KEYWORD RESEARCH FOR BEGINNERS
“
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. - Bertrand Russell
Hello! I AM W.S. TOH Being a self-taught SEO practitioner, I give back to the community by giving free tutorials.
template WHAT About AREthis KEYWORDS?
Keywords are words and phrases in a piece of content that makes it “findable” on search engines. For example, an article titled “Super duper mega guide on how to play a guitar” will give search engines a hint that it is a guide on playing the guitar. If this article is well written and well promoted enough, it pop up in searches for “how to play a guitar” and the related search terms. This is why keywords are so important in SEO. You need to understand what readers are looking for, and answer their search queries.
STEP 1 – FIND A TOPIC
DON’T START WITH SEO •
It’s weird, but the first step of keyword research has nothing to do with keywords nor SEO.
•
Begin by finding an interesting topic that is valuable to your readers.
•
If you don’t have an interesting topic, you won’t have any good content; You cannot do SEO and keyword research without solid content.
HOW TO FIND A TOPIC •
Depend on your inspirations. Think of topics that are related to your selected niche.
•
If not, just look around on the Internet. Plenty of news websites, social media, and forums to get article ideas from.
•
Look at the current trends, and problems that people are facing.
TOPIC IDEAS •
Tutorials – Answer the questions of other people.
•
Reviews – Try out a product and write you thoughts.
•
Tips – Life hacks.
•
Response – Respond to certain people.
•
Interviews – What do other people think of certain products or issues?
STEP 2 – FINDING KEYWORDS
SEED KEYWORDS •
Once you have a topic idea, it is time to start thinking like a user.
•
What do users enter into the search engine to find your article?
•
For example “beginner guitar lesson”, “basic piano chords” or “how to start a business”?
•
You do not need to exhaust the list, but just come up with 3-5 good seed keywords.
DIG MORE KEYWORDS •
With your seed keywords, use online tools to find more related keywords.
•
You can use keyword.io and/or ubersuggest.io to help you.
•
If not, you can also enter your search term into Google, and use their suggested search terms.
LONG TAIL KEYWORDS •
My last tip is go for keywords with more than 3 words, or what we call “long tail keywords”.
•
This is because the short keywords are usually generic and hard to score.
•
For example, “piano lessons” can refer to “free lessons”, “beginners”, “advanced” or even specific “classical” lessons.
•
Using keywords such as “basic chords piano lesson” is much better and more specific.
STEP 3 – CHERRY PICKING
MORE DATA ON KEYWORDS •
We now have a long list of keywords, but which are the best?
•
Use the Google Keyword Planner to help you get more data.
•
No worries, it is a free tool.
•
Simply enter your keywords into “get search volume data and trends” and analyze the numbers.
HOW TO CHOOSE •
Based on the numbers in the free keywords research tool, here are a few consideration factors.
•
Search volume – No point targeting keywords that nobody has any interest in.
•
Value – This is the suggested bid for paid search. But also a good indicator that there’s market.
•
Competition – Nobody targets a keyword that has no interest and value… This is also a good indication.
STEP 4 – SNOOP AROUND
COMPETITION ANALYSIS •
Which ever keywords you choose, it is a good idea to do a search of that exact keyword on search engines.
•
See who are the top 5 results.
•
If they are all big boys with multi-million dollar marketing budget and extremely well written content – you are going to have a hard time winning.
•
Go for keywords that has value and less competition.
PICK THE BEST •
The Keywords planner tool is based on the past data.
•
It does not mean that keywords with low value are bad.
•
It could mean that the trend has not yet picked up.
•
If you want, you can predict and target trends.
•
Whichever keyword you choose, remember to only pick the best few – Do not attempt to choose a dozen of them and spam.
THANK YOU! Please visit http://red-dot-geek.com/ for more free tutorials. Read the complete Keyword Research Guide on Red Dot Geek.