How to Do Advanced Keyword Research?

Keyword research is among the most important activities of search engine optimization that is extremely essential to take your website and marketing efforts to a new level. The process of keyword research involves identifying words and phrases that users are actually using to look for a particular product, service, or piece of information. The keywords can then be used to create and optimize content around it to further marketing goals.

Keyword research has a huge impact on every other SEO task that is carried out, which may include researching topics to create content, on-page SEO as well as outreach and promotional activities. Therefore, every SEO campaign usually starts with the step of keyword research.

Keywords act as the guidelines for SEO campaigns. They help you map a path to success and keep you updated on whether or not you’re making any progress. The benefit of using keywords is that they help figure out what your target audience is looking for, what ideologies they follow, and what they fear or desire? It gives an insight into exactly what the customer wants and the exact words and phrases they use. Here is some tips to up your keyword research game to rank your site.

Finding the Right Topics

The first thing to do is to generate a list of keywords. This is where you think of topics that your targeted market is interested in. Some topics that might come to mind are social media, website traffic, blogging, and email marketing. These are not the keywords. They're just broad topics that will be used later to set down specific keywords. 

Using Wikipedia to find Keywords 

Wikipedia is a very underused keyword research goldmine. Every article there is on Wikipedia is compiled by industry experts and organized into little categories. To find keywords with the help of Wikipedia, all you need to do is go to the site and type in a broad keyword. It will redirect you to the entry for that topic. Next, you need to look for the ‘contents’ section of the page. This will provide you a list of all the subtopics covered under the page. The internal links lead you to entries that would otherwise be difficult to associate with the product. Every internal link leads to more pages with more words that can be added to the list of keywords.

Using Google Search to Find Keywords

Another easier way to find keywords is to look at the ‘searches related to’ section that appears at the bottom of Google’s search results. Once you search for a keyword in Google, scroll down to the bottom of the page. There will be a list of keywords closely related to the search term. Because these are suggestions from Google, you can be sure that they are popular among your users. Clicking on one of the suggestions and scrolling to the bottom of that page gives you new suggestions and so on. 

Using Reddit to find Keywords

There are high chances that your target audience is on Reddit. So, you can find a lot of keyword ideas on that platform as well. You can search up a broad category that you’re interested in finding keywords for and look for the most visited subreddits for the word. You can then go through the comments and titles on these subreddits and find commonly used words that can be added to the list of keywords. This method can be used to update the list of keywords every month. “Keyworddit” is a free tool that can help you to scan for words and phrases from Reddit and sort them according to their search volume of every month. 

Using Google Suggest

Now that you have created a list of topics, start by typing each one of them into Google. Google will then suggest a bunch of words and phrases based on the entry typed, and the suggested words and phrases can be added to the list of keywords. Google is a very reliable method of searching for related keywords because if Google suggests specific words and phrases in relation to your broad category, you can be sure that people are looking for the item through these words. YouTube can also be used in a similar manner. 

Keyword Research Tools

Keywords can be found without the use of SEO tools. But these tools can make the work easier and smoother and also save hours of manual labor that could be invested in doing other things. A very good example of a keyword research tool is the Google Keyword Planner.

It offers a dependable source of keyword information that is available. Unlike other SEO tools, the search results come straight from Google. Hence, their accuracy cannot be questioned. The big downside of the Google Keyword Planner is that it is designed to help with Google ad campaigns and not with SEO exactly. However, it can still be used to generate lists of keywords to find queries that get lots of searches.  

While choosing your keyword, you also need to consider the competition level of the keyword. If your site is new, you want to focus on keywords that are not competitive like long-tail keywords. Keywords are usually divided into three main categories: the head, the body, and the long tail.

Head Terms: They are usually single worded keywords that have a lot of search volume and competition. For instance, words like vitamins, cars, insurance, etc. can be head terms because the terms are so broad and the intent of the search is all over the place. The word ‘car’ could have been used to search the definition, car insurance, car accident, etc. and therefore Head Terms don't usually convert very well. 

Body Keywords: These are two to three phrases that receive a decent search volume but are more specific than Head Terms. Words like ‘car insurance’, ‘life insurance’, or ‘find vitamins online’ are Body Keywords. As compared to Head Terms, body keywords have less competition.

Long Tail Keywords: These are long phrases that use more than four words and are generally very specific. Phrases like ‘affordable life insurance for senior citizens’ and ‘order vitamin D capsules online’ are examples of long-tail keywords. Although these keywords do not get a lot of search volume individually, adding them together makes up pointed and specific searches. Because of how specific they are, they don't usually get a lot of searches and aren't very competitive.  

There is no best category and all three have their own pros and cons. But long tails are the least competitive out of the three. 

Selecting the Right Keyword

Now that the list of keywords is ready, how do you decide which one to select? Unfortunately, there is no tool that will tell you which is the best keyword. Instead, each keyword needs to be sized up based on different factors and then the best one can be chosen based on what correctly fits your business. 

Search Volume

This SEO metric is pretty simple. If more and more people are searching for a particular keyword, it will result in higher traffic. You need to figure out a ‘high’ and ‘low’ search volume that is in your niche. And then choose keywords based on what is considered normal for your industry. 

Organic Click-Through Rate

The rate at which searchers click on an organic search result is quite low. That’s because ‘Featured Snippets’ can answer their question without having to click on anything.  

Cost Per Click

Cost Per Click is an essential metric that lets you check whether people searching for a particular keyword actually want to spend money on it? If the keyword cannot convert into a sale or has no commercial intent, there is no point in targeting that particular term. Sometimes, you can get a higher Return on Investment (ROI) from a keyword that does not get too many searches if its Cost Per Click is high enough.  

Keyword Trends

To check if your keyword is growing fast or dying slowly, you can use Google Trends.  It shows you which words are in popular demand and which words are no longer being used. 

What Should You Do Next After Keyword Research?

After you have prepared your keyword list, it is now time to get them to work. Here’s what you need to do.

Have a proper Organic Keyword Strategy (SEO) in place

For your organic keyword strategy, you need to optimize the content of your landing page or a blog post to rank for a specific keyword. Having a content calendar that you can use to plan and organize the content you create can be beneficial for a well-rounded organic keyword strategy. Some more tips to help you achieve that are: 

Look for the best organic keywords and target them: Ensure that the keywords that you are targeting are popular among your target audience and are regularly searched for. This will drive more organic traffic to your website and blog posts. Here, it is also important to note that your ideal customers and prospects will use a search phrase instead of only one keyword most of the time. So, your content needs to be relevant to your audience and match your end goals.  

Besides, your site must also have the required authority to rank for the term. Only then you can develop content around the keyword and rank above what’s already among the top-ranking content.

Position your content strategy to match the user’s search intent: Every search that your target audience makes is based on the search intent, which could be informational, navigational or transactional. Focus on how your list of terms could benefit and improve a customer’s journey. Try to work on content topics that fit your marketing funnel and match customer intent at different phases.

On-page optimization: Every page of content you create needs to be optimized for a particular target keyword, phrase, or term. Optimizing every page of content for on-page SEO will ensure that your content gets a fair chance at ranking among the top search results.

You can use Alexa’s on-page SEO checker to check whether your pages are properly optimized for the keyword that you are targeting. Here’s the link.

Additionally, you have to periodically check your whole website to identify any SEO problems or missed optimization opportunities. 

Work on creating a Paid Keyword Strategy (SEM)

Creating a paid keyword strategy involves setting up a pay per click (PPC) or search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. Here, you can pay for the placement on the SERPs based on the keywords you have selected. The following tips could be of help to a good strategy.

Look for keywords that align with your budget. Calculate the cost per click of each term and the ROI you can expect from the campaign.

Choose keywords, terms, or phrases that have a high conversion rate and quickly lead to sales.

Optimize your SEM campaigns for quality scores. Quality scores are Google ratings that are assigned based on the quality and relevance of content, keywords, ads, and landing pages.

Incorporate the target keywords in the ad copies and landing pages to boost your quality score.

Advanced SEO Tips and Strategies

Barnacle SEO

With Barnacle SEO, your perfect keyword can gain even more traction. Barnacle SEO is the practice of using the authority of other sites to improve your own rankings on the search results page. If you have found an amazing keyword, try to take up as much space on the first page of the search results as possible. Firstly, create content that revolves around that particular topic on your site. Then publish keyword-optimized content on authority sites like LinkedIn, Medium, etc. 

Analyzing Keywords on Searcher Intent

When someone searches for a particular keyword, what is it exactly that they are hoping to find? Are they looking to buy something? Are they looking for information or a specific login page? If the search intent is navigational, you may want to avoid the term even if it has a good cost per click and high monthly search volume numbers. But if the searcher intent is informational, then the content can be optimized around that term, and it will perform quite well. 

Shoulder Keywords

What most people do is find a keyword that is closely related to what they are offering and then optimize their website around it. That is a huge mistake because product keywords are super competitive and there are so many other keywords that potential customers search for when they are not searching for what you sell. And if customers happen to come across your page while they were searching for other websites and like your content, they are more likely to buy products from you in the future.
Note that the shoulder keywords are not related directly to what you are selling. Rather they are the keywords that your customers use when they are searching for a product or service. Hence, shoulder keywords are worth going after.

Over to You

Now, you must have got an idea about what to keep in mind while performing keyword research. However, you must also know that there’s no single and universal approach to performing keyword research. You have to figure out what is working for your website and what is not. Gradually you will become better at it and create a loyal user base with your content and keywords.

Author Bio

Name: Pramendra Singh

Pramendra singh is an SEO analyst and a learner with a curious mind to learn about a wide range of SEO topics. His experience in SEO and writing and reviewing content gives him a solid base to approach several subjects that are valuable for businesses and websites looking to build a strong presence in the market.

When he is not writing, you can find him enjoying and playing music. Reach him at digirock17@gmail.com.