Keywords: what are they?

Keywords (sometimes referred to as "SEO keywords") are any words or phrases that a user types into a search engine when looking for information on the internet to help them find certain information that they are interested in.

Keywords serve as gateways for people to find organic search results. In the end, it is the website where they find the information they are looking for that eventually leads them to that website.

Therefore, you must find the right keywords in order to succeed in SEO. As soon as you find keywords people use when searching for things in your niche, you need to adjust your content strategy and optimization. This is so that you target those keywords. As a result, you will rank better and get more traffic.

A process known as keyword research is used to find the keywords that will be used in the future.

Keyword Research: what are they?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of finding, analyzing, and then using the phrases people use to search for information on the internet. Keyword research is part of SEO.

Basically, it is about getting to know the language of your potential visitors and using this knowledge to optimize your content based on their language preferences.

Why should you conduct keyword research?

It is a very important part of SEO and one of the best ways that you can reach out to a larger audience to share your content with them.

How do I conduct keyword research?

There are some things that this guide will help you with, and one of them is this.

The good news is that keyword research is not rocket science. Once you understand the basics and learn some proven strategies (in addition to a few useful tips and tricks), you're on your way to becoming an SEO guru.

When should you conduct keyword research?

It is usually the first step in the search engine optimization process of a website that keyword research is carried out.

There is no doubt that you will need to do keyword research when you are:

• Trying to find a new niche to focus on
• Looking for ideas for creative content for your website
• Making your existing content more effective by optimizing it

How should keyword research be carried out?

An individual who owns a website, blogs, sells online or specializes in search engine optimization.

What are the benefits of keyword research?

It is crucial to do proper keyword research because it will help you understand the search terms that your audience uses. It is quite common for business owners to use one set of words when describing their products, while the target audience will choose a completely different set.

In the end, because there is a mismatch in word use, potential customers are unable to locate these websites as a result.

There are times when a marketing department decides to give a product an unusual name to make it stand out from the crowd. It can be a wise marketing decision if you rent out vacation cottages instead of vacation homes since your product would be easier to remember.

But, if you optimize your text for this specific term, you are likely to rank well on that particular term. However, very few people search for [vacation cottages]. Nonetheless, you will not drive a lot of traffic and you will miss out on a large proportion of your potential audience because they use other words, so you won't be able to reach them.

It will probably be obvious to you that optimizing for words that people do not use makes no sense at all. Doing keyword research will ensure that you are using the same words as your target audience, making the entire process of optimizing your website that much more worthwhile.

You can also discover what exactly your audience is looking for by looking at search intent. This information should be utilized to create quality content that will answer their questions.

Keyword research: a brief history

Keyword research has evolved over the years, and the way people do it has changed as well.

There was a time in the 2000s when keyword research was often reduced to going to Google Keyword Planner and finding keywords with the highest search volume. This was then stuffing them into the text of the website.

In response to this, Google responded with a series of algorithm updates over the years. In these updates, they tried to understand what the users wanted so that they could provide the most effective results possible for them. These updates were intended to understand what users want and to give them the best experience possible.

Among the most important algorithm updates that have influenced how we do keyword research are the following:

• Google Panda – The Panda update penalized thin, low-quality, and duplicate content as a result of the update
• Google Penguin – Google Penguin penalizes keywords that are used in an unnatural manner
• Google Hummingbird – focuses on improving semantic search and improving the user experience through search intent

It is important to understand that, today, keyword research is much more than just finding the "right" keywords and placing them in the "right" places.

Throughout the years, Google has become better and better at understanding what people are looking for. Its main goal is to provide users with the most relevant content based on their needs.

Google RankBrain

RankBrain is a component of Google's algorithm that utilizes artificial intelligence in order to rank pages.

The RankBrain algorithm has been around for a few years, but it took some time for it to be fully implemented. In 2015, Google announced that RankBrain is the third most important ranking factor for their search engine results.

As a result of RankBrain, Google understands two things:

• An analysis of how users interact with organic search results in organic search
• In what way is the search intent behind the query being expressed? This means that the topic of keyword research is becoming more and more topical. It is no longer just about finding one ideal keyword. It is about understanding the audience and covering the topic in a complex manner.

I would simply put it this way - if you cover a topic well, you can rank for keywords that you did not even use in the text. (We'll discuss this in greater detail later in the chapter.)

In other words, keyword research doesn't mean that it's no longer important - quite the contrary, in fact. It just looks a little different today than it did in the past.

Keyword research stages

Throughout this guide, I have divided the entire process into three main steps:

• The process of finding keywords
• Identifying and analyzing keywords
• Using the keywords The following steps will be discussed in more detail.