In this chapter, I will show you proven strategies that you can use to come up with LOTS of keyword ideas. The next step in the process is to generate a list of keywords.

Let's get started.

We will briefly explain some of the essential concepts of keyword research before we begin: A focus keyword or keyphrase is the word or phrase that you wish to appear in Google for a particular page on your site. You determine your set of focus keyphrases through keyword research.

As opposed to head keywords, long-tail keywords focus on a particular niche. The longer and more specific the search term, the less competition there will be. Even though fewer people search for these terms, it is possible that they would be more inclined to purchase, subscribe, sign up, or engage in any other action that they wish.

Based on your keyword research, your keyword strategy refers to the decisions you make. For example, what content will you create first? Would you focus on the head or tail? How and where will you publish it? Will you publish a piece of writing, a post, a product page, an infographic, a video tutorial or a video tutorial?

This requires digging into search intent: you have to understand what a searcher is seeking. Searchers are not simply looking at keywords, but the underlying goals of what they want to know, do or purchase. Your content should provide a solution to their problem. This is also known as content design.

A step-by-step guide to keyword research

We will guide you through the keyword research process step-by-step and provide you with practical tips to conduct your research:

• Determine your SEO goals based on your mission

  Identifying your company's or organization's main objective is the first step. Take a moment to write down your mission. Who are you trying to reach? What promises do you make on your website? Before developing your keyword strategy, it is important to have comprehensive answers to these questions.

  You must determine your ranking high with your chosen keywords based on your market. Some markets are highly competitive, with large companies dominating the search results. These companies have very large marketing budgets, particularly SEO budgets. Ranking well in these markets is difficult, so competing in them is also difficult.

  You may sell Hawaii cruises. Your cruises offer excellent facilities for kids, making them ideal for parents with young children. Offering the best family-friendly Hawaiian cruises could make your service unique. The mission of your product is what distinguishes it from the competition. That is what your audience desires.

  You should start small if you are entering a highly competitive market. Your cruises may be sold to a broader (or more general) audience after you own a small part of that niche and become a recognized name in your field. In addition to aligning your business mission with your SEO goals, focus on what will help you achieve your mission and be realistic about your ranking goals.

• Make a list of keywords you think people may be searching for

  Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What kind of search terms will they use to find your amazing product or service? Make a list of your keywords, preferably in a spreadsheet.

  Your mission should be clear so that you can determine your niche and your unique selling points (the things that make your business unique from others). Write down as many answers as you can. These are the search terms you want to rank for.

• Do some research on the keywords you have selected

  Now that you have created your first keyword list, it's time to dig a bit deeper into your keywords. Fortunately, some tools can assist you in your keyword research.

  Start by checking out the suggested searches that Google makes as you type. These are the questions that people asked Google! You can also look at related searches on Google. Yoast SEO's related keyphrases tool and Answer the public can also be helpful.

  You can use these tools to find variations of your keyphrases, synonyms, and related keyphrases. For more information, please refer to our post on keyword research tools.

• Find long-tail keywords in your research

  People typically focus on popular "head" keywords at first, but these keywords tend to be dominated by large companies. The long-tail keywords, on the other hand, get less traffic, but they're also less competitive, so ranking on them is easier. As long-tail keywords are more focused on specific products, they tend to have a higher conversion rate.

  You can also use the tools mentioned in step 3 to find long-tail keywords. For example, if your head term is puppy training, a long-tail keyword might be [positive puppy training for Labradoodles in Amsterdam]. You may also find some less-searched variants of your keywords. You may also use them.

  Add long-tail keywords and keyword variants to the spreadsheet as well. Your site structure will also be easier to create if you put the head terms in the first column and add (multiple) columns for the long-tail keywords and variants. The longer your search term, the lower the landing page will be in your site structure.

• Examine your competition for those keywords

  You will find it difficult to rank for competitive head terms in a niche with high competition, whereas a niche with little competition will allow you to rank for a greater number of head terms. Therefore, benchmarking for SEO is crucial to your success.

  You'll need to Google the keywords that came up during your keyword research if you're optimizing your content for such a keyword. Are you equal to these companies? Does your firm share the same influence as these companies in your niche? Does your website fit in with these websites?

  Ranking against sites with strong brand names, such as Royal Caribbean and Princess, is difficult. You will have a harder time ranking high if your competitors are famous for television or radio commercials. However, you should take a close look at their content. If they have poor content, you may outrank them.

  If you have a Google Ads account, you can check the pay-per-click value of each search term using the Keyword Planner tool. Keywords with high pay-per-click values are generally harder to rank organically.

  In your spreadsheet, mark which keywords are more and less competitive with red, yellow, and green if you find it easier to use colours rather than notes.

• Analyze keyword search intent

  A good SEO strategy should aim to answer people's questions or provide the best resolution to their problems. People search for something when they enter a query into a search engine.

  Find out what intent your audience has when they search Google with a specific key. Do you have an informational query (looking for information on a particular topic), navigational (seeking access to a particular website), commercial (looking for information before purchasing), or transactional (looking to buy now)?

  Upon closely examining the pages that already rank for a specific query, the search intent can be determined. Search results can provide valuable insight into the search intent of a particular query. Are you seeing a lot of product pages? Are there a lot of informational blog posts? Are there videos? Or is it a mix? Here is how to utilize search results.

  Add your findings to your spreadsheet once you have determined which kinds of intent apply to your keyphrases.

• Identify your keywords - which ones will you target?

  A keyword strategy can be determined based on the information you have gathered so far. Following the steps above, you should be able to create a spreadsheet containing a substantial number of keyphrases, along with information regarding your competitors and the search intent of your audience for those keyphrases.

  If you are of the same size and marketing budget as the websites in the SERPs, then you should focus on those head terms. If you are not, you should focus on more long-tail keywords first. Focusing on a bunch of long-tail keywords at the same time could very well attract a lot of traffic. Once you have achieved ranking for these long-tail keywords, it will be easier to target more head terms.

  When you’ve decided where to jump in, think about the type of content: What was the search intent for my key phrases? What type of content would be appropriate for my audience? In addition, what content can I create that is not already available, and how can I stand out in terms of quality or providing solutions? This will assist you in determining what type of content you will create.

• Create keyword-optimized landing pages

  It is theoretically beyond the scope of keyword research to create compelling landing pages, however, if you wish to attract traffic to your website, you need to create these pages. It is not necessary to create all of these pages at once – it can be a long-term effort. Your keyword strategy will assist you in prioritizing.

  Articles that provide the most authoritative and comprehensive content about your most important keyphrases will be your cornerstone content articles. All of your supporting long-tail articles should link to these cornerstone content articles.

• Keep improving your keyword strategy

  After analyzing your chances of ranking for each specific keyword, publishing some amazing articles (and optimizing them accordingly), wait a little while before you begin ranking. Be sure to evaluate your results in Google's SERPs. Does your article appear on the first page of Google's search engine results pages? Is it hidden on pages 2 or 3?

  You can check your content's performance in search results using several methods. To find out which queries you are ranking for, Google the keywords you have optimized your articles for. Another option is to use Google Search Console to find out which queries you are ranking for. The Google Search Console method can be a more complex method of finding new opportunities.

  In any case, it is always a good idea to ensure that your efforts are yielding results. If you do not reach the first page of search engine results, try writing a second article focusing on a long-tail keyword (even) more specific and niche. And see how that goes. Evaluate again. Repeat this process until you reach the top of the search engine results pages.

• Keep your keyword research and content fresh

  Things may change over time. For example, your audience may begin using different terms to search for what they are seeking, so you might need to add new keywords to your keyword list. Alternatively, the competitive landscape can change, increasing or decreasing the difficulty of targeting certain keywords. Additionally, your site may be in better shape than it was when you first started, allowing you to target a greater number of head keywords.

  There are many possible reasons to refresh your keyword research once in a while. As these kinds of things are unlikely to change rapidly, refreshing your keyword research every month is probably too much. It is important to update your chart with the latest information from time to time. Do not forget to keep your content up-to-date, as well. If you look at the situation over a year, a lot can change.

The process of generating keyword ideas

• Wikipedia Table of Contents

  You can find articles curated by thousands of industry experts, all organized into neat little categories, on Wikipedia, an overlooked keyword research goldmine.

  To find keyword ideas, you should visit Wikipedia and type in a broad keyword. Once you reach the Wikipedia entry for that broad topic, click on the “contents” section of the page. This section includes a list of the subtopics covered on that page.

  You can also click on some of the internal links on the page to access the Table of Contents of other, closely related entries, which include some awesome subtopics that would be difficult to locate otherwise. The table of contents on that page contains even more keywords that you may wish to add to your list when you click on that link.

• Search Engine's Related Searches

  A great way to discover keywords is to check out the "Searches Related to" section at the bottom of Google's results. Well, you would want to search for that keyword in Google.

  At the bottom of the page, you will find eight keywords that are closely related to your search term. Just as with Google Suggest, these are keyword suggestions provided directly by Google, so you don't have to guess if they're popular. Google states directly: "Tons of people search for these keywords."

  Tip: Click on one of the "Searches Related To" keywords. Scroll down to the bottom of those results. This will give you a new list of related keywords.

• Find keywords on Reddit

  Your target audience likely hangs out on Reddit. This means you can usually find a large number of keyword suggestions on this site.

  Reddit is a great place to start. Find a broad topic that your target audience is interested in... and related to what you sell. Then choose a subreddit where your audience is likely to hang out. Finally, pay attention to threads that have lots of comments.

• Use Google and Bing

  After you have compiled a list of topics, you should type each one into Google and see what terms it suggests for you. These are great keywords to add to your list.

  In other words, if Google suggests a keyword to you, you KNOW that many people are searching for that keyword. But you do not have to stop with Google Suggest and Bing.

  Using forums to find popular topics

  You can find forums where your target audience hangs out by using these search strings in Google. Forums are like live focus groups that you can access 24/7.

  • “keyword forum”
  • “keyword” + “forum”
  • “keyword” + “forums”
  • “keyword” + “board”

  You must note how a forum is divided into sections: Each of these sections is a potential keyword that you can add to your list. You can also read some of the threads on the forum to discover other topics that your target audience struggles with.

• Amazon

  Amazon has its own search engine called A9 which collects data about popular search queries and provides automatic suggestions based on that information.

  The relevance of the suggestions is based on the conversion rate and buying behaviour of the product. You can search for them manually or use one of many free tools that will do it for you.

  It is particularly useful for content with transactional intent. Are you an affiliate marketer, or an e-commerce store owner? Don't forget about Amazon.

• YouTube suggestions

  Even though YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, keyword research on this platform can be applied to Google keyword research as well.

  Thousands of searches are performed behind the most popular topics. Likely, popular topics from YouTube will also have high search volumes on Google.

  The search volume shows that the phrase is very popular in Google searches as well. Another way to find videos on YouTube is to use the YouTube Autocomplete feature. People generally look for videos that are more "practical" in nature.

  Some useful tools scrape the autocomplete results from YouTube automatically, such as YouTube Keyword Tool. If you compare Google and YouTube autocomplete suggestions, you will see that they are different.

• AnswerThePublic

  AnswerThePublic provides a free tool for extracting autocomplete suggestions automatically. It is an even easier method.

  By entering your seed keyword, it generates autocomplete suggestions from Google and Bing for each letter of the alphabet.

  My favourite feature is the ability to generate keyword suggestions based on:

  • Question words (when, how, where, what, can, will…)
  • Prepositions (for, without, to, with,…)
  • Comparison words (like, versus, and, or,…)

• Google Search Console

  You can find highly relevant keywords by checking what you already rank for in Google Search Console. If your article already ranks for some keywords, likely, it will also rank for other long-tail phrases.

  Identifying the best keywords can be done in two ways:

  1. Look for keywords that have high impressions but low click-through rates

  The presence of a keyword with a high number of impressions, but a low number of clicks, may indicate that there is a significant traffic potential, but you are not ranking high enough (or you were ranking for a short period, but no longer rank).

  Select Search results in the Performance section of your Search Console. You can view all the keywords you rank for with the domain (default Queries setting).

  To see keywords you rank for with a specific URL, you can go to Pages and select the URL, then click back to Queries.

  You should then sort the results based on the number of impressions. You should look for keywords that are relevant to your content but have a low number of clicks.

  It is important to analyze the keywords to determine whether they are worth the effort (especially in terms of search volume and difficulty - see chapter 3). If they are, you can optimize the article for those keywords.

  Please note that this applies only to keywords that rank on a second or lower SERP. If you rank on the first SERP, but your click-through rate is low, it is likely a problem with your keyword rankings.

  2. Review your ranking on the second or third page of search engine results

  The average position for the queries indicates that you rank in the 2nd or 3rd SERP for keywords that were not the focus of the article but still generated impressions and clicks for you. To sort the queries by this dimension, you must select the Average position in the Performance section (it is not displayed by default). You can use this tool to identify low-hanging fruit among the keywords you already rank for, although it is not the most accurate method of determining your rankings.

  If you were to write an article about the different types of juicer machines, you would use the following example.

  The keyword "Juice maker" appears in Search Console in an average position around the 2nd or 3rd position.

  As this keyword is relevant and has a high search volume, it could be a great source of traffic for your website.

Two options are available to you:

Firstly, you might want to improve the current article to place more emphasis on the keyword (however, you probably do not want to cover such a specific subtopic in a general article).

The second option is to write a new post devoted to "best juice makers" and link it to the main article.

The chances of ranking for the keyword in a better position with a quality article dedicated to the topic are higher than with a general post.

You can also find keyword inspiration in many other places. Just search for places where people in your niche gather online. These include:

• Twitter threads
• Quora questions
• Facebook groups
• Content curation platforms
• etc.

There are many places where keyword ideas can be found, but not all keywords are created equal.

To identify those that are worth targeting, how should they be analyzed?

Let’s take a look at the third chapter.