Keyword research is the most important part of your SEO marketing. If you only focus on creating the best website with amazing content, but no one ever sees it because you chose the wrong keywords, it would be a shame.

Carrying out extensive keyword research allows you to understand what your audience is looking for. It gives you an insight into their pain points and how they go about finding solutions to them online. Keyword research also allows you to see what your competitors are trying to rank for. Knowing this information is essential in being able to compete with them or finding other opportunities.

If you want to improve your website’s ranking in search results, you need to focus on the right keywords. This can be difficult to determine, and it may take some time and effort to get it right. You may also need to spend some money on this process.

This guide covers the basics of keyword research and provides tips on how to improve your SEO.

What Is SEO Keyword Research?

Keyword research is important because it helps you figure out what popular search phrases people are using so you can incorporate them into your content. This way, your content is more likely to appear higher up on search results. It’s not something you can do after creating content or launching your website – you should do it right from the beginning. Keyword research should be one of the first steps in planning your SEO goals, deciding what kind of content to publish, and figuring out what your pages should look like.

The process of researching keywords to base your content around involves choosing a topic focused on a set of targeted keywords you want your content to rank for. However, you cannot just select any keyword. There are factors like competition, search volume, keyword density, and other metrics to consider before you can even finalize a list.

There are three major changes in keyword research that you should know about:

1. The way people search has changed

90% of adults in the U.S. now own a smartphone, and half of those users say they’ve used voice search in the last month. The way people search has become shorter and more conversational with the rise in voice search and mobile devices. For example, people are now saying “how to do keyword research” instead of typing “keyword research tips.” 90% of adults in the U.S. own a smartphone, and half of those users say they’ve used voice search in the last month.

So, for example, if you search for “photos of dogs,” you’re probably looking to see pictures of dogs. But if you search for “how to potty train a puppy,” you’re looking for instructions on how to toilet train a puppy. Understanding the searcher’s intent helps Google provide better results. Google has changed the way it interprets searches. It is now better at understanding the intent behind searches. For example, if you search for “photos of dogs,” you are likely looking to see pictures of dogs. However, if you search for “how to potty train a puppy,” you are looking for instructions on how to toilet train a puppy. Understanding the searcher’s intent helps Google provide better results.

For instance, if you search for “buy shoes,” you’ll see results for stores that sell shoes online. But if you search for “how to clean shoes,” you’ll get results for articles and videos about cleaning shoes.

3. The landscape of keyword research has changed.

The landscape of keyword research has changed with the rise of new tools and technologies. In the past, you would need to rely on guesswork and your industry experience to develop keywords. But now, there are multiple tools that you can use to help with your keyword research.

Top Keyword Research Tools

There are many keyword research tools you can use, but these are my favorites.

• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs
• SEMRush

In my opinion, the best way to get accurate data on how people use the internet to find information, and what terms your competitors are bidding on for paid advertisements, is to use Google’s Keyword Planner. Search Console provides you with an insight into how people are finding your site, and also tells you which search terms are bringing people to your site organically, and which content pages are getting the most clicks.

If you want to take a closer look at what your competitors are trying to rank for, you can use tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs. These tools can help you figure out which keywords your competitors are targeting and what type of content they produced that helped them rank for those keywords.

Why Is Keyword Research Important For SEO?

Search engine optimization has been around since the early days of search engines. The goal of SEO is to appear in front of your target audience when they search for something online that is related to your business.

The Conductor’s State of Organic Marketing 2022 report found that over 50% of organizations use search data to create their content. There’s a good chance your competitors are already doing this, so why are you hesitant?

Here are the reasons why it’s important to do keyword research:

• Keyword Research Provides Accurate Marketing Trend Insight

Researching relevant keywords can help you better understand current marketing trends and how to focus your content to appeal to your audience. Findings keywords that your target market is searching for can help you create more effective content.

• It Helps You Understand Your Competitors

If you understand the keywords your competitors are targeting, you can develop strategies to outrank them. You can also assess their strengths and weaknesses.

• Generates More Traffic to Your Website

If you want to generate more traffic to your website, you need to understand how people search for things online and optimize your website and content to appear in front of them.

• Generates More Leads and Sales

You can increase your sales by targeting the right keywords. This will bring in high-quality leads that are more likely to convert.

Keyword research can offer important information about what your target audience is looking for in terms of questions, issues, and solutions. This research should be the core basis of your SEO efforts and guide you in developing content strategies.

How do you do the best keyword research?

There is no one right way to do keyword research. The best method depends on your specific needs.

I’ve listed some advanced tips below that you can use to improve your keyword research skills, no matter what industry you’re in.

1. Define Your Business Goals

Once you have a goal in mind, you can start to think about the kind of content that will help you achieve it. To start, you need to figure out your business goals. What exactly are you aiming to accomplish? Would you like to increase brand awareness or generate more traffic to your website? Once you have a goal in mind, you can begin thinking about the type of content that will help you achieve it.

What keywords you should target for your business depend on your business goals. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, you should target branded keywords. These are keywords that have your brand name in them or are associated with your brand name—for example, “Nike running shoes for women.”

Targeting non-branded keywords is a good way to drive traffic to your website. These are keywords that are not associated with your brand name and do not include your brand name in the keyword phrase. For example, “best running shoes for women.”

2. Define Your Target Audience

Who is your target audience for your content?

The keywords you target should be based on your target audience. For example, if you are trying to reach a younger audience, you should target keywords associated with youth culture. If you are trying to reach a more mature audience, you should target keywords associated with their interests and needs. It is important to learn the language your customers use.

So, if you want your content to reach a specific demographic, you should target keywords that are popular with that group. For example, if you want to reach teenage girls, targeting keywords like “fashion trends” or “celebrity gossip” would be a good idea. But if you want to reach middle-aged women, then you might want to target keywords like “fashion for work” or “timeless style”.

3. Look at the keywords your competitors’ target.

Do you want your small business to rank #1 on Google? Then, you’re going to have to start looking at what your competitors are doing. Looking at the keywords that your competitors target is one of the simplest yet most underutilized keyword research tips. Knowing which keywords that your competitors are targeting can give your small business an edge over the competition. And, it can also help you work to target consumers who are looking for these keywords.

So how do you get started?

First, you’ll need to log into Google Ads and choose “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category.” Then, instead of putting in your own URL to find potential keywords, you will enter the URL of your toughest competitors. Google will then provide you with a list of topics and keywords based on your competitor’s site. Click on the “Ad group ideas” to see what keywords and phrases that your competitors are targeting on their own site. This list will provide you with a wealth of long-tail keyword ideas.As well as the volume and search demand for each keyword and the competition levels. And don’t assume that you should only go for keywords with high search volume because that’s not always the case.

For instance, a keyword can have a high search volume but not necessarily get a high number of clicks. Examples of this are those queries that when searched will already have an “Answer Box”. Even when you rank high in SERPs, it will be pointless as the user will no longer bother clicking your link since the question has already been answered.

Look for keywords that have a rather low competition with at least 1,000 searches per month. These keywords and phrases are worth investing your time and resources in targeting.

4. Take advantage of Google Suggest.

Google is popular because it strives to give users the best search engine results.

You can use Google to find out what consumers are looking for when they search for brands like yours. This can help you tailor your marketing efforts to be more effective.

One of the best ways to find additional keywords is to use Google Suggest.

This feature is designed to give you quick, relevant results based on your search query. Google Suggest is a feature that displays relevant results based on your search query.

As you type in a search term, you’ll notice that Google provides a list of similar and relevant terms below it.

This can give you a lot of new keyword ideas for your small business.

All you need to do is:

1. Start with a list of general keyword terms.
2. Type them into the Google search toolbar
3. See what the search engine returns for potential similar keyword phrases.

5. Find common customer questions.

One of the best ways to land higher SEO rankings is to create content centered around the questions or concerns that your target customers ask most frequently. By identifying the most frequently asked questions and developing content that works to answer these questions,……you can improve your chances of reaching consumers who are looking for answers on the search engines.

There are a few different ways that you can start to discover what questions people are asking about your industry or products and services. One way is to go straight to the source. Ask your best customers what questions they had when they first started doing research for brands like yours.

What were their concerns?

What did they need to know before they made a purchase?

Customer surveys or interviews are a great way to quickly get this information.

Another way to find out what questions your customers are asking is by asking your sales department. Your sales team deals directly with the customers and often has to field questions about your products or services. Ask your sales team what questions they get most often from new prospects.

After you’ve asked your current customers and gotten some insight from sales, it’s time to turn to tools that will broaden your keyword research even further. One helpful (and free) tool that you can use to discover what questions people have about your industry is Answer the Public. This useful tool allows you to type in a general keyword that pertains to your business. And then, returns a list of questions that people are asking when they go to the search engines.

Once you have these keyword phrases, you can use Google Keyword Planner to look at keyword frequency and competition. Use this information to refine your list and identify the questions that are most worthwhile to target with your content.

6. Try using an SEO toolbar.

There are a variety of search engine optimization tools and toolbars, one of our favorites being MozBar.

This SEO toolbar allows you to see important metrics for different pages on a search engine results page so you can compare them easily.

You can gauge the ranking of a website by looking at its page authority and domain authority.

The MozBar toolbar allows you to see metrics instantly when you are looking at a site page or on the search engine results page.

MozBar is a helpful tool for SEO keyword research that allows you to understand your visitors and what they are searching for when they use keywords online.

You can improve your understanding of what search engine users find when they search for certain terms by tracking both local and national searches.

Final Takeaways

The following tips will help you with keyword research so you can find a lot of new opportunities.

Keyword research is only a small part of what is needed for search engine optimization.

There are other factors that can affect SEO such as how you use keywords within content and how you structure site design.

Some small businesses choose to partner with an SEO company in order to improve their website ranking on search engines.

The companies can help with online visibility to pull in more potential customers.