A 6-step guide to keyword research

6 steps to research keyword

Let me start this blog by saying that there are no single ways to do keyword research.

These steps represent just one method of performing keyword research based partially on what we do by myself. 

Different companies may want to perform these steps in a different order or prioritize or deprioritize certain metrics based on what’s important to them. 

Let’s go through the process step by step of keyword research: 

STEP 1: Understand your customer and their goal.

This is key to having success with your content strategy.

• Create your buyer personas with SEO in mind.

What are your target customers searching for online? What words and phrases do they use?

STEP 2:  decide what topic you want to be known for.

What topics do people search for that are relevant to your business?

STEP 3: Find out what terms people are searching for online.

Start at the topic level, then zoom it.

• Keyword research tools

Dig further into your keyword research using Google Keyword planner, Moz, Keyword Explore, or Answer the public.

• Keyword research extensions

Install chrome extensions like keyword Suffer and KeywordsEverywhere to get Keyword ideas while you’re browsing Google.

STEP 4: Note Search volume and competition.

Use your keyword research tool of choice, and take notes of monthly search volume and competition for each keyword you’re interested in targeting.

• See what kind of content is currently ranking for those keywords.

Emulate these keywords, but offer unique value.

• Check for trending keywords

Use Google Trends to see whether the search volume for your chosen keyword is going up or down.

STEP 5: Organize your keywords into topic clusters.

Topic clusters are a method of optimizing your content for both users and search engines.

STEP 6: Prioritize which keywords or topic cluster you’re going to focus on first

This is going to depend on your goals and the search intent of your chosen keywords.

Now that you have your keywords organized on into topic clusters and prioritized, it’s time to get started creating or repurposing your content.

This is where keyword research starts to blend into content marketing.

To dive deeper into how to develop a content strategy for your business, check out the content marketing blog post.

Some of the useful links for you as an SEO expert:

🔗 Marketing with content and its importance.

🔗 Content writing vs copywriting - differences and similarities

🔗 5 reasons creative writing differs from content writing!

🔗 Digital marketing: what are the jobs and opportunities?

🔗 5 Reasons why content marketing is better than advertising.

🔗 3 secrets to successful content marketing.

🔗 Why do you need social media platform strategy?

🔗 Top 7 skills required to become a digital marketer

🔗 A step-by-step guide to writing a blog post

🔗 A step-by-step guide to content writing

🔗 A step-by-step guide to SEO

🔗 A step-by-step guide to digital marketing