Keyword Research Cheatsheet - For Perfect Keyword Planning

Keyword Research is critical to SEO success. This guide provides a comprehensive step-by-step methodology for Keyword Planning for your business.

Keyword Research

Keyword Research is the first step for any SEO campaign, whether you're optimizing your own site or researching keywords for other sites.

Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, whether we know it or not. This is also the reason why SEO standards also change every year. Despite these changes, SEO keywords will always be a part of it, as well as keyword research.

SEO professionals focus on keyword research that helps them rank higher in search engines. Doing proper keyword planning help create a content strategy.

Importance of Keyword Research

Keywords are terms that search engines use to determine what pages should show up in searches.

If you want people searching for information about your business to find your page, then you need to make sure to do good keyword planning for your web pages so they have good keywords. You do not need to spend a lot of money on these keywords -- just get them right.

Keyword research is done to find out if an article is targeted for a specific search.

So you must do proper keyword planning that can make your content more relevant. Using the information obtained during the keyword research, you can optimize the content on your site.

You can also estimate how much traffic you can expect for your content based on your keyword search analysis and search rankings.

But why Increase Your Site's Visibility on Google?

This is because most users never miss the first three results of a Google search, let alone the first page.

In fact: Over 75% of All clicks go to the first three results.

So if you want to get huge traffic from people through search engines, you must make sure your website appears on the first page. Most importantly, you must be one of the top three results. Finding and doing the right keyword planning as part of your SEO strategy will help you get there.

By doing keyword research with words that have good search volume, low competition, or high conversion rates, you can prioritize your SEO efforts.

Your website's visibility will increase when you rank first in Google search results. More visibility means more search traffic. And an increase in traffic ultimately helps lead to an increase in profits.

How to do Keyword Research and Keyword Planning?

Now that we know the importance of conducting keyword research, it's time to delve into the steps to follow for this keyword planning process:

Analyze your Current Keywords

Create a list of relevant and important keywords based on your understanding of your content/business/niche. If you already have a list of keywords that you want to rank for, you should check those first.

Use the Google Search Console

Use the Google Search Console to see what keywords your site is already ranking for. Create a list that separates high-ranking keywords from low-ranking keywords that still have value. The latter you must do by following these steps.

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Set your Goals

Your keyword research efforts will be in vain if you do not set initial goals based on the organic traffic your business needs.

Remember that these are search queries that can attract visitors and not just words that a website can rank for. Such realities are often overlooked.

When setting goals, ask yourself specific questions such as: Who is your target audience, what are their needs, what do you sell, and what is your price? etc.

Make a List of Keywords you Want to Work on

Based on the answers to the questions above and considering business experience, the next step is to choose and plan keywords by creating a list of keyword search terms that best match what your online target audience is searching for.

Once you have a list of keyword search terms that relate to your business or niche, try using some longer variations of these words (e.g., "best vape pen review," "vape pens reviews.").

Use Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are search terms that contain three or more keywords. Focusing on these terms is a great keyword research strategy, and there are many reasons behind it.

Longer keywords tend to show up higher in the SERPs, meaning they're commonly searched for. It also allows you to rank quickly on the SERPs even with high competition.

Long tail keywords can also lead to better conversion rates. This is because searchers using specific terms know exactly what they are looking for. Using certain keywords will get you found by them and chances are they will use your services.

Use Synonyms while doing Keyword Planning

Synonyms are alternate ways to describe the same thing. For example, instead of using the keyword "vape pen", you might use "e-cigarette".

Synonyms are often a good way to boost your search engine optimization score without changing the actual content of your keyword research process.

Study your Competition

One of the best sources of information about which keywords to rank for is your competitors. Especially if they have been in this field for a long time.

If so, then they probably know the keywords they need to rank for, and you may have missed some of them. Conducting a competitive analysis will undoubtedly give you a lot of useful information when doing your own keyword planning.

View Keyword from actual SERP

Try searching on Google for the phrase “how to find new keywords”. Obviously, on most pages, you'll find some keyword research tool pages as top-ranking pages, as I also happen to check this myself.

Having a powerful keyword tool can be handy for doing proper keyword research however not all are free.

However, if you can't afford that kind of monthly bill, there are lots of free keyword research tools that will help you achieve your goal. Carry on reading.

Free Keyword Research Tools

If you have been looking to find the best free keyword research tool, then today I'll share with you not just one but three keyword tool services that will help you a lot with your keyword research.

Google Search Engine

One of the keyword research tools is the Google search engine itself. Try searching for keywords from the actual SERP. Yes, you read that right.

Every day different keywords are encrypted by Google. And there's a way to find out what searchers are really looking for.

In the Google search box, type your main topic or keyword, but don't press enter. You can find word predictions in the Google search box. These predictions can actually be used as keywords because they are the phrases that searchers use on Google.

Also, when you press Enter and scroll through the Google results, you'll find several keyword search suggestions related to your topic.

You can use these keyword search terms in your keyword planning or generate new ideas based on them. You can then click on the relevant term and search for other related terms.

Whether you have an SEO tool or not, make sure you use this keyword research method.

Google Keyword Planner

Google's Keyword Planner is a free tool that helps you do keyword research that is currently generating traffic and what people are searching for. You can use this information to help create content for your website or blog.

You should first identify the type of product, service, or subject matter that you are selling online. Then, start typing those things in Google Keyword Planner.

Keyword Research using Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites today, especially among students. This free online encyclopedia is a source of information and data in various fields and is available to everyone. Believe it or not, this can also be a source for keyword research.

Most Wikipedia articles contain a table of contents, and if the topic is too broad, the key concepts are displayed on the page. You can use these terms as keywords. Try to incorporate this into your keyword research process to get more unique keywords.

Keyword Research Done, Now How to Use Keywords in a Website?

Include Keywords in Headlines

Include keywords in headlines to ensure that your content gets indexed faster. Also, it makes sense to put keywords near the beginning of the headline, since that's where people first read the headline.

Include Keywords in Images

Images are visual content and therefore work best when they include keywords. Since images don't have much text associated with them, including them in title tags and alt attributes is a good way to get them indexed.

Search Engines Optimization Tips

There are plenty of ways using which you can optimize your website for search engines. However, if you do not know how to write your own SEO content, here are some great tips and tactics to help you get started.

Create Unique Titles and Descriptions

When writing titles and descriptions, always keep one thing in mind -- unique! Search engine spiders cannot read the human language, so they rely on these to understand what each webpage is all about.

By being unique, you demonstrate that you are different from the competition and encourage spiders to crawl your content.

Write for Humans First

When writing for humans, remember that they are busy and may only look at the title before clicking away. Your title should grab their attention and make them click to read.

Use action verbs, short sentences, and clear headings. Make sure you have one sentence that answers the question "Why should I visit this site?"

Spiders and Robots

Search engine spiders are programs that crawl websites looking for specific keywords. They do not care about whether your website looks pretty or not.

But robots, which are automated programs that go around indexing sites, do take aesthetics into account.

To avoid getting caught in the middle between two crawlers, try using robots.txt files. These specify which parts of your site should and should not be crawled (e.g., /images/, /scripts/).

Write Content That Is Relevant

Don't try to trick the search bots with meaningless words. While having lots of spammy keywords might seem attractive, search engines will penalize you for it.

So instead, focus on creating relevant, useful content. Focus on answering questions that people could possibly ask.

Also, include meta tags in your keywords and description sections. Meta tags are HTML codes that describe the text written on your webpage.

You should also create internal links in your posts, indicating where else people could find related topics. This helps to increase traffic back to your page.

for e.g. [Check More SEO Tips for FREE ##eye##]

Bonus Tip for Keyword Planning & SEO

To help you get started, I've put together 10 questions you need to ask yourself before running off to Google and spending hours typing in random words.

What's my audience?

Who is going to use this content? Think about who might be interested in reading this post. Make sure you understand what type of audience you have before you start.

Do they want to read articles or watch videos? Does your audience live in a specific country?

If you’re writing guest posts, how much of your audience is composed of bloggers themselves? 

Knowing these things will help you write content with relevant keyword planning and usage making it relevant to your audience and increasing the likelihood of people actually wanting to consume it.

How many pages should I create?

When it comes time to decide how many pages you should create for your website, think about the size of your audience.

If you have thousands of visitors per day and you know that 90% of them are male between the ages of 18 and 34, then you may only want to publish one page per week.

Or if you happen to be an established blogger with more than 100K followers, maybe you will want to make several short posts instead of just one long one. If you’re not sure, test different lengths of content until you find the mix that works best for you.

Who should I focus on?

In addition to knowing your audience and figuring out how many pages you should produce, it’s important to determine which audience members you want to attract next.

Think about where your competitors rank in search results and what kind of content they tend to post.

Are their blogs longer or shorter than yours? Which topics do they cover? On what keyword search terms are they ranking? What types of links do they share and how often?

After identifying where your competition stands, go back to your spreadsheet and identify the keywords that you would like to optimize for based on their content. Now figure out which of those keyword search terms bring in traffic and lead to conversions.

Is my niche really hot right now?

There’s nothing worse than wasting time and energy on content only to find that no one else wants to talk about it.

Before you invest your time and energy in creating content, make sure to check to see if anyone else is already talking about the topic.

Try searching popular forums, social networks, and even review websites for mentions of your niche.

You can also look at the “related searches” section of Google Trends to see what kind of topics people searched for around the same time that you were creating your content.

How do I choose which keywords I should focus on?

If you’ve decided that you want to rank for certain terms, it’s time to narrow down your list of options.

Start with broad keywords that receive lots of traffic and work your way down to less competitive ones.

To find good keywords, try using some free tools shared above such as Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Engine, and Wikipedia.

These tools will let you see the number of monthly searches for your potential keywords and which phrases are driving the most traffic.

Do I have enough content?

One of the easiest ways to tell if your content is lacking is to look at the number of published pages on your site.

If it’s been a while since you last updated your site and you haven’t added any fresh content in months, it may be time to take a closer look.

While having more content is always a good idea, adding quality content to your site will ultimately increase its longevity and keep you ranking higher over time.

Conclusion

Keyword research involves a target group-oriented analysis of the search terms used in search engines. It is one of the most important parts of search engine marketing. When used correctly, it provides a roadmap for keyword research, content creation, and even an entire site implementation.

With keyword research, you can not only learn which terms and phrases you should use to optimize your websites and content, but you can also, for example, predict fluctuations in demand, react to market conditions, and strengthen your brand in your core target group in the long term.


So when are you starting your keyword research? What keyword search tool are you using? Would you like to recommend any keyword tool? Do share your valuable comments with us in the comments section below.