If you want a high volume of readers on your blog, you need to learn to do keyword research . It's so simple. If you can figure out what (the right) readers are looking for – through effective keyword research (and using the right free keyword research tools) – then you're well on your way to meeting their needs. and bring many more readers to your Blog.
So why is it important to learn how to do keyword research? Although certains bloggers drive traffic to their websites from a combination of social media, word of mouth and email subscribers, the most successful blogs diversify their marketing. This includes strategic keyword research with the best keyword tools and thoughtful content planning that drives traffic from search engines.
If your overall traffic generation strategy consists of à attract readers from search engines like Google, the strength of your keyword research game will make or break your success as a blogger.
How to Do Keyword Research in 2023
In the last year alone, I've used my ability to do smart keyword research to attract a lot of readers to my blog.
Because I did extensive keyword research, I chose to write about topics that:
(1) receive a high volume of searches each month
(2) bring readers who have high intent and relevance to how I earn money blogging through affiliates and courses.
Now let's talk about the how to do keyword research (in the right way) this year. Keyword research literally built my entire blogging business. Once you're ready to put your keyword research into practice and start a profitable blog, head over to my ultimate guide to starting a blog .
Here's what you need to know about keyword research and how to get more monthly readers from search engines. But first, let's cover the basics.
1. What is Keyword Research? (Definition)
Keyword research is a process that bloggers and marketers Content marketing use to discover what relevant search terms are being entered into major search engines like Google. These commonly searched words and phrases give content creators a good indication of what people are searching for on the internet, and therefore what topics to write about to bring those readers to your website.
When you use the right blogging tools to do your keyword research (like Ahrefs ou Twinword Ideas ), you will answer critical questions such as:
- How many people search for this keyword phrase each month?
- What related keywords are these people also searching for?
- What needs to be covered (and addressed) in a blog post on this keyphrase?
- What other websites are competing to rank for this keyphrase?
If you want to create valuable content for your blog (and your readers), keyword research is a great place to start, to make sure you're writing Blog posts that will bring real value to people looking for those answers.
2. Why is keyword research important and how does it work with SEO?
If you're not already familiar with the term SEO, it stands for search engine optimization. the SEO is the set of best practices and strategies by which you can make your blog more search engine friendly and thus rank your content higher in Google search results. The higher your ranking, the more people are likely to come to your website.
here are some blog statistics related to SEO that further illustrate the importance of keyword research:
- Google is responsible for 92,04% of total organic traffic
- 95% of internet users never make it past the first page of Google's search results page
- Nearly half of all clicks on SERPs (search engine results pages) go to the top 3 listings
- 51% of all website traffic comes from organic search, 10% from paid search and 5% from social media
Keyword research is a necessary foundation for creating an SEO-optimized website.
Plus, keyword research will not only show you what's trending in your industry, but also uncover the types of competition you'll have for the keyword phrases you want to rank for.
Okay, this all sounds great…but how do you actually do keyword research?
How do you use keyword research to create top-notch content for your blog? It all starts with a great keyword tool.
3. Start by establishing your seed keywords
In order to create a successful, keyword research-based content plan for your blog, you will need to find out what people are actually searching for on the internet. If you already have establish your niche, the next step is to start researching seed keywords that can represent the overall purpose of your blog.
Seed keywords are basic keywords that match your business or niche. These are the overarching ideas that will serve as main content categories that you can then narrow down to blog post ideas more specific.
Take for example my blog. Today I talk a lot about creating, growing, and monetizing a blog. Some of my seed keywords include terms like:
- Blog
- Blog
- WordPress
- WordPress Blog
- Personal blog
- Self-hosted blog
- WordPress Themes
- Blogging sites
- Web Hosting Plans
- Side hustle
- Secondary income
The list could be a little longer, but these are the main categories in which any the content of my blog falls under.
To narrow down your seed keywords that will represent the overall purpose of your blog, think about your niche and the parts that interest you the most.
List five to ten keyword phrases that best capture these topics. Now those are your seed keywords.
4. Importance of long and medium tail keywords
When doing keyword research, you will naturally be drawn to terms that get high search volume.
However, if you're only looking at one- or two-word keywords, you're probably not going to rank #1 (anytime soon). The only caveat to this is that if your blog already has an extremely high level of domain authority, you will be able to take advantage of it. Even more, you will be competing with massive sites for these keywords.
This is exactly why your keyword research should go far beyond high search volume seed keywords.
Let's say your blog is about woodworking. You're unlikely to rank #XNUMX for a blog post focused solely on the keyword "woodworking." There's way too much competition, and it's really not specific enough.
In fact, 50% of search queries include four or more words .
It means that more than half search queries are for something more specific (long tail) than one, two or even three words. People are turning to search engines like Google to answer increasingly complex questions.
These longer keyword phrases are called long-tail or medium-tail keywords.
Going back to our woodworking example, a long or mid-tail keyword can focus on a specific woodworking product or technique. You will undoubtedly find it easier to rank for longer keyword phrases like:
- Easy Bandsaw Box Plans
- Simple Woodworking Project Ideas
- The Best Tools for Hobbyist Woodworking
Rather than trying to rank your blog content for keyword phrases like "wood" or "woodworker," taking this approach of targeting those long-tail keywords will not only help your content rank higher rapidly.
A narrower keyword phrase like the woodworking examples above means you're much more likely to give searchers the information they're really looking for.
Of course, long-tail and mid-tail keywords don't have as high a search volume as you'd get from a one- or two-word keyword phrase. But you're much more likely to convert those long-tail visitors into email subscribers or paying customers because you're giving them exactly what they want.
It's a big win if you hope monetize your blog.
5. High and medium volume, low competition, high click-through rate keywords
Generally speaking, you want to perform keyword research to find keyword phrases that have both:
- High volume research
- Low competition
These are the goldmine keyword opportunities where you (1) have a real chance of ranking high in organic search results and (2) you can win big in terms of the volume of traffic you get. will generate .
In addition to these two factors, you also want to target keywords that have a high click-through rate.
If you are able to find a keyword phrase that has a high search volume with a relatively low number of people writing about it, then you have found the right place for a great opportunity in your niche.
Now, what constitutes high search volume is relative to what you write and how narrow your keyword is.
There are single-word keywords that generate literally millions of searches every month. Obviously, this is a very high volume keyword, and it's probably too broad to be of much value to your website anyway.
However, if you're evaluating a long-tail keyword phrase…high volume can be as little as 1-000 searches per month.
The person searching for these phrases has a clear idea of what they are looking for, so they are more likely to click through to your site.
6. How to Analyze Your Keyword Competitors
Another crucial factor to consider when researching keywords is your competition.
Look at other blogs in your niche and get some insight into what makes them appeal to their readers.
Use these ideas to improve your own approach to content and brand positioning (or if you have to, go back to the drawing board and create a new website with a better theme).
More importantly, you can use your competitors to perform keyword research and get a head start.
Analyze Google's Top Ten Search Results
The best way to learn what is currently favored by Google is to type in your target keyword and analyze the top ten search results. These will be your main competitors for the keyword you are trying to rank for.
It will also give you valuable insight into which content format you should focus on.
For example, top-ranked results can be blog posts, infographics, explainer videos, or even product pages from companies that sell a product that focuses on the need at the heart of that keyphrase.
When the top-ranking items are created by big companies, it can be hard to compete.
That doesn't mean it's impossible for your blog to rank for extremely competitive terms, but it does mean that it will take a lot of time and effort through strategic tactics such as Guest articles, optimizing your blog's SEO, and other blog growth initiatives over the coming months (and years).
Keep this in mind when doing your keyword research, prioritize which ones to pursue.
In general, as you do more keyword research, you'll get a better sense of how difficult it is for your content to outrank the best search results out there, and you'll always be striving to discover ways to better respond to the search intent of a reader who lands on your post.
See how much competition there is for your keywords
The next thing to analyze is how many people are already writing about your keywords.
If your keywords are very popular and easy to write, there's probably a lot of content showing up on search engines already. If so, there are two ways to approach this scenario.
Approach #1: Look for Keyword Gaps
The first direction you can take here is to do some keyword research with the goal of identifying opportunities that your competitors have overlooked. These longer keyword phrases will likely include:
- Lesser known information, knowledge, skills or processes
- Topics that represent new information in a particular niche
Either way, if there's a keyword that's getting a lot of interest that your competitors aren't talking about yet, jump in and start ranking for that search term as soon as possible.
Approach 2: Commit to the long term
The second option on the table is to take those highly competitive keywords and commit to working hard to do whatever you can to outrank your competition. Look at what other competing articles are offering… and offer 2x more to your blog readers.
Google favors websites that offer the best value to their visitors, and that's really what people are looking for.
Use proven strategies that can improve your search rankings and make your blog more reputable. Start here:
- Write Guest articles
- Improve your blog's SEO
- Implement traffic driving strategies
- Use blogger outreach to build partnerships and grow your audience
Ultimately, the best SEO strategy is to be the blog that provides the best value on the keywords you cover.
Once you've done that, it's time to shout it from the rooftops.
Inspect backlinks to see how well your competition is really doing
Another way to find out more about your competitors is to use the backlinks they have accumulated.
Backlinks are created when an external website links to your content.
Almost without exception, the more backlinks a blog post has (from high authority websites), the more search engines like Google will see your post as reputable and authoritative, thus deserving of a higher ranking in search results. search against competitors with fewer good links.
The number of backlinks to a particular article is a good way to determine how successful the content is (or soon will be) because people generally don't link to low-quality content.
If you want to know how many backlinks a competing article is getting, you can paste its URL into a backlink checker. There are many options for backlink checker tools, but I recommend a few. Ahrefs , Moz et SEMRush (all of which offer free trials that you can test things out with).
Use backlink checker tools to also identify opportunities where you should try and post a guest post. If your main competitor has a link or two from a highly reputable blog in your industry, your site could benefit greatly from acquiring a backlink from that website.
You can also use these types of tools to view your own backlinks profile to see how your site is performing in terms of domain authority. It's a good way to keep tabs on your blog's popularity.
7. Keyword research by season and regions
Keywords are never stagnant. They go through phases of popularity over time.
A particular topic may be trending for many years, only to fade away as people around the world lose interest or move on to search for a new set of related keyword phrases.
One of the reasons for the high variability is that a keyword corresponds to a certain time of year or season. You can expect Christmas-related items, for example, not to be as popular during the summer. Most people aren't ready to think about Christmas in June, so they probably aren't looking for related terms.
Another consideration is the origin researches. This is especially useful if you have a local element to your blog or are hoping to target a certain region of the world with your content.
A good way to track this information is to use Google Trends. It is a 100% free tool that is extremely fun to work with. So if you're blogging on a budget, it's a great way to get a sense of market demand during your keyword research process and see how search trends change over time.
Google Trends tells you both when et where a particular keyphrase is trending.
Here's an example… I used Google Trends to do a hypothetical search. I chose the word "blogging" simply because I write frequently to answer questions like, what is a blog? and to give you an idea of how this tool works.
You can see that the term "blogging" has been quite volatile on the chart over the past year.
And while there are of course peaks and troughs over the years, the term is pretty consistently high in terms of search volume, the dotted line at the end indicates Google's prediction of a decline in related searches to blogs on their platform.
Google Trends also gives you interesting information such as the popularity of your keywords by region .
This can be broken down into cities, metros, and even suburbs that have particularly high (or low) search volume to help inform you about which geographies to focus your long-tail keyword research on.
It's not limited to France either. You can do the same keyword search for many other countries or do the default search, which gives you results for the whole world as a whole.
Here are the same results for the popularity of “blogging” on Google Trends in South Africa:
You can see that the term 'blogging' has also become more variable in South Africa, but it is still a very popular topic.
Another extremely underrated piece of information offered by Google Trends concerns the subjects related and related queries .
This is another (smart) way to search for keywords on the exact queries people type into Google, based on the topics and related queries that are gaining the most popularity right now.
It really is an amazing free keyword research resource.
Alright, now we're ready to move on and decipher how to match your readers' search intent.
8. Understand the search intent of your readers
If you've ever used Google, you know you're not always looking for the same thing (or for the same reason). Your questions and needs probably cover a wide range of topics.
Sometimes you are looking for basic information about a TV show that interests you. Other times, you may be ready to buy a new backpack or laptop and need advice.
There are four main reasons people use a search engine like Google – and knowing which of these reasons satisfies your visitors will help you conduct smarter keyword research, in order to attract only the visitors you hope to attract.
Here are the four main types of search intent:
Informational intent
The first (and highest level) type of research people do online is informational. This is a good category for most bloggers to try to satisfy with content, as we excel at offering information, advice and instruction to people looking for a little guidance in our respective industries. .
Information searches are usually done to find things like tutorials, tips, advice, solutions, and other mechanisms that help the searcher find themselves. inquire on a particular topic.
For example, here are some of my most popular guides that target informational intent:
- Comment from a blog
- How do I prevent search engines from indexing WordPress sites and pages?
- How to become a freelancer and earn a lot of money
- How often to blog
Each of these posts strives to educate and inform my blog readers, so they can make a more informed decision on how best to move forward in their blogging journey.
Intention of navigation
The second type of search intent is navigation. This type of search is done by people who already know where they want to go or what they want to do, but use Google to help them get to that specific website.
Maybe they do it because they can't remember the actual URL of the website or because it's easier to type it into Google and get a more accurate result.
Here are examples of navigational searches:
- Best buy
- WordPress Login URL
Google is very good at deciphering when a user searches for a specific website. So with navigational searches like this, you usually have little opportunity to rank for keyword phrases outside of those on your own web properties.
You also shouldn't want the browsing traffic to go to other websites because they're trying to go somewhere else.
Transactional intent
Transactional is the third type of search intent. People doing this type of research are ready to buy something. Chances are they have already researched what they are looking for and are now ready to buy.
Transactional searches can include words or phrases like this:
- Best Monthly Hosting Plans
- MacBook Pro Sale
- Bluehost Pricing
- Shinola Coupon Code
- Course designed for blogging
- Content Marketing self-employed
If you have a specific product or service that you sell, transactional keywords can be among the most valuable terms to do thoughtful keyword research and invest in search engine optimization to increase your rankings (and your income).
Commercial intent
Business research is done by people who are looking for a product or service, but have not yet decided on a solution. They may be caught between choices and looking for pros and cons, or they may be looking for something local to pick up the product nearby.
People in this search category can enter terms such as:
- Best Web Hosting Plans
- Cheap web hosting plans
- ConvertKit vs. AWeber vs. Mailchimp
- Best WordPress Plugins
These four categories have crossovers, but they are a good place to start when thinking about your blog.
If you're not on your way to monetizing your blog yet, targeting transactional or commercial searches probably won't be your best investment of time. Neither do navigational searches, so focus on information searches.
On the other hand, if you use your blog to earn money – which I suggest you do – you need to research at least some of the high purchase intent, transactional and commercial research.
Even if you're focusing on an affiliate marketing revenue model where you're not selling a product directly to consumers, these keyword phrases can be crucial to your business model. This way, you can educate them and direct them to a beneficial product or service that you recommend.
9. What keywords is your blog already ranking for?
If your blog is already well established, you can use your dashboard Google Analytics to help you understand which keyword phrases bring readers to your website. Another free keyword research source.
Find it in your Google Analytics > Acquisition > Campaigns > Organic Keywords
Google Search Console is another great (free) tool for doing keyword research on your existing traffic.
To access this report, go to Search Results > Open Report and you will see the queries that drive both clicks and impressions to your blog
When you view this report, you'll find a ton of useful keyword research information beyond the terms you're ranking for today.
You'll know what your average position is for each keyword, how many impressions your article is getting, and even what your click-through rate is.
10. 6 Best Keyword Research Tools to Use (Free and Premium)
Alright, now that we have beaucoup talked about how to do keyword research, you're pumped and ready to go. But which tools are the best for doing keyword research?
Here's a list of some of the best free (and paid) keyword research tools on the market today.
Now, let's start with the free keyword research tools. It's a great way to dip your toes in the water or keep running your blog on an aggressive budget.
1.Twinword Ideas
Currently, Twinword Ideas is my top choice for the best free keyword research on the market. They offer paid plans, but their free option is one of the most comprehensive tools in this category.
Their features include:
- Managing relevant keywords
- popular topics
- The keyword score
- Suggested article titles to use
- The search volume
- Competitor data
Now on to our next free keyword research tool.
2. Keywords Everywhere (no longer free)
Another solid keyword research tool is Keywords Everywhere (which was free for a long time and recently switched to a paid model). That being said, their suite of tools has been around for a while, and they've added a lot of functionality and value to it over the past couple of years. Their tools offer these features:
- Monthly search volume
- Cost per click you would pay if you advertised the term
- AdWords Contest
- Competition data
- Downloadable keyword metrics
- And more…
Keywords Everywhere is a browser plugin for Chrome and Firefox, so it lets you find related keywords and phrases people are looking for directly from Google's search engine results page.
3. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is another good option as it's free and gives you information pulled directly from Google's own search data, but it comes with the caveat that you'll need to create a Google Ads account first (in order to access this tool).
Google Keyword Planner offers features such as:
- Keyword Ideas
- Broaden your search
- Search volume
- Research forecasts
- Historical Metrics
- Domain or page search (to find keywords) and more
Now let's move on to paid keyword research tools.
Keep in mind that these paid tools offer a lot more than just the keyword data you can access using the free tools above, but if you're not quite far enough along in your blogging journey yet, these might be a bit beyond what you need today.
That being said, these more premium keyword research tools will help you completely rock your blog's SEO efforts.
If you're ready to boost your organic search traffic, here's a list of the best paid keyword research tools available to help you get there.
5. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is hands down the most powerful all-around SEO tool for bloggers (not to mention it shines when it comes to doing keyword research). Here are some of the features offered by Ahrefs:
- backlink checker
- SERP Checker
- YouTube Keyword Tool
- Amazon Keyword Tool
- Bing Keyword Tool
- Keyword generator
- link checker
- Keyword Rank Checker
- Broken Link Checker
- Keyword difficulty
Ahrefs offers four pricing plans each, with higher feature levels and increased limits.
6. Moz
Moz is another very powerful and well-established SEO keyword research tool that offers a full range of features and is just as popular as Ahrefs:
- Site audits
- Rank Tracking
- Backlink analysis
- Keyword research
- Creation of keyword lists
- Intuitive keyword suggestions
- Keyword Metrics
- Custom reports
- Monthly search volume
- SERP Features
- Organic CTR
- Difficulty Rating
They offer four different plans depending on your keyword research needs.
7. SEMRush
Having recently rebranded itself as a more "all-in-one" suite of marketing tools, SEMRush is the final paid keyword research tool that I recommend checking out to assess your needs. Their features include:
- Analytical reports
- Top competitor keywords
- Discover new organic competitors
- Keep track of domain positions
- Competitor analysis for advertising budgets and keywords
- Monitors advertising content and landing pages
- Localized advertising campaigns
- Competitor DRM Strategies
- Analysis of competitor display ads
- Show display ads from different devices
- Audience Information
- Deep link analysis
- Checking backlink types
- Keywords for SEO and PPC campaigns
- Phrase matches and related keywords
- Long tail keywords
- Keyword difficulty
- Find keywords with less competition
- Multinational and multilingual information
- Information about the traffic and online performance of another company's website
SEMRush also offers four plans at different prices depending on your SEO needs.
Final Thoughts: Using Keyword Research to Understand Your Audience and Create Your Content
Keyword research is a great place to start when looking to create remarkable content and drive more traffic to your blog, but that can't be your stopping point.
Doing smart keyword research will tell you a lot about the general public, but you have to work hard and develop a solid understanding of it. who is actually your target audience.
Who are you trying to attract to your blog and what interests them? If you have choose a blogging niche that interests you personally, you probably have a good idea of what your audience is looking for.
If you have a perfect understanding of your target audience, your keyword research will be directed towards the elements that will retain their Warning. Now let's talk about using this keyword research to create transformational blog content.
In my ultimate guide to writing a blog post, I am describing an extremely important concept about blogging. When it comes to creating content, you need to find something that (1) interests you personally and (2) your audience souhaite read.
When doing your keyword research, keep this important element in mind.
If you don't want to write about a topic and the keywords don't resonate with your audience, it doesn't matter how popular the terms are. There are better options for ideas to write about on your blog – and you'll learn a lot more about whether a topic is right for you during the process of writing a blog post plan to test the waters.
If I had to sum up my thoughts on keyword research, it would be this:
Keyword research gives you a excellent basis for understanding the content your blog needs. Simply put, keyword research shows you what them people want to know. It's a perfect place to start.
But your job doesn't start and end with keyword research.
Next comes the hard work of creating transformational content.
Don't spend too much time researching your keywords.
Find what seem like the right keywords to appeal to your ideal audience today, then create the best possible content to match the search intent of that keyword phrase.
Your audience (or lack thereof) will soon tell you whether or not this was a smart keyphrase to pursue.
Here is my separation advice:
- Strive to go beyond surface information
- Find new ways to talk about common topics
- Find interesting ways to solve your audience's most important problems
- Find creative topics that people want to read, but other blogs don't.
Your keyword research is just a springboard.
Once you know what keywords to write about, create content that really helps people.
