Last updated on November 23rd, 2022
Keyword research is considered by most content marketers as their priority when it comes to SEO. They offer insights into what your audience is looking for on the web, along with several other details, and thus point you towards the kind of content you should ideally create if you want to generate more traffic and rank higher on search engines.
If you’re wondering how to go about keyword research to get the highest possible rankings, this guide is for you. We go through various aspects, such as finding the best keywords, what you should consider when choosing them, the different keyword research tools you can use, and much more.
How To Do Researching for Keywords To Improve SEO Rankings
1. Create Buyer Personas to Understand What Matters to Them
In 2023, it’s likely that several companies have already created buyer personas as part of their content marketing strategy. For those of you who don’t know what a buyer persona is, it embodies the characteristics of your ideal customer, thus helping you look at them as people. They offer great insights into what matters to your audience, along with the kind of information they look for at different stages of the buying process.
Additionally, it can also help guide you about how they’re searching for this information. Understanding these aspects makes creating content much easier, as they give your content marketing efforts a direction.
Creating a buyer persona involves factoring in various demographic details, such as age, location, income levels, subsequent relationship with your domain, the likely problems they face, etc.
Ideally, then, creating a buyer persona is the first step to take before you look for keywords, as they give you the added advantage of knowing which ones you could consider based on the user’s intent. Further, it can also help identify topics that are relevant to your domain.
For example, at WittyPen, this process helps us identify broader topics such as content marketing and content writing, apart from other subtopics that fall under these umbrellas, such as SEO Strategies and Growth Insights, among others. These topics then become the focal points of our blog, as you can see from the images below.
2. Find Keyword Ideas Through Google and Youtube Suggestions, Wikipedia, and Forums in Your Domain
Finding keywords isn’t as hard as you might think. In fact, the simplest way to find out what people are searching for is by using Google Suggest and YouTube Suggest. Look at the image below. Typing the words ‘Best laptops for” gives you a bunch of keyword suggestions that you can then consider while creating your content. This goes to show that people are, in fact, looking for the best laptops for college students, coding, or architects. You can do the same with YouTube, which will give you yet more options.
Yet another way to find popular keywords on Google is in the ‘Searches Related To’ section at the end of a page of results. These give you more suggestions for the searches that users on Google make.
Wikipedia is yet another avenue that can offer you a gold mine of keywords. Here’s how it works. Simply search the keyword you’re looking for on Wikipedia and open its page. The contents of the page offer a bunch of keywords that might otherwise be overlooked. In this case, searching for Teak results in a list of contents that includes its botanical history, cultivation, and propagation, each of which can make great keywords when used like this – “teak propagation.”
A third way of finding keywords is through forums in your domain. To find them, search for “keyword + forums” in your search engine, and you’ll get a whole list. Now, look for queries that people have been asking about the subject, and you’ll realize that several of these have great potential to be used as keywords. The best part is, it tells you that people are indeed looking for this information, which you can then provide.
3. Use Keyword Research Tools
The next step in the process and the best way of finding the right keywords to rank with is using keyword research tools. There are various options available, such as Ahref’s Keyword Explorer, and Ubersuggest. ExplodingTopics.com and SEMrush, among others. To demonstrate how these tools can help you decide on the best keywords you can rank based on various parameters, we’re going to use Ahref’s Keyword Explorer.
In the example above, the keyword entered is “keyword explorer.” What’s great about Ahref’s is that it gives you various details about the keyword, such as the difficulty, the cost per click, the percentage of organic clicks, along with the global search volume with a country-wise breakdown.
Every tool that we mentioned previously offers different elements that might work better for some than others. It’s up to you to make a decision based on your needs. However, each of them works brilliantly to guide you to those keywords with a higher chance of ranking.
Deciding which ones will have a better chance of ranking further depends on several factors. For instance, long-tail, niche keywords in your domain that have less competition, or in the case of Afref’s tool, a lesser search volume, have better chances of ranking higher, and if optimized right, sometimes even on the first page of Google’s search results. As we’ve mentioned before, this is crucial since most people don’t go past this page in search of more information. Thus, your goal must be to rank among the top results on the first page to have a higher chance of people clicking on your content.
4. Test Keywords Using Google Ads Campaigns
Testing your keywords using Google Ads is an important step before using them in your content. This can be done using the “exact match” option. This is a great way for you to figure out how much traffic these keywords can generate in the real world.
Run the campaign for 24 hours and see how many clicks and impressions were generated. Of these, find out how many converted to being customers, and then calculate how much this generates in terms of revenue. The results can help choose between keywords that have a higher chance of conversions, as opposed to those that don’t, leaving you with clarity on which keywords to finally use in your content!
Read More: SEO Keyword Research and Analysis – Boost Organic Traffic
In Conclusion
Keyword research is a process that requires dedication and a fair amount of time. However, the benefits really pay off. Using the above ways of finding the right keywords to tank your business higher can save precious time that would otherwise be wasted in a trial-and-error approach. We hope this guide on keyword research helped you identify the best ways to optimize your content for the best results.
Now, it’s your turn! Dive into the rewarding process of keyword research and let us know to what extent it helped increase the number of clicks and conversions. On the contrary, if you’re on the lookout for content writing services that take the task of keyword research off your plate, WittyPen is the platform for you! Good luck!
