The keyword research process is considered one of the most critical components of a blogging strategy. Keyword research methods help marketers and writers determine the topic to write about, the target audience, and how they stack up against the competition. The right keywords will rank you higher in search results and drive more money-making traffic directly to your blog.
Blogging is, hands down, the lifeblood of any company with an online presence. All keyword research methods together with creating amazing content can help you reach more people and get noticed.
This post will share steps and tips designed for strategic keyword research. Discover how you can attract hundreds of blog visitors highly interested in the content you provide.
Let’s get started!
Why Do Keyword Research
Keyword research involves understanding how your target customers search for products, services, or content. The next step is to analyze, compare, and prioritize the most relevant keywords for your website.
Keyword research methods provide valuable insight into what queries your target audience is searching for on Google. These search terms will help you to inform your content strategy and larger marketing strategy.
When conducting online research, people use keywords to find answers. Therefore, it would be best if you targeted popular searches. You will get more traffic and reach your target audience if you base your content through these searches.
Create content that people want to learn about. Let your audience come to you. All of these start with keyword research.
A keyword research blog strategy has many benefits. Some of these are the following:
- Provides insight into marketing trends: Using keyword research methods can provide insights into market trends and help you focus your content on keywords and topics most relevant to your audience.
- Increases organic traffic: The best keywords will be most relevant to the content you create. This will help you rank higher in search engine results and bring more visitors to your site.
- Attracts more potential customers: You can provide content for other professionals if your business is looking for it. Research them to determine the popularity of keywords, search volume, and general intent. This approach will enable you to answer your audience’s most frequently asked questions.
How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
Any sustainable SEO strategy should start with keyword research. Let’s outline a keyword research process to help you identify the keywords you should target. These steps will guide you in creating and implementing a solid keyword strategy for your blog.
Step 1: Consider your mission and set your SEO goals.
Think about your mission before you start anything. Ask yourself questions like: What is my main goal? What is it that makes my product unique? Who am I trying to reach? Once you determine the answers to these questions, write down your mission – take your time to come up with your specific goals. These questions will help you answer the most important questions in your keyword strategy development process.
Start small if you are launching in a competitive market. Your market determines whether you can rank well for your chosen keywords. Once you have a niche you are comfortable with and establish yourself as a major player in your industry, you can start reaching out to a broader audience.
Align your SEO goals with the scope of your business mission. Moreover, given its size, you need to be realistic about the rankings you can achieve for your business. Instead, focus on what you can do to achieve your mission.
Step 2: Create a list of keywords that you believe people might be searching for.
With your mission in mind, you can begin reaching your target audience. What are potential customers looking for? What search terms might they use to find your product or service? What are their “problems?” Does your product solve them?
Make a list of keywords that you think people might use. You want to rank for these search terms. Once your mission is clear, you can get a good idea of your niche and unique selling point.
Step 3: Research the keywords on your list.
Once you have created your first list, it is time to dig deeper into your keywords. Here are some of the best keyword research tools you can use to make keyword research easier:
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs allows you to see why your competitors rank so high and what you can do to get them out of the search results. It displays a wealth of information in an easy-to-understand format when you enter a domain name into the search field.
- SEMrush: SEMrush has been voted one of the most powerful SEO tools. The SEO suite includes tools that can help you with keyword research, paid advertisement research, and deep competition analysis.
- Google Keyword Planner: Google Keyword Planner is the most popular keyword tool. Although it is primarily for advertisers, it can also be used to search for keywords in SEO. The best part is it’s absolutely free.
- Moz: Moz offers both paid and free keyword research. It all depends on how often you use it each month. By simply copying and pasting URLs or keywords into the search bar, you can search for keywords. Download the Moz Toolbar to analyze competitor pages quickly.
- AnswerThePublic: AnswerThePublic provides a free visual keyword search and content idea tool. It utilizes Google’s and Bing’s autosuggest features and presents the data in an easier-to-understand format. Visit AnswerThePublic and type in a keyword phrase. The tool will load similar keywords and display them as a visual map.
These are some of the best keyword research tools to help you find all sorts of keyphrases, synonyms, and related keywords. Try these tools and add all relevant keywords and synonyms to your list.
Step 4: Analyze the competition for these keywords
Your competition will determine whether you should pursue long-tail keywords. You’ll struggle to rank for competitive head terms if there is a lot of competition in your niche. You’ll rank higher for your head terms if there is less competition. You will need to conduct bench-marking for SEO.
Google the keywords you found in your keyword research. Start with the most important term. Browse the results on the SERP. You will compete with these websites once your content is optimized for a particular keyword. Have you noticed professional websites? Websites for companies? How do you compare to these companies? Is your website a good fit for these companies? Are you a similar-sized company, and do they have the same influence in your niche?
Ranking against strong brands is tricky. Your chances of ranking high are reduced if your brand is well-known through radio, TV, or social media. It doesn’t hurt to look at the content. Are they well-written and optimized?
You might also want to take a look at Google ads. Are there any? You can see the pay-per-click value for each search term if you have a Google Ads Account Keyword Planner tool. It is often harder to rank for search terms with a high pay-per-click in organic results.
Step 5: Have a closer look at the search intent for each keyword
Today’s SEO strategies should focus on answering people’s questions or finding the best solution to their “problem.” When someone types a search query, most probably they are searching for something specific. Each type of question requires a specific answer.
When someone types a key phrase into Google, try to determine their intent. Are they looking to purchase something now, or are they just looking for some answers?
You can learn more about search intent for specific queries by looking at the types of pages that rank for the query. Are you more likely to see product pages? Are you able to see videos? Or do you see a lot of blog posts with information? Is it a combination?
These are all clues to what Google thinks the search intent is for a particular query. Use these to determine how to use search results in creating fantastic content that matches the user search intent.
These steps will help you get started with keyword research and help you quickly find great ideas and create various topics for your blog posts.
There is no one perfect way to research keywords. Everybody has their preferred keyword research blog strategy. The guide we shared will help you find competitive keywords. You can mix and match or combine these keyword research methods to create your customized workflow.
Start Planning Your Keyword Research Strategy
Keyword research methods are only part of the package that ensures your site ranking and traffic to your blog. Although every blog post should start with the right keywords, focus on writing quality content that addresses your readers’ most pressing issues.
Get more value from the keyword research methods in your SEO strategy with experts from St. Petersburg SEO company Advanced Digital Media Services. ADMS has a team of content creators that combine their knowledge of good SEO techniques with their talent for creating high-quality, well-written content to help drive more traffic to your site.
ADMS offers services like SEO, web development, web hosting, content creation, and keyword research, helping business websites rank better on search engine results pages.
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