What is Keyword Research?

Keyword Research is a fundamental search engine optimization (SEO) task that involves identifying popular words and phrases people use in search engines, like Google, Bing, and others. This research helps marketers understand the demand for certain keywords and how hard it would be to compete for those terms in the organic search results, offering some direction on optimization efforts.

Keyword research isn’t just about verifying how many searches a particular keyword has — it’s also about exploring the many varied ways that people use language to research an idea or topic. As such, it’s a critical activity for marketing strategies because it can reveal query terms related to your business, product, or service that you may not have considered.

The goal of keyword research is to generate a large number of terms that are highly relevant to your audience. From there, you analyze the search volume, competition, and potential to craft a targeted keyword strategy. This strategy can inform content topics, social media marketing, advertising campaigns, and even product development.

Steps to Conduct Keyword Research:

1. Start with a list of important topics related to your business. Think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You'll come up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you'll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

2. Fill in those topic buckets with keywords. These are keyword phrases you think are important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target customer is probably conducting searches for those specific terms.

3. Research related search terms. This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research. If not, it's a great way to fill out those lists. If you're struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, go to Google and take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword.

4. Use keyword research tools to your advantage. Keyword research tools can help you find more keyword ideas based on exact match and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you've generated up to this point. Some of the most popular keyword research tools include Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz Keyword Explorer.

5. Analyze the competition. Understanding who ranks for the keywords you're interested in can give you a sense of how difficult it would be to rank for those terms. It can also help you understand the level of investment in SEO and content you may need to make to compete.

6. Determine the mix of head terms and long-tail keywords for your content. Head terms are keyword phrases that are generally shorter and more generic, while long-tail keywords are longer phrases consisting of three or more words. Both are important for your SEO strategy.

Keyword research is not a one-time task but an ongoing activity that should evolve with your business and the market. It is crucial for optimizing your online presence, understanding your audience, and improving your content and SEO strategy.