If you have never searched for something on Google or another search engine, there is a chance that you entered a word or phrase before clicking the search button. When searching for information, products, or services, certain terms and phrases are used by search engine users.

On the other hand, Google aims to match the searcher with an article or website that best matches the searcher’s query. That means if you are using the keywords that searchers use to find products and services in your niche, your website is likely to appear in search results. That is the essence of keyword research: identifying the terms and phrases people in your niche use to find products or services. Join us in this article as we take you through the key steps of keyword research.

What are Keywords?

Keywords, also known as SEO keywords, are the terms and phrases users enter into search engines to find specific information. These take people to the organic search results and to the website where they can see what they are searching for.  

By discovering the terms and phrases that people in your niche use, you can then adjust your content strategy and optimization to create content that matches the user’s needs. This will enable you to rank better and receive more visitors to your site. You will discover these keywords through the keyword research process.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research involves identifying and analyzing the terms relevant to the target audience. In your niche, you’re using Google keywords to rank highly in the SERP by incorporating the theme into your content. It is one of the most important steps in SEO, especially when planning for new content.

For instance, if you are a dog food brand, you can conduct keyword research and find that people are searching for the following:

• How much food should I feed my cat?
• Best dog food brand.
• How many times in a day should I feed my dog?

You can create content that answers these search queries. However, not all keywords will be worth creating content for. You also need to consider several factors, such as the keyword’s search volume and level of competition. Otherwise, if you create content with a keyword where major websites are ranking, you will struggle to outrank them. 

On the other hand, you can create content for small keywords that no major website is ranking for, even though they have ten monthly search volumes. That means you will not gain much from the keyword. This is why you need to understand how to conduct keyword research effectively to achieve the desired results. When well done, keyword research will enable you to gain organic traffic from the search engines.

Why Keyword Research Matters in SEO

Is keyword research really worth it? Is this your question? Here are some good reasons to conduct keyword research:

Find Popular Keywords

A good keyword research strategy will provide insights into what people are searching for and the monthly search volume for each keyword. This is especially true when you do keyword clustering based on the search intent. That information will provide instant feedback on whether it’s worth spending money and resources on a content idea. You can then create content that targets people who are already using the information online. Otherwise, if you are creating content based on what you think your audience will be interested in, it will serve no purpose.

Determine the Competition Level

Most keyword research tools also provide a metric indicating a keyword’s level of competition, giving brands insight into how they compete against it and whether they can outrank it. For instance, let’s assume you have a content idea that you want to produce. When you conduct keyword research, you can see the domains already competing for those respective keywords. Keyword research will help you to understand how hard or easy it is for you to rank on top of Google and other search engines.

Find the Easy-to-Rank Keywords

Keyword research will reveal low-competition keywords you can easily rank for, increasing your chances of attracting organic traffic and visitors to your site through search engines. It will also provide you with insights on the keywords you should avoid targeting in high-competition markets.  

Many keyword research tools will often show the competition level for a keyword. While the metric isn’t always very accurate, it can provide insights into the possibility of ranking well for a keyword. However, before you create content for low-competition keywords, you may need to review the SERP results to see the websites’ rankings for those keywords and determine whether it’s possible to outrank them.

Understand the Keyword Search Intent

Google’s aim is usually to organize website content in a way that is useful to the searcher. That means if you want to rank your page at the top of the SERP, you should ensure you are answering the searcher’s search intent. Search intent refers to the reasons someone is searching for a keyword on the SERPs. 

Once you understand the search intent in a query, you can focus on creating content that answers the search query. When doing keyword research, you can enter the keyword on Google to see the results that come up and get an idea of the search intent. This can provide a hint about the kinds of results Google considers when addressing the search intent behind the query.

Steps in Conducting Keyword Research

Now that you understand why keyword research is necessary, let us look at the process of conducting keyword research.

Understand Your Niche

Before you begin conducting keyword research, you will need to have a general idea of what your niche is. This is important because it will provide you with the seed keywords. For instance, if you are in the weight-loss niche, it goes without saying that weight loss will be your seed keyword. It’s what you will enter into the keyword research tool to get more keyword ideas.

It would be a good idea to think like your customers and consider the words and phrases they may use to find solutions to their problems, to identify more keywords. For instance, if you sell coffee, people may use keywords like coffee, cappuccino, espresso, and French press. You can then enter these keywords into a tool such as Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, and you will be provided with tens of more keywords. Most keyword research tools will also show you the keyword difficulty and a rough sense of the number of searches the keyword receives each month.

You can also put your keywords into ChatGPT, then add a prompt like "Suggest keyword ideas for the following topic.” However, the downside is that it will not provide you with real metrics on keyword search volume or keyword difficulty. However, it can still help you to brainstorm different keyword ideas. There are different free keyword research tools you can use, such as:

• Google keyword planner. This tool is available for people who would like to run Google Ads. It can provide you with keyword ideas and show you SEO metrics when running a paid ads campaign.
• Google Trends. If you want to find new and exciting topics, Google Trends can help. However, it will only show you broad, general topics rather than specific keyword ideas.
• Answer the Public. This tool leverages Google autocomplete data to show you other related searches. However, on the free platform, you will only see 3 free searches per day.

If you already have a website, you can check the keywords you are already ranking for. This can help you find new keyword ideas, improve your current pages, and rank better for the keywords. Visit the Google Search Console to see the keywords your site is already ranking for and that are driving traffic.

Analyze the Keyword Data

Now that you have an idea of the keyword you want to rank for, you will need to check the data for those keywords. These are:

Search Volume 

This measures the number of searches for the keyword each month. As noted earlier, a higher search volume is not always better, as it often means greater competition. A good idea would be to select keywords with a decent search volume of 100-1000 searches. Here are a few hints on the impact of different search volumes:

• A volume of 10 to 100. While this search column is low, these keywords are highly specific and can boost conversion rates.
• Search volume of 100 to 1000. If your website is new, this is a good target.
• 1000 to 10,000. These keywords are usually more competitive but can be worth targeting if you have a well-established site.
• Over 10000. These keywords are highly competitive and require your site to have considerable authority.

Keyword Difficulty

This metric shows how easy or hard it is to rank for a given keyword. If your site is new, ensure the keyword difficulty is low. While this depends on the specific tool, most tools use a scale of 0 to 100. When assigning a keyword, most tools consider the site’s ranking authority for that keyword. Here are some ideas to track your keyword difficulty:

• 0 to 30. If the keyword difficulty is between 0 and 30, it means your site can compete for it even when it’s new.
• 31 to 60. To rank for keywords with this difficulty level, you need to have some authority combined with quality content.
• 61 to 80. It’s not advisable to target these keywords unless you have a strong domain authority and backlinks.
• 81 to 100. These are keywords dominated by authoritative sites and major brands and are not worth targeting.

A high-volume keyword will ensure your page is visible to people, but only if it has an achievable keyword difficulty. That is why you need to balance between the two.

Cost Per Click

The metric shows how much money advertisers are ready to pay for the keyword. A high CPC indicates a higher commercial intent. For instance, if a brand is ready to pay $15 per click, it shows the keyword is likely to drive revenue for them.

Some tools will also show bidding competition, indicating how many advertisers are bidding on a keyword. If a keyword has high competition and a high CPC, it’s a money keyword you can consider targeting.

Analyze the Keywords Deeper

After creating a list of keywords, you need to analyze them further. One way to do that is to Google. Simply type them into Google and let Google autocomplete them. These are the questions that people are asking. You can also check the categories of “people also ask” and related searches on the Google results page. This will provide you with more keyword variations, related key phrases, and synonyms.

Find Longtail Keywords

One thing you will notice is that the very short keyword terms are the most competitive and may be harder to rank for. This is why it would be advisable to focus on long-tail keywords. While these get less traffic, their competition is usually lower, meaning that you can easily rank them. The conversion rate for these keywords is usually higher as they are more specific.

For instance, if your keyword is “running shoes,” you can use “running shoes for flat feet” as your long tail keyword. Again, you can use the keyword research tools to find the long tail keywords.

Competitor Analysis

A key element of keyword research is understanding your competitors. This is important because keywords with high search volume often have the highest competition. Conducting competitor analysis will help you to research the competition and assess your current situation.

You can go ahead and analyze the competitors in your niche. However, for now, let’s look at how to get an overall idea of the competition level. Start by Googling some of the search terms you are targeting to rank for, and analyzing the competitors in the field. Check their website and compare it with yours to determine if it would be possible to outrank them. However, consider whether your brand also fits those search terms.

Remember that Google will also tailor your search results depending on your search history, which means your site will rank higher for you than for other people searching for the same term. A good idea to overcome this challenge is to search in incognito mode.

Check the Search Intent

As noted earlier, a good keyword research strategy should focus on answering the questions people have and offering them the best solution. When someone enters a search query into the search engine, they already have an intent. Consider your audience’s search intent when they enter the phrase into Google. 

Do they have an informational intent, a navigational intent, a commercial intent, or a transactional intent? You can get an idea of the intent behind a search query by looking at the top pages ranking for the query. Do the top results consist of videos, product pages, or a mix?

Create a Keyword Strategy

Using the data you have already collected, you can now create a good keyword strategy. If you have already followed the above steps, you already have a set of keywords with additional information on their search volumes and competition level. Now consider how your website ranks compared to the competition. 

Are you of the same size, and do you have the same marketing budget? If you find that you are matching well with the top-ranking website, you can go ahead and use the high-competition keywords. If not, you may need to begin by considering the long-tail keywords. If you have several long tail keywords, you might be surprised by the amount of traffic you can get from the keywords.

When you decide to create content on a keyword, consider the type of content and the search intent for the keyphrases. Consider the kind of content your audience is searching for and the type of content you will create. Consider how to stand out in terms of quality and solutions. This will help you decide the kind of content you are likely to create. You can read our guide on using high-intent keywords to boost conversion.

Add an Optimized Landing Page

While this isn’t an important step in keyword research, it is a key step that will eventually help you get more traffic to your page. Therefore, optimize your landing page for a search query. 

Use Keywords Wisely

Understand how you will be using the content. You can divide the content into categories, such as Cornerstone content and long-tail keywords. Use the most important keyword to create cornerstone articles that represent the best content for that keyword. The articles should be authoritative and all-encompassing. You can then use long-tail articles to link to pillar articles as part of your internal linking plan.

Evaluate the Performance of Your Keyword Strategy

After conducting keyword research, analyzing themes, and creating content on them, you need to give them time to see how they perform. You can then search for your ranking to see whether your articles are appearing in the SERPs for the search query or are getting hidden on pages 2 or 3. You can also visit the Google Search Console to check the keywords you are already ranking for. Alternatively, you can leverage the keyword tracking tools to monitor the ranking of the keyword.

When you notice that your keywords aren’t ranking, you can write another article focusing on a long keyword while making it better and more specific. You can then proceed to evaluate. Continue repeating the process until you reach the first page of the SERPs.

Regularly Update Your Keyword Research

The fact that a certain keyword is working doesn’t mean it will continue working in the future. Your audience might change the phrase they are using to search for a keyword. And with the arrival of generative AI, the competitive landscape is changing, making it harder or easier to target more specific keywords. We recommend you read our guide on using generative engine optimization to appear in the AI search results.

With so many changes happening, you need to keep evaluating your keyword strategy and updating the keywords regularly. Make sure you add new keywords and remove those that may be obsolete. Keep doing that with your content, too, so it stays up to date.

Best Practices of Successful Keyword Research

To help you conduct your keyword research better, consider the following keyword research best practices:

Understand Your Audience’s Needs

Consider what your audience needs from your brand and how it can help them solve their problems. This is important as SEO is about providing users with the products or services they are searching for. Unless you understand your audience’s needs, it can be hard to create content that meets them.

Leverage Generative AI

AI has transformed how keyword research is done, making the whole process more precise. By leveraging AI keyword research, you can find keywords that may have been missed by other tools. AI keyword research will also provide insights into long-tail keywords that are less competitive and better align with the user’s needs.

AI tools can also help you better understand search intent by analyzing queries and suggestions, enabling you to tailor your content more effectively. It can help you classify the keywords according to intent, such as informational, transactional, and conversional, enabling you to create content that meets the needs of the user.

Leverage Keyword Variation

Once you get a keyword worth pursuing, remember that some users may be using its variations. You can reach those users by adding variations of the keywords in your article.

Create Content Based on Keywords

Avoid writing blog posts before adding the keywords. Instead, you should find the relevant keywords to create content on. This will ensure that each piece of your content includes a target keyword, rather than scrambling to find one later.

Final Thoughts

Keyword research is an important step in SEO that can help increase the chances of ranking on the SERPs. Since it provides insight into what users are searching for, it will also help you optimize your web page to better meet their needs. Therefore, follow the steps above to find the right SEO keywords. After that, you can start creating content around them.