Things You Need To Know About Keyword Research
Keyword research should be the basis of everything you create and publish on your website. From brainstorming topics, writing content, optimizing for search engines, to any marketing efforts, keyword research plays a vital role in every single stage.
WHAT IS KEYWORD RESEARCH?
To put it in simple words, keyword research is about finding out what people, especially your target audience, are interested in.
What are people searching for? What are people talking about? It is the process of discovering what words, terms, or phrases people are searching on search engines.
WHY IS KEYWORD RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
Creating content for marketing purposes is different from writing a personal journal or a novel. You are creating content to improve your business and increase your sales. Rather than writing something hoping people will be interested in your content, you are writing for a specific group—your target audience—and potentially attracting more people and converting them into potential customers.
We all use specific words and phrases when searching for an answer, these are what we call “keywords”. Keyword research allows you to better understand your target audience, know what they are inquiring about, and how they are getting their answers. By choosing the “right” keywords and including them in your writing, you’ll have a better chance of presenting your content to the correct group of people.
And if you use keywords that no one is really using, you won’t get much traffic. Either your target audience can’t find your website, or you are getting a high bounce rate simply because you’re getting random visitors to your website. It’s not like you have bad content, it is just about getting the “wrong audience”.
HOW TO DO KEYWORD RESEARCH?
Write down a list of keywords
It is always good to first start with a list of possible terms and/or phrases related to your field, industry, product, or service. It doesn’t matter if people are actually searching with these terms and phrases. At this stage, you are trying to list down any possible ones that could be used, so you can discover the popularity of each specific term/phrase.
Just a friendly reminder: Stay away from the industry jargon. Think in the mind of a regular ordinary searcher, write down what you think people will actually type. You can start with listing down several broad topics (or categories), and write down relevant terms and phrases under each category for better organization.
Discover terms and phrases people are using
After you have generated a list of keywords, you can start expanding and finding related terms based on search engines.
Google, for instance, is a good starting point. Just type the keyword in the search bar and press Enter or click the search icon. Once you’re on the search engine results page (SERP), scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and you will find the “Related searches” section.
You can also go to Google Trends to discover related topics and queries (more detailed than SERPs).
A non-Google-specific option will be Answer The Public. You have three free searches per day, they will provide you with a variety of search queries and related searches in a list or chart.
Narrow down your list of keywords
This is the stage where you make use of available tools in the market to help you narrow down your list of keywords. Popular keyword research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz Keyword Explorer are all-in-one tools that can provide you with detailed insights and analysis.
You will likely want to focus on what exact search terms are people using? If your keywords have a high search volume? How competitive are specific keywords? Or if you are missing any terms/phrases that have high search volume.
Source: Moz Keyword Explorer
Mix up your keywords
Let’s start with a simple question. Looking at the two kinds of keywords below, which one do you think works better?
(1) Solo travel; or (2) Safety tips for traveling alone
The answer is, they both excel in different aspects. “Solo travel” is what we call head terms. These are typically one or 2-word phrases that are broad in nature, are highly competitive, and have high search volume.
Search phrases like “Safety tips for traveling alone” are referred to as long-tail keywords. These are lengthier search phrases that are less competitive and have less traffic, but tend to have a higher conversion rate. This is because long-tail keywords are more specific and intentional.
You’ll be able to find the long-tail keywords when clicking the search bar, under the “People also ask” section, and at the bottom of the SERPs.
Therefore, it is best if you have a good mix of both head terms and long-tail keywords in your list. You would definitely want to get more quick conversions with long-tail keywords, but also make use of head terms to get more reach over the longer term.
Start building a website today to boost your presence both online and offline. If you are tech-savvy, try out content management systems like WordPress. These are full-blown platforms allowing you to take full control of your website.
No worries if you don’t know much about websites, another option would be website builders. These all-in-one solutions, like Website.com’s website builder, are designed so people can easily build a good-looking website without knowing how to code.