How To Do Keyword Research

Doing thorough keyword research will help you decide on which keywords to target and will ensure you produce smart, optimized web pages and content that will help you appear in the search engine results for those keywords, helping your business become more visible and more traffic being diverted to your website.

So what exactly is keyword research?

This is the method is used to find actual words and phrases that people enter into search engines when they are looking for a particular thing or an answer to a question. In-depth knowledge about search terms can help businesses create a smart and effective content strategy that will influence their marketing efforts overall. 

So how do you go about undertaking keyword research and devising a robust keyword strategy for your business? 

First, make a list of topics that are relevant to your business. Start with a highly extensive list and note down all the items your business covers and relates to. Then order them in terms of importance and relevance. Try to have at least 5-10 topics to work from. These topics can be connected to the kinds of products and services you offer, your USP, your business ethos, your customers, the types of content you produce, and so on. It can help to think from a buyers perspective – what would you want a buyer to come to you for?

Once you have your topics, do a map of all the words and phrases associated with these. Try not to censor yourself too much at this point as you can narrow these down and make them more specific later on so just consider this a brainstorming exercise. 

Next, you need to use these keywords to find related search terms. Using a keyword planner tool to help you, you can plug in the words you have already thought of and then get a whole bunch of other, related words and phrases that you might not have thought of already. These might even then spark ideas of even more keywords that you may want to consider. 

You want to ensure that for each topic your business relates to that you have a mixture of head terms and long-tail keywords. Head terms are the more generic (and popular) terms where long-tail keywords are likely to be more specific to you. Having a mixture will help you to devise a more effective strategy that covers increasing your visibility in the long term as well as allowing you to make some quick and easy wins. 

Check out the keywords you already rank for, and the keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t. Seeing where there is room for improvement is essential and will help you evaluate which keywords and phrases you should focus on now and in the future. 

Check out Google AdWords Keyword Planner to help make your list more specific and relevant. Tools such as the Google AdWords Keyword Planner can help you get a little more scientific about your keyword research. Here you can see not only the search volume and traffic estimates for your keyword list but also the competition. Some of the words on your list may get eliminated because the competition is too high, or even too little and not worth your while. You can also use Google Trends to help inform you which of your keywords are becoming more popular and which are being used less frequently. Using these tools will help you focus on the right keywords that are most likely to be beneficial to your business.

So there you have it. Doing thorough keyword research can really pay off. Remember to reevaluate your target keywords and your rankings regularly to ensure you continue to gain authority and expand into new areas too.