Introduction
Google is very erratic with its constant punches of algorithms. It is quite a task to keep up with the same. Among all these chaotic algorithms, one constant thing is marketers optimizing their websites with keywords Research.
Keyword Research has been a constant and predominant part of content SEO and marketing. However, what has changed is the way you do Keyword Research. If you are an inbound marketer, you got to keep up with the latest techniques and strategies of Keyword Research.
So, here in this blog, we will discuss how to research keywords for devising an optimal SEO strategy.
Here are five steps that will help you create a list of keywords that you should target for laying grounds for your SEO strategy:
Step 1: Create a Topic Bucket
Based on your business or niche think of topics you want to rank and then categorize them in general buckets. You’ll create these topics categories and look for keywords based on these categories eventually.
If you are a regular blogger, you should know the topic categories that you want to work on. Another way is you might want to research the topics that have the potential of ranking the most. These are the topics in demand that can lead to more sales.
Try thinking from your buyer’s perspective. As a buyer, what do you want to read about? Do research on what kind of topics your target audience search for.
If you operate in a business, like Neil Patel, You might have Topic buckets like these:
Email Marketing (14,800 Vol)
Social Media Marketing (40,500 Vol)
Search Engine Optimization (22,200)
Digital Marketing (60,500 Vol)
Inbound Marketing (8,100 Vol)
Marketing Analytics (4,400 Vol)
The numbers written on the right of the above keywords are their monthly search volume. This volume indicates the importance of the keywords. To rank these keywords for your website, you’ll need to create more sub-topics on these generic keywords and then further create content for the same.
Step 2: Finding Keywords falling under Keyword Buckets
Once you’ve identified your topic buckets, it’s time for you to search some keywords or keyphrases that would fall under those buckets. These keywords are the ones that would rank on SERPs or Search Engine Result Pages. These are the keywords that your target audience searches for.
Considering the above example, If we take “social media marketing” then one should brainstorm or search for keywords or keyphrases that would fall under this Topic Bucket. So, let’s see some of the keywords:
types of social media marketing
social media marketing tools
how to do social media marketing
social media marketing jobs
social media marketing agency
And the list goes on. But this was one of your initial tasks. Once you acquire a list of keywords, you would brainstorm and pick up the keywords that you think your target audience would search for.
One way of coming up with a list of keywords is by researching them manually on the internet. Another method of creating the keyword list is by assessing your website. These are the keywords that helped your website rank before. Tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report helps generate analytical data of your website where you can also find the topics or keywords that have been ranking the most on past periods.
Step 3: Search for user-intent keyword
User-intent keywords or content simply means that your website content is providing a solution to the problem that the user searched for. Nowadays, it is not as easy as stuffing your content with the researched keywords to rank on SERPs. You’ll need to write content with the relevant keywords that provide solutions to the problem or keyword that the searcher searched for.
So,
To make your content relevant, you can create the content based on the keyword that you researched instead of first writing the content and then stuffing it with the keywords. Click To TweetYour ranking potential depends on the intent behind the search by any user and if you provide relevant content in answer to that search.
The intent behind any search could be difficult to comprehend. For example, If a person is searching “Tips on Blogging” then the intent behind this search could be “How to start a blog?” or “How to pick a niche for blogging?” To identify what content to create, you just need to do this simple trick. Go on your search engine and search for the keyword. The result that the Search engine is providing the most is the content that the searcher is seeking. That search result is the user-intent.
Step 4: Prop up your keyword research with Google's assistance
If you think your keyword research still looks incomplete, then you can take the help of google related search terms. This method is very direct and easily available on SERP.
Here’s how you create a list of related search terms to your keywords with the help of Google. ?
When you punch a keyword in the search box of Google, the result page appears. Scroll down to the end of the page, where you’ll find a list of related search terms. These keywords can give you amazing insights on creating other keywords for your blog.
Step 5: Take advantage of Keyword research tools
There are many free tools out there that can help you generate a bulk list of keywords. Keyword research tools like SEMrush, Ubersuggest, and Wordstream can provide you with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords.
This last step can help you cover up any keyword that you might have missed in your previous steps.
PS: These tools are free up to a certain limit but free enough to provide you with a long list of relevant keywords.
Conclusion
The above 5 steps are enough to create a list of relevant and effective keywords list based on which you can create quality blogs and content.
As soon as you get more authority on SERPs, add more related and relevant keywords to your keyword bucket. It would help you maintain your presence on the top pages of search engines.