Module 3 – Keyword Research
Why Keyword Research Is Important
Keyword research is the guiding force of your SEO efforts. It helps you better understand your target audience by giving you insight into what they’re actually searching for. If nobody is searching for what you’re writing about, then your site won’t receive any traffic from Google. This is where keyword research comes into play.
What are keywords?
The words and phrases that people type into search engines
What is keyword research?
The process of finding and analyzing search terms that people enter into search engines with the goal of using that data for a specific purpose.
How To Do Keyword Research
Step 1
Understand your customers and their goals
This is key to having success with your content strategy. What are your target customers searching for online?
What words and phrases do they use? Create your buyer personas with SEO in mind.
Step 2
Decide which topics you want to be known for
What topics do people search for that
are related to your business?
Start by making a list of all the important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.
Step 3
Find out what terms people are searching for online
Start at the topic level, then zoom in. Keyword research tools. “Searches related to” and auto suggestions in Google are a simple way to get started. Other tools are Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer and Answer the Public.
Step 4
Note search volume and competition
Use your keyword research tool of choice to take note of the monthly search volume and competition for each keyword you’re interested in targeting. Check for trending keywords using Google Trends. Find out which keywords your competitors are ranking.
Step 5
Organize your keywords into topic clusters.
Topic clusters are a method of structuring your content for both users and search engines.
With the list of keywords you’ve generated so far, organize them into related “clusters” around a given topic.
Step 6
Prioritize which topic cluster you’re going to focus on first.
Not every keyword will have the same search intent. Some keywords will come from searchers who are very early into their buying journey, while others will be farther along that journey.
What is the buyer’s journey?
The active research process someone goes through leading up to
a purchase. The buyer’s journey has three stages: Awareness, Consideration and Decision. The buyer’s journey plays a big part in what keywords people are using to search.
For example, keywords that start with “what is” might imply that the average searcher is just starting to learn what the topic is all about. By contrast, keywords that include the phrase “how to” might imply the average searcher now has a problem they’d like to solve — one that maybe you can solve for them. They may be in the Consideration or Decision stage of the buyer’s journey.
It’s important to know in which stage of the buyer’s journey your keywords fall.
