What is Keyword Research?
Keywords are vital part of every blog post. They assist search engines find your content and rank it higher in search engine results pages.
Keyword research is a process of finding the precise words that people type into the search engine when they are exploring for something on the internet. Keyword research is a significant part of the content marketing strategy. It provides insights into what people are searching for online, and helps you to create pertinent content on a given topic.
In addition, we don’t produce content about what we want to tell the audience; we should be producing content about what audience want to know.
Purpose of keyword research for blog posts?
Keyword research is an essential step in the content marketing process. It helps marketers identify which keywords their target audience is using to find information about a particular topic, and how those keywords might be used in content and on a website’s landing pages.
Keyword research can be done manually or with the help of automated tools, such as ahrefs, semrush etc.
Keyword research tool assist you find keywords that are relevant and specific to your blog post. It also helps you identify keywords that have high search volume but low competition, which makes them easier to rank for in search engines.
The Importance of Keyword Research for SEO
Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results – often referred to as natural or organic results. A website’s SEO content is the most significant factor in its success. It is what makes a visitor stay on the site and read more, or leave it and visit another one.
The content writer must conduct SEO research to learn about keywords linked to their article. These keywords will be utilized in the content’s meta tags and title tags. They also need to know what terms their target audience will look for. Keyword research comes into play here.
The purpose of keyword research is to determine which terms potential buyers may search for while seeking for something comparable to what you have on your website. Keywords can be single words or phrases that have various meanings depending on how they are used in context.
Another component of SEO content is ensuring that your keywords are appropriately positioned throughout your material so that both search engines and human visitors can notice them.
What is a Keyword Density?
Keyword density is a technique of defining how often a keyword or phrase appears on a web page.
This metric is calculated by dividing the total number of words on the page by the number of times a keyword or phrase appears on the page.
When using keywords and phrases in your content, use them parsimoniously enough so that they appear in search results, but not so often that it looks like you are stuffing keywords into your content.
Elements of Keyword Research
When performing keyword research, there are three major factors to consider.
1. Relevance
Google prioritizes content based on its relevance. This is where search intent comes into play. Your content will only rank for that phrase if it meets the needs of the searchers. Furthermore, your material must be the best accessible resource for the question. Why would Google favour your material if it is of lower quality than other web content?
2. Authority
Google will prioritize trustworthy sources. That means you must do all in your power to establish yourself as an authoritative source by upgrading your site with helpful, informational content and promoting it in order to gain social signals and backlinks. Unless your content is exceptional, you have a lower chance of ranking if you aren’t regarded as an industry expert, or if a keyword’s SERPs are packed with heavy sources you can’t compete with.
3. Search Volume
You can rank on the first page of Google for a phrase, but if no one searches for it, you won’t get any traffic. It’s similar to starting a company in a ghost town.
Volume is calculated using MSV (monthly search volume), which is the number of times a phrase is searched across all audiences each month.
How to conduct keyword research?
There are several keyword research tools available on the internet, but not all of them produce reliable results. So, in this article; I’m going to share (03) ways for keyword research that I use.
1. Keyword research process without tools
· Make a list of topics
To begin, think about the things you wish to rank for in terms of broad categories. You’ll create 5-10 subjects that you feel are important to your niche, and then use those subjects to help produce some specific keywords later in the process.
Consider your audience’s personalities; what subjects do you want your blog to get discovered for that your target audience would look for? If blogging is your niche, you may have generic subjects like:
- Keywords research
- lead generation
- Search Engine Optimization
- social media marketing
- Backlinks
- Website traffic
· Convert the topics into keywords.
Now that you’ve narrowed down a few areas on which to focus your efforts, it’s time to find some keywords that fall into those categories. These are keyword phrases that you feel are important to rank for in SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target audience is likely to look for them.
For example, if I choose Blogging as a topic; I’d brainstorm some keyword terms related to that topic that I feel consumers would enter. These might include:
- Blogging tips for beginners
- How to conduct keyword research for blogs effectively?
- SEO optimization techniques for blog posts
- How to create backlinks and perform on-page SEO?
- How to increase your website traffic through blogs?
This phase’s purpose is not to develop a final list of keyword phrases. You just want to create a list of phrases that you anticipate potential customers could use to look for information on that specific issue.
· Understand audience’s search Intent
User intent is currently one of the most critical factors in achieving high rankings on search engines such as Google. Today, it is more important that your website solves the problem that a searcher is looking for than simply incorporating the searcher’s phrase. So, what impact does this have on your keyword research?
In general, the audience search intent is differentiated in four different categories, what people are actually looking for:
- Informational — when people are searching for some specific information (e.g., “How to enhance phone’s efficiency?”).
- Navigational — When people want to go on a particular web page or website (e.g., “Samsung phones”).
- Commercial — When people want to explore the options (e.g., “best gaming phones”).
- Transactional — When people want to buy something immediately (e.g., “nearest phone market”).
Assume you’re looking for the phrase “how to start a blog” to help you produce an article. “Blog” can relate to either a blog post or the blog website itself, and the intent of the searcher will influence the direction of your material. Is the searcher looking for information on how to start a personal blog post? Or do they want to learn how to properly construct a website domain for blogging purposes? If your content strategy is only focused on the latter, you must check the purpose of the term before committing to it.
Simply submit the query into a search engine and see what kinds of results appear to establish what a user’s aim is in a term. Make assured that the information displayed by Google is closely related to what you intend to produce for the phrase.
· Consider Google suggests
This is a novel method that you may have explored earlier while performing keyword research. If not, it’s a great way to get those lists filled up.
If you’re stuck for keywords for a certain topic, look at the related search terms that appear when you input a keyword into Google. When you type your term and scroll to the bottom of Google’s results, you’ll get a number of search recommendations based on your original input. These keywords may spark ideas for further keywords to investigate.
2. SEMRUSH (Best keyword Research tool)
Semrush is one of the most powerful SEO tools accessible. It is a full SEO package that contains tools for doing organic research, paid advertising research, keyword research, and detailed competition analysis.
To get started, simply visit the Semrush website. Then enter a term in the ‘Enter domain, keyword or URL’ field. If you don’t have any keywords in mind, you can use any topic related term or phrase. If you sell mobile phones, for example, the phrase “mobile” may be an excellent place to start.
Semrush will provide a lot of information on the phrase you just entered in when you select the ‘Start now’ option. The cost-per-click (CPC) for sponsored advertising, the number of search results, and the volume of searches are all included. As you scroll down, a list of suitable terms will display. Related keywords are search terms that are related to the keyword you entered into the Semrush site.
By including a large number of relevant keywords in your content, you may show search engines that you’re writing about your chosen topic in a genuine, complete manner. As a consequence, add relevant keywords into your content wherever possible. Scroll down until you reach the SERP Analysis section. The term SERP stands for search engine results page. This is the page that appears after a user inputs a word or phrase into a search engine.
The SERP Analysis section displays a list of the most popular search results for the phrase you entered. These are your key rivals if you wish to rank for this word. To view the full organic report, simply click on the URL of any result. This study will explain why this website ranks so high for this particular keyword.
Following the determination of the top keywords with the most search traffic, the next stage is to assess competition for those terms or phrases. If a phrase has a high search volume but minimal competition, it may be tough to capture a portion of that traffic. To get a detailed analysis, click on the links that are currently ranking for your chosen phrase. You can also see the URL’s backlinks, other keywords for which the website ranks, and an estimate of how much traffic this link receives from search engines.
Overall, Semrush is the most powerful keyword research tool on the market. It not only suggests keywords, but it also tells you how to rank for such terms.
3. Answer the Public
Answer the public is a free SEO tool that helps you learn what people are looking for on the internet. It creates a list of questions and prepositions based on a certain term or phrase, providing you with useful information about the sorts of material your audience is looking for.
Answer the public is an excellent resource for keyword research. It may help you generate ideas for blog posts, articles, and other sorts of material. You may generate material that meets people’s interests and problems by knowing the queries and prepositions they use in their searches.
To begin, go to the Answer the public website and input a term or phrase. The program will then load relevant keywords and display them in the form of a visual map. When you click on a term, Answer the public will open a new browser tab with the results of that keyword’s Google search. This is a simple technique to investigate the questions that people are looking for so that you may generate content that addresses those queries. All of Answer the public keyword research is presented on a single page. You may also save this information as pictures.
Answer the public provides a lot of valuable features and resources in addition to its basic duties. It, for example, gives a visual representation of the search data it creates, allowing you to easily comprehend and examine the findings. It also has a “data export” tool that lets you download the search results in a number of formats, including CSV and Excel.