we approach website content and SEO in a research-driven, data-driven, results-driven way. We become experts on your business, your industry and your locality. We look beyond superficial trends and identify how real people interact with your brand.
So if you want to get in touch because you have more questions or because you need some support in taking the next step with your SEO, then just click on the button below and say hello.
