Easy, Effective Keyword Research for SEO

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases people use in search engines to find information related to your business or industry. By targeting these keywords, you can create content that aligns with user intent, improving your website's visibility and attracting the right audience.

Effective keyword research is like figuring out how to create the ideal map for a tourist who visits your city. It involves finding out where people want to go and then listing those destinations on the map. Because it’s a general map, it won’t necessarily need to list every bike trail or every pizza place in the city, but the challenge will be to provide all the vital basics!

Because every tourist is unique, not every tourist will want to go to the same places. But in general, a Chicago mapmaker, for example, can assume that it’s a smart idea to highlight the Willis Tower, the Shedd Aquarium, and Gino’s East Pizza because these are places tourists frequently visit and love.

What is the best way to make sure you’ve created a useful map? Real-life facts about the places on the map, statistics, and solid information on who goes there.

Basing the map’s creation on research - what locations receive the most traffic, and what tourists’ favorite spots are - will ensure that the map proves helpful to the highest number of people and guide those people where they want to go.

Keyword Research Guarantees That You Get on the Map!

Are you getting the connection here between old-fashioned maps and keywords for SEO? The keywords that you target for your website are like the locations on the map where people are headed in droves. Your job as the “mapmaker” - a.k.a. SEO consultant - is to find out where people are congregating in your city (your industry!) so you can include those destinations on your overall city map. The city map, in this analogy, is your keyword strategy - that method by which you will attract website visitors!

If you’re a little lost on what exactly key phrases are, I wrote about how key phrases factor into SEO - maybe take a pit stop before you keep reading.

Why Keyword Research Matters

Effective keyword research helps you:

• Understand your audience's needs and search behavior.
• Identify high-traffic and low-competition keywords.
• Optimize your content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Drive targeted traffic to your website, increasing engagement and conversions.

1. Define Your Goals. Start by clarifying what you want to achieve with your SEO strategy. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or educate your audience? Your goals will influence the type of keywords you target. I will sometimes create a visual listing key terms, phrases that sum up what the company does, and the company's top offerings. Then I'll compile a list of basic possibilities. These are untested and unresearched, but it's good to get my brain going before I use any tools.
2. Identify Seed Keywords. Seed keywords are basic terms related to your products, services, or industry. This could be the city the company is located in, the cities served, the name of a metropolitan area, or the state.
3. Expand Your Keyword List. Use keyword research tools to generate a list of related keywords:
   • Google Trends
   • Google Ads Keyword Planner
   • Ubersuggest
   • Local marketing source keyword tool
   • Moz Keyword Explorer
   When you do keyword research make sure to keep a spreadsheet documenting the following information:
   • The keyword itself.
   • Monthly search volume. Global and local. You may only want to focus on local results, or global results, depending on your business.
   • Ranking difficulty. For those who are MOZ pro members, the keyword difficulty tool I mentioned earlier is my top choice. If not, you can easily input the keyword into the search results and look at the Page Rank or Domain Authority of the sites that are currently excelling for that keyword. If these sites are comparable to yours regarding size, design, content, and relevance, you might want to rate the keyword with a low competitive score - around 1 on a scale of 5. On the other hand, if it looks like it will be tough to surpass one of these sites, give it a higher score, such as a 4 or 5.
4. Consider Long-Tail Keywords. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases with lower search volume but higher conversion rates.
5. Get a Second Opinion. I have to confess, when I realize a particular key phrase attracts a lot of traffic, it can be quite tempting to become greedy and rationalize going after that key phrase, even if it's either beyond my capabilities or not relevant. Seeking someone else's perspective helps me stay grounded and ensures that my keyword strategy remains sensible.
6. Organize Keywords into Clusters Finally, I select the most relevant keywords that encapsulate your business offerings and seem to provide worthwhile traffic to target. And hopefully, these keywords are the ones that will work!

Now, my final advice:

DON'T underestimate the importance of keywords. They’re worth your time because they’ll be the guide to your site for people who are looking for you!

DON'T be afraid to tweak the strategy even after you implement it. I’ve done this many times—sometimes tweaking strategies, other times starting from scratch. There are no guarantees in SEO, but success comes from combining solid research with intuition. Getting it right takes a combination of solid research and solid intuition. SEO is an ongoing process, and regularly updating your keyword strategy will help you stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape.