Why is keyword research important for SEO?

Introduction to creating a Keyword Strategy

You have probably already heard quite a lot about keyword research and about how it can be used to identify the keywords that you should target to bring in the right kind of traffic to your website. A good starting point is to review keywords that your website is already ranking for and then add to them with our keyword matrix mentioned below.

Find out where you are currently ranking

Using Google Search Console, you can find out which keywords are providing impressions and clicks to your website. To do this, you’ll need to go to your property in Search Console, then go to Performance > Search Results

At the top of the page is an export button; click it to export to your favourite spreadsheet option.

Ask yourself the following questions about each keyword and make a note of your observations on the spreadsheet in a new column.

1. Is this a branded keyword? I.e. Search terms that are your business’s or website’s name.
2. Does the keyword look irrelevant? Sometimes you might find yourself ranking for a keyword that has nothing to do with your business. For example, we once ranking for “free coffee” this was because of a blog post for a conference we were holding and had offered “free coffee and a chat”. So if you find anything similar, perhaps it has been pulled from old content, redundant services or a blog post. Either way, irrelevant keywords should be marked (and dealt with!).
3. Which are the top traffic drivers? It should now be very obvious to you which keywords are driving the traffic. I like to red, amber and green these so that high traffic keywords are highlighted in Green and lower traffic keywords in Red. I would not dismiss the keywords highlighted in Red because they still might be important if they are significant, and if this is the case, you should look at on-page SEO improvements on the new website.

If you have a lot of keywords highlighted, then you have a lot of work to do!

Find new keywords

The next thing to do is to create a matrix of potential keywords. These can be broken down into columns, for example:

• Services – SEO strategy
• Problem / Solve – Increase Leads
• Target Market – Small Businesses

You then need to combine each phrase into a word merger, such as Merge Words or Toptal Merge Words and add to a new tab on the spreadsheet. You will end up with LOTS of potential keyword phrases. So the next task is to refine them. Can you spot any glaringly obvious combinations that just wouldn’t work? Filter them out or delete them from the spreadsheet. Filter some more.. and some more.. until you come up with a list that you think is suitable for the next stage. Checking to see if there are any searches!

Check the keywords

Using Google’s keyword planner you can check to see if any of the phrases you have found that are going to be suitable. You’re looking to refine the above list further into a list of keywords which are receiving monthly searches. Adding to the Google Adwords Keyword Planner will reduce your keywords from the matrix by a lot, but this is a good thing! You can also use the Discovery New Keywords tool by adding your currently website (or a competitors) and letting the tool add keywords it thinks you’re ranking/aiming for.

Use all of the tools available to you to find potential long-tail and short-tail keywords to optimise your website for.

Keyword Analysis

You now have an insight as to which keywords are currently working for your website and have started to form a strategy. You will also know which keywords will require some optimisations.

Before you can start to work out exact actions there are still some gaps on your spreadsheet that need to be filled.

1. Where do you currently rank in SERPs?

It’s fair to say that if the keyword is bringing in traffic that you are probably on the top 3 pages but this is not always the case.
You also have to consider both the personalisation and localisation of search results. We like to use a variety of tools such as

• SEMrush
• SERanking
• Positionly
• Moz

All of which provide an average ranking position per day for a list of keywords.

2. Which pages are bringing in the traffic for each keyword?

Using one of the above tools also lets you know which web page is the highest ranking for a particular keyword. Make a note of these on your spreadsheet to help you finalise your SEO keyword strategy.

3. How many people are searching for this keyword?

You will already know how much traffic is coming via each keyword from your work above, but its also really useful to know the true potential of each keyword.

4. Do the SERPs show similar results?

Use Google to search through each of your keywords before you optimise a page. Are the results showing relevant searches? For example, if you run a garden toy shop and type in “red swing”, does it show shopping results for red swings for the garden or they show something else? This search, in particular, when I wrote this article, showed images, people also ask, and then search results, the search results were a mixture of competitors, YouTube pages and Instagram pages for irrelevant companies. This keyword phrase would be marked as lower in my list of priorities as it isn’t as relevant.

Summary

I hope you’ll agree that this article offered a straightforward guide to carrying out effective keyword research. The aim was to highlight how crucial it is to first understand how your website is currently performing by using Google Search Console. Then walk you through generating and refining fresh keyword ideas using different tools, and then finishes with a look at each keyword’s ranking, potential traffic, and how relevant the search results are. By following these steps, you can build a knowledgeable keyword strategy to draw in the right audience and improve your website’s visibility.