Keyword Research
Get introduced to keyword research in this lesson, and the steps involved in executing it in the right way.
What is keyword research?
We have learned how keywords are important in curating a piece of content that will satisfy both the audience and search engines. Keyword research is the process of finding, analyzing, and using users’ search queries. The goal is to understand our target audience, what they are searching for in our niche, how they are searching for it, and how can we make use of these searches to boost our SERP rankings.
As the outcome of our keyword research, we won’t just have a list of the most practical keywords to target. Keyword research will also answer some important questions, helping us make informed decisions for our content strategy and, on a broader scope, our marketing strategy.
Importance of keyword research in SEO
Keyword research impacts all other SEO efforts. From finding new content topics to on-page SEO and search engine rankings, keyword research is at the heart of all SEO campaigns. It can also help us uncover new products and services we can launch. If we sell men’s shoes, for instance, keyword research might tell us that our audience also searches for "sports shoes," and we may choose to add them to our catalog.
Steps of keyword research
Suppose we own an online retail website on dog supplies. We want to find the keywords to optimize our website content such that it brings a larger and relevant audience to our business. There can be multiple ways to go about it.
A robust approach can be outlined by the following steps:
Discovering keywords: Generate a large database of keywords relevant to our niche, in our case dog supplies.
Analyzing keywords: Analyze and narrow down the preliminary database to the keywords with the strongest potential to make our website rank on search engines.
Using keywords to create a complete content strategy: Consider keywords as topics and build content around them. Use some clever strategies to incorporate keywords into the content such that it creates the strongest impact.
Test your knowledge
Choose the correct option for the following question.
What is the primary goal of keyword research in SEO?
To create visually appealing content.
To understand the target audience and their search behavior.
To increase the website’s loading speed.
To optimize website design.
Rearrange the blocks such that the steps of keyword research appear in the correct order from left to right.
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