Probably the most important aspect of SEO research is keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases that users search for in Search Engines (SEs). As SEs are serving up Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for users based on their queries, it’s important to know what those queries are. If you discover the terms people are searching for that relate to your business, you can optimise your site for them. So how do you do keyword research? Below is my guide on how to do it.

Understand your Target Audience First

To begin your keyword research, it’s essential to first understand your customers and potential customers. Who is your target audience and can you build a customer persona around your different types of customers? Understanding the demographic of your audience can help you get into the mindset of your customer. You will be able to comprehend their challenges from their perspective. Some of the basic demographics to understand your audience include:

Age
Gender
Family make-up
Location
Socio-economic status
Education
Interests and hobbies

But each audience is different and depending on your industry your audience may look extremely broad or belong to a particular niche. Creating a customer persona is a great way to start any marketing campaign, It’s not just for SEO.

The core component of Keyword Research

Now you understand your audience a little bit better, you can start to ask what your audience is searching for.

Brainstorm

The first thing I recommend would be to do a brainstorm. Use a mind-mapping session to start a list of keywords you think are most important to your brand. The keywords you write down here will usually be your primary keywords that have a lot of competition, such as your products and services. They may also include FAQs surrounding your services. Here are some prompts for your brainstorm session:

Name your main products and services and any variations on these terms.
What questions do your customers most commonly ask about your goods and services?
Is your brand name something people would search for?

By writing this list you’ll have a good basis for the next step.

Competitor keyword research

Do competitor research. Choose competitors that match you for products, services and offering. See which words they rank for by using your list of brainstormed keywords to see if they are showing up for these terms. You may also want to see which companies appear in SERPs for your brand terms to see if your brand profile needs optimising alongside your products and services. Consider whether you may be able to rank for a competitor’s brand name if it includes generic keywords that relate to your products and services.

Find related terms

Once you have a good list of primary keywords, you will want to look for related terms to determine your SEO plan. There are several ways to discover similar terms and phrases:

Use Google’s autofill feature on the search bar. When you start typing your query you will usually be presented with several autocompleted queries. These are usually the most popular searches so they could be a key phrase you may want to target.
When searching for a term, SERPs can also show additional queries within the page. Google features the ‘People also asked’ widget on many SERPs. These questions could also be keywords to target.
Utilise keyword research tools to also find relevant keywords. Google has its own keyword planner but there are many other companies that have great tools too. Do a search for keyword research tools to find countless examples. Some are free and some are paid for products.

Learn about your audience and industry

To take keyword research to the next level, you should scourer the internet for the interests and queries your target audience are engaged in. Here are some places you can look to understand your audience’s needs and their search intent:

Forums, blogs and comment sections on various websites can all aid you in discovering users’ queries. People will ask questions and be looking for advice on various topics. On forums, you may find people asking where they can buy a particular product or how to do certain tasks. E.g. someone may ask how to get a particular stain out of a carpet. If you are a carpet cleaning company this is useful to you.
Social media channels are another great place to find what people are talking about in relation to your goods or competitors. Watch out for the particular questions they ask or what recommendations they are looking for.
Reviews of your competitors or similar goods can also provide information. Some people may display problems they had with a product or service. Others may say what they liked most about it. Any information like this can be used to determine what is most important to your audience when they are looking to make a purchase.

Choosing keywords and phrases

By this point, you should have a large selection of keywords in mind but that doesn’t mean these are the ones you should necessarily target. Here are some things to consider when deciding which keywords to select as part of your SEO strategy.

1. Are these keywords relevant to your company?

Just because people are asking about something frequently doesn’t mean it’s right for your business. Understanding user intent is essential. Choose keywords that are relevant to your company’s goods and services.

2. Is this keyword too competitive right now?

Are you in a highly competitive industry, such as white goods or electronics? If this is the case and you are a small company you may find it hard at the beginning to rank for specific terms that are very popular. This is because:

This term is being targeted by larger companies with a bigger SEO budget than you and they already dominate the market in this area.
The keyword is very generic and isn’t going to result in visits to your site from qualified consumers.

For example, let’s say you sell mini-fridges in colourful, animal print designs. The term ‘fridge’ is very generic and doesn’t really show that the customer is ready to buy a fridge. Your bigger competitors will have the market on this on. ‘Mini Fridge’ is better as it’s showing they are more interested in your products but it’s still unlikely they are ready to buy. A term that would be much more likely to convert would be ‘buy pink zebra print mini-fridge’. If you sell that product you’d be more likely to attract their attention on Google and they have the action of ‘buy’ in the query.

When you are first starting out you need to look for terms that are relevant but also not as competitive to focus on. This is not to say you won’t ever rank for ‘fridge’, but it’s going to take a longer time. Start by focusing on your longer keywords and phrases and build from there.

3. Can you produce content for these topics?

Content marketing is a key component of your SEO strategy. You, therefore, need to be able to produce content for your chosen keywords. These could be articles, whitepapers, FAQs or product pages.

4. Can you optimise your site for these terms?

Do you understand how to perform on-page optimisation for the terms you have chosen? If not, talk to a professional SEO to build a strategy. They will also be able to help you with keyword research.

How to do Keyword Research – A Summary

Keyword research takes practice and is something that should be re-examined frequently. It’s not a one-time thing as audiences’ tastes and preferences change frequently, even in established industries. To do keyword research you should:

Brainstorm ideas
Review your competitors
Use search engines and SEO tools to find related terms
Scour the internet for where your audience is asking questions and looking for recommendations

When deciding on your keywords make sure they are:

Relevant
Not too competitive for your business
Able to be targeted by yourself or your chosen SEO professional.

If you would like further guidance on keyword research, I can help. I produce SEO audits for all my clients that include full keyword research. My audits can help you create a long term, sustainable SEO strategy that lets your business grow. Get in touch with me today.