Keyword Research

Keyword Research

Targeting the right keywords is essential to SEO. Creating content for the wrong keywords means wasted time and resources.

Picking the right keywords improves your chances at ranking and driving traffic.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and selecting keywords to target. First, you have to find keywords.

There are a plethora of tools you can use. Free tools like KeywordTool.io are a great way to get started.

Why is keyword research important?

We already talked about wasting time and resources. Must we say more?

We’ll say a little more. SEO success hinges on targeting the right keywords.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of keywords in your industry that you could target.

First you have to find them. Then you have to prioritize them.

3 keyword factors to know

  1. Search volume – how often is your keyword searched?
  2. Competition – how difficult is it to rank for?
  3. Relevance – how likely is the searcher to make a purchase?

Your first step is to find keywords. Use KeywordTool.io to find keywords in your industry.

Next, find out how often they’re searched. Use SearchVolume.io to find out how often your keywords are searched.

Then plug a few keywords into Google. What websites do you see? Big, authoritative companies? Or smaller mom and pop shops?

Scope out the competition and determine if your website could fit in the mix. For best results, compare your site’s domain authority (DA) with that of the websites that rank. If your DA is in a similar realm, great! If not, you might want to target a different keyword.

Think about your keyword’s relevance to your website. Is the searcher ready to buy? Are they ready to pick up the phone and discuss your service?

Prioritizing and selecting keywords to target

Weigh each of the three factors.

If you’re mathy…

If you’re mathy, great. If you hate math, skip this section.

Assign scores to each factor out of 10 and create a keyword score for each target.

  1. Search volume – let’s say the search volume of “philosophy books” is 3,000 per month. Compared to our other target keywords, let’s give that an 8 out of 10 in search volume.
  2. Competition – It’s competition is heavy. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and GoodReads are all on the search engine results page. Given our low DA, I’d give competition a 2 out of 10.
    1. Two out of ten is too low. We probably can’t rank for that keyword. Let’s narrow our target to “philosophy books connecticut.” Great! The SERP now has competition in our website’s realm. Now I’d give the competition a score of 8 out of 10.
    2. Since we modified the keyword, re-grade the search volume. Let’s say “philosophy books connecticut” is searched 10 times per month. Much lower but still some search volume. Let’s give it a 6 out of 10.
  3. Relevance – It’s relevance is high. We sell philosophy books. Plus, we’re in Connecticut. I’d give this a 9 out of 10.

Search volume (6), plus competition (8), plus relevance (9), gives us 23 out of a possible 30.

Fractions! 23/30 = 7.66/10 = rounded to 8.

The score for “philosophy books connecticut” is 8 out of 10.

If you hate math…

If you’re not mathy, that’s OK!

Think about search volume, competition, and relevance and find keywords that check off each of those factors.

If you can weigh each factor into an overall score, great. If not, just knowing about each factor puts you in a good position to target the right keywords.

Modifying keywords to ease the competition

Vague keywords like “basketball shoes” are difficult to target due to heavy competition.

If you’re not Amazon, Target, or Zappos, ranking for this keyword may be too difficult.

Here are 4 ways to ease the competition?

  1. Target your location. If you’re a local store, consider targeting “basketball shoes orlando.”
  2. Target long tail keywords. Long tail keywords modify search intent. Search Google for “red nike basketball shoes.” The competition might be easier. Brainstorm alternatives that relate to your products or services.
  3. Look higher up the sales funnel. Informational keywords may be easier to target than broad, bottom-of-the-sales-funnel keywords. Check out the competition for “low tops vs high tops basketball.” Maybe you can reach folks who are interested in buying basketball shoes but haven’t figured out what they want yet.
  4. Get creative! There are tons of ways to modify searches.

Keyword research and selection is essential

Targeting difficult keywords can lead to wasted time and energy. The right keyword makes all the difference.

Once you’ve found the right keyword, target it! Create quality content, post it, and see what happens.