Every successful SEO Strategy starts with keyword research. It is the step in which we learn what people are searching for prior to creating any content, running any ads, or building any landing pages. Without keyword research, you’re shooting in the dark in the hopes that something will hit. With the right keywords, you learn to better understand your audience, attract the right traffic, and create content that matters to them. \
When people think of keyword research, they often think it is as simple as finding a few popular search terms and dropping them throughout their web page, however, this could not be farther from the truth. It starts with understanding user intent which incorporates search trends, competition, and content opportunities. \
There are info, nav, and transactional intents. Informational keywords indicate that the searcher is simply looking for answers or solutions. navigational keywords indicate that the searcher is looking for a specific website. and transactional keywords indicate that the searcher is ready to make a purchase. Once you learn to identify these, creating content that answers the searchers intent becomes that much easier.
Long-tail Keywords are your go-to strategy. Although longer, these specific phrases typically have lower volume searches, the searches they do attract are highly targeted and more likely to convert. For instance, the searches “best budget laptops for students” and “best laptop” are much more likely to see conversions for the former than the latter. Operating to attract that type of traffic is the end goal.
Following that is competition analysis. This determines the level of difficulty you will face in your search for a goal. Tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Ubersuggest, and Google Keyword Planner provide excellent assistance in measuring the level of difficulty in ranking for a keyword. Try to avoid relying on high volume search terms as those are usually the goal for everyone. Instead, try to pinpoint the keywords that you have a high chance to perform well in.
Another major factor is determining search trends. Certain keywords will see a massive spike in certain months, while others will maintain a steady volume through the year. Tracking trends will allow you to create and promote seasonal content. For instance, “gym memberships” and “holiday gift ideas” will see a spike in searches in January and November/December respectively compared to the rest of the year.
There is also the need to do competitor analysis. While you might think your competitors are ad adversaries, they actually do a lot of the hard work for you. You can check which keywords they rank for, and from that information, identify gaps and opportunities. Perhaps they underestimated a valuable long-tail keyword, or they didn’t analyze a specific topic deeply enough. That is your opportunity.
Once you have identified a keyword or collection of keywords, the next step is to create content for those keywords. The goal of the content is not to simply keyword stuffed. You need to make sure that the keyword is relevant to and used within the content of the subject. Google rewards keyword usage that is relevant and valuable to the user. Ensure you provide the content that your keywords need to address.
The last consideration is that keyword research is not a one-time activity. You have to consider that searches are not consistent, competitors move their rewards and Google updates its algorithms. You want to periodically re-evaluate your keywords and fine-tune the strategy to get the best from your keyword research. It is a universe that you can adjust, the greater the results from your SEO efforts.
The right approach to keyword research helps you to also have the right audience also to provide you the right opportunities. It helps you to get better awareness for your brand and to do it without advertisements or sponsorships. It about ranking at the top of the Search engines, its about having a better understanding a need that people have. When you have an understanding of the need, the rest of it is not hard.