We all understand the power of search engines, like Google or Bing. They present us with results that are most relevant to the search terms we enter. For instance, if you search for "eggless brownie recipes," you won't be shown "egg fried rice recipes," even though both contain the words "recipe" and "egg."

When it comes to optimising your website for search engine optimisation (SEO), you need to create content that aligns with the keywords or phrases your customers are searching for. Otherwise, you're investing valuable time and effort into work that goes unseen.

To do this you need to do some keyword research. While it may seem confusing and time-consuming, it’s not the kind of research that requires a PhD.  In this article, we’ll take you through the fundamentals of keyword research and introduce you to some tools to make the process easier.

What is keyword research and why is it important?

Keyword research is about uncovering the specific words and phrases your target audience types in search engines to find your products, services, or other relevant information.

By knowing what your customers are searching for, you can create website content, blogs and articles that include those keywords. This increases the likelihood of your website appearing high in search engine results, which will result in more people visiting your website.

Types of keywords

1. Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are concise terms, usually no more than one to two words, that broadly describe your company or industry. While they may not be the exact keywords you’ll end up using due to their broad nature, they provide a great starting point for your keyword research. For example, some basic seed keywords for a shoe shop could include:

• Shoes
• Footwear
• Sneakers
• Boots
• Sandals
• Heels
• Casual shoes
• Men's shoes
• Women's shoes
• Kids' shoes

 

2. Key phrases

Keyword phrases are more targeted combinations of words or phrases that people use to find specific information, products, or services. They can often be three or more words and provide greater clarity around what people are searching for. For example, key phrases for a shoe shop could include:

• Best shoe shop near me
• Comfortable work boots for men
• Trendy streetwear sneakers
• Affordable school shoes for kids
• Women’s high heels for weddings

 

How to find the best keywords for your business

Brainstorm

Start with a few seed keywords related to your business. Then expand your list of keywords by thinking about the words and phrases your customers use when searching for your products and services.

Also, consider this from differing levels of knowledge. What search terms would someone who has little knowledge about your products and services use versus someone who is very experienced with your products and services?

Explore Keyword Research Tools

Now that you have a basic list of keywords and phrases, it’s time to leverage the power of keyword research tools. There are some excellent free tools available. These include:

• Google Keyword Planner – Enter your basic list into Google Keyword Planner and it will give you a more in-depth view of other potential keywords plus valuable insights on search volumes and trends. It can also generate keyword suggestions that may not contain your basic keyword list but Google considers are aligned to your products and services. Learn More.
• WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool- Use this to see the keywords your competitors’ websites are ranking for. Learn More.
• ChatGPT – A great place to brainstorm keywords or expand on the basic keyword list that you created in Step 1. Learn More.
• Answer the Public – This free site helps you find keywords that are phrased as questions. You can use these keywords to create content for FAQ pages or as topics for blogs as they are questions that people are actively searching answers for. Learn More.

You can also explore third-party tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz Keyword Explorer. You must pay a subscription for these tools which are usually used by SEO and digital marketing professionals.

Analyse your Keywords.

By now, you will have a long list of keywords. You can refine these down to the keywords that will work best for you by analysing the different keyword metrics. Some of these metrics include:

• Search Volume is the average number of times every month that a keyword is searched for
• Traffic Potential is the potential number of organic (not paid) visits a page might receive from a search engine with a specific keyword.
• Keyword Difficulty is used to determine how difficult it is to rank for a keyword, based on competition for that keyword.
• Cost per click (CPC) shows how much value the market considers that keyword to have. Keep in mind that CPC is mostly used for advertising and can change at any time, depending on how many companies are creating ads targeting that keyword.

While you can analyse these keywords independently, many of the tools mentioned can help you with this task.

TIP: Seek a balance between high search volumes and manageable competition as keyword volume isn’t everything. Even if lots of people are searching for something, this doesn’t mean they will convert into website traffic and customers for you. For example, ‘social media marketing’ has high search volumes. However, many people are researching what it is or how to do it and not necessarily looking for a social media marketing specialist. 

Prioritise your keywords

Now that you’ve brainstormed, researched, and analysed your keywords, it’s time to prioritise them so you can start using them to get more website traffic, enquiries and ultimately, more customers.

This is not an exact science and depends on your keyword goals, and where you want to focus your time and money. Have a look at your analysis and consider:

• Your goals – What are you aiming to achieve with your keywords? Do you want to increase brand awareness, increase organic traffic, boost conversions, or expand your reach?

 Taking the example of the shoe shop, examples of keywords the shoe shop could use to increase organic traffic include:

- Fashionable women's boots for winter

- Top-rated sneakers for cross-training

- Vegan shoes for eco-conscious consumers

- Trendy shoe styles for teens

Examples of keywords to boost conversions could include:

- Buy [brand name] running shoes online.

- Affordable [brand name] shoes with free shipping

- Limited-time discount on [shoe category]

- Find the perfect [shoe type] for [specific occasion]

- Shop [brand name] shoes with easy returns

- Get the right fit with our shoe size guide.

• Estimated traffic potential – How many people are searching for your products and services?
• Ranking Difficulty – Who are you competing against? Do you have any chance of ranking against them?
• Potential – What benefit will you get from ranking for this keyword? Are the people searching looking for information or to buy your products/services? Also, see the goals above.
• Time and effort – How much time and effort will it take for you to rank for this keyword? Do you have to create new web pages or do you have one that just needs to be tweaked?

Getting started

Now you’ll have a list of keywords to try and rank for on the internet’s search engines. But which ones do you start with? It really depends on your specific circumstances, goals, strategy and focus.

If you want to get lots of traffic quickly, focus on high-volume and low-difficulty keywords. If want to get website conversions, focus on the keywords that have the most business potential.

You can implement your keywords in many places on your website including:

• Written page content
• Blogs and Articles
• Image descriptions
• Meta Tags, headings, meta descriptions, alt tags

 

SEO is a balancing act of finding the right keywords to get your business to rank on all the different search engines. This requires strategy and research that can be confusing and time-consuming.

Want your website to rank highly with SEO but don’t want to do it yourself?

Get in touch with us today for your free SEO audit report. The report will do the heavy lifting for you on keyword research and recommendations and includes a full audit of the current state of your on-page and off-page SEO.