How to Perform Keyword Research For SEO
Keyword research. Here is the detailed guide to find easy to rank and money making keywords for your website. Perform keyword research for seo.
SEO is the best way to get organic traffic. People search queries on Google and visit top listed websites on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) and webmasters get organic traffic on their sites from search engines.
search engines show only the top 10 results on the first page of SERP. These 10 results get more than 80% traffic for that query. It means only a few users visit the second page of SERP and almost no (negligible) visits to the third or further pages of SERP.
That’s why every blogger or business wants to get ranked on the first page in Google.
To achieve this, SEO is the only way.
Technically, SEO starts before creating a blog or website.
before creating a website, SEO strategy and Website structure are the important factors to consider.
Keyword Research is the first step to start SEO optimization.
Rights keywords can get you more traffic, revenue, and customers. However, the wrong keywords could destroy your website’s growth. That’s why keyword analysis is the foundation of SEO.
In this guide, I’ll share the right way to perform Keyword research for beginners to advanced. So let’s start from the beginning..…!
What is a Keyword?
“Keywords are the terms or search queries that people use to search something on a search engine like Google.”Harpreet Munjal, founder of LoudGrowth
For example-
- Best Laptop for Bloggers
- Best WordPress web hosting
- Kinsta Hosting Review
- Semrush Vs Ahrefs
People have their questions & queries to search on Google to find answers. They search their queries and Google shows the best results to answer them.
Why I Need Keyword Research?
Every blogger or business wants more organic traffic and customers. That’s why choosing the right keywords is the first step. A good/bad Keyword analysis can make/break your online empire.
But HOW…..?
Every website has a different authority and ability to rank on Google due to the different number of backlinks, Referring Domains, SEO team experience, domain ages, Website size, brand presence, Budget, and resources.
That’s why every site couldn’t rank for every keyword.
Every keyword has a different nature, level of competition, and, volume. That’s why every keyword couldn’t be beneficial for you also.
For example, Semrush, Wikipedia, Moz, and Ahrefs are ranking for term “SEO”
These are high-authority sites and are capable of ranking for these keywords. Google and users both trust them. If you have a smaller site then you can’t rank for those highly competitive keywords and compete with these big sites.
Keywords like; “Online marketing”, “digital marketing”, “Apple”, and “Adsense” are highly competitive keywords. Everyone couldn’t rank for these keywords.
That’s why finding the right keywords is important to grow faster and with a small budget.
Find relevant, easy-to-rank keywords with decent volume. (sharing how you can do it later in this guide)
What are the Different Types of Keywords?
Keywords are categorized by their functionality and word counting. Here are the major types of keywords:
Types of Keywords by their Use or Functionality
Informational keywords- keywords with how to, when, why, and other terms like these are informational keywords. These keywords are used for knowledge purposes.
For Example:
- How to do keyword research
- How to do SEO?
- How to Install A plugin on WordPress?
- best web hosting services
Navigational keywords- keywords with destination queries are called navigational keywords. For example:
- Wikipedia
People search for these to visit websites like “Facebook” to visit facebook.com
Transactional keywords- these keywords are used to perform some web-mediated activity. For Example- Get insurance quotes.
Branded keywords- keywords with brand names called branded keywords. For example:
- Apple
- Microsoft
- Lee
Product-based keywords– keywords with any products are called product keywords. For example:
- iPhone 7
- Surface pro
In this screenshot; “Buy” is a commercial keyword, “Apple” is Branded, and “iPhone 7” is a Product keyword. So, it is a combination of Commercial+branded+product keywords.
Commercial Keywords- these keywords are used for commercial purposes. People search for them to buy something. These keywords have terms like buy, deal, discount, etc.
For example:
- Semrush Free Trial
- Godaddy Promo codes
- WP Engine Coupon Code
You should also need to find the right type of keywords for your site. For example- Wikihow is an informational site that provides solutions. Wikihow doesn’t offer any deals or discounts. That’s why they are using informational keywords for their site. But,
On the other hand, E-commerce sites like Amazon offer deals to their customers that’s why they use branded + product + commercial keywords.
Understand the nature of your site to choose the right keywords.
If you are running an SEO agency then your keywords should be like this:
- Affordable SEO in {place}
- Best SEO agency in {place}
- SEO packages
- How to Choose the right SEO company
- SEO vs PPC
But if you are running a blog, you must find informational keywords according to your monetization strategy.
For example, If you do affiliate marketing then choose keywords like;
Best SEO tools
Semrush Vs ahrefs
Semrush alternatives, etc.
Understand your business, goals, and customer’s requirements before performing the keyword research.
Keyword Types by word counting
Single-Word Keywords (Head Keywords or Seed Keywords) – these are single-word phrases. Like as SEO, Google, Apple, and so on. These types of keywords have a very large volume (in millions), competition, and difficulty (80+) in ranking. Big sites target them because they have the authority and resources to handle them.
2-3 words keywords (Body Keywords)- these keywords have two-three word phrases like, “best shoes”, “Google keyword research”, “What is SEO”, “keyword finder” and much more. These keywords also have a large volume, competition, and keyword difficulty. You will need to make a great effort to rank these types of keywords.
Multi-word keywords (Long Tail Keywords)– these keywords have multi-word phrases (4 or more words) like as, how to do keyword research, best mobile phones under 5000, and top 10 SEO experts in the USA, etc. These types of keywords have a higher conversion rate. These keywords are also easy to rank and require less budget and effort.
Note: Most of the Long tail keywords are easy to rank but not all.
To find easy-to-rank keywords you need to do keyword research.
How I Can Do Keyword Research to Find Easy-to-Rank Keywords for My Site:
Normally webmasters do keyword research like this-
Step 1- Find some keyword topics or idea
Step2- put these keyword ideas in the Google keyword planner
Step 3 – Choose keywords with a large volume.
That’s it…….!!!
This is not the right way to do a keyword search. A professional Keyword search is far away from that.
The right way to perform keyword research
Step 1- First of all, choose some topics (seed keywords) you want to target. These topics must be relevant to your site topic. For example, if you have a digital marketing blog then choose topics like Google ads, SEO, Social media marketing, etc. (related to digital marketing)
Step 2- Open a keyword research tool and search your keyword idea in that tool. For example, I am using the semrush tool and search keyword “SEO.” Here is the screenshot of this-
Here you can see some terms like CPC, Volume, Trends, etc. First, you need to understand these terms or factors to find easy-to-rank keywords. Here is the complete explanation of these terms:
Relevancy- it means a keyword is how much relative to the given topic. Relevancy is one of the major factors in ranking.
Volume- it is the average number of times users have searched for that keyword per month.
Keyword Difficulty- it is the estimate of how hard to rank a keyword. It counts from 0-100. In this 0 is very easy to rank and 100 is too much hard to rank.
It is the estimation of the difficulty of a keyword, not the exact value. Any tool can’t tell you the exact keyword difficulty of a keyword. But you can get an idea. It is helpful for webmasters to find the right keywords for them.
CPC- it stands for cost per click. It is the price that advertisers pay when a user clicks on an ad triggered by the given keyword. The more the CPC, the more the earnings.
Competition- Advertisers compete for their ads on that keyword.
Results- the number of URLs displayed in the organic search for that keyword.
Trends- it is the volume of searches for that keyword in the last 12 months. You can find it in Google Trends for any keyword. It helps us to understand the nature of our keyword. It means that the keyword is evergreen or seasonal.
For example, some keywords like “summer holiday trip” have more searches in the summer season. Otherwise, its searches are reduced. But keywords like “SEO” have regular consistent searches every month. here is the screenshot of Google trends for “SEO” keyword-
Clicks- it is the total number of clicks performed on the search results every month by the people while searching for that keyword. Some people click on more results in the search results but some people don’t click on any search result. It also helps webmasters to find the right keywords. Because if you choose a keyword with a big volume and also become successful in ranking for that keyword. But if that is not getting any clicks then there is no profit for you. That keyword is useless.
For example- you choose the keyword “Donald trump age” with 96,000 volume in the US and start ranking #1 for it. But no or a few visitors will come to your site. Because Google is answering that keyword on SERP and users have no need to visit any site. In that case, it is a useless keyword for you.
But keywords like, “make money online” & “best web hosting” have more clicks than their search volumes. It means these keywords have more potential to get traffic or visitors from search results for your website.
Clicks Per Search (CPS) – CPS means people click on how many different search results while searching for that keyword.
Return Rate (RR) – Return rate is the estimated value of how many people search again for that keyword.
Every tool has its own terminology to tell about a keyword. You have to need to understand that tool first. Then start finding keywords.
Now come back to keyword research to find SEO keywords…!
Step 3- Check these terms for the keyword “SEO”
SEO is a large-volume keyword having 200K volume only in the US. It also has a higher number of search results (507 million) and a great CPC (US$10.96). But SEO has 76% keyword difficulty. It means it is very hard to rank. It requires too much effort to rank on the first page.
Because tools show only estimated difficulty for a keyword not the exact. That’s why you have to manually check the keyword difficulty to find the scope for that keyword.
Step 4- now search for that keyword in Google to know more about it. I am using the keyword “SEO” to give you an example of the complete step-by-step guide to keyword research.
After searching the keyword SEO in Google we found these results-
You can see that the first result is from Moz then from SearchEngineLand, Neil Patel, Google, Wikipedia, SearchEngineWatch, and Webopedia respectively. All these sites are high authority sites in SEO. Every site has backlinks in millions and 75+ Domain authority with hundreds of links to that specific page. That’s why you need to move on next keyword or find a new keyword.
But if you find sites in Google search for a keyword having almost the same data as your site. Then you can choose that keyword for your site. There are good chances that it will rank for you also. To rank for that keyword you have to do better than your competitors. So visit their site and find their weak points and make your web page better from them.
You can take advantage of your already used keywords on your site to find new ones. You can find the right keyword difficulty and level of competition for your website to find new keywords from them. Check your ranked & unranked keywords to get the idea……
But to find the right keywords, you have to need to use an awesome tool to do keyword research.
Best Keyword Research Tools to Find Keywords
Here is a list of some best keyword search tools to find keywords easily and in a short time. Some of them are free keyword research tools and some are paid tools to find keywords.
Note: No single SEO keyword research tool is perfect. You have to use multiple tools and strategies to create a list of golden keywords. You can use Semrush, Ahrefs, Quora, Reddit, People Also Ask, Google Search Suggestions, Google Search Console, etc.
Google Keyword Planner (GKP)
Google keyword planner is an Adwords tool by Google for its advertisers. This Google keyword research tool is free without any cost. You have to need to sign up with your Gmail to Adwords. Then you can use this Google keyword research tool.
Let me tell you step by step how to use Google Keyword Planner to find SEO keywords.
But remember that GKP is an Adwords tool. It is designed for advertisers instead of webmasters. That’s why there are many options which are not useful for you…..
Step 1- Login or signup with Google Adwords
Step 2- Then click on the tools option and select Keyword Planner.
Step 3- Now you will find the three different tools in the Keyword planner option. You have to need to use only these three tools to find your keywords
1. Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category:
This is the best Google keyword tool to find new keywords. But remember that you will find very closely related keywords to the seed keywords (seed keywords are the basic keywords that are not changed or modified by modifier words). For example, “SEO” is a seed keyword, and “SEO optimized website” is a long tail keyword which is the sum of the Seed keyword (SEO) + Modifier word (Optimized website). Google Keyword Planner doesn’t generate new keyword ideas
2. Get Search Volume Data and Trends
If you have a list of keywords and want to check their volume then this is the best tool for you.
3. Multiply Keyword Lists to get new keyword idea
This multiplier tool mashes the keywords and makes new keyword ideas and combinations. This tool is helpful for e-commerce websites to find every possible keyword idea that people can use to search for products.
I am using the first tool (Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category) to give an example of Keyword research with Google Keyword Planner. Because it is the best tool to find new keyword ideas.
Step 1- type your keyword in” your product and service”
Setup your Targeting and date range, and customize your search options (if you want) then click on the get ideas button.
You will find the list of keywords for you. Check the keyword’s monthly searches and CPC.
Now, further, check out your keywords in Google search to know more about them.
NOTE: GKP gives you an estimated range of keyword volume if you’re not running an active campaign. Take the mean of the volume to get an estimate idea. and the competition that you found in GKP is not the Keyword difficulty of that keyword. it is the competition level for advertisers.
Google Keyword Planner is the best free keyword research tool but it shows very limited data. You can’t find important and advanced data about your keyword in Google keyword planner like as, keyword difficulty, clicks, etc.
It also shows limited keyword ideas. That’s why I don’t prefer and recommend it to anyone. If you’re serious about SEO then you should need to move on to another tool.
SEMrush
Semrush is one of the best keyword research tools. With Semrush, you can find all the keywords of your competitors.
Let me show you…
Open Semrush and enter your competitor’s domain name.
You can choose the country according to your targeted country traffic.
Here you will find the terms:
Semrush rank- it is the rank for a domain by semrush. It is based on organic traffic.
Organic search- the number of organic visitors from Google per month.
Traffic cost- estimated cost of the traffic.
You can find your competitor’s organic keyword data in semrush. Click on view full report to check all the keywords of your competitors.
Now you can see all the top organic keywords of your competitors that already rank for him and generate traffic….
You can select solid keywords from them according to your domain power.
And you can also search for a keyword phrase in the semrush search;
Just enter your seed keyword in the semrush search.
Select your targeted country.
Go to the phrase match keywords report to find more keywords. Here you can find less competitive and long-tail keywords for your website.
And you can easily rank for those long-tail keywords.
Semrush is more than Just a Simple SEO Tool. it is a paid tool but you can use it for free. Yes! Semrush gives ten searches daily to their freebie users. I recommend it to every webmaster who is serious about SEO. Click here to make a free account on Semrush….!! & get a Trial Free.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs is a backlink analysis and SEO tool. It is used by top SEO experts like as, Neil Patel. This tool is very easy to use and offers all tools related to SEO.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer is also one of the best keyword research tools. Let’s find a keyword with Ahrefs Keyword Explorer:
Open the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer tool and enter your seed keyword. You can also enter your complete list of keywords or upload your keyword file.
Select your country and click on the explore button.
Now you can see important and advanced data about that keyword. Like as KD, Clicks, volume and much more.
Ahrefs Also shows you lots of keyword variations and suggestions for your keyword. You can filter keywords by volume, CPC, word counts, keyword difficulty etc.
What is the Meaning of SEO-Friendly Content?
“SEO-friendly content means that your content is optimized for Search engines but written for people (visitors).”
But How to Write SEO-Friendly Content? I don’t know…!
Don’t worry! If you don’t know how to write High-quality Seo friendly content. I will tell you how you can write SEO-friendly content.
Write a deep & long Content that will clear/solve all the points/problems for that topic. It must be free from any spelling or grammatical mistakes. One important thing; it should not be copied from other sites or sources. You can Grammarly to remove grammatical errors.
Write in your voice to give it a personal feel. Write it in easy to read & easy to understand language. Anyone can read & understand what you write. Write a well-explained content about a topic and write everything that you know about that topic. Your content must be a minimum of 1000+ words.
Use your keyword in your content as well as its LSI keywords & relative keywords. You can find relative keywords in Google search by searching your main keyword.
Write a Short & eye-catching Title for your blog post and a unique Meta description. Use your main keyword in title & keep it at the beginning of the title if possible.
Use H tags for headings in your blog post and improve on-page SEO for that web page. If you are on WordPress then you can take the help of the Yoast SEO plugin to improve the SEO of your site & web page.
Use media in your blog post like as images, videos, infographics, etc., and write your keyword in the image alt text.
You can read this complete guide about how to write SEO-friendly content.
Now you need to publish your post get some links for it and keep some patience…!
Bonus Tips:
- If you have a new site then start with those keywords which have very low Competition.
- Always check the SERP results & competitor’s websites for that keyword to find scope.
- If you find results from Social sites and sites like, Blogspot and Ezine articles then you can rank for that keyword easily.
- Make your content too much relevant for that keyword or topic.
- Give backlinks from high-quality & relative sites.
Final Words
There is no doubt that kw research is the first step in SEO to Success. Find the right keywords according to your niche & business.
I tell you everything step by step with a complete explanation of keyword research. Now follow these steps to find the right keywords for you. Because if you have knowledge but don’t take any action then your knowledge is useless.
You need to know the competition level of your domain & choose keywords according to that.
That’s it…!
If you find the right keywords then no one can stop you from ranking top on Google.
What do you think about this Keyword Research guide? What is your experience with keyword research? Share with me in the comments box…!
