How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
Does the idea of doing keyword research for SEO leave you stumped? I feel you. With hundreds of free and paid tools available and conflicting advice about how to rank on Google, optimizing your website can seem like a daunting task requiring four years of education and a degree in Complicated Internet Things.
In this guide, I’ll break it down and show you how to do effective keyword research for SEO step-by-step. But before we begin, I want to talk a little bit about why this matters.
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Why is SEO such a big deal anyway?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps people find your website through search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. Google, of course, is by far the most popular search engine and the one you’ll end up focusing most of your attention on. Here’s why SEO is so important…
SEO is the most sustainable source of traffic.
When you post something on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, it’s only visible for a short time before it gets buried in the feed. On the other hand, your content can remain visible for years on a search engine like Google or Pinterest.
Side note: Today, we’re going to be talking about finding keywords for traditional search engines like Google and Bing. If you want to read more about how to rank on Pinterest, read my guide on how to drive traffic to your website with Pinterest and how to find Pinterest keywords.
Search engines send you pre-qualified leads.
When people find you through social media, that doesn’t mean they’re looking for what you have to offer. Maybe they just liked your drop dead gorgeous Instagram grid or thought a piece of content just looked interesting.
Search engine traffic is different. When someone finds you through Google, it means there’s a high probability that they were intentionally searching for exactly what you have to offer, whether that’s a piece of content, a service, product, free resource, etc. And it’s a lot easier to convert pre-qualified leads into paying clients and customers.
The Best Free Keyword Research Tool
Before we get started, you’ll need a keyword research tool to help you find relevant keywords for your industry or topic.
There are a lot of keyword research tools out there and most of them cost money. I’m a big fan of SEMrush*, which offers a number of amazing SEO tools all bundled under one plan. Buuuut that plan costs $99.95/month.
Google’s Keyword Planner is the free keyword research tool most people recommend but Google makes it difficult for new users to access the Keyword Planner without signing up for a paid ad campaign. And honestly, I always found Keyword Planner to be kind of limited anyway.
Needless to say, I’ve been on the hunt for a free keyword research tool that gets the job done without presenting users with paywalls, ads, and a lot of other junk. And luckily, I found one!
Neil Patel, one of the top online marketing experts in the world, has blessed website owners everywhere with Ubersuggest, a free SEO tool that checks all the boxes.
It’s 100% free. No paywalls, no ads. (February 2020 Update: Ubersuggest is no longer 100% free. There is a paywall if you want to access all data associated with a website or keyword. That said, the free version is still great and the paid version is much more affordable than most premium SEO tools.)
The keyword research tool contains important info like search volume, ranking difficulty, and related keywords.
It has a site audit tool, which can help you identify and fix issues that hurt your Google ranking.
It lets you analyze your competitors, which gives you valuable insight that can help you beat them in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Now that you have a keyword research tool to use, let’s get started.
How to Find Keywords for Your Website
For the main pages of your website (homepage, about, services, etc.), you’ll want to find keywords that are related to your industry, location, and service or product. There are a couple of ways to do this.
Brainstorm Keywords from Scratch
Let’s say you’re a wedding panner located in Boston, MA. Start by making a list of obvious keywords people might use to find you on Google.
Wedding planner
Wedding planner Boston
Wedding planner Massachusetts
Choose one of your keywords and enter it into Ubersuggest. You’ll see a whole bunch of data about your keyword but there are two things you want to pay attention to: search volume and SEO difficulty.
The higher the search volume (people searching for your keyword) and the lower the SEO difficulty (competition with other websites), the better.
In our example, “wedding planner Boston” is a great keyword to use. Over 400 people search for it in an average month and it has a relatively low SEO difficulty, which means you have a higher chance of ranking for it.
If you must choose between keywords with high volume and keywords with low difficulty, go with the keywords that are easier to rank for. Better to appear at the top of the search result for a keyword that gets 40 searches a month than on page three (where you’ll almost never be seen) for a keyword that gets 480 searches a month.
Next, click on the “Keyword Ideas” tab in the lefthand panel. You’ll see a ton of related keywords along with their search volume and SD (SEO difficulty).
Jot down any related keywords that have low difficulty and a decent traffic volume.
Wedding planner in Boston
Wedding planning Boston
Best wedding planner Boston
Wedding planner Boston MA
These are all great keywords to add to your website copy, meta descriptions, page titles, etc.
You can repeat this process for all of the original keywords you came up with in the brainstorming exercise.
Research Competitor Keywords
Another way to find keywords is to take a peek at what your competitors are doing. Returning to our wedding planner example, Whim Events is the top wedding planner in Google’s search results for “Wedding planner Boston.”
Enter the URL of your competitor into Ubersuggest and scroll down to the “Top SEO Pages” section. Click “View All” under “Estimated Visits” and you’ll see the keywords they rank for along with volume and difficulty info on each keyword.
And there you have it! Just a tiny bit of brainstorming can result in dozens of viable keywords.
How to Find Keywords for Blog Posts
Blogging is a great way to boost your Google ranking but you’ll need to go about keyword research a little bit differently. Instead of targeting your core industry keywords, you’ll want to target keywords related to the subject of your blog post.
When You Already Have a Blog Post Idea
For consistency’s sake, let’s return to our wedding planner example. And let’s say you’re writing a blog post called “How to Choose a Wedding Cake Your Guests Will Love.” You’ll want to find keywords related to wedding cakes and choosing a wedding cake, keeping in mind the searcher’s intent. Let’s start brainstorming.
How to choose a wedding cake
choosing a wedding cake
wedding cake
Just like we talked about before, enter your starting keyword ideas into Ubersuggest, keep the ones that have high search volume and low difficulty, and jot down any good related keywords.
When You Don’t Know What to Write About
If you’re all out of brainstorming power and your well of blog post ideas has run dry, look to Ubersuggest for ideas!
Click on “Content Ideas” in the lefthand panel and enter a general search term related to your industry. I’m just going to try “wedding planner.” Under “Est. Visits” click on “Keywords” to see a whole list of ideas for keywords your competitors are already using.
You can go down the list to see data for different competitors or try entering different industry-related keywords to generate more ideas. Remember, stick to keywords that have low difficulty!
That’s basically all there is to it. With the right tool, keyword research doesn’t have to be difficult or involve a lot of guesswork like, “Can I actually rank for this keyword?” or “Is this keyword actually worth trying to rank for?” And before you know it, you’ll be climbing the SERPs like a nimble little mountain goat.
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