Want to know more about keyword research? You’re in the right place m’friend. We created this simple guide to answer the following questions:

  • What Is Keyword Research?
  • How Can Keyword Research Help My Business?
  • How Do I Do Keyword Research?

Basically we’re going to give you some of the secret sauce so pay attention. Ready? Let’s get after it.

What is Keyword Research

Keyword Research is the process of identifying, analyzing, & segmenting keywords relevant to your business and the products and/or services it provides. Simply put, if you want to rank on the 1st page of Google you’ll need to do Keyword Research. The good news is

How Can Keyword Research Help My Business

The vast majority of your competitors aren’t doing their diligence with regard to. Keyword Research. Therefore, by taking the time to ensure you aren’t just targeting the keywords relevant to you, but also the keywords you’re most likely to rank for that will drive the most qualified traffic is a surefire way to significantly increase your business’s visibility to highly qualified inbound search traffic.

The deliverable of the Keyword Research process is called the Keyword Planner – a list of several hundred keywords relevant to your business that are segmented by:

  • Avg. Monthly Search Volume
  • Competitiveness
  • Top-of-Page-Bid (low & high)

Provided you don’t dramatically change the services you offer you’ll be able to reference it for years to come as a guide for both Organic Rankings (SEO) and Paid Rankings (AdWords).

Paid Rankings

“Paid” rankings are, as their name implies, paid for. They are referred to as “paid” because you are paying for them. The primary value of Paid Rankings is the speed at which they can be obtained. Provided you have the budget, choose the right keywords to target, and set your bids appropriately you’ll be able to generate visibility for virtually whatever keywords you want in 24-72 hours.

Organic Rankings

Organic rankings are earned. They are earned using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to increase your website’s Search Engine Friendliness. The primary value of Organic Rankings is that once they’re earned:

  1. You can maintain visibility for them indefinitely provided you maintain keyword and competitor tracking and perform proper maintenance.
  2. You don’t have to pay every time someone clicks on a keyword

Earning rankings in the organic area takes time though as well as consistency. You havve to demonstrate to Google that you are the most valuable result for a particular query.

 

Understanding the Value of Keywords

Keywords can be incredibly valuable for businesses. This is because they are gatekeepers to immensely qualified leads. The foundation of their qualification is their inbound nature. These are people actively searching, on their own volition, for the products and/or services you offer, hence why they are called “Inbound.” Their inbound nature typically translates to higher click-through rates, longer time-on-site, and higher conversion rates.

Take “best Italian food near me.” People searching this query:

  1. Are looking for food
  2. Have narrowed their search to a specific cuisine
  3. Have used the qualifier”best”
  4. Have geofenced their interest with “near me.”

They’ve therefore prequalified themselves on many levels. Let’s say 500 people search that query in your area every month. If you are an Italian restaurant and you ranked on the 1st page of Google for this query then, assuming you converted only 1%, you’d generate 5 new patrons/mo. Now imagine this at scale with 1st page rankings for several dozen keywords. How many patrons might that kind of exposure bring in?

How do I do Keyword Research?

Keyword Research involves the identification and segmentation of keywords relevant to you that you can then use to optimize tour website for. To do this, use follow our 6-step keyword research process:

  1. Create Seed Keyword List
  2. Generate Keywords
  3. Eliminate Irrelevant Keywords / Create Keyword Planner
  4. Segment Keywords Into Intent Groups
  5. Assign Keywords to Pages
  6. Assign Keywords to Page Elements

Create Seed Keyword List

Seed Keywords are a group of up to 10 keywords relevant to your business that you’ll use to generate hundreds (if not thousands) of additional similar keywords using Google’s Keyword Planner. Reference your business and the products and/or services it provides as well as your physical location to generate your Seed Keywords.

Generate Keywords

Once you’ve come up with up to 10 Seed Keywords you’ll then want to use Google’s Keyword Planner to generate a comprehensive list of keywords similar to them. To access the keyword planner tool you must first activate a free Google AdWords Account (click here for a guide to doing so). Once you’ve created a you’re account navigate to the Keyword Planner Tool and input your Seed Keywords.

Refine Keywords / Create Keyword Planner

After inputting your Seed Keywords into the Keyword Planner you’ll receive an expanded list of keywords similar to the Seed Keywords you input. Now the task is to refine this list into a Keyword Planner. To do so, you’ll first want to select the “Refine” option along the right sidebar. Once you’ve done so be sure to:

  • Remove Brands
  • Remove All Years Not Current
  • Remove Locations not Pertinent

Segment Keywords Into Intent Groups

All Keywords fall into 1 of 4 Micro-Moments and 3 intent categories:

  1. I want to know | Informational
  2. I want to go | Navigational
  3. I want to do | Navigational/Transactional
  4. I want to buy | Transactional

Understanding to which Micro-Moment and intent category

Assign Keywords to Pages

At this point you should have a solid list of keywords likely to drive qualified traffic to your website and have some understanding of the search intent behind each keyword. Now you need to assign keywords to specific pages designed to captivate and convert the traffic said keywords are likely to generate.

Assign Keywords to Page Elements

Now that you know which keywords are assigned to which pages you can begin assigning keywords to the specific HTML elements of the page. These include:

  • Title Tags
  • Meta Descriptions
  • ALT Text
  • Header Tags
  • Body Paragraph

Insert

Summary

So that’s keyword research! At this point you should have a comprehensive Keyword Planner with dozens of keywords relevant to your business assigned to specific pages and within specific page elements. Now you’re ready to start optimizing your website.

, their segmentation, Keyword Research involves the development of keyword lists. The first list is referred to as a “Seed List” & is a foundation that includes the most common keywords relevant to your business.

All successful Search Engine Marketing (SEM) begins with Keyword Research – the process of identifying, analyzing, & segmenting keywords.

Search engine marketers employ Keyword Research to optimize organic & paid SEM activities such as PPC & SEO. By conducting Keyword Research you can minimize CPC & CPA whilst maximizing click-through & ROAS.