Keywords are an integral part of any SEO strategy, but a lot of people get overwhelmed at the thought of conducting keyword research. With so many options, it can be difficult to know where to start, so we’re going to take away the guesswork by telling you everything you need to know about conducting keyword research to boost your website’s SEO. From finding the tools that will give you all the data you need on your keywords, to how to decipher all that data to find the most relevant keywords for your business, this article has it all.
Table of Contents
- Keyword Research Tools for SEO
- What Defines a Good Keyword?
- How to Start Researching Keywords
- Check Out the Competition
1) Keyword Research Tools for SEO
The first thing you need to determine is which keyword research tool(s) you’ll be using as part of your SEO strategy. I like to use Ubersuggest because it’s free, but also because it’s gotten much better at providing valuable and accurate information on keywords.
SEMrush’s keyword tool also has a free option, but you get more by paying a monthly subscription, not to mention you also get access to all their other SEO tools.
Ahrefs is also a very well known and highly respected SEO company with its own keyword research tool, although you have to pay a monthly subscription fee.
Rather than choosing one keyword research tool, we recommend you use at least two different tools so you can double check your results. If two different keyword research tools give you two different results for the same keyword, you might want to consider using another keyword that provides consistent results so you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your keywords.
2) What Defines a Good Keyword?
It doesn’t matter how good your keyword research tool is if you don’t know what to look for, so here’s what you need to know:
1) Search Volume
The search volume of a keyword tells you how many searches that keyword gets per month and it can be anywhere from 0 to hundreds of thousands. In general, higher search volumes are better, but not always. The ideal search volume depends on your industry, your target audience, and the SEO competition of the keyword.
2) SEO Competition Score
The SEO competition score of the keywords you’re researching reflects how difficult it is to get your content to rank for that keyword. Keywords are ranked from 0 to 100 with 0 being the easiest to rank for and 100 being impossible to rank for because the internet is already flooded with content using that keyword.
Experts disagree on the best SEO competition score. Some people like to aim for the middle in the 50-60 range, but we wouldn’t recommend doing that unless your website is already well respected by Google and your industry, and you’re already getting plenty of traffic to your website.
Other SEO experts recommend sticking to keywords with an SEO competition score of 40 or less, but we like to go a little lower than that, preferably no more than 30-35.
Obviously, the lower the SEO competition score, the better, but you have to weigh that against the search volume. A single-digit SEO competition score with a single-digit search volume isn’t worth trying to rank for because no one is using that keyword or phrase in their online searches. The goal is to find the highest search volume with the lowest SEO competition score.
3) The Cost Per Click of Keywords
The CPC (cost per click) of keywords is how much it costs to pay Google to put your content at the top of their first page for that keyword. It’s called CPC because Google only charges you for the people who click on your ad, which means your ad can stay up there all day and you won’t have to pay a dime until someone actually clicks through to your website – hopefully that will happen a lot, since the goal of those ads is to get people to your website.
The CPC is determined by bidding – it costs as much as people are willing to pay, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the search volume or the SEO competition of the keyword. Some keywords have very low SEO competition scores, but very high CPC rates, in which case you might be better off trying to get your content to organically rank for that keyword, especially since most people skip the ads and go straight for the content that ranks organically because they see it as being more credible.
If you do decide to go the Google Ads route, we recommend only doing so with your sales pages and never your blog posts because your sales pages will have a higher conversion rate, which gives you a better chance of making a profit off the investment you put into the ad. If people are clicking on your ad, but not converting into customers, then you need to take a closer look at your content.
4) Short-Tail Keywords vs Long-Tail Keywords
Short-tail keywords are only one or two words, whereas long-tail keywords tend to be 3-5 words long. Long-tail keywords tend to have lower search volumes relative to short-tail keywords, but they also tend to have lower SEO competition scores and higher conversion rates. Because people tend to use long-tail keywords when they’re looking for something specific, they’re more likely to take the next step in the buyer journey when they find that for which they’re looking, which brings us to our next point:
5) Keyword Intent
In order to get the most out of your content, you need to pair the right call to action with the right content. If someone is just looking for tips on how to do something for themselves and you go straight for the hard sell, they’ll take the information they need, click away, and probably never come back to your website.
On the other hand, if they’re looking to buy and all you offer them is an email sign-up form to register for your newsletter, or some social media buttons that link to your social media profiles, they’ll click away and go somewhere else to find what they need.
In order to know where your audience is in the buyer journey when they encounter each piece of content on your website, you need to know what their intentions were in using a particular keyword. If they’re searching how to do something, they’re probably not ready to buy yet. On the other hand, if they’re searching for a particular product or service offered by a particular kind of company, then they’re ready to buy. If that’s the case, not only is it super valuable to try to rank for that keyword, but you also need to be ready to guide prospects who find your site using those keywords to your sales page and/or “buy” button.
3) How to Start Researching Keywords
So you have your keyword research tools, you know what to look for, but you don’t know what keywords to search.
Start with one of your products or services. If the SEO competition score is too high for that particular keyword, look through the related keywords the tool should provide for you. Look for a related keyword with a lower SEO score, but still a high search volume and still relevant to what you offer.
When researching one of your products or services as a keyword, you’ll probably be starting with a short-tail keyword, but look through the related keywords to see if there’s a long-tail keyword that would make sense for you to create content around for your business, and also has a high enough search volume and low enough SEO competition score that you have a shot at ranking for it.
If you get an idea for a blog post topic, whether by talking to a client, a colleague, or just browsing the internet, always be sure to do your keyword research first to make sure it’s worthwhile to try to rank for that keyword before writing your blog post. If the search volume is too low or the SEO competition is too high, move on to researching the next keyword.
4) Check Out the Competition
You can see what keywords your competition is focusing on by looking at the slugs they use for their website pages, the words and phrases they use in their headings and subheadings, as well as phrases that jump out at you from throughout their content. The more you work and read content in a particular industry, the more you’ll get a feel for which words and phrases are keywords. As always, use your keyword research tools to double check your suspicions.
If you have any questions, or just want to know more about the best ways to conduct keyword research, you can join my FREE webinar on January 20th. You can find out more about that webinar and register here.
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