Google constantly updates its ranking algorithm, and marketers also constantly update their marketing strategies according to changes in rules. But for on-site marketers seeking to optimize website search, one thing has remained unchanged: keyword research. Keyword research has always been a necessary work.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the search terms that people input into search engines. The goal is to use these data for specific purposes, usually for search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing. Keyword research can find the target query words, the popularity of these query words, their ranking difficult, etc.
Importance of Keyword Research
Keyword research provides high-quality information for marketing, which can help understand the actual search terms of the target audience on Google. The study of these actual search terms can help formulate content marketing strategies and other types of marketing strategies. However, the importance of keywords to SEO may not be as important as you think. Now, more and more people say that after 10 years of development of SEO, keywords themselves have played a less important role in getting good rankings. In the eyes of SEO professionals, using keywords that exactly match people's search is no longer the most important ranking factor. It is the intention behind the keyword and whether the content solves the intention. But this does not mean that keyword research is outdated. Keyword research can reveal the topics that people care about and how popular these topics are in your audience. By studying a large number of search keywords obtained every month, you can identify and classify your content into the topics you want to create. Then, you can use these topics to decide which keywords you are looking for and aiming at.
How to Do Keyword Research – Steps of Keyword Research
In this way, you can establish and implement a powerful keyword strategy to help you find the search words you really care about.
Step 1: Make a list of important and relevant topics based on your understanding.
To start this process, think about the topic you want to rank. You will come up with about 5-10 topics that you think are important to your business, and then you will use these topics in the later process to help you come up with some specific keywords. If you are a regular blogger, these may be the topics you most often blog about. Or the topic that appears most in the sales dialogue. Put yourself in the position of your buyer, and what types of topics your target audience will search for
Step 2: Fill in these topics with keywords.
Now that you have several topics, it's time to identify some keywords that belong to these topics. These are keyword phrases that rank important in SERP (search engine results page), because your target customers may be searching with these specific terms. The point of this step is not to get the final list of your keyword phrases, but to get a list of phrases you think potential customers will use to search. We will narrow the scope of the list later so that the workload will not be so heavy.
Step 3: Understand how intention affects keyword research, and analyze accordingly.
Now user intention is one of the most critical factors for you to get a good ranking on Google and other search engines. Web pages can solve the problems that searchers want to solve, which is more important than simply carrying the keywords used by searchers. So, what impact does this have on keyword research? It is easy for people to see keywords on the surface, but in fact, keywords can have many different meanings under the surface. Because the intention behind the search is crucial to your ranking, you need to be extra careful to explain your target keywords.
Step 4: Research relevant search terms.
This is a creative step, which you may have thought of when doing keyword research. If not, this is also a good way to enrich these keyword lists. If you are trying to think about more keywords, people may search for a specific topic to see the relevant search terms that appear when you insert a keyword in Google. When you enter your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google results, you will notice some search suggestions related to your original input. These keywords can inspire other keywords you may want to consider.
Step 5: Use keyword research tools.
Keyword research and SEO tools, such as AHREFS, can help you propose relevant keywords based on the keywords you provide. Reasonable use of tools can supplement the keyword list.