Congratulations for asking the right question! Keyword Research should be your first step when it comes to running a successful SEO campaign.
You can’t win a battle if you don’t know your enemy ..
Begin with brainstorming, then research those terms with some great tools. There are techniques that you can utilize to narrow down the long list of terms that you will need to reach your target audience. A few are listed below:
Tip 1. List all the Important Topics Related to Your Business
You know your business better than anyone. Write down your elevator pitch: what is your business about and who is your target audience?
Begin by listing topics that are related to your business: If you are just starting out, try to think about what your site is and what it might grow to be. If you are a tech-savvy blogger, make sure that your list will include topics related to technologies you often blog about.
If you need inspiration, put yourself in the shoes of your audience. A good trick is to pretend that you are selling your business to your best friend. What’s going to catch their interest? Think about the things that they would want to read.
Tip 2. Think of all Possible Keywords That you can put Into Your Topic Lists.
Think of your topic lists as empty cans that you need to fill with keywords. This part requires careful thinking and brainstorming. There are a lot of keywords that you can use for a certain topic. However, you need to choose the keywords or keyword phrases carefully to help your rank in search engine results pages, or SERP.
For example, your topic is “online English tutorial.” Think about the different keywords or phrases that people might use to search for that subject. It might include:
- Maths tutorial online
- Where to enroll for online English tutorial
- Best online Maths tutors
- Maths tutorial tools
These are just some of the possible things that people may search online. Keep in mind that you do not have to list all the keywords and keyword phrases. You are simply compiling many options from which to filter the best one.
Tip 3. Use Keyword Research Tool if Possible
If you want to make your work easier, invest in an effective keyword research tool. Of course, you can always do it manually. But, using a keyword research tool will save you tons of time and effort. It will make the process easier, faster, and more effective because it can produce results in just a few clicks.
Just login, type in your topic and it will do the rest for you. Some keyword research tools will even give you the option to widen your search option by including related searches, Google suggestions, and other synonyms coming from Google Adwords.
Below is an example of a keyword research results for the topic “online English tutorial” using one of my favorite Keyword research and analysis tools.
This is one of my favorite tools. If the keyword is “green” for difficulty, then there’s a good chance that you can rank for it easily. In my experience, it takes about 3 months to rank for such keywords.
Tip 4. Refine Your List
Once you already have an extensive list of keywords and keyword phrases, refine it. Make sure that you include suggested keywords. If you are using Google Keyword Planner, you need to know that the tool gives high priority to Google ads. Therefore, it will load keywords from Ad group first.
If you want to look for suggested or related keywords, click on the Keyword ideas. Suggested keywords are important as they will give you a clearer insight into what exact terms your target audience are using. Refining your list means looking after the relevance of the keywords and keyword phrases to your topic.
Make sure that your keywords powerfully describe the topic or are relevant to your landing page. If the keywords are related to your topic but are not directly linked to the subject of your landing page, just create a new landing page and write new content that includes the keyword.
After following all these simple tips, voila! You now have your list of keywords or keyword phrases and now on your way to gaining short and long-term traffic from focused keyword usage. These keywords will be your guide to creating content that will be beneficial to your business or website.
Also, keep in mind to review your keywords as often as you can. Once you have gained more authority in SERP, you will find that you may add more keywords to your lists. Adding new keywords to your list will give you more opportunity to grow in other areas while you maintain your present rank from other successful content.