A Beginner’s Guide to Keyword Research: Tips and Tools for Finding the Best Keywords

Keyword research is a crucial factor when it comes to digital marketing and lead generation. It involves identifying the words and phrases people search for when looking for information, products, or services online through Google. 

By targeting the right keywords, you can improve your website’s visibility and attract more traffic from search engines. However, finding the best keywords can be challenging, especially if you’re just starting out and not familiar with the process.

Luckily, there are heaps of tools available to help simplify this. These tools range from free keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to paid solutions like Ahrefs and SEMrush. Each tool offers unique features and insights to help marketers identify the best keywords for their campaigns. 

There are also best practices marketers should follow when carrying out their keyword research. For example, they should consider the search intent behind each keyword, analyse their competitors’ keyword strategies, and avoid targeting overly competitive or irrelevant keywords. 

By mastering the art of keyword research, you can improve your website’s search engine ranking, attract more qualified leads, and ultimately drive more conversions and revenue. This guide aims to provide helpful tips and tools to make the keyword research process more accessible and effective for marketers of all skill levels. 

Mastering the Fundamentals: Essential Keyword Vocabulary

Before diving into the world of keyword research, it’s crucial to understand some key terms:

• Keywords are the words or phrases that people type into search engines to find information, products, or services.  
• Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that have less competition than broader keywords. 
• Search volume refers to the number of times a keyword is searched for each month.
• Keyword difficulty measures how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword. 

Informational and Commercial Keywords: What’s the Difference?

There are two main types of keywords: informational and commercial. 

• Informational keywords are used when people are searching for information, such as “how to bake a cake.” 
• Commercial keywords, on the other hand, are used when people are looking to buy a product or service, such as “best cake mix.” 

It’s important to know which type of keyword you’re targeting to ensure your content matches the searcher’s intent. 

Establishing Authority with Keyword Analysis

In the world of search engine optimisation, authority refers to a website’s perceived level of expertise, trustworthiness, and overall quality within its respective industry or niche. Essentially, authority is a measure of how much Google and other search engines trust a website to provide accurate and valuable information to their users. Establishing authority is crucial for any website looking to improve its SEO rankings and attract more organic traffic. 

One way to establish authority is through keyword analysis. Keyword analysis involves researching and identifying the specific words and phrases that users are searching for in your industry or niche. 

By identifying and using these keywords strategically throughout your website’s content, you can signal to search engines that your website is relevant to users’ search queries and therefore worthy of higher search rankings. Additionally, using relevant keywords in your website’s meta tags, page titles, and other on-page elements can further establish your website’s authority and improve its visibility in search results. 

However, it’s important to note that keyword analysis should be used in conjunction with other SEO best practices, such as creating high-quality, valuable content and building backlinks from other authoritative websites. By combining these strategies, you can establish your website as a trusted and authoritative source of information in your industry or niche, which can ultimately lead to increased organic traffic and better SEO rankings.

Crafting Content to Complement Your Keywords

Once you’ve selected your keywords, it’s time to build some content around them. Your content should be well-written and informative, with keywords placed naturally throughout the text. Avoid overusing keywords, as this can harm your ranking and make your content difficult to read.

In fact, let go of the outdated and potentially harmful concept of keyword density completely. Rather than solely focusing on including a specific number of keywords in your content, it’s important to go beyond this and incorporate related entities, synonyms, and related concepts into your writing. By doing so, your content will sound natural and engaging to both human readers and search engines. 

Once you have identified your focus keyword, it’s important to optimise its placement in your content. This means ensuring that it appears prominently in the title of your article, the URL path, the beginning of the article, and at least one of the subheadings. 

By strategically placing your focus keyword in these important, highly visible parts of the page, you can enhance the overall SEO performance of your content. 

Must-Have Keyword Research Tools for Beginners

There are several keyword research tools out there to help beginners find the best keywords, but here are a couple of the best: 

• Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that provides insights into the search volume and competition of different keywords. 
• Another helpful tool is Ubersuggest, which generates keyword ideas and provides SEO metrics for each keyword. 

Exploring Classic (and Free!) Keyword Research Resources

There are several tried and true keyword research resources that are still relevant today: 

• Google Trends shows how search volume for a particular keyword has changed over time. 
• Google Search Console provides data on the keywords that are driving traffic to your website. 
• Finally, the Google autocomplete feature suggests long-tail keywords based on popular searches. 

There are other tools that can aid in your keyword research efforts as well, like Ubersuggest, Answer The Public, and Google Keyword Suggest Tool: 

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a free keyword research tool that can help you find new keywords to target. It provides data on search volume, competition, and estimated CPC (cost per click) for each keyword, as well as keyword ideas based on the root keyword you enter. 

Ubersuggest also offers domain analysis, which allows you to see the keywords that a particular website is ranking for. 

Answer The Public

This is a keyword research tool that generates questions and prepositions related to the keyword you enter. 

The tool helps you understand the types of questions people are asking about a particular topic or product. This information can be useful in creating content that answers these questions and provides value to your target audience. 

Online Thesaurus

Using a thesaurus can improve your keyword research in a few ways:

• Finding alternative keywords: A thesaurus provides you with synonyms and related words to the keyword you are targeting. This expands the range of potential keywords you can use, which can help you discover more targeted and relevant keywords to include in your research.
  
• Avoiding keyword stuffing: Repeating the same keywords over and over again can be detrimental to your SEO efforts. Using a thesaurus can help you diversify your keyword usage and prevent you from overusing the same keywords.
  
• Discovering new topics: By exploring related words and synonyms, you may come across new topics that you had not considered before. This can help you expand your content strategy and reach new audiences.
  
• Improving search intent: Using a thesaurus can help you identify the intent behind a particular keyword or phrase. 

By finding synonyms that are more closely aligned with the user’s intent, you can create content that better matches the user’s search query. 

Google Keyword Suggest Tool

This is a feature of Google Autocomplete, which suggests search terms as you type into the search bar. 

The tool provides a list of related long-tail keywords and phrases that people have searched for in the past. It can be useful for finding new keyword ideas and understanding the intent behind particular search queries. 

Expanding Your Horizons: Extra Tools for Uncovering Keywords and Entities

When it comes to improving your SEO strategy and optimising your website, the right set of tools can make all the difference. 

In addition to the commonly used tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, there are several other powerful tools that can help you uncover keywords and entities that can boost your website’s visibility and relevance, like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Watson Natural Language Understanding. 

SEMrush

An all-in-one marketing toolkit that offers a wide range of features for SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media marketing. Its keyword research tool is particularly useful for uncovering long-tail keywords that are relevant to your niche and have a low level of competition. 

The tool also provides data on search volume, CPC, and keyword difficulty, making it easier to identify the most valuable keywords for your website. 

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is another powerful SEO tool that provides a suite of features for keyword research, backlink analysis, content analysis, and more. Its keyword explorer tool is one of the most comprehensive in the market, providing data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and click-through rates. 

Additionally, Ahrefs’ content explorer tool can help you identify high-performing content in your niche, giving you insights on the topics that are resonating with your audience. 

Watson Natural Language Understanding

This is an AI-powered tool that can help you analyse text and extract entities, keywords, and sentiment. The tool can analyse text from a variety of sources, including websites, social media, and customer feedback, and provide insights on the entities and keywords that are most relevant to your business. Watson also provides sentiment analysis, which can help you understand how your customers feel about your brand and products. 

Overall, these three tools offer valuable features for uncovering keywords and entities that can improve your website’s visibility and relevance. By combining these tools with your existing SEO strategy, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and create content that resonates with them.

Level Up Your Keyword Research with the Experts

By mastering the fundamentals of keyword research, crafting quality content, and using the right tools, you can uncover the best keywords to drive traffic and increase conversions.

Here at Kia Ora Digital SEO agency, we have an experienced team who know all the ins and outs of keyword research. If you’re stuck or just starting out, why not leave the analysis to the experts? Get in touch with us today.