Keyword Research for SEO

Hey everyone, my name is Mukul and today we’ll talk about Keyword Research.

You will be learning a bunch of things, here’s a glimpse:

• What EXACTLY is Keyword Research?
• Free Tools For Keyword Research
• How do you perform Keyword Research?
• Non-Conventional Keyword Research Techniques
• Tips for Keyword Research
• Why should you track keywords and keep optimizing?

What EXACTLY is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines. The goal is to figure out what to rank for. It’s not just about getting visitors to your site, but about attracting the right kind of visitors. The relevance of these keywords to your content determines how high your site ranks in search engine results.

But why is keyword research so important? Well, it’s the foundation of your SEO strategy. It helps you understand the language your potential customers are using and align your content with their needs. It’s not just about traffic, but about attracting quality traffic that’s likely to convert. By understanding the keywords your audience uses, you can create content that answers their questions and solves their problems.

Free Tools For Keyword Research

Let’s move on to some tools that can help you with keyword research. And the best part is they’re free!

1. Google Keyword Planner: This tool is part of Google Ads but it’s free to use. It provides deep information about keywords including competition level, average monthly searches, and suggested bids.
2. Ubersuggest: This tool offers a wide range of keyword suggestions. Easy to use and provides 3 free searches a day. I would say if you want to get a feel for what these expensive SEO tools work like, this is a good starting point.
3. Keyword Sheeter: This tool generates a lot of keyword ideas based on your input. It’s a great tool for brainstorming and discovering new keyword ideas.
4. ChatGPT: Probably one of the best tools for building rough topical maps, getting an idea about the niche in-depth in a really fast and time-efficient way. You can audit website content, cluster a list of keywords, find long tail keywords, and generate FAQs in an easy way. Great tool. I use it every single day.

What tools do I use?

I mostly use Ahrefs and Semrush. These are probably the best keyword research tools out in the market. You can do so much with them, it’s amazing.

They are surely on the pricier side these days and if you’re just starting out, there’s no immediate need to get these tools. You can very well use manual research, ChatGPT, free tools I mentioned earlier and get done with most of your keyword research.

In the end, you will be the one deciding the niche, keywords and everything and the success will mostly depend on manual research. Tools can only give you a rough idea and make things easier for you but to truly determine competition, you have to resort to manual research. I will be releasing a video on how to do manual keyword research soon.

How do you perform Keyword Research?

Alright, now that we have our tools, let’s walk through the process of keyword research:

1. Start by identifying a broad keyword related to your topic. This is often referred to as a ‘seed’ keyword. It’s a starting point for your research.
2. Use a keyword research tool to generate a list of keyword ideas. These tools will give you variations of your seed keyword, as well as related keywords.
3. Analyze the competition for these keywords. Look at the DA/PA of the top-ranking pages, the content length, and how well-optimized they are for SEO. This will give you an idea of how hard it will be to rank for these keywords.
4. Check the search volume for your chosen keywords. This tells you how many people are searching for these keywords. Tools like Ahrefs’ Keyword Generator can help with this.
5. Finally, choose a keyword that has a good balance of search volume and competition. This is often a bit of a balancing act, but with practice, you’ll get the hang of it.

Non-Conventional Keyword Research Techniques

For those who want to go a step further, here are some advanced techniques:

1. Look for forums in your niche and see what topics people are discussing. These can be great sources of long-tail keyword ideas.
2. Browse through popular Facebook groups OR closed communities in your niche and filter top posts. Find keywords that are talked about the most and have the most amount of likes and interest. You can later uses these communities as a source of traffic.
3. Use the “intitle:” and “inurl:” search operators to find pages that specifically mention your keyword in the title or URL. These are likely to be less competitive, giving you a better chance of ranking.
4. Search for your keyword on YouTube to get interesting and unique takes on the topic. You can potentially, make a video out of your blog post and publish it, which can drive more traffic to your website naturally, and building a secondary trust signal is always a good thing to do.

These strategies aren’t something very unique and untalked of but just something that a lot of people don’t really focus on while doing their Keyword Research.

Tips for Keyword Research

1. Don’t just focus on high-volume keywords. Lower volume keywords can be less competitive and easier to rank for. Plus, they often have a higher conversion rate because they’re more specific. There have been times when keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush show a very low search volume but the keywords turn out to be decent volume and low competition. The fact that people skim over them and don’t write individual articles on them because they’re low competition can be a big opportunity for you.
2. Consider user intent when choosing keywords. What is the user looking for when they type in that keyword? What kind of content can you create to meet that need? Understanding user intent is key to creating content that ranks well and satisfies users. When you write a blog post, make sure it matches the intent clearly and also check what type of content is ranking on the SERPS. This will help you decide if your article should be informational or commercial.
3. Don’t forget about long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific phrases that can be easier to rank for and often have a higher conversion rate. They might have a lower search volume, but they often bring in more qualified traffic. You can use targeted tools like Long Tail Pro or just any tool to get these terms. It’s not that hard these days.

Why should you track keywords and keep optimizing?

Often times you rank for some keywords that you don’t specifically target and you can check this on Ahrefs or Google Search Console. While these keywords don’t bring significant traffic to your website, they can be great terms to rank on and get traffic for. The fact that Google is ranking you for these terms even without you writing a post on them makes it an easy-to-validate keyword.

The end.

That’s it for today’s video. If you are interested in a personalised SEO roadmap for your site which helps you know exactly what you need to do to grow it, check out my website, it’s linked in the description below. Thank you!