How To Do Keyword Research Like A Pro

Keyword research is a fundamental part of SEO. It is the process of identifying popular words and phrases that are relevant to a user's search on search engines like Google.

How it works: An individual goes on Google to find a solution to their existing problem. They type a keyword into the search engine, and it returns a list of content relevant to that keyword.

Types of Keywords

There are two types of keywords: short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords.

• Short-tail Keywords: These are keywords that are no longer than two words. For example, men's salons. The problem with this type of keyword is that it is too generic. Therefore, it is highly competitive and provides little conversion.
• Long-tail Keywords: These are also referred to as key phrases. Long-tail keywords are very specific keywords that consist of more than three words. For example, luxury boutique hotels in lekki. This type of keyword provides a high conversion rate. It is also low in competition, making it a better keyword choice than a short-tail keyword.

Now that we know what keywords are, let's find out how to do keyword research properly.?

1. Target Audience Research: In my opinion, the best way to start keyword research is to identify the problems your customer or potential customer needs help solving. There is a popular saying, the best way to catch a thief is to think like one. When it comes to keyword research, you have to think like your potential customer to get their attention. You need to identify their needs and how they interact with the internet to find solutions to their problems. This is called search intent. For example, if I need a barber that provides home services, I’ll probably search on google for home service barbers near me or something similar. A barber or a barbing salon that provides such services should be able to anticipate their potential customer's search intent and create relevant content based on that search intent. Understanding your customer's search intent will help you identify where your customer is in the customer's journey process. It will also help you create keywords that match your customer's journey. Apart from Google search, you can also search on forums and social media groups for problems relating to your niche.??
2. Build a list of keywords: Once you have identified the problems your potential customers have that your product or service can help them solve, and you understand the intentions behind their search, the next step is to create a list of keywords from those problems you discovered. This would help you identify keywords that are high in search volume and generate the highest conversion rates.?
3. Understand Keyword Metrics: To choose the best keywords, you need to understand the most important metrics that define the quality of each keyword. There are four metrics to look out for when building your keyword list: Search Volume, Paid Difficulty, Keyword Difficulty, and Cost Per Click.?Search volume is the total number of monthly searches for a specific keyword. Paid difficulty reveals how difficult it is for a keyword to rank in paid search results. Keyword difficulty measures how difficult it is for your content to rank on the first page of search engines using certain keywords. Cost Per Click is an online advertising model that refers to the price you pay each time a person (visitor) clicks on your link.
4. Refine Your Keywords: Once you understand the search intent of your potential customers and the important metrics to look out for, you need to refine the keyword list you built earlier. You can refine your keywords based on your goals, difficulty level, keywords your competitors are ranking for, search volume, and topics (if you write blog articles).
5. Setup Google Search Console on your website: Setting up Google Search Console will help you measure your site's Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site rank high in Google Search results. In summary, it helps improve the overall performance of your website by identifying problem areas and solutions.

Note: Keywords with low difficulty and a high Cost Per Click (CPC) will drive the most traffic to your website.

Budget-Friendly Tools For Effective Keyword Research

Many great tools help with keyword research, but below are a few of my best.

• Google Keyword Planner: It is a free tool that helps you identify the monthly search volume of a keyword, how competitive the keyword is, its cost per click, and paid difficulty. It also shows you related keyword ideas. To learn more about Google's Keyword Planner, watch the video below.?

• Neil Patel's Ubersuggest: Ubersuggest is a freemium keyword research tool that does everything Google's keyword planner does and a lot more. With Ubersuggest, you can perform site audits to identify areas of your website that need improvement. You can also analyze your competitors' websites to identify what topics and keywords improve their rankings on search engines. In my opinion, Ubersuggest is more than enough to get you to your desired result. To learn how to use this tool, watch the video below.?

• Answer The Public: Answer the public is another freemium tool that gives you detailed information about what your customers are looking for. This tool helps create relevant content and keywords that will improve the success rate of your business. To learn how to use this tool, click the link below.?

• Google Trends: This tool is not necessarily a keyword tool, but it provides relevant topic ideas for your blog articles. It shows you topics that are currently trending in your industry. In other words, it shows you what your potential customer is looking for. Remember we spoke about search intent earlier in this article? Google trend is a great tool to identify the search intent of your potential customers. To learn how to use this tool, click watch the video below.?

Neil Patel has created a list of profitable keywords that would help increase your conversion rate if implemented.?You can download it here .

I hope this article helps you in your endeavors. However, if you need help with your SEO strategy or keyword research, I will be happy to help you create effective strategies.