Keyword research is a fundamental step for anyone who wants to create a successful website.
In the design or drafting phase of the editorial plan, it is essential to always approach the drafting of the contents after having done careful Keyword Research, but first you must understand well what it is and how to do it.
This article aims to be an in-depth look at how to do Keyword Research and why it is essential in a correct SEO Strategy (If you don't know all the advantages of ending up on the first page, I recommend you read this article on SEO Optimization).
Summary
What does it mean to do Keyword Research?
Keyword research (also known as keyword research ) is an analysis that consists of finding the words most used by users on search engines for a given topic.
Keyword Research is the basis of all website positioning activities , because it allows you to understand in detail what your target audience is looking for.
In fact, based on the query typed, we should try to understand exactly what the user wants, in technical jargon: Search Intent .
How many Search Intents are there?
Search Intent is the main reason why a user has performed an online search. Every day, millions of people search the web for something to satisfy a real need.
Most user search intentions can be classified into one or more of the following categories :
1. Informational search intent:
The user searches for information on a general or specific topic , with the aim of learning something from reading or viewing content on the web, such as in-depth articles.
In fact, they represent 80% of total traffic.
Informational query example: "how to optimize your website"
2. Transactional search intent:
The user intends to complete a transaction .
The goal is to download something, purchase a product, ask for more information about a specific service , or perform some other action that has a strong chance of leading to a subsequent sale.
Ranking on Google for keywords that intercept transactional queries not only allows you to intercept more qualified users, but also increases sales and generates more leads.
They represent 10% of total searches performed by users.
Transactional query example: "Web Agency Bergamo"
3. Navigational Search Intent:
the user aims to locate a specific site or web page.
The user therefore already has in mind the website he wants to navigate, and types the domain name, the brand of the site or terms that identify it into Google.
They represent 10% of total searches performed by users.
Navigational query example: "hangler marketing advisor"
Obviously, search intents can mix together within a single sentence, effectively generating a Mixed Search Intent.
What is Keyword Research for?
Before delving into this topic, you need to understand when to do Keyword Research.
The answer is much simpler than you might think: before the Website goes online.
In fact, Keyword Research should be carried out (if possible, obviously) during the creation of the Business Plan , in order to have more information on the reference market.
Why start with Keyword Research?
Now let's go into detail, into the heart of this activity, actually defining what the main advantages are.
- Identify market niches with very low competitive rates (for example: scissors for left-handed people)
- Discover any product seasonality and make a forecast of the related profitability.
- Identify the characteristics of the sector in which you operate and understand whether the demand is latent or conscious.
- Know your target audience better , their doubts and the research they carry out.
- Optimize your blog pages and product pages (if you have an e-commerce) to intercept search queries.
- Create an effective editorial plan that captures the user's attention.
And now, the most important one.
It allows you to create a clear and optimized information architecture on your website for both Google and users.
How to do Keyword Research: 5 steps to follow
Here is the juiciest part of this study, I will explain to you point by point, the procedure that we follow in the Agency.
1. Brainstorming and discussion with the client
Brainstorming is essential and is one of the fundamental pieces of how to do Keyword Research: you need to ask yourself questions.
When, how and why does the user need my product or service?
What are the peculiarities? What are the specific characteristics?
And who better than the entrepreneur can answer these questions?
In this way we can develop other useful branches for the creation of filters, tags and categories, in order to further simplify the User Experience of the user browsing the site.
2. Competitor analysis and research with tools
Once the path to follow has been defined, the second step is to observe in detail the strategy adopted by the competition.
This allows us to immediately exclude some less coherent keywords , for which in reality the types of sites are positioned that are not coherent with what we want to promote.
By using tools like SeoZoom and SemRush, we can analyze the domains of competitors that have positioned themselves for the generic keyword , in order to have further ideas to expand.
Let's take mice as an example.
By analyzing the keyword we can see how there are searches for the various specifications of the product and the various uses (vertical mice, ergonomic mice, office mice, etc.). This allows us to understand how to develop the website map , obtaining a clear and well-defined structure.
We can also see how there are keywords with a low search volume, but with a very high conversion rate : positioning for these means being very close to the user's moment of purchase.
Ex: "mouse for epicondylitis"
Once this in-depth analysis has been done, we need to scratch the bottom of each topic we have found, looking at the specific searches for each topic.
3. Expand the Topic
You need to enrich your content with keywords that help Google match search intent.
In short, we need to look at the synonyms of our key word, related topics and co-occurrences .
This way we can:
Get more on-site optimization insights
intercept searches actually carried out by users that we had not taken into consideration
create new relevant content that works on related searches, also strengthening the main keywords
avoid the so-called " Keyword Stuffing ": the abuse of the use of keywords is not well regarded by Google, which, contrary to what you might think, will penalize your content.
4. Study Search Intent
As I mentioned earlier, there are different search intents, so we need to refine the keywords we have found .
Never take anything for granted: it can happen that two product concepts are identical (such as a wireless mouse and a Bluetooth mouse) , but sometimes they can generate two different SERPs .
Conversely, if two keywords generate the same search result, you should group them together on the same page.
At this point we can hypothesize the structure of the website , being very careful not to create conflicting categories.
5. Analysis of real volumes
After an initial screening, once the keywords have been decided, it is time to check how much they are searched for on the web.
There are several tools, but one of the best (and it's free) is the Google Ads Keyword Planner , where you can check the monthly search volume of the keywords you've selected. To see what the trending topics are, instead, you can rely on Google Trends.
The next step is to see which keywords are worth pursuing, based on their Keyword Difficulty (KD) and their search volume.
Conclusions
Well, if you appreciated the effort of summarizing how to do Keyword Research in this post, I ask you to share it to help those who could benefit from it.
If you have any questions you can comment below or in our Facebook group Marketing for Small and Medium Businesses .
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