How to Perform Effective Keyword Research
What is keyword research?
This is the process of identifying and analyzing the specific words and phrases that people use when searching for information, products or services on search engines. The goal is to understand what terms your target audience is using to find relevant content, so you can optimize your website and create content that aligns with this search intent. This helps improve your website’s visibility and increases the chances of generating organic traffic. We’ll touch on this further later on in this piece - but the key is finding the right balance between high volume and long tail, low competition keywords to drive more relevant traffic.
Elements of keyword research:
Keyword Difficulty
This is a metric which indicates how challenging it is to rank for a certain keyword in search engine results. This is based on a sliding scale from 0 to 100 - a higher keyword difficulty suggests a more competitive environment. It takes into account factors such as the number of pages targeting the keyword, competition and the overall authority which those pages hold. Depending on the website authority, the site may realistically only rank for certain keywords which aren’t too difficult. If this is the case, then utilizing long tail keywords may be a better option as they normally are less competitive.
User Search Intent
Refers to the underlying goal or purpose a person has when entering a query into a search engine such as Google. It’s generally categorized into four main types:
Informational - Seek information or answers to a specific question.
Navigational - Aim to navigate to a specific website or page.
Transactional - Users intend to perform a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Investigational - The research phase before making a transaction.
Search Volume
The average number of times a keyword is typed into a search engine to find the most relevant search result. It indicates how popular or widely searched a particular term is among users. The majority of tools will show this as a monthly figure - but simply times this by twelve for the total volume over the last year.
Keyword Seasonality
These types of terms will fluctuate depending on the time of the year. Depending on the industry in which you operate or the types of products and services you sell, this will determine the seasonal search demand for certain keywords or phrases. An example may be a clothing retailer that sells Christmas jumpers during the December period - there will be an influx of searches for this product primarily over this period.
Companies should prioritize having sufficient stock levels during these peak times to meet the heightened consumer demand. This involves anticipating and preparing for increased product or service inquiries associated with specific seasons, holidays or events. By aligning their inventory with expected demand fluctuations, businesses can avoid stock-outs, fulfil customer orders promptly and efficiently, and capitalize on excess revenue opportunities.
What tools have I utilized in the past?
At the end of the day, this is going to come down to personal preference and what tools you find easiest to navigate. I have personally used Ahrefs and SEMrush - and my go-to is normally Ahrefs because I find the keyword research tool more user-friendly and clearer when it comes to providing insights. There are multiple tools at your disposal on the market so the best way to answer this question is to do some thorough research to understand the features of each platform and if this serves the right purpose which you are looking for.
Targeting the long-tail keywords
So first of all when we talk about this, what do we mean? These are terms which are more detailed and specific and typically have lower search volumes but can be valuable for websites and businesses that are aiming to target a more niche and focused audience. For example “Best hotels” is a broad and general keyword, while “Best hotels in Cornwall for couples” is much more specific and provides more context about what the user is looking for. Incorporating long-tail keywords into your content strategy can help attract relevant traffic and potentially lead to higher conversion rates.
Have a clear understanding of the topic
As simple as this may sound, this is something which should not be overlooked. The keyword research aims to provide a valuable client deliverable or a piece of work to inform a strategy - so if this initial stage is not focused then this is going to hinder the stages to follow. When you working on a complex topic, the best way to go about this is through breaking out the information architecture into individual sections and focusing on one part at a time - trying to perform multiple tasks simultaneously will lead to more confusion.
Grouping keywords into pivot tables
Organization is key when trying to understand what topics hold value and could be useful to include in your content strategy. The advantage of using pivot tables is you can filter the keywords by topic, this makes it easier to manage and find valuable insights when analyzing the data. Filters can also make your life a whole lot easier so these should also be used. The primary one which I normally use is to sort by largest volume - this means you can primarily focus on keywords that have the largest commercial value.
AI integration in the process
I’ve been testing the use of ChatGPT as one of the stages in the research process. This automation has allowed me to complete tasks in a reduced time frame compared to performing them manually and it provides a broader range of thought-provoking topics which opens up new boxes to explore. So you may be asking - how do you make use of this, firstly you need to identify your primary keyword topics and run these through the tool, with the right prompts this will help to provide some new topics to inform your content strategy.
Make use of Google search suggestions
If you don’t have access to any SEO research tools then this may be a way to conduct some top-level keyword research. For larger projects, this method would likely not be viable as there is no way to scale up your operations to increase the efficiency of your work processes. All that aside - what are we talking about when we start mentioning “search suggestions”. This involves entering a search term or phrase into the search bar and analyzing what results are returned. For example are majority of results are blog articles, case studies or product pages. Even with all the tools and gadgets this method is still useful to double-check that the keywords you targeting are relevant to the search intent of your audience.