Keyword Research: How to Find the Perfect Keywords for Your Website
Keyword research is an important part of a successful web presence, especially when it comes to SEO.
In fact, keyword research is so essential that it can be the deciding factor between a successful and a failed SEO campaign.
But what is keyword research?
Keyword research is undertaken to analyze what your audience is searching for online. It looks at the specific search terms users enter into Google or another search engine to answer questions like: Which keywords are the best at drawing an audience in? Which keywords work best to increase website traffic?
Search terms are analyzed for marketing or SEO purposes, and the research can uncover populations to target, popular questions to answer, and it can even rank search terms based on the frequency they are searched for and how relevant the search terms are to your business.
Why is keyword research important?
Keywords help you determine the topics that are important to your audience.
With this information, you can create more content that is geared toward the information your audience searches for or create content to fill in any gaps that there might be on your website.
But the most important part about good keywords is that they drive website traffic.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to researching keywords. With the help of our marketing experts at Creative Coco’Nuts, you’ll be well on your way to running a successful SEO campaign!
Step 1: Create a list of topics that are relevant to your business
List 5-10 topics that are essential to your business. These can be very general right now. They will be filled in with specific keywords further along in the process.
These topics can be any part of your business: products, services, even what sets you apart from your competition. Make sure your topics answer questions like: What do customers look for in your business? What services/product categories do you provide?
Then, our marketing team will help you determine the monthly search volume of those general topics. The monthly search volume is how many users search for the topics you identified in a month’s time. This is useful in determining how important the topics are to your audience and what similar topics might be just as popular.
Once your general topics have been determined, you can create another list of subcategories and break down the general topics even further.
Step 2: Brainstorm keywords to fit into the general categories
Fill in the gaps of the general categories with some keywords. These don’t have to be the final keywords you use — just a jumping off point. Remember, there are no wrong answers in brainstorming!
Think like your customer: What search terms would they enter into Google to find information on your website? What are their needs? What do they look for in a business?
It is also important to choose keywords that will help improve your SERP rank. Our marketing team can help you with this, after all, half the battle is having your website show up close enough to the top of the SERP so users click on it.
Another strategy is to use a tool like Google Analytics to find out what search terms users are already using to find your website. Our team can help you search through your organic search results to find what keywords customers are using when they click on your site.
You can also head over to Google and type one keyword into the search bar. Google will recommend suggest a list of long-tail keywords related to the search term you already entered.
If you want to be proactive, look into the keywords that your competition uses. Our marketing team can help you find the keywords your closest competition is already using so you can draw some of their customer base over to your website.
And if you’re still stuck coming up with keywords, type a few keywords into Google and scroll to the bottom of the search results page. There, you can find suggested content in the “searches related to_______” section.
Use some of those suggestions as keywords.
Step 3: Analyze user intent
Making a list of keywords is very useful, but unless these words actually reflect the intent a user has when making a search, they won’t be helpful.
Keywords can have several different meanings and it’s important to test keywords out in Google (or another search engine) and make sure the results match the content the user is looking for.
If you’re still stuck, write down alternate meanings beside all the keywords on your list. Is there another word you can choose instead? One that only has one meaning? One that a user will be more likely to enter into Google?
Step 4: More research!
This final step will make sure that you stay on top of new important keywords as they emerge.
Check back in with your keywords and with what your customers are searching for on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Our team can help you keep track of keywords that are making an impact, ones that aren’t having the desired affect, and help you find new keywords to incorporate into your site.
