It takes time and effort to write articles for your website. It becomes even more tedious when you think of all the keyword research you have to do to create quality content.

While some might choose to rely on post-and-pray methods, these aren’t always the most reliable means to generate traffic and revenue. So if you feel like you’re having trouble driving more organic traffic to your website, perhaps it’s time for you to rethink your keyword research strategy.

What exactly is keyword research?

Keywords are words and phrases that people use to discover material on search engines like Google and Bing. Hence, keyword research is the process of identifying the keywords and phrases that buyers use to search for certain products, services, and information.

Contrary to popular belief, keyword research for SEO is more than just picking words and phrases that are both relevant and often searched. In fact, mastering the art of keyword selection is significantly more meticulous and deliberate than most people believe.

Doing keyword research involves an understanding of consumer behavior, as well as knowing how the market works—particularly the needs and wants of your target audience and the competition you’re up against.

To help you boost your SEO campaign, we’ve compiled some tried and tested ways on researching keywords:

1. Find your niche

With ever-increasing volumes of material, it’s more crucial than ever to stand out and focus on a certain specialty. Google will gradually understand that you are an authority on a particular subject matter if you generate lots of content on that topic.

It’s ideal to start by learning everything you can about your niche before engaging in keyword research. Doing so may provide you with unique ideas in crafting your SEO plan that you may not have considered previously.

Prioritize value over rankings. The idea might seem paradoxical with this article, but the best way to ensure that traffic flows into your website is by actually catering to the needs of your target audience and not just stuffing them with shallow articles chock-full of keywords.

1. Study search intent

As the term suggests, search intent indicates the reason why a person looks up something on the internet. So, while using high-volume keywords to boost page rankings used to be a simple process, it is no longer as straightforward as it once was.

Google’s machine learning algorithm has since then matched search phrases with user queries to further familiarize itself with search intent. Consequently, the results that pop up have become more relevant to the search intent of the user through the years.

This being said, a good way to do keyword research is to place yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Why would people search for your topic? Are they looking for anything to buy? Or are they seeking a solution that can help them address a specific issue?

3. Analyze the competition

Doing keyword research related to your brand on Google isn’t always enough. Much like every business, you must also be aware of how your competitors work. The better you understand your industry’s content landscape, the better your SEO will be.

If you are willing to shell out a few bucks, many SEO tools include paid or premium services that include a competition analysis feature that will help you do keyword research on your competitors.

4. Define your goals

It’s critical to identify your goal since it will provide your SEO strategy with its much-needed direction. The search phrases you’ll utilize in the end should be related to your overall goal, as your keyword research and SEO content will rely heavily on it.

To do this, make a list of your objectives. You may also create graphs or document them in any way you like. These will serve as the foundation and guide for your whole content and digital marketing strategy.

For starters, these may be in response to the following questions:

• What is your brand about?
• What distinguishes you from others?
• What is the purpose of your website?
• What do you promise your target audience?

5. Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm

Sure, there are probably millions of keywords out there and it might be hard for you to choose what to use.

Start by coming up with a list of terms and phrases that are relevant to your business. Ideas should be centered on your objectives and might include anything relevant to your products, services, content, or anything else you’re promoting.

Once you have done your initial keyword research, you may further expand it by looking up pertinent keywords to the items on your list and repeating the process over again. If you’re having difficulties brainstorming, you may use a keyword generator tool instead.

6. Match your keywords with media

It requires a certain expertise to research keywords and incorporate them into your content. However, some seem to just cram keywords into their text and hope for the best.

Spam-filled pages are being actively targeted by Google, which either eliminates them or ranks them extremely low. Thus, it’s crucial to use the proper combination of keywords and related phrases in your text copy.

Additionally, looking up and using media that complements your keyword research might lead to a significant increase in ranks. For example, if your topic is related to coffee brewing, including videos or images of a french press or an espresso machine may give your post a big boost.

7. Link to a landing page

A landing page attracts organic search engine traffic for a set of keywords. Visitors that arrive at the SEO landing page will see contents that are extremely relevant to their search query.

The page title, headers, and alt image tags should all include your chosen keywords. Everything in these should be related to the keywords you’re aiming for.

When doing keyword research, keep your landing page in mind—not only will Google rank your page higher, but a well-optimized landing page will also serve as a springboard for a potential transaction.

The Bottomline

For many individuals, getting started with keywords might be intimidating. But, when done correctly, effective keyword research and utilization allows a wider audience to learn about you, consume your content, and eventually decide to do business with you. 

Once you’ve gone through these tips, you should have enough information to start an effective keyword research. You would have also gathered enough information for SEO copywriting for your article, whether it’s for your personal blog or for an actual business.

However, if keyword research seems too time-consuming for you, we at Igloo are more than willing to help you find the right keywords for your SEO content.