Keyword Research in SEO: What It Is and How To Do It

The Importance of Keyword Research

Keyword research can impact website traffic and conversions. The words most commonly entered into search engines are the ones that show up when someone is looking for something like a product, service, service provider, or that kind of thing. For example, if you’re trying to determine the top keywords that potential customers might search for on Google, the following are the most popular: “cheap flights” “jetsetter” “crate and barrel” “luxury travel” These words have a high relevance. They’re the words people are looking for. By monitoring what people are searching for, you can see the best way to meet those needs and come up with creative ways to describe your product or service.

Different Types of Keywords

Search engine users can enter hundreds or even thousands of keywords into their search boxes to look up products, services, celebrities, etc. To craft effective content that takes advantage of all of those words, you need to know them all. Some of the most popular and well-known search terms include: Conditions Used for searches to determine the dates and details of sports, music, sports teams, academic events, etc. Keywords for websites such as http://watt.com or http://att.com Keywords people use when describing the experience of going to an event or being there as part of a crowd Bagel Search for “bagel sandwich” to find a few people who make a habit of it.

How to Do Keyword Research

To do keyword research, you need to do the following: Browse through various sites. Use different keyword or phrase sites such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, or SEMrush. Use sites that provide research and industry information. Once you’ve identified keywords you want to target, you can start to focus content to fit those keywords. You need to match those words with the keywords people are using, and use a human-friendly keyword generator, such as Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool. Create a useful, relevant page that shows an authority or authoritative voice in your industry. Build in some variation of authority data.

Identify your target keywords

Targets and keywords are different — a keyword should focus on the product, while a target should focus on the customer. Take for example the keyword, “hotel.” The target is a person searching for a hotel, while the keyword is a word that describes the product. You don’t want to be generic with your keywords, instead, you want to be specific to what your audience is searching for. By identifying keywords that represent a potential audience you can do keyword research for keywords that you can use to find related topics that match those keywords. Head to Google and type in the keyword you want to research. When the search engine shows the top 10 results for your keyword, take a look at the content on the first page.

Assess the competition for your keywords

Don’t rely on “somebody told me” if you want to know whether keyword research is essential or not. Read the descriptions of different search engines and keywords on Moz. Search for popular terms and see how long they’ve been searched for. Once you’ve got a sense of the competition, look at the search volume for those terms, and assess your domain’s Google rankings for them. Most major search engines provide keyword volumes for each term. If you’re not sure how to calculate them for your niche, read how to do it. Figure out what the most popular content is about Analyzing the content of competition websites gives you insight into what content they publish. You can then analyze that content to see what topics they think are important, and where their content is leading people.

Prioritize the time you spend on keyword research and optimization

Keyword research is the first thing you should look into when doing SEO. But you don’t need to research every single term to find your keywords. For example, if you’re a lifestyle brand, you might not want to spend too much time researching the terms “children,” “puppies,” or “sports.” There are other, more specific, ways to categorize content for search engines and Google+ has excellent tools to help you research your keywords. If you’re not sure where to start, Google has a set of tips to help you find your keyword research. Or you can click here to see the tool’s YouTube demo to see how it works. Once you have the appropriate keywords, you can run an internal search to help you find related topics.

Conclusion

The SEO industry has never been more competitive, or the job market so competitive. By going through these SEO basics, you can get a head start on your career and enter the competitive job market.