Do you want to improve your website's SEO? If so, speaking your customers' language is key. That’s when keyword research becomes the shiny new tool in your marketing toolbelt.
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“It wasn’t what you said. It was how you said it.”
Just a few short words carry a message, a tone, and an underlying meaning. We even created emojis for the gaps that only facepalm 🤦🏻♂️can fill.
In the same way, keyword research isn’t just about a string of words typed into a search engine. When we discuss keyword research, what we mean is understanding what people are trying to find online.
Already done your research and just need a little bit of help? We’d love to talk.
Say you are researching the keyword “social media for business.” Is the searcher trying to create a social media page for their business? Are they trying to learn how to write social media posts for their business pages? Do they want to hire a marketing team to run their social media?
By using keyword research, you can get some great insights into how people search and what they're thinking.
With this information, you can strategically align your content and offerings to meet their needs.
Ready to dive into keyword research? Kick things off by asking yourself some questions to help you see your products and services from your client's point of view.
We have found that most businesses have a secret weapon that can help them at this stage: their best salesperson. Great salespeople are great because they understand your clients.
Salespeople may be the single most underused source of expertise in the marketing world. They're the ones who know what questions your clients are asking.
Once you understand your client's perspective, create lists that cover important topics, phrases, and questions.
When creating these lists, avoid getting stuck in the details. Google is good at recognizing when similar keywords mean essentially the same thing. This frees you up to focus on the broader view.
Have you made your list? Good. Now it's time to use a keyword research tool to learn which of these phrases you should pursue ranking for on Google!
A lot of free tools exist that can help as you develop these lists. Some of our favorites include:
Google Keyword Planner: This tool tells you the cost advertisers pay to display their ads for a specific keyword. It also provides the total average monthly searches for each keyword, and other keyword recommendations.
Moz Free SEO Tools: With this tool, you can find the keyword difficulty, average monthly searches, and organic click-through-rate for each keyword. It also provides suggestions for other similar keywords.
SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool: We recommend this tool for advanced users. This tool covers everything from keyword intent, difficulty, and search volume, to SERP features and more. It offers all these features for both your selected keyword and related keywords. The free version offers these features for up to 10 keywords.
Answer The Public: This tool provides ideas for questions around your keyword that people are asking. Use it to find long-tail keywords, or keywords that include more words, and therefore might be easier to rank for.
Google Search Console: Use this tool to see what keywords your website already ranks for. This tool also provides its rank, number of impressions, and clicks.
If all else fails, search your terms in Google, and scroll to the bottom of the page to find “searches related to ______.”
Google searches are a never-ending rabbit hole that can be a tremendous help in coming up with keyword ideas.
Now, let's start by using SEMRush's free Keyword Magic tool. Go to this link and type the first phrase or topic from your list in the field provided.
Once you type in the keyword and hit "Search," a table will appear. This table contains your keyword, related keywords, keyword suggestions and these features:
Search intent indicates what the searcher is looking for. These include:
To grow your business, ranking for transactional keywords will make people much more likely to find you when looking to purchase your product. This makes them incredibly valuable, and as a result difficult to rank for.
Ranking for informational keywords will be easier, but the traffic from those keywords will be less likely to purchase. Ranking for informational keywords improves domain authority, which improves your rankings for transactional keywords.
A solid SEO strategy includes making content that covers all search intents. This helps searchers find answers, gather info, and make purchases with ease.
Monthly search volume shows you how many people are searching for your target keyword on a monthly basis. More people searching for a keyword means more opportunities for people to see your web page when it ranks for that keyword.
Keyword difficulty informs you of how difficult it will be to rank for the keyword in question. Here's what you'll need to rank for a keyword in each of SEMRush's keyword difficulty percentage ranges.
If your new to keyword research, or you have a new website, look for the keywords with low ranking difficulty, but decent search volume. We call this the "low hanging fruit."
The cost per click tells you how much Google Ads charges for advertisers to appear first when someone searches for a keyword.
A high cost-per-click indicates that several advertisers are competing for a keyword in the ad auction. That indicates that the keyword is valuable to advertisers and more likely to lead to a purchase.
A low cost-per-click indicates that the auction is less competitive, meaning the keyword is less likely to lead to a purchase.
Still, it's important to realize how low cost-per-click keywords can amp up your site's domain authority.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) Features are results that don't appear as normal search listings. These can include images, sitelink extensions, featured snippets, and many other extensions.
Using the attributes above, choose keywords that fit your strategy and your situation best.
Do you have a brand new site with few pages and low traffic volume? Try to rank for keywords with lower ranking difficulty, but decent search volume.
Do you have a well-established domain launching a new product or service? Search for keywords with transactional or commercial intent, and a high cost-per-click.
Remember, a good SEO strategy incorporates keywords with a balance of search intents. Use your blog to rank for the informational keywords and product pages to rank for transactional keywords.
Repeat the process for other relevant terms and phrases representing different perspectives on your solution. You can use keywords and phrases you discover in your research as a jumping-off point for more inquiries.
And remember, although tools like SEMRush are powerful, don't forget your most underused marketing resource! Your best salesperson is a better source for questions your clients are asking than any software could ever be.
If you’re excited about this newfound knowledge and are ready to put it to good use, it’s time to talk about SEO again.
Do you have your ideas for key phrases, topics, and questions? Great. The next step is simple: start writing.
“Write what?” you say. How about a product page that shows your reader there IS a solution for their problem. Or a blog that answers the questions your keyword research has so kindly told you that your readers are asking. Create relevant content that will resonate with your customers.
SEO is much bigger than updating your web pages based on a few minutes of keyword research, but it’s a great start.
To learn more about what you need to know about SEO, check out our previous blog on this topic! You can’t have SEO without keyword research, and keyword research is moot without the need for SEO.
If we’ve convinced you this is super important, but you just feel like you don't have the time, we have answers for that too. Reach out to us! We specialize in helping people like you leverage SEO to keep your business growing and thriving!
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