If you own a website, drawing more traffic would be the most sought-after thing for you. And there are many ways to accomplish this, but one thing that should be focused more on is keyword research. That’s the first and most crucial step in determining whether or not your website will land on the elusive first page of Google search. Over the years, Search Engine Optimization has changed at a quick rate but the thing that remains the same is the importance of keywords. Now you may ask why keyword research is so crucial? Well, it is pretty much necessary to connect with the audience of your business, and keywords do the exact same thing. Though it is not easy to pick the right keywords and the research might get tricky at times, but it is not impossible either. Just a tad bit of planning and thinking, and you are all set to welcome oceans of traffic on your website.

Here are 4 steps to do the keyword research the right way.

Basic Research

First things first, you will have to pick the main keyword that you are going to aim to. This has to be straightforward as it will define the nature of your business and requirements. The next step would be to dig a little deeper into the keyword and play more with it. You can use Google search results to increase the effectivity of the chosen keyword. Carefully observing the Related Search Suggestions and Google Autocomplete can give you hindsight of what users are really looking for. These results are basically the most searched keywords that the users use along with the keyword that you are focusing on.

Also, if the keyword yields a paid search result or Google AdWords, you can understand how valuable that keyword is for the people. Paid ads show that the keyword is competitive and valuable. Websites like Wikipedia, Quora, and WikiHow can also give you a whole lot of intel about the keyword. Queries and basic How To’s are highly demanded and one of the most searched things on Google. The reason why these websites can come handy and land you a set of ideas on your keyword research.

Result Analysis

If you are done with the basic research, it is now time to carefully analyze the search results. Observing the top 10 results is a crucial step in determining what strategies to use for your business. Consider a website that is ranked at the top for a particular keyword. Now, if you carefully observe how the website has used the search query/keyword in their title, URL, and metadata, the next time maybe you will have your website at that position.

But that takes a lot of efforts. You would first have to understand how the top-ranked website has optimized its data. Also, understanding how Google segregates the search results and what are the deciding factors are also helpful. Some websites use social media to share tracker to know how well their content is received by the social media geeks. Including a comment section gives an idea of how well people have connected with the content. Espying the strategies these websites use, and implementing that in a better way for ourselves can make your business grow, for sure.

Using Tools To Expand Your Keywords

The next step is to expand your keywords and group them together to have a string that’s beneficial for your website. The best tool to achieve this is the Google Keyword Planner. Just click on “Search for new Keyword” and look up for “Ad Group Ideas” to see how Google group together the keywords. The Keyword Planner gives you in-depth details about the number of monthly searches for that keyword, how valuable and competitive the keyword is, and what is the average cost per click. All these factors will help you diversify the content and set the right keywords for your business. However, you can even further increase the reach of your keyword.

Since you have additional keywords along with your primary one, you can expand each of them using the LSI keywords. In simple words, these are the complementary keywords often used alongside a particular keyword. For example, websites that talks about “Michelin”, “MRF”, “Goodyear” etc. might get ranked for “Tyres” or “Automobiles”. Further, LSI keywords can even help in giving a suitable context for a given set of keywords. For example, using “iPhone”, “MacBook”, etc. can tell Google that you are talking about the tech giant.

TagCrowd is a tool that can help you know the LSI keywords by carefully analyzing the content of the top 10 ranked sites on a Google Search Result Page. Another tool that can come handy is LSIGraph. Just type in your primary keyword, and it generates a list of all the LSI keywords based on what you have provided.

Just, Optimize It!

For now, you have successfully gathered all the essential information required for your website to snatch the top spot. However, there is still a lot more work to be done. With all the data that you have, you’ll have to combine it in the most effective way. Otherwise, all your keyword research will flush down the gutter. It is also important to notice that some of the tops ranked websites didn’t have their data in a properly organized manner. So, you have got a chance here. You can take the responsibility up to your hands, and make the best out of what you have and include things that others might have missed.

Keywords are an integral part of an SEO campaign, and they determine whether it will fail or excel. However, considering the changes technology takes in a short time, it is always advised to look for more such helpful tools that constantly. Search Engine Optimization is a vast concept and you shouldn’t just restrict your research to a few tools only. Experimenting with new tools is always good and who knows, it might bag you that top spot.