The Truth About Keyword Research: Is it That Difficult?
(cover image: a group of Scrabble word blocks laid over the table with one word in the middle spelled K E Y W O R D S.)
The Truth About Keyword Research: Is it That Difficult?
If you're new to blogging or an existing blogger who needs more website visitors, you may feel overwhelmed regarding keyword research. It's integral to any successful SEO strategy but can initially seem complex. This blog post will further explore this topic and address the question: Is keyword research as hard as it looks? I'll also provide valuable tips for conducting research without feeling overwhelmed.
What is Keyword Research?
A search term analysis involves identifying popular and relevant search terms on search engines and analyzing them to determine their relevance, competitiveness, and potential to drive traffic.
In keyword research, you're trying to find the right words or phrases people search for in your niche. New bloggers should research the most popular terms and phrases people use to find information about a particular topic since they tend to have fewer competitors than short-tail ones.
Keyword Research consists of the following list:
Analyzing search trends: Identifying the most popular search engine phrases and words.
Finding related keywords: Finding related and long-tail keywords that can generate additional search traffic.
Building keyword lists: Creating a comprehensive list of target keywords for content creation and SEO campaigns.
Utilizing keyword research tools: Leveraging online tools to monitor and analyze search trends, competition, and potential traffic.
Evaluating competition: Determining how competitive specific keywords are and how difficult it is to rank them.
Measuring relevance: Track the performance of targeted keywords to measure the success of your campaigns.
Estimating traffic potential: Discovering the traffic generated from specific keywords and phrases.
Implementing keyword optimization: Using specific keywords to optimize webpages, content, and other online assets.
SEO strategies are based on keyword research since it is the foundation of all content optimization efforts. Suppose you know what your target audience is looking for online. In that case, you can provide them with high-quality, engaging written content tailored to their interests and needs.
The Benefits of Keyword Research
An essential part of any successful SEO strategy is keyword research. This involves identifying the words and phrases your target audience uses to search for your products and services. By incorporating these keywords into your website content, you can increase the chances of your site ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The benefits are:
- Aids you in understanding what people are searching for online:
- Identify gaps in the market where specific terms or phrases may have less competition:
- Using Long-tail keywords helps you to your content to get in the search engine results pages.
Investing in this process can be a great way to attract more visitors to your website and generate more conversions. The effort you put in for keyword research will pay off with improved visibility and better performance.
Is Keyword Research Hard?
If you're new to SEO, the term "keyword research" can be intimidating. But is it that difficult?
Truthfully, the answer is both yes and no.
At first, this may seem overwhelming, particularly if you need to acquire prior experience or knowledge. This is where the training here at the WA platform comes from.
Understanding Keywords, The Start of Your Content
Keyword research requires some time and effort to get right. You'll need to understand your target audience and what they're looking for online and look over your competitors' keywords to help understand your target audience's needs and wants.
Many keyword tools make keyword research much more accessible now than in the past. You can use Jaaxy and Alphabet Soup X (for P Plus Members). Google Keyword Planner, SemRush, Ahrefs, and Keywords Everywhere help you quickly generate a list of relevant keywords for your website or content.
It ultimately comes down to how much effort you will put into keyword research. If you learn about your audience and use the right tools, keyword research becomes more accessible and manageable.
The Different Types of Keywords
When it comes to keyword research, understanding the different types of keywords is crucial.
Short-Tail Keywords: One or two words are used to describe a broad topic or concept, such as "cars," "furniture," and "shoes."
Long-Tail Keywords: Multiple-word search queries that target a specific topic and contain location-based terms, such as city names, states, or zip codes. Examples include "used cars in Seattle" and "Italian Restaurants in New York City."
Questions Keywords: Ask questions like "What is the best car to buy?" or "How do I fix my computer?"
Exact Match Keywords: For example, if someone searches for "Italian restaurants near me," the keyword match would be "Italian restaurants near me" instead of just "Italian restaurants."."
Partial Match Keywords: For example, if someone searches for “find me the best Italian restaurants near me," a partial match keyword will show up as. "Italian restaurants near me." (the best might not be in the search page result). Partial match keywords in Google help to discover the relevance of a website to a particular search query.
Branded Keywords: Companies can improve brand awareness and attract highly targeted traffic. For example, "Papa John's Pizza." "Nike basketball shoes," and "Columbia Sportswear."
Competitor Keywords: They can help you understand your competitors' actions and where to focus your efforts. For example, "McDonald's menu" or "Starbucks locations."
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Keywords: The use of LSI keywords helps Google understand what the page is about contextually. For example, if you're targeting "dog training," an LSI keyword might be "how to train a puppy.".
These different types of keywords allow you to create a well-rounded keyword strategy that targets various user intents effectively without solely relying on difficult-to-rank-for-head terms.
Pros and Cons of Keyword Research
Keyword research has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. By identifying the keywords they use when searching for information online, you can tailor your content to their specific needs.
Pros of Keyword Research:
- Focus on your target audience and create content that resonates with them.
- Stay ahead of the competition by identifying new trends in your industry.
- Improves search engine rankings
- It helps you target niche markets.
- Provides valuable insight into customer behavior
Cons of Keyword Research:
- Time-consuming as it requires a lot of analysis and data collection.
- Relying too heavily on keywords could result in low-quality content.
- It can become costly expensive tools SemRush or Ahref keyword tools.
- Keywords become outdated due to trends that change quickly.
- Keyword stuffing can lead search engines like Google to penalize your site for keyword stuffing.
Conducting effective keyword research can be challenging; however, if done correctly, the benefits are worth every effort invested into this vital aspect of SEO optimization strategies for any website.
Easy Tips for Effective Keyword Research
Many content creators and SEO specialists find keyword research challenging. However, with the right tools and strategies, it can become a simple process that leads to better search engine rankings.
For effective keyword research, it is essential to:
Understand who is your target audience: Focus on your audience's needs and preferences; you can create content that resonates with them and includes keywords relevant to their interests.
7 Ways to Get to Know Your Target Audience Better
Use Long-tail keywords. As long-tail keywords are more specific, they have lower search volumes but higher conversion rates. They also help you compete against larger websites targeting broader terms.
How to Improve Website Ranking - 1: How to Use Keywords
Utilizing Google's Autosuggest (same as autocomplete): You can start typing a relevant phrase into Google's search bar, and Google will provide suggestions based on popular searches related to your topic. Partha's favorite (favourite) method, and I do too.
The ULTIMATE Guide to Keyword Research PART ONE (Inside Partha's Mind)
Study your competitor's websites: Use free keywords research tools like Jaaxy and SEMRush. This provides insight into the keywords they rank for and how you can optimize your content accordingly.
Brainstorm keyword ideas: Talk to experts in your niche, brainstorm ideas with colleagues, and use a thesaurus to develop new keywords.
Brainstorming Topic Ideas for Your Niche: A Step-by-Step Guide to How to Brainstorm
Always Test and track results: With Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4, you can identify which keywords are driving traffic and conversions so you can optimize them accordingly.
Introduction to Google Search Console
How to Install Google Analytics 4
Using the right tools and strategies, keyword research can become much easier for content creators and SEO professionals.
Final Thoughts
My thoughts are that keyword research is critical to any successful SEO plan. It can initially seem challenging, but anyone can learn to do it with the right approach and resources. Keep following goals and search the target market in mind as you search for keywords. Please feel free to experiment with long-tail phrases or use different tools until you find what works. Keep researching and watch your website get higher rankings in search engines! I have a list of Partha's Potions in additional resources for you to read. It is worth every read. Keep going! The best thing to do is not to give up.
-BrendaMZ
PS: Additional Resources
Has Your Website Lost Traffic? Do THIS RIGHT NOW
I Want You to Break All the SEO Rules and Write This Article
(NEVER REVEALED BEFORE!) The “Partha Method” - Your Ultimate Guide
Allow Me to Blow Your NEW WEBSITE Creation Mind
Recent Comments
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You are really knowledgeable. I love reading your articles. I always feel I have benefited from your knowledge, which you so freely share. Thank you for sharing. I have been struggling with keywords since I joined wealthy affiliates. I read the articles, did the training, and still felt stuck. Thanks a lot. Your article helped.
I studied it by reading other SEO Blogs, watching many YouTube SEO blogs, and jotting down notes about what they say, so most of that came from that. There are real bloggers out there who have more knowledge than me, but they taught me these things. Blogs from BackLinko (Brian Dean), SEMRush blogs, Ahref blogs, Moz blogs, Hubspot blogs, Search Engine Land Journal, Medium, and Quora are great places to research keywords and obtain expert information. I am glad this is helpful for you. This is why I do it.
Excellent stuff as always Brenda!
I have to say that Keyword research is just like anything else in life...
It can be challenging to begin with, but the more we learn and do, the easier it becomes!
Appreciate the share my friend and enjoy the rest of your week! :-)
Nick, you are right about that. At first, found using Jaaxy daunting when I first started, but now it's much easier as a Plus member to use the Enterprise version than the Lite version.
The Enterprise version certainly has its benefits Brenda, but as I mentioned before, it's all about learning how to use the tools at our disposal to the best of our abilities!
Once we do this, nothing should seem daunting my friend! :-)
Hi Jenny,
That is my hope that the information is valuable. People say its long content but that is what we are supposed to do with our website. Long form content. I hope you are doing well!
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Hi Brenda,
Appreciate your covering this topic. It is surely the make or break function crucial or often the other steps regardless of effort can be rendered ineffective.
I've found keyword research to be quite time intensive, and far from perfecting my own system. I've lucked out on a few keywords, relying in part on my best performing post using my knowledge to come up with it as it wasn't something being offered in also asked and such. I think this might be the case with some of the better long tail keywords, which is why they have been hardly used if at all.
One addition I'll add that I learned from one of Partha's posts.
I've found some websites during my research that are ranking high on several posts but have low domain authority. This means they have learned how to do great keyword research.
I'm not in the cluster area to use what I've found at their sites yet, but I have saved their sites to use the same target keywords that are low fruit and will write more in depth articles than they have when I get to that point.
Regards,
Jason
That sounds great. I am aware that the tools arent 100 percent as Google autosuggest. I agree about Partha. But remember he said you could rank for thousands of other keywords also in your content.
Hi Brenda,
I do know that, what I don't know is if you have to rank well for the topic keyword first, or if over time Google would rank something else from the post higher as it felt it was more on topic for their audience,
Regards,
Jason
That would be good to analyze further down the road with GSC and GA4.