How to Do Keyword Research: 7 Steps to Follow

Keyword research is an integral part of an SEO strategy. It makes it possible for you to explore queries that resonate with your niche and create content around them to fuel your search engine rankings.

Plus, targeting the right keywords helps you connect with the intended audience and bring relevant traffic to your website.

Hence, it's essential that you are good with keyword research and are able to identify content opportunities that may help you ensure success in SEO.

You wouldn't want to accidentally target the wrong queries, as it may severely affect your search engine visibility and lead you to attract junk traffic.

So, without further ado, here are the seven steps you may consider following when doing keyword research:

1. Select a Niche

If you are just getting started, the first step to initiating the keyword research process is to identify a niche that you want to target.

However, if you have already selected a niche and are just struggling to come up with the right keywords for your content, you can skip this step and move on to the next one.

Selecting a niche means choosing a specific demographic of customers that you want to offer your solutions to.

For example, if you operate in the apparel industry, a potential niche for you may be Western fashion clothing for women.

2. Explore Seed Keywords

Seed keywords help you initiate your keyword research process. These keywords help you identify the players you'd be competing with and come up with keyword ideas that may help you stand out in your respective industry.

Let's use the same example that's mentioned above to explore this concept in a little more detail. Let's say you're a Western fashion clothing brand for women. The seed keywords for you would be clothing for women, women's designer jeans, party dresses, cocktail dresses, designer dresses, and so on.

Remember, seed keywords are generally broad. So, you can't just start targeting them and call it a day. They serve as a starting point for you to explore the fitting queries that resonate with your niche and help you attract a relevant audience.

These keywords just give you a broad idea of what you need to look for. And as soon as you get the gist of it, move on to the next step.

3. Identify Your Competitors

Identifying your competitors serves two purposes. First, it helps you know who you're up against and facilitates the process of creating well-thought-out strategies.

Second, finding your competitors maximizes your efficiency. It helps you identify and shortlist keywords that show potential.

To identify the players you are up against, all you have to do is use Google and leverage your seed keywords.

The platform may give you a long list of businesses that are targeting relevant queries. So, the trick is to go through the top-ranking pages and pick the ones that offer solutions closest to yours.

4. Study Your Competition

Once you've found your competitors, the next step is to study them and take inspiration from them for your SEO strategy.

You can do it by going through their website's pages one by one and looking for the focus keywords.

However, there's a simpler way of gathering insights about your competitors and using the information to your advantage. And that is using keyword research tools.

Keyword research tools allow you to explore your competitors' pages instantly and identify the keywords they're trying to target.

The keyword research tools may also come in handy here. The tools help you explore content opportunities that your competitors have already cashed in. Yet, for some reason, you're missing out on them.

5. Do Some Digging

Taking inspiration from your competitors is great. But you shouldn't rely entirely on them to pave the way for you.

It's possible that even the top-ranked players in your respective industry may have missed targeting keywords that could help you capture quality leads for your sales funnel.

The goal here is to take inspiration from your competitors, not replicate their strategy as is. So, it's necessary that you do your own research as well.

You already have a list of keywords that your competitors are targeting. All you have to do is use Google Search and explore those keywords one by one.

Once you've performed the search using a particular keyword, scroll down to the bottom of the page and observe the queries in the Related Searches section.

This will help you find additional queries similar to the keywords you've been exploring and used to perform the search.

Plus, going through search snippets may also help you explore different variations of the respective keyword.

This may seem daunting, but the results you'd get would be worth your effort and help you achieve the set goals, as the process may help you find keywords that are easy to rank for.

6. Explore the Trends

It's great to leverage keyword research tools. But don't let it stop you from exploring the latest trends in your respective industry.

Keep in mind that the latest trends in your respective industry may encompass hot topics with great potential to help you drive relevant traffic.

However, when you search for those terms in keyword research tools or even through search engines, you may find little or no information.

Because it takes time for search engines to crawl and index the webpages. Plus, keyword research tools are also incapable of providing you with information about trending topics instantly.

By the time these tools make the data available for you, it may already be too late.

So, if you don't want to give your competitors a head start in the race to climb the SERPs, always be on the lookout for trending topics that align with your niche.

7. Identify Focus Keywords

Once you've completed all the aforesaid steps, you're all set to identify your focus keywords. There are three things you must keep in mind here: traffic volume, keyword difficulty, and intent.

Traffic volume tells you how many average visitors a potential keyword may help you attract to the website.

Keyword difficulty shows how difficult it will be for you to climb the SERPs while targeting a particular keyword.

And finally, the intent tells you what users expect when they use a particular keyword in their search query when seeking answers to their questions.

The easiest way to explore the aforesaid insights is to leverage keyword research tools. There are a variety of options available on the market. So, you can choose the one that piques your interest.

It's a Wrap

There you have it, the seven steps that may help you carry out keyword research and come up with high-performing focus keywords. If you are just getting started or want to improve your SEO and grow your business digitally, the process given in this article may come in handy.