How do you conduct keyword research and analysis for SEO?

Start by asking yourself the "Who/What/When/Where/Why" questions about your topic - if your product is designed to help someone how is it helping? What is the issue? when does someone need to use the product? Think about how you connect users to your topic and that's what to focus on.

Lets say you run a blog for fitness. Use Google Keyword Planner to find related terms and their search volumes, Analyze the intent behind each keyword, Check competitor blogs ranking for similar terms, Include specific phrases like "10-minute home workouts", Use Google Trends to see if interest in "home workouts" is steady or has seasonal fluctuations. Compile a list prioritizing keywords based on relevance and search volume. Group them into categories like "strength training at home," "cardio workouts," and "quick routines." In application, you'd optimize your blog content for these keywords. This approach enhances your content's visibility in search results, reaching users actively searching for fitness routines at home.

First, clarify your website or blog's purpose and target audience. Identify the problems you aim to solve or questions to answer. From this, brainstorm broad topics aligning with your niche and audience for effective keyword research. This ensures your content resonates with your readers' needs and enhances visibility on search engines.

???? Keyword Research for SEO ?? ? Identify Topics: Brainstorm relevant topics related to your industry or niche. ?? ? Keyword Tools: Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush for keyword suggestions. ??? ? Competitor Analysis: Analyze competitor websites to uncover valuable keywords. ?? ? Long-tail Keywords: Target specific, longer phrases for niche audience targeting. ?? ? Search Volume & Competition: Evaluate search volume and competition level for each keyword. ?? ? User Intent: Understand user intent behind keywords to align with content strategy. ?? ? Organize Keywords: Categorize keywords based on relevance and search volume. ?? ? Regular Review: Continuously monitor keyword performance and adapt strategy accordingly. ??

When I begin a new project, the first step is to conduct keyword research. Initially, I focus on understanding the business and identifying the target audience based on factors such as niche, location, and country. Once I have a clear understanding of our audience, I delve into researching keywords that not only generate substantial traffic but also align with our specific requirements. Personally, I rely on Semrush as my go-to tool for keyword research. It aids in uncovering new opportunities and ensures that the chosen keywords meet our objectives effectively.

I use Google Search Console to identify keywords my site ranks for, particularly those on the first and second pages. These are low-hanging fruit keywords where my site already has some level of relevance and authority. To optimize these pages, I rewrite existing content, specifically titles, headers, and meta descriptions. This approach is helpful for keywords with low CTR but high impression count. I may also develop deeper, longer-tail content around these keywords when needed.

One of the first things I do with a keyword research tool is audit my own website. What keywords do I currently rank on? Are there irrelevant keywords that I rank on? What is the source of this, and how is it impacting my organic traffic? I once knew an advertising agency that ranked pretty high on the search term “Ryan Reynolds wet” because of a blog post about a Ryan Reynolds movie. That’s not exactly the target audience the agency was looking to bring in. By auditing your own site and weeding out content contributing to irrelevant keywords, you can positively impact some of your website metrics, like bounce rate and time on page, with minimal effort.

The technique I use for keyword research involves initially examining the queries already ranked by the website through GSC. If the queries, as per the Search Console data, align with our requirements, I proceed to analyze the keyword traffic and competition. I carefully assess which keywords seem more promising, and those are the ones I choose for the specific page. However, if we're dealing with a fresh website, my strategy shifts to utilizing tools such as Semrush, Keywords Planner, Ahrefs, and Google Trends. While Google Trends isn't a dedicated keyword research tool, it proves valuable for gauging trending topics by country. This information then forms the basis of our keyword research through Semrush, complemented by the free GKP.

Start by analyzing search intent to match content with what users actually seek—informational, navigational, or transactional. Use tools like Ahrefs' "Questions" filter to uncover user pain points. Leverage clustering techniques to group semantically related keywords, focusing on thematic relevance rather than isolated terms. Tap into tools like Google's NLP API to understand latent keywords and content gaps. Prioritize by competitive gap analysis: low-competition, high-intent keywords where competitors underperform. Optimize for voice search with long-tail, conversational phrases.

I use ahrefs now (ubersuggest earlier) to do keyword research in my niche. I begin by inputting my seed keyword and instantly, a treasure trove of insights unfolds before me. I explore metrics such as search volume, keyword difficulty, and click potential to gauge the attractiveness of various keywords. Delving deeper, I uncover related keywords, questions, and SERP features, offering valuable context for my SEO strategy. One must also recognise importance of incorporating long-tail keywords adn aligning with user intent for targeted optimization.

Keyword research and analysis are crucial for effective SEO. Here's a step-by-step guide: 1. Understand Your Niche 2. Brainstorm Seed Keywords: 3. Use Keyword Research Tools: like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to find related keywords. 4. Competitor Analysis: 5. Long-Tail Keywords: 6. User Intent: 7. Google Autocomplete and Related Searches: 8. Content Relevance: 9. Check Trends: 10. Group Keywords: 12. Local SEO Consideration: Remember that effective SEO involves ongoing efforts and adapting to changes in search engine algorithms and user behavior. Regularly monitoring and updating your keyword strategy is key to maintaining visibility and relevance in search results.

- Understand the topic: Determine the main theme or topic of your website or page. - Identify target audience: Define who your ideal audience is and what they might be searching for. - Use keyword research tools: Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords. - Analyze search intent: Consider the intent behind each keyword. Are users looking for information, products, services, or something else? - Group keywords by intent: Categorize keywords based on their intent, such as informational, transactional, or navigational. - Optimize content: Create content that aligns with the search intent of your target keywords to provide value to users and improve SEO performance.

Analyzing search intent is vital for effective keyword research, as our search result performance hinges on securing the right position. Understanding our audience's needs—whether informational, commercial, navigational, or transformational—is key. For commercial keywords, like 'Peet’s cold brew vs Starbucks cold brew,' or informational queries such as 'What is the difference between cold brew and iced coffee?,' or navigational searches like 'Where is Angelino’s Coffee located,' a clear intent guides us to the right keywords, ensuring desired business results.

- Identify Keyword Categories: Group keywords into categories like informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial to understand user intent. - Analyze SERP Features: Examine search engine results pages (SERPs) for the presence of ads, featured snippets, and other elements indicating search intent. - Review Top Results: Look at the top-ranking pages for each keyword to discern common themes and content types that satisfy search intent. - Use Keyword Tools: Employ tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to analyze keyword intent data. - Evaluate User Behavior: Study metrics like click-through rates, bounce rates, and time on page to assess if the content meets user expectations.

Beyond basic intent types, dissect intent modifiers like "best" (commercial) vs. "buy" (transactional). Use SERP features (People Also Ask, snippets) to decode intent from search results. Study search patterns: intent often shifts throughout the journey—e.g., "what is AI" leads to "AI tools for business." Leverage tools like SEMrush’s "Intent" filter to segment queries. Observe content format dominance (videos, lists) to refine keyword targeting. Cross-reference CTR data: high clicks on informational terms might indicate an untapped need for more in-depth content.

Assessing your keyword competition is crucial for effective research. Identify your main competitors, understand their rankings, content strategies, and strengths/weaknesses. This analysis uncovers market gaps, opportunities, and allows you to learn from competitors' successes while avoiding their pitfalls. Whether using keyword tools or manual searches, this step ensures a strategic approach to keyword selection and content creation for your website or blog.

Competition analysis is key to stay relevant in the market. It is no different in search results. Everyone is fighting for the top search results, especially the top 3 positions that have the highest visibility and CTR. So the best way to formulate your SEO strategy is to study the competition, especially the ones that appear in top 3 positions for your intended keywords. It will help you understand what works, and also what is missing in these results that your content can add value on.

Evaluating your competition’s keyword strategy is crucial for staying ahead in SEO. For example, consider an e-commerce site aiming to boost their online presence. By studying a top competitor using SEMrush, they identified high-performing keywords like “affordable eco-friendly clothing.” Implementing these insights, they saw a 30% increase in organic traffic and a 15% rise in conversion rates within three months. Leveraging your competitors' keyword tactics lets you refine your approach and dominate search rankings.

Understanding our keyword competition is essential to be effective with our SEO. By evaluating our main competitors we can uncover SEO opportunities, allowing us to avoid their mistakes. I use SEMrush to determine which keywords our competitors rank for and specifically the ones they overlook. We then create content to target those neglected keywords.

Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to uncover keyword gaps, analyzing competitors’ content depth and backlink strategies. Look for pages ranking with weak DA but high relevance—these are prime for outranking. Evaluate internal linking structure and site speed, factors often overlooked. Track competitors' content updates and historical keyword rankings using Wayback Machine for a tactical edge. Segment analysis by keyword intent (informational vs transactional) to understand their monetization strategy and exploit missed user needs.

Alignment with business objectives is essential, as keywords directly related to products, services, or target audiences should be prioritized. Search volume should be balanced, with high search volume keywords driving significant traffic but also being more competitive. Keyword difficulty should be assessed based on competition and domain authority. Search intent should be understood, and keywords should align with the user's query. Short-tail and long-tail keywords should be prioritized based on their relevance, search volume, difficulty, competition, search intent, and conversion potential. I have found tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush reliable for documenting and tracking keyword performance over time.

Once you've got your potential keywords, take a closer look at the search intent behind them. Understand what people are really after when they type those words. This helps you align your content with their expectations, making your website more valuable to both users and search engines

At Zilingo, we enhanced our SEO by ensuring our pages were SEO-friendly with proper tagging and optimized headings and descriptions. We focused on creating blog content with strategic keywords, particularly high-volume ones where competitors were underperforming, instead of spending on paid keywords. This approach significantly improved our SEO ranking without substantial advertising expenditure.

Shortlisting keywords are important, but the way you prioritize them and use them in your content will decide whether and how you appear on search results. You need to be clear on which keywords you want to appear in search results for short tail keywords are often difficult to rank, as they have huge competition and high search volumes. Long tail keywords have relatively less difficulty in ranking, but have low search volumes. Your website's authority on a particular keyword is decided upon how well researched is your content, its depth and value for users. If your website does not have authority for the intended keyword, then your content will not rank, at least in top search results.

When selecting keywords you need to take into consideration what you have to offer in terms of content and what your client is looking for. If there are words that have the potential to deliver something valuable to the customer, explore this and, of course, evaluate the results afterwards. I have clients who regularly make this type of combination.

Once you have your list of keywords, incorporate them naturally into your website's content, including headings, meta descriptions, URLs, and image alt texts. Avoid keyword stuffing, as this can harm your SEO. Continuously monitor the performance of your keywords using tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console. Track changes in rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rates. Adjust your strategy as needed based on performance data.

You should come up with a measurement plan beforehand to make it clear to you and your team what will be monitored. Decide on primary and secondary KPIs to track. Organic site traffic volume and average session duration are good places to start. Come up with a goal to reach as well. For instance, after a month of implementing this keyword targeting strategy, organic site traffic will increase by 10%. It doesn’t matter if you meet the goal or not; that’s not the point. A goal provides a target to aim for. If you don’t meet the goal, it doesn’t mean you failed. A failure is only a failure if you learn nothing from it. If you don’t meet your goal, understanding why can be even more valuable than having achieved the goal in the first place.

The last phase involves putting your chosen keywords into action and keeping an eye on their performance. Utilize your keywords in content, titles, meta tags, URLs, and other SEO elements. Employ tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to track and measure keyword success, comparing results against your objectives and competitors. Regularly update and optimize your keywords to adapt to evolving search trends and user behavior. This ongoing process ensures your website or blog stays relevant and effective in attracting the right audience.

Beyond implementing keywords, focus on the back-end and technical aspects of the site so that they actually work for you. You can add all of the core keywords to your site with amazing content, but if the search engines can't read them, you'll get next to no benefit. Copy writers and devs either need to be trained in SEO basics, or partner with an SEO expert for you to see success.

Suggest building custom dashboards using Google Data Studio or similar tools to track keyword performance over time. In an ongoing SEO optimisation for a healthcare website, we created a custom dashboard that visualised key metrics such as search volume, ranking position, and CTR for our target keywords. This allowed us to identify underperforming terms quickly and adjust content accordingly, improving overall SEO performance by 20%. Using custom dashboards enables real-time monitoring and optimisation, ensuring that your keyword strategy adapts dynamically to changes in performance.

List some of the target (starting) #keywords and start expanding on them. List all exact and l9mg term kws which are similar and useful for your target/topic. Arrange them based on search volume and pick some easier (low competition) kws first but also use any kws you find useful and suitable even if they are harder to reach in a short time. You habe to think ahead and focus on the "long-term game", with persistent acion in time you'll get there!

Keyword selection is one of the easiest aspects of SEO. However, it won't provide value if you don't have the technicalities down. Couple your keyword strategy with the technical aspect and routinely audit both as well as the competitive landscape in order to ensure success.

What I can add as a input here Comprehensive Keyword Research: I utilize a variety of tools to identify relevant keywords, considering search volume, competition, and user intent. In-depth Analysis: Once a list of keywords is compiled, I conduct a thorough analysis to determine their relevance, difficulty, and potential. This involves evaluating factors such as search trends, related terms, and the competitive landscape. Strategic Keyword Implementation: Based on the analysis, I recommend the most effective keywords for each piece of content. This includes optimizing titles, headings, meta descriptions, and body copy to improve search engine visibility and user experience.