Not every user is crawling through the internet with the intent of buying things. Some users might be in different stages of a Consumer Engagement Cycle. That said, the consumer engagement cycle is the path a user goes through while buying a product or service on the internet.

An individual starts with the learning phase, then goes through the navigation and comparison phase to reach the buying phase.

Applying keywords that do not align with the search intent would make all your hard work go to waste. You need to understand that you cannot attract all the users searching for the product you offer, some might just want to learn about the product.

While doing keyword research for SEO you need to consider user intent too to align your content with it.

Primarily, there are 4 types of search intent of users.

Informational (when a user want to learn something)
Navigational (when the users are searching for a specific website)
Transactional (when they are convinced to buy and compare between different products)
Commercial (now user want to buy)

It is quite crucial to match the search intent with keywords as when users receive what they are actually searching for, they would stay longer on your site. And additionally, it builds trust.

How To Create Keywords For SEO? (from very basics)

Let’s start from the very basics and figure out how you can create keywords for your website from scratch. Following the process can help you get a collection of related keywords that you can then apply to your SEO strategy.

And if done properly they’ll make your website get found by your targeted audience.

Here I have maintained an excel sheet with the researched keyword for our next blog. These Keywords are research from different Keyword Research Tools and then i used Google Keyword Planner to get all these data regarding keywords.

Make A Broad List

In this step, you would make a broad list or spreadsheet of all the keywords that you have in your mind. You can write the ones that you wanna rank on or your general categories.

Now you don’t have to fill out that list too much. Keep it short with around 5 to 10 topics/keywords. To simplify the process you can think as if you’re the buyer and searching for the product.

Expand Each Of Them

Now you have to expand each of your listed terms or general category. For that, you have to figure out the keywords that your potential customer might use to get to the information or product that you’re offering.

One of the best ways to do that is to list out the terms that your visitor already uses to get to your website. To know those terms you can make use of Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report. They will point out the terms that your visitor have used to land on your site.

Blog ideas generator tools like Soovle can also come in handy. There you’ll have to enter a seed term and you’ll be given dozens of related search terms.

Just to reconfirm, this is not the final list. So you can put up your brain too to guess terms that your potential users could use. Generate a list for each term or general category that you listed in the previous step.

This is the smart and creative way to get keyword ideas.

All you have to do is search down a term that your potential customer could use to get to you.
Now scroll down to the bottom of that SERP, where you’ll witness a list of related search terms. You can note them down for further consideration.

You can also use the tool AnswerThePublic. There you’ll have to enter a term and it will show you top searches occurring on search engines around that term. Remember, you’ll be allowed only 3 searches a day for free.

You can try out other keyword tools as well if you wish. Just remember the goal is to collect related keywords that can be of use to you.

Match Search Intent

We’ve already discussed that aligning search intent with keywords is quite crucial. You have to give the user what he or she is been searching for.

So while generating the basic list of keyword ideas, you can also write their intent alongside them for future use. One of the best ways to figure out a keyword or phrase’s intent is by searching them on Google. Look up to the results that rank on top and see what intent they show.

Now you have a list of raw keyword ideas. Let’s move to the next of generating keywords for SEO. The next step now is to evaluate them and pick the ones that could help your business according to your objectives.

How To Evaluate and Find Keywords For Your SEO

Now let’s start refining the keywords from the list you generated. Till now we were brainstorming and mostly guessing on instinct. But from now we will rely more on keyword research tools and data. So let’s start answering the big question of how to do keyword research in SEO.

Step 1: First Use A Keyword Analysis Tool To Shorten Your List

Use a keyword research tool to get insights on each term’s search volume and keyword difficulty. You can make use of any keyword research tool such as Moz, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, or any other. The goal is to collect information on the term’s search volume and keyword difficulty.

Tip: Use filters while working on excel to analyse data with more clarity.

Now you would start marking the ones that have too low traffic or way too much competition. But before deleting anything you would like to put some time on Google trends too. You would enter terms on Google trends and seek out the pattern of their searches. Now the ones that have low search volume, keep a special eye on them.

Look if they show seasonal trends and the volume is expected to increase in some time. If yes, then investing in that keyword now can help you be a step ahead of your competitors.

And if some terms do not have both qualities i.e, good search volume or seasonal trends, you can delete them off your list. After this step, you would have a list of keywords that have nice search volume or show profitable trends.

Step 2: Pay Attention To The Average(s)

The reason that I’m suggesting to go for the average(s) i.e, one might have a better chance of ranking on them. For sure that depends primarily on your domain authority.

Giant businesses generally go for the high search volume keywords, and as they have high domain authority, Google will rank them upper than you. You can use DA PA Checker to check the domain authority of your and your competitor’s website.

So it’s better to not try for them at all. As it would save you time and effort that you can put into implementing average search volume keywords.

You should also ignore the high competitive keywords. As it would be a waste of effort knowing that many articles are already battling to rank for that term or phrase.

Step 3: Make A Mix Of Short Term And Long Term Keywords

Short-term keywords are the ones that are usually short and broader. You can simply identify them by their length, they lie between word lengths of one to three words. Whereas long-term keywords are simply the longer ones. Their word length is three words or more.

Your keyword strategy should have both of them balanced in order to deliver you short-term wins while setting up for long-term accomplishments. As short-terms are searched more often than long phrases that means they can generate more traffic for your site. But that also means that they’ll be harder to tank on.

That’s not all, while short terms can offer you heavy traffic fast, long phrases can bring you, potential buyers.

The intent of long phrases generally lies around the bottom phases of the consumer engagement cycle. They are more specific and if a user is driven to your site through a long keyword, you might have exactly what they need. This increases the chances of their buying your product or service.

That’s why keeping a balance of short-term keywords and long phrases is quite crucial. This will ensure that you set up your site for long-term profits while also gaining short-term wins.

Step 4: Keep An Eye On Competitor’s Ranking Keywords

I will clear out it at the very start that only if your competitor is doing something different doesn’t mean that you need to do it too. Similarly, if he/she is ranking on some specific keywords doesn’t mean that you need to try it out too. But still, you can’t overlook the keywords that your competitor’s ranking. It can benefit in various ways such as,

First, if your competitor is already ranking on a keyword that you added to your list. Then that means you need to put some extra effort into that keyword to rank.

Second, if there are keywords that are still left in your list and your competitor isn’t ranking on them. Then it’s a golden opportunity for you to rank on those keywords now.

Filter List On The Basis Of Competition. Now Choose Right Keywords With Having An Eye On Their Competition

Now some of you might still have doubts that how to know what keywords are my competitor ranking on. Well, the first and simplest way is to use a keyword analysis tool. Some of the tools offer this feature on free accounts for limited searches too. Or you can head on to the incognito tab and type each keyword in your list to see who is ranking on them. But that will take too much of your time so I prefer the first one.

A Quick Summary

So let’s ask the same question again, How to do keyword research in SEO? So, we started with creating a small list of terms that you think you could rank on. Then we expanded each of the terms by brainstorming and using keyword ideas generator tools. We looked up Google’s related terms and wrote down the search intent of every keyword alongside it on the spreadsheet.

Now the addition part ends here and now starts the subtraction part.

We used a keyword analysis tool to see every term or phrase’s search volume and difficulty.
We narrowed down the list based on that basis. Instead of choosing high search volume keywords, we chose average search volume keywords to have a better chance of ranking.
Next, we balanced the list between short-term and long-phrase keywords.
And then we checked the ranking keyword of competitors to assure which keywords need more attention than others.

And now you’re ready to go for it. But remember, the work ain’t done you still need to ensure every time that the intent of your keywords and content align precisely.

So, Have You Got The Best Keywords?

Yes and No. Yes because if you put the right efforts in the right direction, these keywords might come out as best for your site. Whereas, if not implemented correctly, they are of no use.

So, all of it completely depends on you. And remember there’s no one-for-all method. You might need to put some extra effort into finding the right keyword than someone else. It completely depends on the level of competition you’re facing. And how often you can post quality content.

The Bottom Line

The process of finding keywords for SEO could be a little tiring sometimes. But I can assure you that the process is worth it. So, now you have a list of keywords tailored according to your business goals. And you have the right combination for short-term and long-term gains.

And the last thing is to keep evaluating your keywords once in a while. My suggestion is that you re-evaluate your keywords once a quarter. Because with time, the data and trends of keywords change, and most likely your authority will increase too.

That means now you can aim for slightly higher volume keywords too and keep thriving with your determination.

I believe you’ve got all the answers you were searching for. If not, then the comment box is wide open for you or you can mail us at [email protected] for a free consultation.

Also, Thank You For Reading Along, It Means A Lot To Us.

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