Do you find yourself asking how to do keyword research for SEO, or search engine optimization? Don’t worry, we are going to break down what a keyword is, how to do research for keywords, and why they’re important. SEO is something that allows developers to pull the attention of customers while also offering relevant information to those same people. This serves as a double win on all sides. And learning how to do keyword research for SEO is a really important first step.
What is a Keyword?
A keyword is essentially a query that we use a real type in a search engine to find results. For example, a user who wants to look up the best vacation deals for Walt Disney World might type in “vacation deals for Disney World” or someone who is looking for help on gardening tips might type in “gardening tips for beginners”.
These queries help define what that user is looking for and what they want to see in their search.
How To Do Keyword Research for SEO Purposes
Now that we know what a keyword is, we can look at how to perform keyword research for SEO purposes. Utilizing SEO keyword research tools is a part of this process, but you can also do some basic preliminary investigation to have a little more understanding of where exactly you want to be directing your research. A suggestion on how to perform keyword research is to be as thorough as possible. Try and look at what topic you’re researching from as many angles as you can.
Ask yourself this: what kind of Google search would you use to look up information on the topic? What kind of information are you looking to provide and think of the different ways that a person looking for that information might type that in.
Using Google Autocomplete
When you use Google, you have most likely noticed that before you finish typing in your search, Google autocompletes it for you with suggestions that are relevant to your query. This is a fantastic SEO keyword research tool to use because it pulls past searches that have been made and allows you a glimpse at what potential customers are going to be looking for.
There is no specific way how to do keyword research for SEO, but keeping in mind the simple idea that you want to know what the average customer is going to be looking up before you get started with SEO keyword research tools is a great place to start!
How to Perform Keyword Research
Doing the preliminary work is the first step. Once that is done, you can move on to using an SEO keyword research tool to delve into more research. There are various research tools available to you like Ahrefs and SEMrush. But one of the best free keyword research tools available is Google Keyword Planner. As a part of Google’s Ads tool suite, this SEO keyword research tool provides a deeper insight into the kinds of keywords that are being used and how many people search those keywords in a specific period of time.
Google Keyword Planner is easy to use as well and is frequently updated with new features. It is one of the best free keyword research tools because it has a robust set of features for beginners and experienced users. Google Keyword Planner allows users to track search forecasts and historical data to see how certain keyword phrases have performed over time. For example, you can see how “how to drive a manual car” and “learn to drive a manual car” have performed over time.
SEO keyword research tools allow the user to input several possible keywords and using past data, it will show information like how many people have searched for the terms and potential variations that might perform better.
Double Check for User Intent
finally, when you have found while performing keywords that work for you, remember that SEO keyword research tools do not take into account user search intent. For example, if someone searches the term “mouse trouble” with the intent of looking for a pest control service, you are going to get more results for people looking for help with computer mice instead.
How to do keyword research for SEO can take a little bit to get used to. The professional SEO company Split Reef has experience and knowledge on how to perform keyword research and other aspects of SEO that can help you on your SEO journey. Contact us via email or phone for more information.