Getting through to your target audience isn’t as simple as it used to be. Without researching the right keywords, you run the risk of never reaching your target audience. But what exactly is keyword research? And how can you use it to find the most appropriate keywords for your content?
Types Of Keywords
Learning the different keyword types will help you structure your content in such a way that both readers and the algorithm will associate the keywords with your content. In other words, you shouldn’t be treating all keywords the same. Let’s take a look.
Generally speaking, there are two types of keywords. Those that you rank for are primary keywords—that’s for the search engine algorithm. Secondary keywords, however, are meant to communicate more with your audience. These are the keywords that people use to find your content.
Primary keywords are important to show in our formatting. So, headers, titles, etc. On the other hand, secondary keywords should be visible to the reader mainly through the content.
Why Finding The Right Keywords Is Important
Although the days of keyword stuffing are surely gone, that doesn’t mean you should ignore keywords altogether. There is still a lot of merit to proper keyword research, as long as you understand the intent behind your choice of keywords. You should also find how it relates to your audience’s search intent and search queries.
Here are a few reasons why you should try to use the right keywords:
- Organic growth of your website/content platform: Better keywords translate to better content, which ultimately leads to better ranking on search engines. This will direct more organic traffic towards your website or wherever you are publishing content.
- Getting more customers: As you find the right keywords, you will be able to answer the questions your customers are asking most often. As such, a higher proportion of your target audience will be converted into customers because your content provides answers to their queries.
- Analyzing trends: Keyword research can help you gain insight into trends in your industry. You will understand your customers better, and find ways to target your marketing towards them better.
- More relevant content: Your content will be more relevant as you perform thorough keyword research. Even if you are writing content as a marketing strategy for your business, relevant content builds you up as an authority figure that consumers will trust more.
Step By Step Guide To Keyword Research
By now you understand the importance of proper keyword research, and you’re likely anxious to find the best way toward that goal. The truth is, there is no one correct path or process. Keyword research is a complex process that requires a lot of theory, and it might feel like a gamble at times.
Here’s a basic rundown of what your process should look like, but feel free to change it how you see fit.
Brainstorming Stage
Needless to say, the first step to any complex project is to start brainstorming. Different SEO experts each have their own method to brainstorm seed keywords. The basic idea is that you should think of general keywords that apply to your website or the content you want to write about. For example, if you run a website selling coffee, these are some general seed keywords:
- Coffee
- Coffee blends
- Espresso machine
- Fair trade coffee
- French Press
- Espresso Drinks
- Coffee lovers
As you can see, these keywords are so general that they probably apply to every coffee-related website on the internet. You don’t want to compete with millions of websites, so the next step is to find more specific keywords (preferably long-tail keywords).
Keyword Research Tools And Relevant Long-Tail Keywords
Next, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with keyword research tools. There are some free options available online, but do not expect to get the same insights as paid tools. The most popular are ahrefs.com, Moz.com, and SEMrush.com.
Each of these websites will give you different ways of exploring keywords to find those that are more relevant to your website. If we continue the example used above, a website selling fair trade coffee subscription services might compare the following keyphrases:
- “Fair trade coffee of the month club”
- “Coffee art and latte designs”
A keyword research tool might suggest both of those keyphrases as they both relate to coffee. However, it’s obvious to the human reader that only the first keyword is relevant. Because the keyphrase is longer (more words, that’s literally what long-tail keyword means) —it’s more specific, and fewer websites are competing for it.
Analyzing Your Competitors
Once you’ve gathered a few long tail keyword options, it’s a good idea to check out the competition. Analyze websites that are already targeting your chosen keyphrases. If the websites aren’t logically your competitors, you might be targeting the wrong audience through these keywords.
Here are some factors to look for when analyzing your keywords and those of competitors:
- Search volume: How many people are regularly looking for this information.
- Keyword difficulty: How hard it will be to rank for this keyword.
- Domain rating: How high (or low) search engines rank your competitor.
If a keyword is easy to rank for and has a fair amount of search volume, this would be a good start. However, you need to think about who you’re competing with. If you’re writing content to compete with media giants with high domain ratings, it’ll be harder to rank for those keywords.
Checking Out Google
Last but not least, Google is considered a free source of insights on your target audience. Try searching different variations of the same keyphrase to see what people are looking for. Look in the “People Also Ask” section to see what words people are using to find the answers they need. Remember, keywords are about communicating with your audience in their language.
Final Thoughts
It isn’t a straightforward path when you’re in search of the perfect keyword to write content. You should understand that creating content should ultimately benefit the reader. Research keywords with the intent of answering your target reader’s queries, and you should do well.
