There are many ways to optimize the SEO of your website. There are countless strategies and tools available to improve your overall SEO.
Everyone can get access to these powerful tools for SEO and experts guides for ranking their site high on google searches. But the truth is only a few out of millions will get to be in the google first page results.
This is you have to put an extra effort and have an upper edge over your competitors. Keyword Research tools can take you a long way in your SEO journey if you use them right.
So today in this article I will tell you about keyword research and how to do it.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword Research is a process of searching and discovering terms that people put in queries of the search engines. These search engines could be Google or Bing. Knowing the keywords that users put in their search engine can help you optimize your site’s SEO.
Why is Keyword Research Important for SEO?
Keyword Research is usually the first step of any website’s SEO campaign. Right targeted keywords can improve your SEO by a mile.
Keyword Research is important for SEO because through targeting keywords your website can rank higher and gain more organic traffic.
Having more traffic means more relevancy to other queries. The chances of you getting backlinks become higher. You will get more collaboration, sponsorship and deals through promoting your products and services.
Targeting keywords and ranking them is easy but choosing the keywords for it makes it a hard task. This is why keyword research tools are used to give SEO experts an extra helping hand.
How to Find Keyword Ideas?
1. Brainstorm the Seed Keyword
The keyword research process starts with multiple factors to keep in mind when choosing the right keywords.
A web owner or a content marketer should have different points to do keyword research. These points are known as seed keywords.
Seed keywords are basically used to generate more keywords and phrases. This is a fundamental part of keyword strategy.
Before you start working on your keyword strategy, you need to come with seed keywords.
Brainstorming the seed keyword is the best bet to come up with amazing keywords.
When having a brainstorming session, you can ask yourself some questions to figure out your seed keywords.
What’s my content or website is about? What type of product or services I’m selling? What are the keywords that I can rank for? What keywords ads to buy? And what phrases or words people are using when searching for my site’s topic?
You can come up with relatable keywords and make some specific seed keywords using these questions.
When choosing a seed keyword, you need to be as specific as possible. If you run a car repair website, then using a seed keyword word as “Car repair” will not work for you since it is a very broad term.
A good seed keyword for car repair would be car repair Ohio (assuming the car repair shop is in Ohio), Car repair manuals or car repair parts.
If you already have ranked phrases for your site then it is easier to find seed keywords. Since Google finds those ranked phrases to be relevant to your website, you can make seed keywords according to those phrases.
2. Use Google and Youtube Suggest
Google and Youtube suggestions are a great and optimal way of finding keywords for your site.
First, let’s talk about Google for searching keywords. Google suggest is a dominant reason why the Google search engine is so popular.
When you enter a specific word or term, Google suggests will automatically suggest 3 to 5 suggestions that match with the word you typed in the search engine.
These suggestions are more often than not, exactly what you are trying to search for. You can simply select the suggestion that matches what you are looking for. It is easy and convenient.
Keyword research can be done using google suggest. According to Google, the auto prediction of the next word or term is from that database where how many times those words or terms were searched in the past.
The autocomplete algorithm does not involve any human interaction which makes Google suggest a great source to find keyword ideas.
Similarly, If you run a content marketer and web owner who also makes content in the form of videos then a platform like Youtube will be a dividend for you.
Specifically, Youtube suggestions can be used to find keywords for your site. Youtube suggest also works similarly to google’s algorithm since it is owned by Google.
You can simply type the first keyword that you have in mind about your site’s topic. It can be a broad keyword about your topic.
As soon as you type the keyword, youtube suggest will start its magic and show you 14 suggestions which are backed by how many times these suggestions have been searched by people in the past.
3. Google “Searches Related To” section (bottom of the SERP)
Using Google’s Searched related to section does not only help you find keywords, it can massively improve your site’s SEO.
Since this article is about finding keywords, we will focus on the keywords aspect of using Searches related to that is located at the bottom of the SERP.
Google want you to know what people are thinking before entering a query and google also wants you to use keyword phrases so that it can rank your site higher.
But it is next to impossible to know what’s in people’s minds when searching for a specific query. This is where you can use the “searches related to” section for your keyword campaign.
Every SERP has eight related searches at the bottom of the page. These related searches are more specific and have specific keyword phrases.
Also, they are shown based on how many people have searched for these using the same keyword phrase as shown in the related searches.
These search-related sections are like a gold mine for SEO experts and certainly to find keywords. You can use this section as a Google keyword planner or any other keyword planner tool.
After you search for your niche using the Google search engine, you head down to the bottom of SERP.
Copy and paste every result shown in “searches Related To” into Google keyword planner and see their competitiveness in rankings and how many times they have been searched.
You have very insightful data with just a simple thing like the “Searches Related To” section.
You can now list out keyword phrases and use them in your article to improve your overall SEO.
4. See what keywords your competitors rank for
Figuring out your competitor’s keywords can give insight that can curate a well-versed keyword phrasing strategy.
Seeing what keywords your competitors are ranking is one of the best ways to boost your organic search optimization. This strategy has a firm grip on improving your overall SEO marketing strategy.
It is also quite possible that you will have an extra edge over your competitors because you have a perfect strategy that figures out what keywords they are ranking.
Keywords that are being ranked or used by your competitors can bless you with many benefits.
If you want your website to rank just as high as your competitor, you can literally rank the exact keywords your competitors are ranking.
You can also target those keywords which are not ranked by your competitors to explore an untouched market. Do not hesitate to use those keywords which are not ranked and targeted by your competitors.
The insights that you gain from your competitors can also help you figure out long-tail keywords which are used by your target market.
A manual and super effective way of searching competitors’ keywords is HTML page Source. The HTML page source shows you keywords present in the title tag, image text, alt text and meta description. Some websites also add keywords in optional keywords tags.
You can use dedicated tools like screaming frog spider, Google Keyword Planner Tool and SEMrush to fully analyze your competitors.
In the next point, you will have a brief description of the best keyword research tools available in the market.
5. Use Keyword research tools
Using keyword research tools is a must if you want to run a successful website. No matter what type of website you are running, as long as its objective is to gain traffic, you need keyword research tools.
Here are some of the best keyword research tools out there:
(i) Google’s Keyword Planner
Google keyword planner is simple and it gets the job done when it comes to keyword research. Although it is powered by Google, it lacks some basic features. The keyword data are accurate and experts can analyze them to gain some amazing insight.
(ii) SEMrush
SEMrush is a highly rated keyword research tool that also suggests specific keywords which your competitors are using. It is perfect for SEO experts who want to know what keywords their competitors are targeting.
SEMrush has CPC distribution statistics that is worldwide with yearly keywords trends. You can get long-tail keywords phrases ideas provided by powerful tools in SEMrush.
It can also tell you the difficulty level of keywords.
(iii) AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a keyword ideas generator for effective keyword research strategies and content.
It has the ability to showcase many keyword phrases generated from one single keyword. The database of AnswerThePublic is backed by Google and Bing.
The results shown are based on what people are searching for and gives visual search questions. AnswerThePublic claims that it also predicts what keywords are going to be used by people for making a search query.
This tool has a free and pro version. The pro version has more advanced features like unlimited daily searches and saving previous reports.
(iv) KWFinder
KWFinder is an amazing keyword research tool and it is known for providing the best keyword research tools that give keywords that have low SEO difficulty.
KWFinder has powerful tools for keyword research and improving your overall SEO. It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easier to navigate.
You can search for keywords in multiple languages and target them. The list of keywords provided by KWFinder is always powerful.
Get full insights about a keyword to know your keyword competition. Overview of SERP with suggestions is also available on KWFinder.
KWFinder is a part of Mangools that also has 4 other SEO tools. You can get a few free searches with the free version of KWFinder.
(v) LongTailPro
Longtail keywords are like a jackpot to your website when implemented correctly.
Keywords that are of long-tail helps Google understand your website better hence ranking it higher when a person makes a query that matches the long-tail keywords you are targeting.
Longtail Pro is one such tool that has gained the trust of SEO experts looking to target long-tail keywords. The accurate metric it shows can be used to gain more traffic to your site.
You can have highly effective long-tail keywords for a particular niche and even for some micro-niche.
LongTail Pro offers 7 days free trial and after that, they charge $25 for the monthly subscription.
You can also get more advanced plans which will cost you more.
6. Study your niche
When you have decided on your niche and have established everything related to it, now is the time to find keywords for your niche.
Long-tail specific keywords should be your number one priority. Every niche has specific long-tail keywords that a website owner or SEO expert can rank.
If you only depend on broad keywords and popular terms in your niche, it will be very hard for them to rank especially if you have a small website.
Your search engine marketing and pay per click campaign should be well optimized. It is only possible through the study of your niche.
By studying your niche, you can use keyword research tools more effectively and can refine your niche keyword list. Check the competitiveness of your niche keywords to gain powerful insights.
Find long-tail keywords which are not ranked by your competitors but are still relevant. You can target those keywords to gain traffic from places many refuse to look at.
Check how your website is performing after ranking your desired keywords. If you want to alter your target keywords then can simply do it with the information you get from constant monitoring of your site.
Conclusion
Improving SEO with keyword research and making your website takes a lot of time and effort even for a world-class SEO expert. However, it should not demotivate you to do keyword research even if you are a beginner.
Keyword research is a fundamental part of SEO optimization and has a massive effect on gaining more organic traffic from search engines. There are many options for you in the form of keyword research tools to give you powerful and proper insights and keywords suggestion whether it is long tail or short tail.
If you want to have a successful online business with a constant flow of organic traffic then keyword research is a must.
