How to Do Keyword Research [Video Tutorial]

Good keywords are hard to find. For every keyword that works, there are hundreds that don't. And if you make the wrong choice, you are stuck creating content that'll never show up in search. We can’t let that happen!

This is why I want to carefully navigate you through the seven steps of keyword research and focus your efforts on those keywords that really count and can bring you more traffic and revenue in the future. Keep watching!

Introduction

Hey everyone, it’s Mary from SEO PowerSuite, the all-in-one toolkit that covers every aspect of SEO.

Before we move to the practical part of how to do keyword research, I want to make sure that you know the theory.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search queries that people enter in search engines. Search engines correlate these words with your content and then show it to users. This is how they promote your site and put it in a better rank position.

Keyword research is not about a thoughtless gathering of all words more or less related to the topic of your business. It is about in-depth analysis and the right further use of the keywords.

Why Should We Care About Keyword Research?

In brief, keywords are used for:

The first is about making your landing pages and content visible. The second one is about finding new topics for your blog and ideas for new pages. Once your landing pages are well-optimized, Google ranks them higher in search results, which means that users can find your business much easier. You get the visibility you deserve, drive more traffic, get more visitors, more clients, and more revenue.

So, without exaggeration, keyword research is the cornerstone of search engine optimization, as it impacts every other SEO task you perform. Continuous keyword research helps you keep up with the latest trends in your industry, realize what your real and potential customers search for, what your competitors publish, and therefore try to make even better content.

Steps to Effective Keyword Research

Step #1. Create a List of Seed Keywords

Seed keywords broadly describe your niche. They are short, typically one or two words, like "dance school" or "car repairs". Seed keywords are used to kickstart the process of developing more keyword ideas. Identify them by breaking your business down into general topics and picking valuable keywords for each.

For example, if you own a travel agency, your seed keywords can be:

Another way to collect seed keywords is by going through your website’s navigation and looking for keyword terms.

Step #2. Choose SEO Tools to Use

There is a huge range of SEO tools on the market, both free and paid. For this video, we will limit ourselves to a handful of the most popular and reliable keyword research tools:

Step #3. Generate Your Keyword List

Now that you've got your seed keywords, let's explore some of the keyword research methods in more depth and see how to use Rank Tracker for this purpose. Start with related searches to see what users search for on Google. Use the TF-IDF Explorer to find the most frequently used keywords of top SERP competitors. Check your competitors’ ranking keywords as well.

Step #4. Filter Your Data

At this point, you need to clean your keyword list to exclude useless results. Analyze your keywords based on metrics like keyword length, search volume, difficulty, expected traffic, and cost per click.

Step #5. Prioritize Your Keywords

Segment and prioritize your final selection of keywords so that they are easier to manage and implement in your SEO strategy. Universal criteria for SEO segmentation are semantic similarity, search intent, search volume, and competition.

Step #6. Build a Keyword Map

Keyword mapping is a process where you assign the researched phrases to specific pages on your site. This helps you avoid keyword cannibalization and ensures that the keywords are used consistently. Group them into sets you can target on one page according to their topic and intent. Assign each group to a page on your site.

Step #7. Monitor the Results and Adjust Your Strategy

Track the performance of your keywords over time. Adjust your strategy based on ranking changes, updating content with new keywords as needed.

Conclusion

Let's quickly recap:

The keyword research process can be summarized in three words: generate, filter, prioritize.

I hope you guys enjoyed this guide and found it helpful. If you did, give it a thumbs-up and subscribe to our channel! See you in the next video. Bye!