Are you an entrepreneur working on the content of your website? Are you a newbie blogger? This article is for you. Before building pages and pages of content, it is important to choose the appropriate keywords. Indeed, not doing a good keyword research is one of the big mistakes made by beginners to neglect this aspect.
Here, we will demystify and simplify keyword research. Here’s your step-by-step guide to keyword research and its application.
What is keyword research
Keyword research is simply researching a specific topic. Before writing an article or content, it is imperative to ask yourself the following questions:
What interests my potential clients?
What research are they doing on the internet?
And more precisely: What words do they use in this research?
This research should be done as soon as the idea of the theme is determined and can even be done before. The result of this research allows us to specify our subject, to choose a title and to know which precise words (or group of words) to use.
The right choice and use of keywords is one of the most determining factors for the success of your page or article. In short, will you be able to figure out what people are looking for and show your content in the first results?
Why do it
Did you know that 0.16% of the most popular keywords are responsible for 60.67% of all web searches (Ahrefs)?
This statistic demonstrates the importance of choosing the right keywords. A good keyword strategy can bring a ton of potential customers to your site. On the contrary, a neglected research does not add much value.
Writing thousands of words is no easy task, especially since for a site to be active, it is recommended that you create new content about twice a week. Why put so much effort into it without ensuring that your content will be viewed and appreciated?
Millions of blogs exist and a huge number are created every day. Motivated bloggers write quality articles, but manage to generate very little traffic on their page. Discouraged, many give up.
Start with a good knowledge of keyword research and avoid this pitfall.
Practical SEO tools
The most practical tools for beginners are free! Yes, no need to spend a dime on keyword research, only time.
- Tool #1 : Google
Google is the most used search engine by Internet users. So it makes sense to let Google tell us what is in demand. Google offers a ton of tools. Some for beginners and others for people more advanced in IT, SEO or web design. The good news is that it is possible to achieve results almost equivalent to those obtained by the pros with the basic tools.
So, for beginners, the two main keyword research tools from Google are:
- A google search page (the same one you use for your personal research)
- The keyword research tool designed by Google
You will need to create an account to access it. Rest assured, there is no need to create a paid ad campaign to use this tool. It’s completely free.
Here is a small, simple tutorial on how to create an account and get to the keyword research page:
You could do keyword research with Google tools only, but personally I like to add a little extra depth with the addition of a Chrome extension.
- Tool #2 : MozBar
I recommend MozBar because this all-in-one plugin helps bring out additional data in Google searches and the like. MozBar allows among other things to see the domain authority, the page authority as well as the spam score. This tool is a complement to those offered by Google. Note that there are several others as well.
Dowload the MozBar extension.
- Tool #3: SEOBook
Once you have found your keywords, you need to determine their optimal density for your text. More on this in the next section. For this, I recommend the following tool: SEOBook Keyword density.
You will need to create an account to use it, but it’s all free, like the other tools mentioned here.
- Tool #4: Excel Template
I have made a very simple Excel spreadsheet to help you organize your research. Take as many notes as possible and feel free to customize it to your specific needs.
- Tool #5: Yoast SEO
Finally, Yoast SEO is a plugin that can be added to your site to facilitate the optimization of your pages in terms of keywords and SEO. The free version of the tool does not help with keyword research, but with the implementation of keywords.
Guide to Keyword Research – 5 Easy Steps
So, how do you do keyword research? It’s very simple, you will see!
- 1. Make a list of terms that come naturally to mind when you think about your topic. How would you search for such an article on the internet? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
- 2. Search for these keywords in Google Keyword Planner. You will see the various statistics related to these keywords. Let’s focus on: the number of searches per month, the level of competition as well as the CPC (cost per click).
The ideal is a high number of monthly searches, a low level of competition and a high CPC. In effect, CPC reveals the intent behind the search for that keyword. A high CPC denotes an intention to buy from the internet user. If you have an informative site, you can ignore this information.
Make yourself an Excel table to compile everything and also take note of the keywords suggested by Google that are consistent with your content and that have a good score on the three data mentioned above.
- 3. Determine your main keyword and choose 4 other secondary ones. Small reminder, we are not talking about keywords for an entire website, but for a site page or a blog article.
- 4. Now go to the usual Google search page and enter these keywords one by one. Pay attention to 2 main things. First, take note of the terms that appear after the keyword you type in the search bar. Then go to the bottom of the search page and take note of the terms under “related searches”. If these terms are not the same as your secondary keywords, write them down and be sure to include a few in your text.
- 5. Fifth and last step, make sure you are using the optimal keywords density. In other words, use them enough, but not too much. Too few and your keywords will not stand out in searches and too much, you will be penalized by Google for providing over-optimized content that lacks depth and authenticity.
What is the optimum density? It depends, but for your main keyword you can aim for an average of 2-3%. SEObook, one of the tools mentioned above can help you determine the density of these keywords among your competitors, as well as your own.
To conclude
With this free and easy guide to keyword research, I am sure you will do well. I hope you found this article useful!
Are you using other free beginner methods and tools for your keyword research? If so, let me know in the comments below. I’m sure it could be helpful to anyone reading this article. Thank you! ?
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