So, you have solid keywords for your post. Or do you?!
The internet is filled with the suggestions on how to do keyword research. Bloggers have given hundreds of ways to search keywords. The amazing tools are available out there to make the search easy for you.
But finding the keywords is not at all a problem. The real difficulty lies in picking 2 or 3 among hundreds of available options. And that requires your own attention. You know what you are writing about, and the maturity of your website or blog, so, no one else is better suitable for the job.
Here we are giving the golden zone for keyword research newbies to get much better ranking chances for high-quality content.
So, without wasting any time, let’s start with the basics.
What is keyword research?
The procedure for finding the actual terms that the target market uses to search information, product, or services on search engines, is known as keyword research. The whole process includes the search, analysis and the final selection of the most useful set of words to stuff effectively in the content.
Many new bloggers ask us, “shouldn’t google find our content if it has a good quality and valuable information?”
Yes, it should and it does. But the performance of your content depends on the race you choose to participate.
Confused?!
Suppose that you are writing a content on ‘advertising tips’ and you have two keyword options to pick from. One is the “what makes a good advertisement” and the other one is “what makes an advertisement effective”.
Both the keywords seem similar right! But, if you search both the keywords separately on google, you will find some difference in the results. Here you need to invest your mind in picking the right list to target with your content. If you can target the keyword that gives less strong results, then, it improves the chances to reach google the first page.
So, for all the content writers, bloggers and website owners who constantly ask for tips on keyword research, here is a complete guide.
How to do keyword research for SEO?
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to find SEO keywords.
1. Write the topic of your post in one sentence
This first step is the foundation of the whole research. So take this advice very seriously. A full-length sentence describing your topic is very important. This sentence will help you narrow down to the main keyword.
For example, The topic could be “How to create advertisements.”
Or, “How to make advertisements effective.”
You see, both the topics are related to the advertisement, but there is a big difference between the two. While the first one is only for the general facts related to ad creation, the second one offers insights and suggestions on making ads effective.
This is why a complete sentence is extremely important in order to move towards the right path.
2. Get more specific with your topic
Now, when you know the exact topic you want to write about, a seed is required to start the keyword research. Get as specific as you can get here, without losing the context of the topic.
For the above-mentioned topics, the keyword seeds can be ‘ad creation’ and ‘effective advertising’ respectively.
3. Google the selected term
It is time to start the research by googling the term you have come up with. This will give you the foundation of keyword suggestions to start with. Yes, it is not the ultimate keyword you want.
Write down the suggestions offered by Google at the bottom of the page. These are the actual keywords that people have used to search relevant topic you are writing on. But, you still don’t have any data on the value of any of these keywords. So, just write them down and move to the next step.
4. Search your keyword seed on Quora
Quora is an amazing platform where you can get highly useful keyword ideas related to your topic. Plus, the site offers you a chance to understand the real queries and questions your target audiences have in mind regarding the topic.
You can add multiple keywords to your list from there. This can become the key to a successful blog for you. The Quora site is filled with content ideas that people want to read about.
Take all the relevant words and move to the next step.
5. Get keywords from the competitors
As you write your keyword seed on the search box of Google, it shows you thousands of results. The content coming on the first page is the competition you have to tackle. Here you can use multiple keywords that you have gotten this far and see if the new results come up on Google.
After selecting top five competitor contents, you need to analyze their content for the keywords. This is where you can get some useful suggestions regarding long tail keywords as well.
We recommend both manual and automatic methods of finding the keywords from competitors’ sites.
Manual analysis
Manual analysis requires you to personally read the complete content and look for the relevant words and phrases. Keep adding the keywords as you find them one by one.
Automatic analysis
For a better understanding of the competition, you can use the tools such as Google Keyword Planner and others.
Under the section called “Find new keywords and get search volume data” on Google Keyword Planner, you can get a complete analysis of your competitors’ pages.
Just paste the link of the competitor page on the “Your landing page” option and get the results. You will get a complete list of the keywords, the competitor site is getting ranked for.
6. More results from Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner gives you a valuable understanding of the competition, volume, and trends related to Google keyword ranking. So, apart from competitive analysis, you can get informative data on multiple keywords you have on the list.
Adding to that, you can multiply keyword lists to get new keywords as well.
Download the list of results and move forward.
7. Leverage Google Trends
Now, that you have a solid list of keywords, it is time to check their fate in the near future. To do so, a tool called Google Trends can help you a lot.
Google trends, is where you can examine the history of the keywords and topics and know about their near future. This is the tool which can give you some golden words to add in your content.
Picking the top keywords
After following the seven mentioned steps you will have a collection of most useful keywords. Still, you can’t use all of them right! You need to select the top keyword for the topic you are writing on.
Use following factors to judge the keywords:
1. Accuracy
The accuracy of the keyword is the biggest factor you need to inspect. So, don’t pick the keywords that do not justify your topic.
2. Competition
Stay away from the keywords that have very high competition. You will get more chance to rank on the first page for the content that has the middle level or low competition.
3. Volume
The volume or the average number of monthly searches should be high or optimum. You can get this data from the Google Keyword Planner easily.
Finding the balance between the accuracy, competition, and volume is what clears the path to rank on the first result page on search engines. Rest, of course, depends on the quality of the content you write.
Important Note on writing the content
So now, you have found your keyword and ready to write. Just use one more trick to make your content ready to beat all the competition on search engine rankings.
You must know that Google analysis the whole content to search words relevant to the main keyword. This helps the search engine to evaluate your content and rank it accordingly.
By adding the synonyms related to your main keyword, you can enhance the chances of a better ranking in the search results. Plus, you should balance your main keyword with the relevant usage of long tail keywords. This will double the visibility and traffic of the page.
For example, if the main keyword is “effective advertising”, the synonyms of the word ‘effective’ can help you enhance the richness of the content. Hence, words such as ‘productive’, fruitful’, ‘functional’ and many others can be very useful. However, it is important to make sure that you use the words effectively in the content and not just for the sake of stuffing it.
Finally, now you know how to get keywords for SEO and offer your quality content a good chance to rank on the top.
Remember, that every keyword has a life of around two months. So, make sure you reevaluate and upgrade the keywords to maintain the overall ranking of your site.
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