Introduction
Keyword research can be intimidating, but it’s an important part of any content marketing strategy. The first step to writing a blog post or creating a website is finding the right keywords and phrases that people are searching for. Keyword research involves using a variety of different tools and techniques to determine what your audience wants to see on Google and other search engines. Doing keyword research will help you decide which topics are worth writing about, how many page views you can expect from each one, and how much money you may make if someone buys something after reading your content about that topic.
Understand What a Keyword Is
Keywords are the words and phrases people use when they look for information on the internet. They can be found in the titles of web pages, in content, and in meta descriptions. Keywords are also known as search terms or search queries.
Keyword research is the process of finding relevant keywords that you can use to boost your SEO and drive traffic to your site.
How Do You Research Keywords?
There are many ways to do keyword research. Here are some of the most common methods:
Begin Your Brainstorming Process
You’re ready to start brainstorming! Brainstorming is a great way to get your ideas flowing, and it can be done in many different ways. You can use pen and paper, or you could use an electronic tool like Evernote or OneNote. Whichever method you choose, make sure that you have plenty of space where you won’t be interrupted for the duration of your brainstorming session.
You may have noticed that we’re using the term “brainstorming” rather than “keyword research.” This is because keyword research is only one part of the process—the initial step before diving into more detail about what sort of content will perform well on specific search terms. Brainstorming helps us generate ideas for topics that we want to write about; once we have those topic ideas, it will be easier for us to decide which keywords are most likely going to drive traffic and conversions (and therefore deserve their own pages).
Look at the Competition
Now that you have chosen a keyword, it’s time to start looking at the competition.
First off, you should find out how many people are using your chosen keyword. You can do this by going to AdWords Keyword Planner or searching for your keyword on Google Trends. This will give you an idea of how popular the term is and whether it has a lot of searches or not.
You should also look at what kind of content exists for your chosen keywords so that it doesn’t repeat itself too much when creating content for those specific terms. For example, if someone Googles “how much does ____ cost” there are probably hundreds of articles about how much things cost each year—so creating another one isn’t going to help much!
Create a List of Relevant Keywords
This is where you take the information you’ve gathered and start putting it into a list. In this case, a list of relevant keywords that relate to your website and the content on it.
Once you have your list of keywords, do some research to make sure they are actually useful and not just variations of one another. You can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Keyword Tool (formerly known as the “Google Adwords Keyword Tool”) to see which ones are more popular than others, or look at what other people are writing about in their blogs or articles so that you can find out which phrases they’ve used most often.
You should also look at what you’re writing about on your own site—what words do people search for when they come here? These will likely be different from what other people write about because we all have our own unique audiences!
Generate More Topic Ideas Using the Keywords You’ve Selected
Once you’ve done your keyword research, you should be able to come up with at least 5-10 related topics that are worth writing about. If you can’t, it’s possible that the keywords aren’t fitting or relevant to what people are searching for online.
For example: “make money online” is a popular search term. A lot of people seem interested in learning how to make money online. You could write an article titled “How I Earn $1 Million Per Year Through Blogging,” and then use those exact words in your title, URL and body copy! That way if someone searches for them (or even just reads through their browser search bar), they’ll see your article as one of the top results when visiting Google or Bing/Yahoo!.
Choose Which Topics to Write About First
Now, you’re ready to choose which topics to write about first. But how do you decide?
You can think about the level of relevance and popularity that each keyword has for your audience. You can also look at how competitive each keyword will be—and if some keywords are just too competitive, it may be better to skip writing about them altogether.
Create Content Based on Your Keyword Research
Now that you have your keyword list, it’s time to start creating content. There are a few key steps to follow when creating content based on keywords:
It takes some time, but well worth it in the long run.
Now that you know the basics of keyword research and what it can do for your business, it’s time to start digging into the data. It takes some time, but well worth it in the long run.
As with any marketing strategy, there are no strict rules about how you should go about doing keyword research for your business or website. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to choosing keywords that will help increase traffic and conversions on your site:
Conclusion
I hope this has helped you see how to do keyword research for your content. It’s a lot of work and sometimes doesn’t lead anywhere, but if you keep at it and make sure that the keywords you choose are relevant to your topic, then there’s no reason why they won’t help!