How to do keyword research for SEO: A Beginners Guide

One marketing component is SEO. With no fixed, outgoing costs, it can be a great addition to your marketing.

While data from marketers and Google constantly updates its algorithm, one thing stays consistent when it comes to inbound advertising: Keyword research data.

What is keyword research and how does it affect SEO strategies?

In this blog post, I’ll talk you through how to implement an on-page SEO strategy for your site. You can also read on to discover how to select a free tool to analyse your keywords and some of the best free keyword tools to help you rank for some of the most useful terms, specific to your business.

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?

SEO is the process of optimising a website to increase the likelihood of the website ranking when someone searches on Google. For effective marketing on search engines, you should aim to rank for as many related keywords as possible to optimise your visibility.

Google wants to see relevant content that will be useful for your target audience. The best SEO strategy helps your site tick these boxes set by Google.

There are two types of SEO, one of which is technical SEO which is essentially how the website technically performs.

The other is focused on the ‘on page’ factors, the copy, keywords and the bulk of your website content. To master your on this type of SEO, you should be sure to target the correct keyword for each of your website pages.

This means you need to include the right keywords on the site. These keywords should be searched for enough times per month to help increase your visibility.

The importance of the right keyword

Keywords – keywords are a word or small phrase you would like people to search for, and then see your website on search result pages. If you do this, it’s called ‘ranking for a keyword’.

Google is constantly searching the web and reviewing all online ads, keywords and content. Its algorithms are trying to identify, at speed, what your content is about.

Organic SEO has no fixed costs attached, its free, so for free, you can make some sustainable and positive changes related to your traffic. The data you’ll see can speak for itself!

To maximise your marketing use of keywords there are number of steps you can follow. Read on to learn how your business can get a competitive edge using SEO.

How well are you performing currently?

If you can, begin with an audit to identify current performance, traffic and in the context of your wider website.

Start by putting together a site map. What pages do you have on your website? Which of those list your services? What resources do you have available for visitors to read on your site?

Look at your metrics. Which pages receive the most traffic so far? Can you remove some pages that aren’t performing well? This data is your baseline to improving the amount of traffic you’re receiving per month.

On Google Analytics, you can see how much traffic you’re receiving from an organic source (ie traffic from the search results). If you this installed, what keywords are you currently ranking for?

One feature of Google Search Console is that you’ll be able to see the keywords you rank for and the accompanying page. There is an explorer tool available here to help you discover the success of each of these pages.

Another feature is that you can paste individual URLs in and check that they are actually listed on Google. You may otherwise find that you have some issues to resolve.

To discover these insights, be sure you actually have these tools installed. If you don’t get in contact and I’d be delighted to help you!

Take each item of content, can you match a keyword to the page?

Step 1: Your initial keyword list

What keywords would you like your site to rank for? Write down some relevant keywords to your business.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to put this list together, it’s just important to select keywords that are most relevant.

If someone was looking to search for your business, for example, what terms might they search for? See if you can add other keywords to the list which may be related.

Step 2: Use the best keyword research tools

A keyword research tool can help you assess the correct keyword for free, and quantitatively.

SEO keyword research can be an overwhelming process. There’s so many keywords to choose from so it can be difficult to assess the right words.

Take your list and use a keyword research tool to see how many times the keyword is searched. A simple search for ‘SEO keyword explorer’ will pull up a variety of free tools.

Are people searching for the keyword? Is it very popular? See if you can identify trends in the monthly search volume and therefore how difficult it would be to rank for that keyword.

Moz is a leader in free tools, check out what they have to offer here.

Moz is an all-in-one SEO software suite that helps you improve your search engine visibility by providing fresh insights and empowering you to stay competitive. They have keyword planner, an explorer, backlink checkers and so much more! Moz can also help you to manage your data.

Many people have their favourite free keyword research tool. Let me know over on LinkedIn, what your preferred keyword tools are.

Use search volume data to identify the keyword to target

One crucial factor to consider while doing keyword research for SEO is the search volume data as this impacts the keyword difficulty and any new keyword ideas.

Monthly search volume data data refers to the number of times a particular keyword is searched on a search engine during a specific period.

The higher the search volume for a keyword, the more traffic you can expect to drive to your website if you rank well for it. However, it’s essential to keep in mind that high search volume keywords can be incredibly competitive and challenging to rank for, particularly if your site is very new.

Identify and learn from competitors

If you’re using long tail keywords, be sure to put this through your keyword tool to identify the difficulty.

When assessing the keyword, take into account competitors. For effective marketiing, competitors offer an ideal opportunity to learn more

Hence, it’s best to look for keywords with a moderate search volume that have less competition to rank well in search engine results pages. The keyword difficulty will always change over time so be sure to keep checking. Use a free SEO tool to keep an eye on this data and complete your monthly analysis.

Create sensible keyword research goals

When undertaking free SEO that’s led by an organic strategy, marketers often select the wrong keyword, without assessing the competitive landscape. Each industry and specific niche will have a varying difficulty.

Complement this approach by searching for a couple keywords about yourself on Google. Take a look at the results. Do similar businesses appear in Google? How do you stack up against the industry competition?

If sites with a .gov, .edu or an NHS domain appear high up the search results, this analysis might imply that it would be hard to rank for these terms. Can you alter the term a little to remove those keywords? What related keyword could you substitute in its place?

What keywords do your competitors rank for?

An assessment of the industry’s competitive landscape will provide insights to apply to your own industry.

You may choose to take them on, or alter your keywords to target.

Slightly longer keywords – ‘ ‘long tail’ keywords will always be less competitive. You can also use these keywords as inspiration to discover new keyword suggestions.

The key here is to examine the data from month to month. SEO results don’t appear overnight. It’s the product of continually examining your impact, taking insights from the data and evolving your strategy as it progresses.

Compare your results with a free SEO tool – Google Search Console

Selecting a free tool to manage your SEO is one crucial step to developing your wider campaign.

Google Search Console is one of these free options. It’s a bit like Google Analytics only provides a more detailed breakdown and analysis of how your website is performing on Google and other search engines.

If your site is well established, you may be able to assess the performance of each keyword using Google Search Console.

What keywords are you ranking for? How many times are people seeing your website on Google? How has this number changed over time? What content is most successful? Do these keywords, traffic and related other metrics accurately reflect your business metrics?

On Google in Search Console, you can take an individual keyword, click on it and explore data for that specific keyword result.

It’s important to check, is that the page with data you expect? Would you have expected the item to rank for that keyword?

If a relevant keyword is ranking, and providing you with even some small results, you should decide to build on this success.

You could add the keyword to other areas of the website, make this keyword more prominent, or create a new blog post to focus attention towards this keyword.

If you are ranking for keywords that are similar to keywords for your brand name, this keyword alone is fine, but doesn’t provide you with any SEO value. You should focus on keywords that are similar to the services you provide.

This free keyword and research tool may provide you with ideas for some other keyword research ideas.

If you can’t build them into your existing content, for example, then this is where a blog comes in useful. You could write articles designed to help you rank for particular keywords.

There are many free keyword searches and free keyword research tools to choose from.

Google and keyword research tool using google and keyword research planner is a good place to start.

These tools can provide the best keyword research tools and suggestions. They will tell you how easy it could be to rank for that keyword and monthly search volumes.

Step 3: Reduce your list of keywords

Websites involve ongoing maintenance, don’t make this more difficult by adding hundreds number of pages. You need to select words with the correct keyword difficulty. Doing this, will help you to reduce your keyword list.

What queries would you like people to search for to reach your website?

This isn’t about taking every keyword that may be related to your industry or business. For keywords that aren’t relevant, remove them. They’re not worth your time!

If you find any keywords that would be difficult to rank for, you can use something called ‘long tail keywords’.

This feature is where you take one small keyword, add something descriptive. For example, if you were a jeweller, you might suggest a keyword is ‘jewellery’. Whereas it might be you specialise in diamond necklaces. In that instance, you might want to try and rank for the keyword ‘diamond jewellery’.

Once this is complete, you then have a list of keywords to target.

Write a list of pages on your website. What is the most common keyword on each of these pages? For any new keywords you discover, you can then create content to match the keyword.

Sitemaps are a useful tool to create to help organise your site. Where do you want visitors to look for particular information? This can help you prioritise work on particular pages that are more prominent than others. Be sure the top-level information is sound and representative of what you would like to say as a wider business.

Step 4: Evolve & continue improving your ranking in search engine results

There are many free keyword, and paid SEO tools you can continue to use to optimise your website. Whether this be new keywords, that you are looking for keywords to add to new blog posts or keywords to add to product pages, there are tools to suit all needs.

There are also other ways to increase your visibility from search engines. SERP features are everything you see on Google that aren’t the standard keyword links.

Analysis of the data each month will help you to formulate suggestions for the campaign moving forward. You can generate ideas for your content strategy and gain an understanding of how this could align with the rest of your marketing.

Google sees searches for these segments as even more engaging queries than searches for standard keyword content, therefore drawing more attention and traffic to your pages.

There are many free tools to help you generate the code for one of these SERP features, such as this one here.

Making use of the SERP features may be one easy development tool to implement.

Use Google Ads as an additional tool for keyword research

Once you have completed his research and analysis, you now have a foundation for creating a paid advertising campaign.

Google paid for ads work on a pay per click basis. Different keywords will cost a different amount – dependant on their search volume. However, you can be completely flexible with your budget.

One of the industry the best free paid keyword research analysis tools is the free paid keyword planner tool from Google, so even if you’re not actually proceeding with an advert, it’s worth checking the full analysis tool out.

Google keyword planner lets you search for one initial keyword. From there, with google keyword planner you will be provided with as many similar, keyword suggestions, keyword ideas, and keyword suggestions, as possible.

SEO keyword research can be complex, but it’s important to remember this isn’t like paid advertising where your money could immediately be sucked into some kind of vacuum, this organic strategy is essentially free to implement!

Manage the ongoing keyword research

Keyword research is never complete. Your keywords to target may keep growing. Public interest changes over time and so does the search volume of each of keyword research. When this happens, you as marketers may find that keyword search volumes increase and decrease according to industry trends and competition.

Keyword and keyword research tool can help you analyze and generate more keyword ideas, for a content marketing strategy. Take all your other keyword research tool, ideas and insights and use this to inform your ongoing marketing strategy.

With every new item or change to your site, you need to ensure you add the correct keyword.

Do you have any free keyword research tools you like to use? Let me know.

Above all, although keywords are vital to growing your search engine visibility, it’s important to remember that you should be writing to provide useful information for your visitors and only your visitors. Do this, and Google will see that you’re providing relevant content and therefore will promote your business higher on the search engine result pages.

Growing your SEO impact

It’s crucial to optimise your website’s content and keyword strategy is crucial for achieving greater results on Google and increasing traffic to your site. While selecting the right keywords is an essential part of this process, it is not the only factor that affects your SEO performance.

Integrating other elements like your social media account, client testimonials, and downloadable content can also help improve your rankings and attract more visitors to your site. By focusing on these areas, you can create a comprehensive SEO strategy that maximizes your online potential and helps you reach your business goals.

The correct SEO strategy will also help you to market your services more effectively.

Analyze your progress and keep up to date with how your industry is changing and you can be sure to implement an effective SEO strategy.

Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, and regularly updating and improving your website’s content and features is necessary for continued success in the long term.

Free keyword tools to try:

When choosing an SEO tool there are a lot of factors to consider – from cost to functionality. On most of these tools, you’ll be able to see queries you’re ranking for, keyword suggestions, ongoing metrics and a competitive analysis.

When creating your account, lots of these tools have free options for you, so be sure to try them out before subscribing to any paid plans.

• Surfer SEO: to help audit and write your content.
• SEM Rush: An all in one SEO option, including their popular keyword magic tool & ongoing analysis tools. You can also post onto your social media account directly from SEM Rush!
• Moz : An all in one SEO suite, including a free keyword planner and functions to analyze your progress. Moz Pro can also complete scheduled actions to help you automate SEO.
• SEO Explorer: Free keyword & backlink checker