Seven Steps To Finding The Best Keywords For SEO

 

Keyword research is relatively straightforward (more on that later).

However, competition for keywords on the web is fierce.

Consider the total number of SERP results for the query "SEO".

Do the total SERP results for the query "search engine optimization" indicate a ranking problem for a particular keyword or phrase?

The presence of competitors in almost every online search field makes a top 10 position more attractive (and more valuable) than ever.

So, to succeed in SEO, you need to understand what people are searching for, how often, and why.

How do you find this information? Start with an iterative keyword research process to identify opportunities for keyword phrases that can help your brand rank better in search engines.

Link building

Why is keyword research important?

Search volume analysis

Competitor Research

Content ideas and SEO tips

Market research

Measuring rankings

Keyword Research Tools

Think about your first keywords.

Start your keyword research by choosing what I call "starter" keywords. These are keywords that you already know your target audience will use when they search for your product or service or would use if they were in your target audience. Your keyword list should also include SEO keywords.

For example, SEO.co is a content marketing company, so you can easily assume that your target audience will search for "content marketing company" or one or more variations of those keywords: :

Content marketing services

Link building services

Digital marketing services

Content writing

Search Engine Optimization

With regards to the first approach, specifically Keyword research: seven steps to finding the best keywords for SEO

Keyword research: seven steps to finding the best keywords for SEO

Keyword research is relatively straightforward (more on that later).

However, competition for keywords on the web is fierce.

Consider the total number of SERP results for the query "SEO".

Do the total SERP results for the query "search engine optimization" indicate a ranking problem for a particular keyword or phrase?

The presence of competitors in almost every online search field makes a top 10 position more attractive (and more valuable) than ever.

So, to succeed in SEO, you need to understand what people are searching for, how often, and why.

How do you find this information? Start with an iterative keyword research process to identify opportunities for keyword phrases that can help your brand rank better in search engines.

Content.

  • Step 1: Think about your starting keywords.
  • Step 2: Add your initial keywords to your favourite keyword research tool.
  • Step 3: Perform a parallel research and content gap analysis.
  • Step 4: Evaluate your keywords.
  • Step 5: Add your keyword research data to a custom spreadsheet.
  • Step 6: Upload the winning data to a ranking tracking software.
  • Step 7: Set goals and a budget.

How do you conduct keyword research to improve search engine rankings?

Title tags and meta descriptions

Featured pages

Structured content

Link building

Why is keyword research important?

Search volume analysis

Competitor Research

Content ideas and SEO tips

Market research

Measuring rankings

Keyword Research Tools

Think about your first keywords.

Start your keyword research by choosing what I call "starter" keywords. These are keywords that you already know your target audience will use when they search for your product or service or would use if they were in your target audience. Your keyword list should also include SEO keywords.

For example, SEO.co is a content marketing company, so you can easily assume that your target audience will search for "content marketing company" or one or more variations of those keywords: :

Content marketing services

Link building services

Digital marketing services

Content writing

Search Engine Optimization

With regards to the first approach, specifically

SEMRush and Ahrefs are excellent systems that automatically list the "top organic competitors" as soon as you enter your site's domain name: :

SEMRush Organic Competitors

There are several reasons why you should know your competitors well

Inspiration. If you can understand how they are optimizing their sites, their current rankings, and how they are attracting more relevant customers to your site, you can get tips on the following

Know your competitors: Know your competitors. By analyzing their keywords, you can assess the quality of their competition - are all competitors competing fiercely for online goods, or is it an open field?

Identify weaknesses and opportunities - are there niches your competitors aren't filling and growth opportunities they aren't exploiting?

Step 4: Evaluate your keywords

First, choose keywords with the following characteristics

relatively low competition

relatively high search volume

At this point, you should have a spreadsheet with relevant keywords and search volume data.

All left to do is select keywords for your PPC/SEM campaigns and create links.

Enter the keywords in the Keyword Browser, and you will see the search volumes and other related terms:

Keyword Browser

It doesn't hurt to link to this data from other sources, such as Ahrefs:

The difference is that search volumes for keywords vary from month to month. For example, in the image above, you can expect the keyword "content marketing" to be searched between 11,500 and 30,300 times monthly.

Of course, there's no rule about the number of searches and the higher, the better, but it usually means that the competition is higher, the keywords are more complex, and it's harder to rank for them.

If you're looking for keyword ideas with at least a low search volume, you can use Moz or Ahrefs to estimate total search volume, the average cost per click (CPC), and overall ranking difficulty.

Search Volume Filtering

Based on Moz.com's keyword search volume data

The Google Ads Keyword Planner (GKP) can also be used for this type of research, but Ahrefs and Moz Keyword Explorer remove most of this data, so there is a risk of getting redundant data. It should also be noted that the Google tool offers a much narrower range of monthly search volumes: Volume.

Search volume in Google

While it can be difficult to know exactly how much time and resources are required to find a keyword, these statistics can help you understand where the greatest opportunities lie and estimate the relative level of effort that needs to be spent in each area to get search results. This data will, in turn, contribute to developing keyword research for SEO.

Using keyword research to improve search engine rankings

To use keywords correctly, you need to know how to use them.

Keywords, title tags and meta descriptions

Page titles and meta descriptions are some of the key fields that can contain the desired keywords.

Tagged pages.

Page titles are very important in determining relevancy. Since Google indexes each page individually, it sometimes makes sense to create a page dedicated to each keyword, taking care not to deplete link capital or compete with other pages or articles for the same term. Keyword-specific pages are also a good way to ensure that Google indexes them separately.

Consistent content

The content you work on is a good way to ensure consistency for the keyword phrases you target. If you publish new blog posts several times a week, you have plenty of opportunities to optimize your site with new keywords, new pages with new title tags and meta descriptions, and very clear text.

Link Building

While you have less control over anchor text than other sites, your site should build internal links throughout the day for the keywords and long tail keywords you want.

Why is keyword research important?

Now that you understand the role of keywords in a current SEO campaign let's look at the practical benefits of keyword research:

Search volume analysis

First, it provides information about the most popular keywords.

It allows you to find and optimize the most popular topics, increasing your search traffic and return on investment.

Let's take the example of the difference in search volume (number of searches made by users) between "how to bake a cake" and "how to build a particle gas pedal".

The winner is clearly "how to bake a cake", the preferred search term for optimization (thank you).

Google Trends

Competitor research will give you insight into the keywords and phrases for which your direct competitors are already at the top of the search results pages.

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