Week 2 : Keyword Research

Keyword Research is the process of identifying and analyzing the words and phrases that users are searching for on search engines. Simply, it’s a way for businesses to what consumers are looking for online. The phrase that the user inputs on search bar is referred as a ‘query’. A search query can be long or short, logical or meaningless etc. But as a Keyword Research Analyst you would want to target certain words or phrases from those search queries. There are typically four types of Keywords:

• Short tail Keywords
• Long tail Keywords
• Question
• Intent Targeting Keywords

The goal of keyword research is to find the keywords and phrases that have a high search volume, low competition, and high relevance to the content of the website. This can help website owners and marketers to create content that is optimized for these keywords and phrases, which can improve the website's visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Importance of Keyword Research

Keyword Research is one of the main sector of On-Page SEO. To get a better understanding of your audience, it is a crucial task. As marketers advertise to promote their products to potential customers, to reach their target audience. But to get your customers opinions, demands or needs you’d want to know what goes on their mind or what are they thinking about? Thanks to technological advancement, through various keyword research tools we can identify and analyze words and phrase pulled from our potential customers’ search queries. It also lets businesses know their potential revenue/income sources by creating new products or services based on the keyword research. There’s many ways a company can use keyword research to grow their business. It’s up to you as an SEO specialist to explore those options and implement it. Now, Let’s check out some popular keyword research tools.

Keyword Research Tools & Metrics

There are a variety of keyword research tools available to help website owners and marketers identify the most relevant and valuable keywords for their SEO and content strategies. Here are a few examples:

• Google Keyword Planner
This is a free keyword research tool provided by Google that helps users identify the search volume, competition, and estimated cost-per-click (CPC) of specific keywords. It also provides related keyword ideas and historical search data.
• Semrush
This is a popular keyword research and competitive analysis tool that provides insights into search volume, competition, and ranking data for specific keywords. It also offers a range of other SEO and digital marketing features, such as backlink analysis and site audit tools.
• Ahrefs
This is another popular SEO tool that provides keyword research and analysis features, as well as backlink analysis, site audit, and content analysis tools. It provides insights into search volume, competition, and ranking data for specific keywords.

With different tools, there are also different keyword research metrics to consider. Depending on your clients or business’s needs you will be focusing on some metrics more than the others. For example, if you work at an agency who produce contents for ads, CTR or click-through-rate would be more important to your project. Here are some examples of different Keyword Research metrics:

• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
This is a metric that measures the level of difficulty of ranking for a specific keyword. The KD metric takes into account factors such as domain authority, page authority, and the number of backlinks to the website or page.
• Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
This metric measures the percentage of clicks a website receives from the number of impressions (or times the website appears in search results) for a specific keyword. A high CTR indicates that a website is effectively attracting clicks from users searching for that keyword.
• Search Volume
This metric measures the number of searches performed for a specific keyword or phrase within a specific time period, usually on a monthly basis. Higher search volume indicates higher demand for a specific keyword, but also typically higher competition.

How to conduct Keyword Research

As you understand the importance of Keyword Research, you probably realize that how important it is to accurately researching your keywords. The first step to keyword research should be by defining your goals. What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to drive more traffic to your website, increase sales or leads, or improve your search engine rankings? For example, if your target is to increase sales and you produce contents targeting keyword that brings more traffic to your website but not many sales. Do you see how your efforts can fail. You can start by brainstorming potential keywords by making a list of words related to your business, products and goals. Then you can group your preferred keyword research to analyze different metrics such as volume, keyword difficulty to choose your target keywords.

Once you have a primary list of keywords and topics, You can research and analyze your competitors and see what keywords they are targeting and what results are the getting? This can give you ideas for new keywords or help you identify gaps in your own keyword strategy. You can then fill those gaps by producing related contents answering your user’s questions or by solving their problems. Monitor your keyword performance and adjust your strategy as needed. Continuously track your keyword rankings, search volume, and competition and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Choose the best Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is essential for an effective SEO and content strategy. Here are some tips on how to choose the right keywords:
Relevance	Choose keywords that are relevant to your business, products or services. Make sure the keywords accurately reflect the content of your website.
Search Volume	Select keywords that have a high search volume, indicating that there is demand for those keywords. However, don't solely focus on high-volume keywords, as they may also have high competition.
Competition	Consider the competition for each keyword. Avoid targeting highly competitive keywords, as it can be difficult to rank for them. Instead, choose keywords with a moderate level of competition.
Long tail Keywords	Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that have lower search volume but also lower competition. They can be easier to rank for and often indicate higher intent.
User intent	Consider the user intent behind each keyword. Are users searching for information, products, or services? Understanding user intent can help you choose the right keywords and tailor your content to meet their needs.
Location-based Keywords	If your business serves a specific geographic area, consider incorporating location-based keywords into your strategy to attract local customers.
Analytics and Testing	Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics to track keyword performance and test different keywords to see which ones are driving the most traffic and conversions.

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Week 3