If you want your website to rank on the first page of search engines, and to attract the right audience, you are going to need to master the art of keyword research for SEO.
It doesn’t matter if you’re running a multinational business, managing a niche ecommerce store, or simply trying to grow your blog; knowing how to select the relevant keywords can make all the difference in boosting your online visibility.
The keyword research process involves finding long-tail keywords that people are entering as search queries in Google, Yahoo, and Bing, and it is important because they help search engines understand what your content is about. At the same time, it makes it easier for them to determine how relevant your web page is to the search intent of the individual’s query.
If you don’t look for high search volume keywords and incorporate them into your content, your website could struggle to achieve good search engine rankings. So, it is worth heavily investing in this aspect of search engine optimisation to maintain a competitive advantage.
In this beginner-friendly guide, we will equip you with practical, actionable techniques to improve your on-page SEO and drive more organic traffic to your website.
We’ll walk you through the fundamentals of SEO keyword research, including everything from identifying high-impact search terms to using them effectively on your site, and share advanced tips to help you achieve constantly prominent listings in search results.
What Is Keyword Research?
As mentioned, keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that people type into search engines like Google when looking for information, products, or services.
These search terms are known as keywords and help search engines understand what your content is about and determine when to show your website in search results.
It is essential to research keywords as part of your Search Engine Optimisation practices because by discovering what people are searching for, you can create content that directly answers their questions, solves their problems, or meets their needs.
The process involves trying to understand your audience’s language and analysing average monthly search volume data to discover popular target keywords.
If you don’t do effective keyword research, your web content won’t resonate as much with your target audience, and you may find yourself in a David v Goliath-type battle against industry heavyweights for placings on search engine listings, which can be very tough to win.
As Google processes almost 100,000 searches per second, search volume data constantly changes. So, keyword research should be seen as an ongoing effort to keep your online visibility prominent and remain competitive in SERPS.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
Keyword research is an integral part of any successful SEO strategy because, without it, you’re essentially guessing what people are searching for, which can result in many wasted manhours and missed opportunities.
Here’s why keyword research matters and how it benefits your overall digital strategy.
1. Drives Targeted Organic Traffic
By identifying the right keywords, you can optimise your content to match what people are actively searching for, which increases the chances of your website appearing in relevant search results.
This, in turn, attracts visitors who are genuinely interested in what you have written and can increase the likelihood of them performing specific actions, such as purchasing a product or clicking through to an affiliate link after reading it.
2. Helps You Understand Search Intent
When people enter a query in search engines, they do so with a specific intention. For instance, some are looking for information, while others are ready to make a purchase.
Keyword research allows you to better understand these motivations and create content accordingly for people who just want information, are comparing options or are looking to buy immediately.
Overall, the more you can identify and target the right intent, the more relevant the information you provide your audience will be to them.
3. Improves Your Content Strategy
Once you know the intent behind your audience’s searches, you’ll be able to create high-value content that answers their questions and solves their problems. Doing this ensures your website provides more value to more people.
By analysing keyword search volumes, you will be able to plan blog topics and optimise landing pages to ensure your website remains relevant and engaging. In short, instead of guessing what to write about, you can develop a data-driven content strategy that provides searchers with the information they are looking for.
4. Grows Organic Traffic
The more highly optimised content you create around specific keywords, the more your organic traffic levels will grow.
This will help you to rank for both specific and general topics, as it will build your website as an authority in your niche over time.
5. Attract More Customers
If your website offers products or services and ranks well for the right associated keywords, it will naturally attract potential customers who are already interested in procuring them.
This, in turn, should generate increased sales, which helps lower your cost per acquisition compared to other marketing strategies, such as paid advertising.
As this type of traffic delivers leads without ongoing costs, well-researched keywords from accurate search volume data can provide a lucrative ROI.
6. Provides Insights into Market Trends
Along with helping with SEO, keyword research can offer valuable insights into consumer behaviour and market trends because, by analysing which search terms are gaining popularity, you can adapt your marketing strategy to meet changing customer needs.
This is particularly useful for small businesses who are actively looking for ways to stay ahead of their competitors and capitalise on emerging opportunities.
Getting Started with Keyword Research
Keyword research provides you with data-driven insights to improve your website’s rankings and attract the right visitors.
To get started on it, you should follow these key steps:
1. Brainstorm Topics
Initially, think about what themes are relevant to your business or niche. Then, tap into your knowledge of what your audience is interested in and determine what problems they need solutions for.
2. Find Seed Keywords
Seed keywords are short-tail terms that describe your business or industry. Try to think of as many of these phrases as possible because they become the foundation for more specific variations you can identify with a keyword gap tool.
3. Keyword Intent
Once you have drawn up a long list of organic keywords, take the time to understand the keyword intent, or in other words, the primary reason behind a search query. Doing this will help you target the right audience and create content that satisfies their needs.
There are three main types of keyword intent:
Informational Intent
Primarily, these searches are for learning purposes, with users looking for guides, explanations, or how-to content, such as “How to grow an avocado tree” or “What is the best way to learn SEO?”
Content based around this particular search intent is ideal for blog posts, product page FAQs, and educational instructions.
Navigational Intent
Navigational intent keywords are search queries where users want to reach a specific website or page and often involve a brand name or a known destination.
For instance, if someone searches for “Pinterest,” they are probably trying to find their way to the Pinterest homepage.
Transactional Intent
These types of searches indicate that users are ready to take action, which could be anything from making a purchase and booking a service to signing up for a subscription or clicking an affiliate link.
Keyword research helps to identify terms like “buy noise-cancelling headphones online” or “hire an electrician in Sydney”, which suggest a very strong intent to convert.
4. Analyse Monthly Search Volume (MSV) and Other Metrics
Once you have compiled a list of keywords, you should evaluate whether it is worth creating specific content based on them, and there are three main SEO metrics that can help you do this.
They include:
Monthly Search Volume (MSV)
This tells you how many times a keyword has been used in search queries every month. The higher the MSV, the more popular the keyword is – which also probably means more websites are trying to rank for this keyword. Terms with a lower search volume tend to have much less competition.
Keyword Difficulty (KD)
This metric measures how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword. Terms with high keyword difficulty scores tend to be more competitive and require strong domain authority, backlinks, and optimised content if you are to have a chance of ranking on the first page of Google for it.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
For those running Google Ads, CPC shows how much advertisers are willing to pay per click for a keyword. This is good to know because a high CPC indicates that there is strong commercial intent, which allows you to find keywords that have a high potential to convert.
It is crucial to balance these metrics because keywords with high search volumes yet major competition may be difficult to rank well for.
On the other hand, low-competition, high-intent keywords might result in fewer searches but lead to more conversions. Ideally, the best strategy to maximise online visibility and traffic is to target a mix of high-volume and long-tail keywords.
How to Do Keyword Research (Step-by-Step)
In the previous section, we gave you an overview of how to get started with keyword research. Well, for those who want more practical advice on how to conduct keyword research, here is a step-by-step guide for you to follow.
It should help you to identify the best phrases, analyse their potential, and optimise your content to achieve better search rankings.
Step 1: Make a List of Broad Topics Relevant to Your Business
Start by brainstorming as many broad topics as you can think of that relate to your business, industry, or niche. Ideally, these should be general themes that reflect what your audience might search for, so consider your products, services, or the main problems your business solves for customers.
For example, if you run an online store that sells eco-friendly home products, some broad topics you could include might be:
- Sustainable home cleaning
- Plastic-free kitchen essentials
- Energy-efficient appliances
Once you have identified them, you will be able to find more specific keyword ideas in the next step.
Step 2: Expand with Related Keywords
After you have collated a long list of broad topics, the next step is to generate a list of related keywords, which you can do through various methods, such as:
- Google’s autocomplete suggestions – Type your broad keywords into Google and make a note of what terms it comes up with in its suggested search queries.
- Google’s “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” sections – On all search pages, Google provides a list of answers to questions that are similar to the one you ran a search on. Be sure to read some of them, as they can provide you with valuable keyword variations.
- Keyword research tools – Use paid-for or free tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, and Google Keyword Planner to generate keyword lists based on each of your broad topics.
- Customer insights – Scan over your reviews, social media responses, and customer emails to learn about their language when describing your products or services. There is a good chance others will use them as search terms.
Some examples of related keywords to the broad topic of ‘sustainable home cleaning’ might be ‘eco-friendly cleaning products’, ‘natural cleaning solutions’, or ‘how to make DIY cleaning spray’.
Step 3: Analyse Search Intent and Match Keywords to User Needs
As discussed earlier, not all keyword phrases are valuable unless they match user intent, which is why you should take the time to find the ones that match each type.
Some examples of long-tail keywords based on different intents are as follows:
- Informational (learning) – “Environmentally friendly cleaning tips”
- Navigational (finding a specific brand or website) – “Eco-friendly Bunnings products”
- Transactional (ready to buy) – “Buy non-toxic cleaning products online”
It is vital to create relevant content that satisfies one of these search intents. Therefore, if you want to sell a product, transactional keywords would be most valuable for you. Alternatively, if you want to build brand awareness, then focus on producing content for informational searches.
Step 4: Research Competitors’ Keywords
Another profitable way to find high-value keywords is by analysing what your competitors currently rank well for. Doing this can help you identify gaps in your on-page SEO strategy and discover keyword opportunities you might have missed.
Try:
- Enterinh a competitor’s domain into SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush.
- Looking at their top-ranking pages and the keywords they target.
- Identifying keywords with high search volume and low competition that you could target.
- Checking which keywords drive traffic to your competitors but not to your site.
If you do this, you might find that several competitors rank well for the same keywords like “zero waste kitchen products” or “cricket bat size chart’, which you do not have content for that might be worth producing.
By using a combination of these tools, you will end up with a refined list of particular keyword phrases and semantic keywords that will allow you to create high-quality content that should improve your search rankings and drive more traffic to your site.
Types of Keywords
It is important to note that there are different types of keywords, and it is essential to incorporate them all when building a strong SEO strategy.
Some are designed to directly match search queries, while others help you to pique the interest of a broader audience.
Here are some of the main keyword types and how you can use them effectively.
Matching Terms vs. Related Terms
When trying to generate keyword ideas, you will come across what are known as ‘exact match keywords’ and ‘related terms’, both of which can help to optimise your content.
As its name implies, matching terms are the exact keywords that users type into search engines. Therefore, if your page is optimised for “best hiking boots for beginners”, it has a strong chance of ranking when someone searches for that phrase.
On the other hand, related terms are those that contain closely linked phrases that serve to add depth to your content. For instance, instead of writing content where the only keyword you use is “best hiking boots for beginners”, you might want to mix it up a bit by including the terms “comfortable hiking boots” or “best budget-friendly hiking boots”.
If you combine both, you’ll give your content every chance of ranking for multiple queries and provide users with a more natural reading experience.
Keyword Clusters
Recently, Google’s search algorithms have become much more sophisticated, which, unfortunately, means that ranking for a single keyword is no longer enough. Instead, our SEO experts recommend you focus on keyword clusters, which are groups of related terms that cover a topic more comprehensively.
As an example, if you’re writing about organic skincare, a strong keyword cluster might include “organic skincare products” as the primary keyword and terms like “natural skincare routine”, “best organic face creams” and “benefits of organic skincare” as supporting keywords.
Doing this will increase the likelihood of your web page ranking for multiple search variations while also making your content more informative and useful to the reader.
Complimenting these two are the types of keywords that represent search intent, which we have previously discussed.
By taking the time to find relevant search terms that represent all of them, you can develop content and a well-rounded SEO approach that boosts your presence in Google Search Results while improving user engagement and simultaneously encouraging more conversions.
How to Prioritise Keywords
Once you have completed your search phrase research, there is a good chance you’ll have multiple keywords for which to create content. For this reason, it is a good idea to formulate a keyword strategy that prioritises the ones that will be most beneficial to your website rankings.
A good way to do this is to first analyse search volume, which indicates how often a keyword is searched each month. Don’t be seduced by high-volume keyword data because they usually come with intense competition, which makes it harder to rank well against.
Instead, cross-check them against their keyword difficulty score, as this will indicate how hard or easy it will be to rank for popular keywords.
You should also consider how relevant the keywords are to your business because even if they have high search volumes, they might not bring in potential customers or result in a high bounce rate.
Other keyword metrics worth bearing in mind are global search volume, if that applies to your business and, of course, if the terms match the user’s search intent for which you want to create content.
Common Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid
In this guide, we have tried to give you an overview of the best practices for finding primary and similar keywords to help you range well in Google search results. However, there are some common keyword research mistakes that many people make, which we should point out.
One major error is over-optimising for a single keyword, which is known in the SEO world as keyword stuffing. This involves repeating the same term unnaturally throughout your content, which can negatively impact your page’s readability and trigger search engine penalties. Instead, try to use keyword variations and related terms to help you maintain a more natural flow.
Another frequent mistake is ignoring search intent, which we have already discussed. Needless to say, if you target transactional keywords when users are seeking information, your content won’t rank well or convert effectively.
Additionally, many businesses fail to update their keywords regularly, which means that their content is full of outdated terms that no longer accurately reflect the popularity of current search trends.
FAQs
How often should I update my keywords?
As SEO is constantly evolving, we recommend you review and update your keywords at least once every three months. Doing this will enable you to keep on top of new search trends and maintain an up-to-date keyword list to build your content strategy around.
What’s the best free keyword explorer tool?
There are quite a few excellent keyword research tools you can use, including those offered by Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz.
However, the best free one we recommend is Google Keyword Planner, as it provides you with valuable insights into search volume, competition, and keyword variations that can help you find related keywords.
What’s the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?
As their names suggest, the main difference between short and long-tail keywords is their length.
Typically, short-tail keywords are broad search terms that have one to two words in them. Examples may include “running shoes” or “digital marketing”, and while they usually have high search volumes, they are also highly competitive.
On the other hand, long-tail keywords are longer phrases, such as “best running shoes for flat feet” or “how to do digital marketing for small businesses”, which tend to have lower competition. As a result, they can attract more targeted traffic with a greater potential to convert into a sale or other desired action.
Can I rank for highly competitive keywords?
It can be very difficult to rank for high search volume keywords, particularly if your website is new or does not have a strong domain authority. To do this, you will need to have quality content written, plenty of backlinks to your page, fully completed on-page SEO, low personal keyword difficulty and other aspects such as local SEO and technical SEO appropriately configured.
As this takes time, we recommend initially focusing on long-tail variations of these words and niche topics that you will have a better chance of ranking highly for. Then, as your website grows in authority, you can gradually perform a keyword gap analysis to target more competitive terms.
Is keyword research still important with AI-driven search results?
Yes! While AI and machine learning are shaping how search engines interpret queries, keyword research remains essential because search engines still rely on them to understand how relevant content is to user search intent in query listings.
Conclusion: Start Your Keyword Research Journey
We hope this guide has given you a clearer understanding of how to do keyword research for your website’s on-page SEO.
It is important to understand that generating higher rankings for it will take time, and you’ll need to invest a lot of effort in the process. Additionally, it would help if you gained a firm understanding of how to use Google Search Console and Semrush’s keyword magic tool, among other SEO tools.
However, if you want to see results much faster, then contact the expert team at Paperstack today.
We are specialists in search engine optimisation and have a proven track record of transforming the performance of our client’s underperforming websites.