Keyword Research - The Ultimate Beginner's Guide
Lately, my posts have been focused on SEO otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. I've written about On-Page and Off-Page SEO and now I wanted to focus on the core of what SEO is about.
A lot of you have asked me and sent comments asking "How can I find my keywords for my niche", "I have no clue what my keywords are", "Can you help me with these?". Thank you for the thoughtful comments I received on social media. I've attempted to answer these questions in a two-part blog series. This is the first of two. So let's get to it and learn about what these things are.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword Research are the words or phrases people use in a search engine to get information on a product or service. Your job is to find out what these words and phrases are. Then use them in your content to attract the right audience for your business and readership. That was easy, wasn't it?
If we had thousands of Joes searching for the term "coffee" each month, coffee then is of high interest to Joe! But Coffee is a very broad topic. So we have to dig deeper and find out what Joe is really looking for in his search for Coffee.
Why Is Keyword Research So Important?
Keyword Research is important because it allows you to find out what people are searching for. It's important for any SEO strategy. You want to know what are folks are typing? What questions are they asking? What problems do they have?
Having a clear picture of these words allows you to write and shape the direction of your content. You can write your content to solve a specific problem based on the searches out there. By using relevant keywords, your audience will find your website and read your content. Content you wrote specifically solving the exact problem they are searching for.
If you have an online marketing strategy or want one, you need to put in place SEO keywords. Are you are running a promotion? Yes. Want to increase your website traffic? Yes. Increase your backlinks? Yes. Rank higher in search engines? Yes. - You need keyword to do all that.
Think of it this way. Keyword research is like a compass that helps you understand your target audience-backlinko.com.
I won't sugar coat this, but it does take time to do this research. Not only are you looking at the keywords, but you're also looking at other factors such as:
The monthly search volume
Finding keywords your competitors are using
Deciding what you want to rank for and so forth (no wonder so many prefer to outsource this research).
It's the not-so glamorized side of SEO, but one that could change your online game big time! Remember, Keyword Research is in fact the foundation of your online SEO strategy.
Well how do I find keywords in the first place? Let's go to that now.
Discovering Keywords
Study Your Target Market or Niche
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of your target keyword, you want to start with a topic. A broad topic that your target audience is searching for. What is your target interested in? Think of your niche. What do they want? In my case, I want to look at small businesses. I offer website design and SEO services to small businesses and creative entrepreneurs. You can see this is broad, but we'll narrow this a bit when we explore keyword research tools.
Other examples of topic you can search for:
Life coaching
Wellness
Fitness
Email Marketing
Content Marketing
Remember, this step is NOT your find your focus keyword, but finding topics that your people are interested in, OK?
Places To Find Keyword Ideas
1. Open Conversations
Talk to the people you're already serving. If you know where they hang out, send them a survey. Get to know them. What are they looking for? Try to pick out the terms they are using and start your list with that!
2. Google's Search Related To section
You've seen this before and did not think twice about sourcing your keywords using this. If you type in Small business in the Google search field, and press enter, Google will list matches on small businesses.
Now scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen, you will see the Search Related To Small Business in my case. This section lists out keywords that I can use that are related to my main topic. Think about this for a second, these are keywords that Google is literally giving you! Super awesome.
3. Google People Also Ask section
With the Google search result page still open for our small business search, scroll halfway up to a section called People Also Ask. This is yet another gold mine of actual phrases people are typing and using for their searches.
From this one broad topic, we've been able to find related keywords and phrases (also known as Long-tail Keywords) people are using. My guess is that you're still thinking well this is still too broad, yes it is. But this the foundation you need to start your keyword research and drill down to exactly what you need so hang tight with me.
4. Google Suggest
I didn’t know this next hack was called Google Suggest, but I guess everything has a name these days. Anywhoo, going back to our Google search page. When I typed in small business in my search field, Google quickly showed a list of suggestions as I was typing. This is Google's autosuggest feature. By typing in your topic, Google shows you what people are typing, giving you an insight into how you can further drill in your specific keyword. Another great example of what Long-tail keywords look like!
5. Bing and YouTube
These search engines are also excellent sources where you can also get auto-suggestions on your topic of choice.
6. Public Forums and Boards
Forums and Boards are active places where your target audience are asking questions and searching for answers. Discovering these forums will help you drill more on your keywords. Going back to my Small business example, I want to now find forums or boards where small business owners hang out at. To do that, I'm first going to pick my main focus keyword and add the word "Forum" or "board " after it. Example: "Small Business forums". Let's see what I find:
I found quite a bit here and will focus on the most recent forums. When I click on one of the links, I get a list of incredible forums I can sink my head into and read what people are chatting or writing about.
I subscribe to Quora and see the incredible questions being asked. They are interesting, educative and insightful.
Keyword Research Tools
Ubersuggest
This is one of my favorite tools to use. It’s simple and costs only $29 per month. I’ll dive deeper into this tool in my next blog post to show you how I use it.
Google Adword Keyword Planner
Google’s Adwords Keyword Planner tool has been around a long time. It is also very comprehensive. I don’t really use it for the ads, but I like to see the details around terms. I wouldn’t worry too much about this. What you’re looking for is organic traffic to your website. Use is as an expanded search tool.
These are great starter tools, but there are many more out there that I simply can't cover in this post. My absolute favorites right now are Ubersuggest and Google Adword keyword planner.
Final Thoughts
Keyword Research is vital to your online market strategy. To get good results that draws the kind of traffic organically to your website, you have to do the work. Do your research. Hire someone if you have to, but don’t let your business run without this.
I hope this intro was helpful. Next, I'll dive into search tools and how to use them. Although Google is an excellent place to start, our topic is still broad and we need to dig deep.
To dive in deeper, we need to use keyword research tools. These tools give us insight into monthly search volume on your topic and focused keyword. Keywords your competitors are using. How easy or difficult it is to rank for those keywords. So we are going to explore all that on the next blog.
Are you doing keyword research as part of your SEO online strategy? What have you done that has help you in your research?
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