What To Know About Keyword Research

The goal of any SEO strategy
should be to rank as highly in Google as you can. The closer you can get to the
top of search results, the better for you. Only around 2 to 3% of people visit
the second page of any Google search. In total, most Google searches last less than
60 seconds.

When your page ranks in the top
few search results organically, you’re more likely to get a click. Further, if
you organically rank number one for a search result, you’re ten times more
likely to get a click than a page that ranks 10^th.

So how do you get to that coveted
number one spot?

There are a lot of ranking
factors used by Google, but the foundation of a lot of how well your site or
content ranks relies on using
the right keywords to guide your content.

Your keywords are typically
actually phrases rather than single words, and they describe what’s on your
page or post.

When people are searching for
that phrase or keyword, then they’ll be guided to your content.

Using the right keywords serves
as an indicator to Google as to what’s important, and it helps the search
engine learn more about what your page is about.

At the same time, with your
keywords, you can’t just think about Google. You also have to think about your
targeted user, and what they’ll
be looking for, and also what they’ll want to see after they click on a
page.

You never want someone to come to
your page expecting one thing and getting another because you didn’t use your
keywords properly.

So how do you find the best
keywords?

The following are a few key
things to know about keyword research.

The Basics of Keyword Research

First, what is keyword research?

This is a term that refers to the process you’ll use to find
and analyze terms people put into search engines.

Keyword research provides you with more specific details about
what your targeted audience is looking for.

With keyword research, you can learn more about what people
care about and what popular topics are at any given time that might relate to
your industry or niche.

With keyword research, you need keywords that you want to
rank for, but at the same time, that has to be balanced with the ones you
should and actually can rank for.

Getting Started

If you’ve never done any keyword research before, one of the
first steps is to brainstorm a list of relevant topics, questions, or important
things related to your business or site. This can be very general. Think of it
as a brain dump, and at this point, you don’t have to go in any particular
direction.

You’ll use these big, general topics to get more specific
with your keyword research when you’re ready.

If you really have no idea where to get started, do research
on your competitors. Look at what they’re writing about and blogging about.
That can give you a good starting point for your own SEO research and strategy.

During these initial phases of your research, you can create
somewhat of a wish list for the keywords you’d like to rank for, and you don’t
yet have to start thinking about how feasible that is.

Questions to ask include who your target audience is, what
they’re searching for and how they’re searching for it.

Depending on the nature of your business, you might also
want to think about location-based keywords.

Search Volume

If you’re going to do keyword research on your own, without
the help of an agency or an SEO professional, you’re
probably going to need a keyword tool.

Then, you can learn what the search volume is. The higher
the search volume for a keyword or phrase, often the harder it will be to rank
for because this means a lot of people are searching for it and it’s popular.

That’s not always the case, though.

The best keywords and phrases are the ones that have a high
search volume but aren’t as competitive. When you can discover these, you’ve
found a gem in terms of your SEO strategy.

What Does Longtail Mean?

Something important to know in keyword research is what
longtail means.

Longtail keywords are actually phrases. They provide good
opportunities because they tend to be phrased in a way that replicates natural
language or the way people will really search for things. They’re also less
competitive.

Even though a longtail keyword will have a lower search
volume in most cases, it will also tend to have a higher conversion rate
because it’s more specific and intentional.

Search Intent

The intent of the people searching for keywords and phrases
is important to understand as you build out an SEO strategy.

There are a few main categories of intent.

One is informational. In these situations, someone just
wants information or the answer to a question.

There are navigational searches that occur when someone
wants to go to a specific site.

Transactional searches are used when someone wants to do a
particular task, like buying something.

There are research searches when someone is comparing
products or services to figure out the best option for their needs.

Then, there are local searches when someone needs a business
close to their home.

Metrics to Analyze Keywords

Finally, we’ve touched on this a bit, but there are a few
key metrics you can use to gauge the quality of a keyword and whether or not
you should try to rank for it.

Search volume has already been discussed. Search volume is
typically a measure of the average number of
times a keyword is searched for in a month.

It’s the number of searches rather than a representation of
the number of people who searched. It also doesn’t tell you how much traffic
you’ll get if you rank. You’ll usually get no more than 30% of the volume, even
if you rank number one. It’s also an annual average.

Finally, you can also look
at the clicks that a search result gets. It tells you the average number of
monthly clicks on any given result, and this can help you understand whether or
not a keyword is worth trying to rank for compared to the volume. If the volume
is much higher than the clicks, it might not be a great keyword for you.