If you’re new to SEO, you might wonder what the fuss is about keyword research. After all, can’t you just sprinkle a few relevant keywords into your website content and call it a day? Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. In order for your website to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to choose the right keywords and use them properly throughout your site. Keep reading to learn five ways to conduct keyword research for SEO success.
1. Define Your Goals
Before you begin your keyword research, it’s important to take a step back and define your goals. What are you trying to achieve with your website? Are you trying to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or make sales? Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a better idea of the keywords you should target.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Who are you trying to reach with your website? Once you know your target audience, you can start thinking about the keywords they might use when searching for your products or services. For example, if you’re a plumber targeting homeowners in your city, your target audience might use keywords like “plumbers near me,” “emergency plumbing service,” or “residential plumbers.”
3. Use Keyword Planning Tools
Once you have an idea of the keywords you should target, it’s time to start using keyword planning tools. There are several different tools available, but some of our favorites include Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool. These tools will help you fine-tune your keyword list and determine which keywords are most likely to generate traffic (and conversions!) for your website.
4. Consider Searcher Intent
When choosing keywords, it’s also important to consider searcher intent. In other words, what is the person searching for actually looking to accomplish? Are they looking for information, ready to make a purchase, or just beginning their research? You can usually tell by looking at the type of keyword they’re using. For example, someone who types “buy X” into Google is probably further along in the sales funnel than someone who searches for “X Y reviews.”
5. 7 Group Keywords Together
Once you have a solid list of individual keywords, it’s time to start grouping them together into buckets. Grouping similar keywords together will be easier (and more effective) when it comes time to add them to your website content. Not sure how to group your keywords together? A good rule of thumb is to group together keywords that are similar in meaning or intent. Grouping similar keywords help ensure that your content is relevant and informative—exactly what search engines are looking for!
6. Add Keywords To Your Website Content
The final step in conducting keyword research for SEO success is adding your keywords to your website content. But beware: don’t stuff your keywords in haphazardly! Search engines will penalize you for keyword stuffing, and your website visitors will quickly become annoyed. Instead, focus on adding keywords naturally throughout your content, including in your title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and body text.
7. In A Natural Way Want more traffic from Google?
Then you must ensure you include relevant keywords throughout your website content—from metadata and titles down to your body copy and blog posts. But beware, stuff too many keywords into your content in an attempt to game the system, and Google will quickly ding you with a penalty for keyword stuffing!
The best way to avoid this is to naturally add keywords to your content as part of regular sentence structure rather than forcing them where they don’t belong.
8. Review & Refine Your Results Over Time Finally
Don’t forget that keyword research isn’t a one-time thing—you’ll need to revisit and refine your findings regularly as search engines evolve and user behavior changes over time. By regularly reviewing and refining your keyword research results, you can be sure that your website always has the edge over the competition—and that’s how you’ll score those all-important top spots in SERPs!
Final Thoughts
Keyword research is a critical component of any SEO strategy, and it’s one that you can’t afford to ignore if you want your website to be successful. By following the tips in this article, you can be sure that your keyword research is on point and that you’re targeting the right keywords for your business.
Don’t forget to revisit and refine your keyword research regularly, as search engines and user behavior change over time.
