The world has witnessed dramatic changes in the online world. There is a trend called SEO. Everyone is running after SEO and want to master on it. They are running after backlinks, super through content, social shares. But they may forget the queen. Keyword research.
I treated the keyword research as the boat to cross the ocean of the online world. Well, it may seem to be dramatical, but this is true.
As a blogger or online marketer, you must have heard this word before. But may not know the full potential of it.
If you ask me what is the number one thing I should do to succeed in the online world, my simple and one line answer is “Keyword Research”. I know that there are hundreds of other factors that can affect. But there must be something which is number one.
So till now, you may have the idea about what is the power of keyword research. Then suddenly many queries arise with this. What is keyword research? How to do keyword research? Tools for keyword research like a ton.
In this article, I am trying to define all your queries in a simple way. So let’s jump to it.
What is keyword research?
First thing first. Keyword research is a two-word phrase.
Keyword means the search terms people are searching for. The search queries are the various words and phrases that people types into a search engine search box. Search queries contain keywords. Let’s first discuss search queries and then talk about keywords.
Types of search queries
According to Pennsylvania State University, there are three types of search queries:
- Navigational (Go)
- Informational (Know)
- Transactional (Do)
Navigational
A navigational search query is known as a ‘Go‘ query. This is because this type of keywords is used for finding a particular website or webpage.
If you are in the SEO industry then you must know the brand Backlinko. When you enter the brand name in Google search box and hit search, then Google will pull that website and serve you.
This type of search queries is called navigational.
Informational
As the name suggests, informational search query includes the topics people are searching for finding answers. Hence it is also called the ‘Know‘ query.
Examples
You want answers to a question: “What are the features in new Google Search console?”
Doing research: “What is Google Rank Brain?”
Solve or fixing a problem: “How to install a theme in WordPress?”
Transactional
A transactional search query is often used when people have the intention to make a purchase or any type of lead. These are called ‘Do‘ queries. Because this action is imminent. In marketing term, these are called buying intent.
Example
Someone wants the Latest, Best, Fastest, Smallest: Best gaming phone under $700.
Compare A vs B: Nikon 80d vs Canon 700d
A Discount or Coupon code: PayTm first recharge coupon code.
Types of keywords
As of now, we have a clear idea about what is a keyword. So we can proceed further.
Based upon the length of the search term we may differentiate them into categories.
- Short tail
- Medium tail
- Long tail
The term ‘long tail’ comes from the Ahref’s ‘search demand curve‘. This graph shows all keywords by their search volumes.
Short tail keywords: It usually consists of one or two words. For example, ‘keyword research’. These keywords are in huge search volume and a high competition.
Middle tail keywords: It usually consists of three or four words. For example, ‘keyword research tools’. These types of keywords are more specific and have less search volume. Sometimes this length also considered in the category of the long tail keyword.
Long tail keywords: It usually consists of four or more words. For example, ‘free keyword research tools’. These are most specific and detailed, but the search volume is the lowest among all.
Have you noticed something in this graph? The conversion rate increases as the ‘tail’ increases. Because “long tail keywords” have more chance of matching the searcher’s search query.
It is very easy to get and target “short tail keyword” as it has a high search volume. But you have to fight a battle against your strong competitors. What to waste time and money on that?
So as of now, we know that long tail keyword is best to use. Moreover, most of the long tail keywords are untapped.
The process of keyword research
This is the center point of our discussion. Our goal is to find out the words or phrases (basically long tail keywords) that users are searching.
Honestly, there is no straight and simple way for keyword research. You have to go for a hunting. Not in the natural forest, but in the online forest.
The keyword researching may vary from business to business. Here I am listing some of the best methods you can use.
Note that there is a garden of keyword research tools. Some are paid and some are free. Let’s try the free one as we are in the beginning stage.
Use Google Keyword Planner
This is one of the best tools for keyword researching. This Is the warehouse of million search queries. So finding long tail keyword here worth.
Just log in to your Google accounts and head over to Google Ads. Here you will find a little setting icon. Click on that you will find an option named keyword planner.
In the next window, you will find an option called, Find new keywords. You can enter multiple keywords here and then press Get started.
There are multiple columns that show the data. Here you can find the low competitive keywords.
Google trends
Google Trends is in my favorite keyword research tools list. You can check the popularity of a keyword over time. This tool will show you an “interest over time” graph.
If you scroll down it also shows the related keywords. If you will find a keyword has a tip down, then why should you go for them.
Quora
As you know already, Quora is a huge and extremely popular Q&A site. Just log in to Quora and search for a term. Quora will show you a list of the most popular questions on that topic.
Some of the questions are a keyword itself with good search volume. Another question contains long tail keywords and you have to figure out.
It is one of the powerful ways that is most often neglected.
Wikipedia
Like Quora, Wikipedia is also a house of keywords. It is a goldmine of keywords that often overlooked.
Visit an article according to your niche. Go to the table of contents. Click on any section and it will show another article. You can also click on some of the internal links on the page and go to the table of content. Researching this type, you will find some untapped long tail keywords.
Google autocomplete
Have you noticed that when you type something in the Google search box it suggests some additional words or phrases?
This is known as Google autocomplete.
This is a place where you can find awesome long tail keywords.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public is a free keyword researching tool. Mostly it extracts autocomplete results from Google and Bing. Mostly it suggests question type content ideas.
It shows different categories like:
Questions – what, where, why, which, how.
Prepositions – with, to, for, like.
Comparisons – like, and, or, vs.
Alphabetical – a, b, c, etc.
You can download the CSV file as well.
Keyword Everywhere extension
Keyword extension shows you the avg search volume, CPC and competition in different places like Google search, YouTube search, Amazon product search etc.
You can get the search volume just below the search box, and side of the SERP.
These are some methods you can use to find out a good keyword. After getting a good keyword you have to check the SEO difficulty of that keyword.
There are many tools to check the keyword difficulty. This simply means is it easy to rank in the first page of the Google for the particular keyword.
Some popular tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, KWFinder, Ubersuggest etc.
By putting your keyword in that tool, it analyses many ranking factors and shows you the result. These tools provide a keyword difficulty score and tell should you go for it or not. It also suggests some keywords also.
So combining these process, finally, you will get the best keyword.
Conclusion
So these are processed to do your keyword research and survive in the competitive SEO world. From now onwards, whenever you are producing new contents do some keyword research.
To say frankly, it is not so easy as it seems to be. Invest a decent amount of time in keyword research. Use some keyword research tool and make the process faster.
As the SEO is changing each day you should keep track it. However, after getting a low competitive keyword you have the confidence that you can rank for it.