What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of analyzing keywords to identify the most suitable and relevant ones to include in a piece of content.
Keyword research is among the first steps of content creation. The stage is crucial to discovering the keywords used by your target audience and how difficult it would be for you to rank for them.
How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
Keyword research is simple insofar as you can identify topics relevant to your niche and have access to good keyword research tools to uncover the best keywords to rank for.
1 Select a Seed Keyword
The keyword research process begins with selecting a seed keyword relevant to your niche. The seed keyword is a one or two-word-long keyword of the topic you want to write about.
For example, if you have a site that focuses on yoga, yoga, yoga exercises, or yoga poses are possible seed keywords to consider.
2 Select a Short, Medium, or Long-Tail Keyword
The next step is to add modifiers to the seed keyword until you arrive at a short, medium, or long-tail keyword.
A modifier is a word that provides more information about the seed keyword. For example, the seed keyword, yoga exercises, can be expanded into yoga exercises for beginners and yoga exercises for weight loss.
Optionally, you can enter your seed keyword into a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush, and they will come up with relevant keywords for your post.
3 Analyze the Keyword Metrics
While deciding on the keyword to target with your content, you will continue to compare various data, including their competitiveness, search volume, and Cost Per Click (CPC), to determine the keyword that offers the best likelihood of success.
Unless you are an authoritative site that can rank for highly competitive keywords, you will want to focus on keywords with high search volume and low competition.
4 Determine the Search Intent of the Keyword
After deciding the target keyword, you should determine the intent of the key to decide the direction in which to create the content. You should determine whether the keyword is navigational, informational, commercial, or transactional.