Do you want to be visible on Google but find it difficult? A proper keyword analysis is the key to improving your search engine ranking. By analyzing which words and phrases your target audience uses when searching for information, products, or services online, you can optimize your content.
In this article, we’ll show you step by step how to conduct a keyword analysis. We’ll cover everything from setting your goals to prioritizing your keywords effectively. With these tips and strategies, you can improve your rankings, drive more traffic to your website, and increase your conversions and sales.
There are several tools available to help you perform keyword analysis.
To conduct a keyword analysis, start by brainstorming a list of seed keywords that are relevant to your business or website. Then, use keyword analysis tools to evaluate search volume, competition, and user intent in order to refine your keyword list.
It’s important to choose keywords that are relevant to your business, have a decent search volume, and relatively low competition.
Keyword analysis is one of the most important things you’ll do. It’s a living document that serves as the foundation for your SEO efforts. That’s why we want to give you the best conditions for success.
To compete with existing websites and secure rankings in the SERPs, you need to focus on three key factors: relevance, competition, and search volume. These factors will determine how strong your keyword strategy will be and what results you can expect from it.
Before you begin keyword analysis and optimization, define your goals and your target audience. What are you trying to achieve with your website or content? Who are your ideal customers? This information will help you identify the keywords most relevant to your business.
Begin by brainstorming a list of words and phrases you think people might use to search for your product, service, or content. Use your own knowledge and expertise, customer feedback, and social media to identify potential keywords.
For example:
If you sell shoes on your website, potential keywords could include: shoes, sneakers, boots, kids’ shoes, women’s shoes, men’s shoes, and more.
There are several keyword tools available online, such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz. These tools help you identify related keywords, their search volumes, competition levels, search intent, and cost-per-click (CPC).
If you can’t invest in paid tools yet, you can still perform a free keyword analysis using Google.
When you start typing a query into Google, it provides you with suggestions. These suggestions are based on what people search for most frequently at that time. That means they are always relevant keywords you can begin creating content around.
You can also use tools like Answer The Public. It works in a similar way to Google’s suggestions, but it provides more information and relevant data that can be very useful when creating a keyword analysis.
Long-tail keywords are longer phrases that are more specific and less competitive than short-tail keywords. As mentioned earlier, you can use Google’s suggestions to find relevant long-tail keywords. They usually have lower search volume, but they are more targeted and can lead to higher conversion rates.
Look at your competitors’ websites and identify the keywords they target. This information helps you understand the market and competition, and you can use this knowledge to improve your own strategy.
Here you’ll also want to use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. Both tools give you access to the keywords your competitors are ranking for and using on their sites. This insight reveals potential gaps and areas for improvement that you can take advantage of to rank higher than them.
Once you have a list of potential keywords, refine it by removing irrelevant keywords, very low-volume keywords, and highly competitive ones. You want to focus on keywords that are relevant to your business, have a decent search volume, and aren’t too difficult to rank for.
Group your keywords into clusters based on their relevance and purpose. This helps you create targeted content and optimize your website for specific topics.
Example:
If you sell shoes on your website, your clusters could include women’s shoes, men’s shoes, kids’ shoes, and sports shoes.
Prioritize your keywords based on their relevance, search volumes, competition, and potential to generate traffic. Start with keywords that have high volume and low competition. Focus on the keywords most important to your business, but also consider targeting secondary keywords to expand your reach.
Use your keyword clusters to create targeted content that addresses the needs and interests of your audience. Be sure to use your keywords strategically within the content, but avoid overusing them.
Keyword analysis is an ongoing process. Monitor your keyword performance regularly and update your strategy based on market changes, new trends, and customer behavior. Revisit your brainstorming process from time to time to identify new opportunities.
When performing keyword analysis, there are several best practices to keep in mind. We want you to feel confident in how to proceed, so here are additional tips that can make the process easier.
If you already have customers, use their feedback to identify the words and phrases they use to describe your products or services. This can help you discover new keywords and optimize your content to match the language your customers use.
Browse Reddit, Quora, and Facebook groups to identify the questions people are asking related to your business or industry. This can help you find new keywords and create content that addresses your audience’s needs and interests.
Use Google Search Console to identify the search queries that drive traffic to your website. This can help you find new keywords to target and optimize your content around queries that already bring in visitors.
Write your content using natural language to target conversational queries. With the rise of voice search, more people are using everyday speech and slang to find information.
Think about the intent behind the keywords you target. Are people searching your keywords to learn more about a product or service (e.g., Which shoes are best for running)? Are they comparing options (e.g., Which shoe brand is best for runners)? Or are they ready to buy now (e.g., red running shoes)? Targeting the right intent can help you attract the right audience and improve your conversion rates.
After completing all the steps and tips outlined above and compiling everything into a document that you can easily sort (for example, in Excel or Google Sheets), you should have something that looks like this.
This section has given you the steps to take in order to create a strong keyword analysis. It includes defining your goals and target audience, brainstorming keywords, and using keyword tools. But you also need to analyze competitors, maintain an updated and refined keyword list, group and prioritize keywords, and develop a strategy for effectively using long-tail keywords, creating content, and monitoring and updating your keywords.
There are also additional tips to optimize results, including using customer feedback, Reddit and Quora, Google Search Console, writing content in natural language, and considering the intent behind the keywords