How to do keyword research

Imagine you run a business selling products or services. You have a great range, which is presented nicely on your website. Yet, you struggle to generate traffic, and more and more customers are choosing to visit your competitors’ sites instead.

Does this sound familiar? Then it is time to get started with search engine optimisation. Search engine optimisation (SEO) consists of several disciplines, and for many, it can be difficult to know where to start. However, it is absolutely crucial to lay a solid foundation from the outset, and this is where thorough keyword research is essential.

If we look at the challenge of lacking traffic and, consequently, potential sales, it could be because your website does not reflect what your customers are actually searching for. In other words, your site is not fully optimised to rank at the top of Google’s search results when potential customers are looking for your products or services. You need to change this immediately so that it is your website customers choose to shop on. Keyword research can help you achieve this.

What is keyword research?

Put simply, keyword research is about finding the right keywords that your customers are searching for and that fit your business profile. But how do you do that? You do it with a bit of good old-fashioned detective work, combined with rigorous sorting and prioritisation. Good keyword research starts with a comprehensive brainstorm of words that could be relevant to your products or services. Remember, “unaware users” do not necessarily use the same technical terms as you do internally in your business.

Once you have finished brainstorming, you should have a long list of words that could serve as the starting point for your ongoing SEO work. There are several free tools available where you can enter a word and receive a host of related keywords in return. This is a great place to start. Additionally, you can simply perform a Google search for the word and identify the suggestions that Google itself provides (Google Suggest).

Once you have taken off your detective hat and created a sea of potential keywords, you cannot just sit back. Now it is time to analyse and prioritise. Even though you may be pleased with the keywords you have listed, there is certainly no guarantee they are the right ones. You will need some help to find out. This is where Google Keyword Planner comes into play.

Find the right keywords with Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is Google’s own tool, so you can be fairly confident that the data provided is reliable. You can access Keyword Planner if you have an Adwords account. Keyword Planner is an indispensable tool when you need to conduct thorough and precise keyword research. Simply take the words from your original list and enter them into Keyword Planner.

You will then be presented with the average monthly search volume for each keyword. At the same time, you can see whether competition for your chosen keywords is considered high, medium or low. Both are essential parameters if you want to end up with the most effective keyword strategy.

Do not necessarily go for volume

“But shouldn’t I just select the keywords with the highest monthly searches?” It is an obvious thought, as this could potentially allow you to reach a large audience, but it is not always the strategy that will deliver the best results. Firstly, broad keywords with very high search volumes are often accompanied by fierce competition. You will most likely be up against some strong players in your industry, and it could turn out to be a losing battle from the start.

At the same time, there is no guarantee that broad keywords with lots of searches will bring you qualified traffic, and it is naturally a longer journey from search to purchase than if you focus on niche phrases or long-tail keywords. Users today are more specific in their search queries, so you should seriously consider whether it is better to ignore the high search volumes in favour of keywords with fewer searches but greater relevance.

Good and bad keywords – an example

Let’s take an example. You have an online shop selling bicycles. You see that there are more than 27,000 monthly searches for “bicycles”. You might already be seeing pound signs at the thought of attracting 27,000 visitors to your site every month. Unfortunately, that is not how it works. Competition is fierce, and if you are a smaller shop, you will find it very difficult to outrank your competitors in the search results.

The keyword “bicycles” is also very broad. Is it men’s bikes, women’s bikes, racing bikes or what exactly does each user want to find with their search? Here, you would benefit from digging one or two levels deeper and uncovering keywords with less competition, where you can be sure of delivering the desired result. For example, “men’s bikes” with 1,600 searches, “cheap racing bikes” with 720 searches, or even more niche keywords such as “cheapest bike with ultegra di2” with 50 monthly searches. It is a fine balance between finding keywords with sufficient volume but low competition so that you can actually compete in the search results.

And of course, it is crucial that your products and services match the selected keywords so that customers do not leave disappointed. This would likely do more harm than good.

Find long-tail keywords and phrases with StoryBase

Another extremely useful tool for keyword research is StoryBase. With StoryBase, you can find long-tail phrases with less competition but which are very specific. StoryBase can be used when optimising landing pages, for example category pages, but it is especially effective if your site has a blog.

StoryBase allows you to discover different variations of a keyword by choosing either Questions, Phrases or Related. The Questions tab is particularly useful for blogs, as this reveals the questions your potential customers are asking, allowing you to provide a comprehensive answer in a blog post, which can then guide the customer further into your site.

Check your competitors – what are they doing?

In addition to using various tools to find potential keywords, it is also a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing. You probably already know who your competitors are, and there must be a reason why they perform better in the search results. This may be because they are focusing on exactly the right keywords in your industry.

Investigate where your competitors’ focus lies and assess whether it makes sense for your business to replicate it. Then you simply need to provide better content than your competitors and, of course, create a detailed plan for your ongoing SEO efforts.

Structure and execution

You now have a useful list of keywords, but there is still work to be done in terms of establishing a structure and identifying the right keywords. In fact, it is a demanding task to eliminate irrelevant keywords so that you end up with a prioritised list of strong and relevant ones. Once this is done and you have identified your potential customers’ online behaviour, you can target them precisely and ensure highly qualified traffic.

The next step is to create the perfect landing pages so your content matches the user’s search intent. Want to learn more about how to optimise your landing pages? Read more here.

And let’s not forget the importance of link building – that is, creating inbound links to your site, which Google sees as a recommendation and rewards your website accordingly.

However, keyword research is fundamental to get right first, before you continue with your SEO efforts. This is especially true if you are planning a new website. In that case, you MUST have your keywords in place beforehand to ensure the right site structure from day one. It will pay off in the long run.