What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of analyzing specific words and search terms that an online user uses to search for information on the internet. Keyword research is an important component of growing a successful blog, and learning how to do it can be very beneficial for bloggers!
When you are creating content for your blog, one of the best ways to increase organic traffic is to focus on keyword research and SEO (search engine optimization). Keyword research and SEO are usually used hand in hand, and for good reason.
What is SEO?
SEO is a powerful tool that anyone can use to drive more traffic and make their site more visible online. It’s a way of optimizing content on your website so that it appears higher in search engine results when people look for specific topics related to what you write about. In addition to helping you reach a wider audience, SEO can also improve the overall user experience on your website.
Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research is important for a number of reasons such as:
- Keyword helps you understand what users are searching for so you can create content that matches their intent.
- You can improve the chances of your site ranking when your content is optimized.
- You can use competition to your benefit. Not only can you find low competition keywords that you can potentially rank for, you can see what your competitors are doing and how you can create content strategy to outrank them.
- You will know who your target audience is and how you can create content that is valuable to them.
What is the goal of keyword research?
The goal of keyword research is to identify the keywords that are most likely to be used by internet users and to optimize the content on your website around those keywords in order to improve search engine rankings and drive targeted traffic to your website.
How do you do keyword research?
There are several different ways to do keyword research. There are affordable and easy to use programs such as Keywords Everywhere, Keysearch, or more robust and expensive programs with a lot of functionality such as SEM Rush.
These online platforms are the best way to understand what keywords have the best chance for ranking. You can research different keywords and it will give you data to decide if that is a search term worth creating content about.
For basic keyword research your 3 most important factors to look at will be search volume, competition and relevance/score.
- Search volume is how often the search term you are researching is getting searched by online users.
- Competition is going to tell you whether you have high or low competition regarding the search term you are researching. You are more likely to rank quicker with a low competition keyword.
- Relevance refers to how your content matches user intention. When a user is searching for what you are writing about, are you giving them the best possible information to provide value?
Tips for Keyword Research
- Start by making a list of relevant topics that you would like to write about. I recommend keeping this list in a document that can be edited and referred back to you so you can keep your ideas organized.
- Find a tool that you find the most user friendly to use for keyword research. Our recommendation is Keysearch because it is the most afforable and also provides you excellent data to use when you are researching search terms
- If you are a beginner blogger, your goal is to rank for content as quickly as you can so choose keywords with low competition to start and you’ll be more likely to rank.
- When you are creating content ask yourself how different posts can be related in order to tell Google that you know a lot about the topic you are writing about. Related content that you can link together helps not only your blog, but also provides value to the reader to continue to learn from you.
- Be patient! Keyword research is an art, not a science. There is no perfect way to do it and it takes time so be patient and allow yourself to always be learning how to do it better.
Does every post have to have good search terms?
The answer is it depends. There are a few things you want to ask yourself such as what is my goal with blogging? Does your blog have a clear message? Does the post you want to write make sense to your audience?
If your main goal is growth as quickly as possible, you will want to use keyword research and SEO to help your content rank and create the best user user experience.
If your goal isn’t rapid growth then you could probably get by with not every post being thoroughly researched, but we still recommend making keyword research part of your blog strategy because you want new people to be able to find your content, and the best way to do that is to have some of your posts ranking on Google.
Keyword research can be a really fun part of blogging once you get through the initial overwhelm of learning something new. It can benefit your blog business greatly and you’ll be so proud