Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the words and phrases that your target audience uses to search for information, products, or services online. It is a crucial step in search engine optimization (SEO), as it helps you optimize your content and website for the keywords that are relevant, popular, and profitable for your niche. In this article, you will learn how to do keyword research in six easy steps.
Step 1: Define your goals
Before you start looking for keywords, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your SEO strategy. What is the purpose of your website? Who are your ideal customers? What problems do you solve for them? What actions do you want them to take on your site? These questions will help you define your goals and align them with your keywords.
Step 2: Brainstorm topic ideas
The next step is to brainstorm some broad topic ideas that are relevant to your niche and your goals. These are not specific keywords, but general themes that cover the main aspects of your business and industry. For example, if you have a website about digital marketing, some topic ideas could be: SEO, content marketing, social media, email marketing, analytics, etc. You can use tools like Google Trends, Wikipedia, or Quora to find inspiration and see what people are interested in.
Step 3: Find keyword suggestions
Once you have some topic ideas, you can use keyword research tools to uncover keyword suggestions based on those topics. These tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and Ubersuggest, are software or online platforms that help you generate keywords based on various criteria, such as search volume, competition, relevance, etc. You can use these tools to find different types of keywords, including head keywords (e.g. "marketing"), long-tail keywords (e.g. "how to do email marketing for beginners"), short-tail keywords (e.g. "content marketing"), and LSI keywords (e.g. "search engine optimization", "SEO tips", "SEO ranking factors"). These LSI keywords are semantically related to your main keywords, but not necessarily synonyms, and they can help you rank for more variations and improve your relevance.
Step 4: Analyze keyword metrics λέξεων-κλειδιών
After you have a list of keyword suggestions, it is essential to analyze their metrics to determine their value and feasibility for your SEO strategy. Search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost per click (CPC) are the most important metrics to consider. Search volume indicates the popularity of a keyword with higher numbers indicating more demand. Keyword difficulty is a score that shows how hard it is to rank for a keyword, with higher scores meaning more difficulty. CPC is the average amount that advertisers pay for each click on their ads that target a keyword, with higher numbers indicating more profitability and competitiveness. Generally, you want to target keywords that have high or moderate search volume, low keyword difficulty, and high CPC depending on your goals and budget.
Step 5: Evaluate keyword intent
Keyword intent can be divided into four categories: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. Informational keywords are used to find answers to a question, such as "what is SEO" or "how to bake a cake". Navigational keywords are used to locate a specific website, such as "Facebook login" or "Amazon Prime". Transactional keywords are used to buy, download, or perform any other action on a website, such as "buy iPhone 12" or "Netflix subscription". Commercial keywords are used to compare or review different products and services before making a purchase decision, such as "best SEO tools" or "iPhone 12 vs Samsung S20". Ultimately, you should target keywords that match the intent of your content and are likely to convert visitors into customers.
Step 6: Prioritize keywords
The final step is to organize and prioritize your keywords based on their relevance, value, and difficulty. You can use a tool like Google Sheets to create a keyword matrix, where you can sort, filter, and group your keywords according to different criteria. You can also assign a priority score to each keyword based on your own judgment and goals. This will help you decide which keywords to focus on first and which ones to use for different types of content, such as blog posts, landing pages, or product pages.
