All of us have used the internet for one or another purpose. Mainly you use the internet to search for something about which you are interested to know more. But have you ever thought about how Google always presents you with the right content you search for or you wish to see? It happens because of a process called Keyword Research. In this blog, we will be discussing more on keyword research, what it is, why it is needed, and how to do it.

Contents:

• Keywords
• What is Keyword Research
• Why is Keyword Research important
• How to find keywords
• 3 key aspects of a good keyword
• How to use keywords

Keywords

Before moving into the process of keyword research you should know what a keyword is. To understand it in a simple way let’s take an example. Imagine that you want to know about the best hotels in Kochi. What will you search for on the internet? Obviously, you will search for something like “best hotels”, “best hotels in Kochi”, “best restaurants in Kochi”, and so on. These terms you use for your search are exactly what keywords are.

Keywords are the words or terms a user types in search engines like Google to get the desired result they want. Keywords form the foundation of Search Engine Optimisation. The keywords serve as a doorway to the organic search results and, eventually, to the website where customers can find what they’re looking for. Hence finding keywords is an important task and it is accomplished through keyword research. To learn more about SEO and Keyword Research join the best SEO course in Kochi, Kerala at Infinitus. 

What is Keyword Research 

The act of determining the words your target clients use when looking for your products, services, and content on the internet is known as keyword research. It’s a search engine optimisation technique that involves locating, analysing, and employing the phrases people use to look for content on the internet. The initial stage in every website’s search engine optimisation is usually keyword research.

Suppose that you are a Dentist in Kochi, a person who needs a dentist in Kochi will search for a term like “Dentist in Kochi” and it will find your website and can contact you by Google’s organic search.

Choosing a keyword for a personal website may be simple. However, choosing a keyword for a larger website with a lot of content, such as Amazon, is quite tough. Such businesses must concentrate on each search term that people will use, as well as select appropriate keywords for their searches.

The keywords you choose should be relevant to your website or page.  As a result, both users and Google will be able to understand the page’s topic, and search engines will be able to provide better results. You can change your content strategy and optimization to target these phrases once you’ve discovered keywords people use while browsing for things in your niche. Keyword research is not rocket science. Once you understand the basics and learn some proven strategies you can go ahead with it. Join our SEO course in Kerala which will help you in mastering SEO and keyword research.

A little background on Keyword Research

People’s approaches to keyword research have changed throughout time. In the early 2000s, keyword research was frequently limited to going to Google Keyword Planner, picking the most popular terms, and stuffing them into the website text. This was a bad practice as it helps in ranking low-quality content. As a result, Google released various algorithm updates. The purpose of these updates was to better understand what users wanted and provide the best possible service to them. The following are the most significant algorithm updates that have changed the way we conduct keyword research:

• Duplicate text and weak, low-quality content have been punished by Google Panda.
• Unnatural keyword usage has been punished by Google Penguin.
• Google Hummingbird has enhanced semantic search and placed a greater emphasis on search intent.

Today, the importance of keyword research is increasing. Finding the perfect keyword is no longer a priority. It’s all about knowing who you’re talking to and how to present a complicated topic to them.

Why is Keyword Research important

You won’t be able to optimise your images, pages, or content strategy to drive qualified traffic to your website until you know which word or search term you want to rank your website for. Conducting keyword research is the only method to learn what people are searching for. Not only for search engine rankings but also for determining the search intent behind a specific query, keyword research is essential.

Keyword research can also assist you in answering issues such as:

• How much difficulty do you have to face while ranking for this keyword?
• How important the keyword is to your business.
• How much traffic can you get from this keyword?
• What kind of content should you create to rank for this keyword?
• Is it likely that people who search for this keyword will become your customers?

How to find keywords

The first thing you need to do in keyword research is to know your niche. Also, you should be aware that there are two kinds of keywords:

• Short-tail keywords

They are short keywords that contain two or three words. They are also known as popular keywords.

• Long-tail keywords

There are more than three words in these keywords. It has a low volume of searches and competitors. However, because of these characteristics, ranking for long-tail keywords is simple. With these keywords, you may receive low traffic to your website, but you may also receive high CPC and quality visitors.

Now since you have a better idea of keyword research let us discuss some methods to find the keywords.

• Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword tool and is a part of Google Ads. You can give the seed keyword to discover new keywords.

• Keyword research tools

Using a keyword research tool is the most popular technique to discover plenty of keyword possibilities. Some of the keyword research tools are KWFinder, KeywordTool, Long Tail Pro, etc. It saves you a lot of time and offers data you wouldn’t find elsewhere. You can search for keywords either by providing the seed keyword or by a competitor-based search.

• Google suggestions

Google provides a number of term suggestions immediately in the search results to assist users in finding the most relevant results. The three features you can use to generate new keyword ideas are Autocomplete, People also ask, and Searches related to…

• AnswerThePublic

It is also a free tool that generates keyword suggestions based on Question words (when, how, where, what, can, will…), Prepositions (for, without, to, with,…), and Words used for comparison (like, versus, and, or,…).

• YouTube suggestions

YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. There’s a good likelihood that popular YouTube topics will also have a lot of Google searches. As a result, the most popular search phrases can be found in Google. You can also use Youtube Autocomplete to help you find what you’re looking for.

• Google Search Console

Checking what you already rank for in Google Search Console is an excellent method to identify highly relevant keywords. You might look for keywords that have a lot of impressions but few clicks. You may also see where you rank on the second and third SERPs.

• Reddit

Reddit is one of the most popular online forums, with discussions on practically any topic you can think of. As a result, it can be a useful tool for finding others who are interested in your field and learning about the topics they discuss.

These are only some methods for keyword research. There are many more methods like Niche forums, Quora suggestions, Wikipedia, and so on. Interested in learning more about these methods, join our institute Infinitus. We offer you the best SEO course in Kochi, Kerala.

3 key Aspects of a good keyword

How will you know that the keyword you choose is a good one?  The 3 key aspects of analysing a keyword are search volume, difficulty, and relevance.

• Search Volume

The average number of times a keyword is searched each month is known as search volume. The keyword you choose should have a good search volume i.e., the keyword should be popular. You should also consider the popularity of a search term from a longer perspective by looking at the keyword’s long-term interest pattern. 

• Difficulty 

The keyword difficulty metric indicates how tough it is to rank for a specific keyword. The higher the keyword difficulty, the more difficult it will be for your website to rank for that term. The authority of the websites ranking in the first SERP is taken into account by the difficulty metrics employed in keyword tools. The amount and quality of backlinks are used to determine a website’s authority.

• Relevance

The keyword you choose should be relevant to your website and should match the user’s intent. The keywords can be divided into 4 main categories according to search intent.

• Navigational- Used when you search for a specific brand or website, Eg: HP
• Informational- Used for finding general information, Eg: how to make chocolate cake
• Transactional- Used when you purchase something, Eg: buy LG television
• Commercial- Used when you perform research before a purchase, Eg:  review of a new Vivo phone

How to use Keywords

You should write the content of the website in a content hub model in which you have a pillar content that describes the main topic and contains broader keywords and a cluster content that describes the subtopics and contains more specific keywords.

The focus keyword is a keyword that best portrays the page’s topic while also having the finest SEO qualities. Once you’ve decided on a focus keyword for your page, incorporate it into the page’s important parts. The main parts of the webpage where you should include the focus keywords are:

• The title tag
• Meta descriptions
• The heading of the page 
• The body of the page (ideally twice in the content)
• Anchor texts 

Conclusion

All the points we discussed above can give you a great idea of keyword research. If you want to learn more and dig deeper into keyword research, check our home page for our SEO courses. We provide you with the finest SEO course in Kerala. It can give you a much deeper understanding of the metrics and tools available for keyword research and how to use them.