Want to kick off your keyword research but not sure where to start? Our complete guide to keyword research has everything you need to know. 

The biggest component of SEO is targeting the right keywords that people are searching for when looking for what you are selling. 

They help you build a stronger online presence, tell Google what you’re about, and make you stand out from the competition. 

So, how do you know which keywords are the right choice for your business?

With so many different types of keywords, finding the ones relevant to your business and knowing how to appropriately target them can feel overwhelming — that’s where keyword research comes in.

This comprehensive guide will explain how to do keyword research for SEO, the types of keywords, and best practices for keyword research success.

Table of Contents

• What is Keyword Research?
• How to Conduct Keyword Research 
• Advanced Keyword Research Techniques
• Best Practices for Keyword Research
• Summary
• FAQs

What is Keyword Research? 

Keyword research is where you source and analyse common words and phrases people type into search engines. 

In SEO optimisation, keywords refer to the words or phrases users type into Google when searching for something specific or to find information. For example, if they want to buy a new denim jacket, they might type “blue denim jacket” or “women’s denim jacket” into Google. 

That’s why keyword research is the essential first step as you create your web pages and new content and focus on search engine optimisation (SEO). It helps you discover customer search queries to target so you can create SEO-focused content and website pages to align with the most popular and relevant keywords. 

With dedicated SEO keyword research, you’ll reach more of your target customers as they conduct their searches and generate more traffic to your website. 

Importance of Keyword Research in SEO

Keyword research is critical for SEO and your business growth – here’s why:

• It tells you what your target customers are looking for. 

Keyword research for your website will tell you what search queries people are typing into Google for each stage of their buyer journey. You can then create content that answers these search queries rather than guessing what customers are interested in. 

• Google will rank you higher for relevant searches.

Having relevant keywords on your website gives users a better chance of finding your content and driving organic traffic to specific pages. It signals to Google that your page is relevant to the search query, and as a result, it ranks you higher on the search engine results page (SERP). The higher your rank on the SERP, the more reach and traffic you generate. 

Google says content relevance is one of the most important search engine ranking factors: “The most basic signal that information is relevant is when content contains the same keywords as your search query. For example, with web pages, if those keywords appear on the page, or if they appear in the headings or body of the text, the information might be more relevant.”

• It helps you understand the user journey better.

Keyword research helps you understand what customers are looking for at different parts of the journey, from when they have little or no awareness of the product to when they are getting closer to a purchase decision. You can then create content that helps the prospect at each journey stage. 

• It helps you create better, more relevant content for your audience.

Don’t underestimate the importance of content to SEO. With keyword research, you can find topics and inspiration your audience will be interested in. This will not only help you rank higher for relevant search terms but also help you generate a loyal following.

• It gives you a clear picture of your competition.

How many competitors already rank for your keywords? Which keywords are worth fighting for? Where are the opportunities for you to outrank your competition? 

Keyword research helps you understand which keywords have competition and whether you should put time and effort into ranking for them. 

The Role of Search Intent in Keyword Selection

Whether a user is looking for more information about a particular topic, comparing products, or ready to buy, there is always a reason behind the search. In SEO, this is known as “search intent” or “user intent”.

To properly use keywords in your digital marketing, you need to understand how they relate to a user’s search intent. If you don’t understand the true search intent of your keywords, or if the intent of keywords you’re targeting doesn’t align with your business goals, then you’re wasting your time. 

People will typically use a different keyword type depending on where they are in their buyer’s journey. For example, the keywords “wedding dress” or “wedding dress styles” show a very different intent to “buy wedding dress in Sydney” or “buy second-hand wedding dress near me”. 

The latter keywords show the searcher is much closer to buying the wedding dress—in other words, they have higher commercial intent. To target these keywords, you might use landing pages and other content that makes it easy to buy. For the less commercial search intent, you might create a blog post showing different wedding dress styles and trends. 

Here are the four common types of search intent keywords:

1. Navigational: Looking for a specific website or page. Google is smart enough to understand that if a user searches for a business or website by name, they usually want to visit their website (e.g., “Versace wedding dress”). 
2. Informational: Looking for information on a topic (e.g., “best wedding dress styles for beach wedding”)
3. Commercial: Researching options before making the final purchase decision (e.g., “unique wedding dresses under $1000”)
4. Transactional: Looking for a specific product or brand with the intention to buy. They may already know what they want and will search for the product by name (e.g., “buy Versace wedding dress online”)

In many searches, this intent can cross-over. Ultimately, to make your brand as visible as possible on search results, you should be targeting a wide range of intent with your keyword research and content strategy. 

This will help to nurture customers at all stages of the funnel and promote your brand as an industry expert. 

How to Conduct Keyword Research 

Now you understand how keyword research works and why it is essential for SEO, let’s step through how to conduct keyword research. 

Step 1: Identifying Relevant Topics

Getting started with keyword research can be overwhelming. So, before diving into specific keyword research, start by brainstorming a list of topics related to your business. 

They should correspond to your products and services or anything your target audience is interested in. It can be helpful to imagine yourself as a customer or think about your last few customers and what they were looking for. 

Your customers may sit in a number of audience segments or niches. Break your topic research into each of these segments to be more targeted. 

These topic buckets will help you focus your keyword research to find the keywords you wish to rank for. 

For example, if you’re a real estate agent in Melbourne, your topic buckets might be: 

• Selling home
• Buying home
• Rentals
• Investment Properties
• Commercial Properties

Some of your audience segments may include:

• First time buyers
• Existing homeowners looking to upgrade or downsize
• First time landlords
• Longstanding landlords adding to their portfolio 
• Business owners
• People looking to move out for the first time 
• Students 

Create a spreadsheet with your topic buckets – keep your list short with no more than ten topic buckets. These topics and the keyword research you do around them could also assist with other marketing areas like digital PR to help boost your overall brand presence. 

Step 2: Brainstorming Keyword Ideas

Now you have your topic buckets, it’s time to identify the words and phrases your target customer might type as their search query for each topic. 

This is not your final list of keywords – you’re still brainstorming keyword ideas. 

For the real estate company, under the category “selling home”, you might list the following:

• How to sell property
• Selling property fees
• Real estate agent
• Selling property
• Selling Tips
• Best real estate agent near me
• Cost of selling a house

This is your “seed keyword” list. Create one for each topic bucket and add it to your spreadsheet. 

Once you have your initial keyword list, you can use it to identify more specific keywords. 

This is where keyword research tools can help. For example, with Semrush’s Keyword Magic, you enter a seed keyword and your target location to generate a list of keyword ideas.   

It’s easy to miss many relevant keywords you should target. So, take some time to find all the related keywords that should be in your SEO strategy. 

Google’s Keyword Planner and other keyword research tools can help you find broad-match or phrase-match keywords relevant to your core categories. Type your main topics and keyword ideas into the tool to get a list of related keywords. 

You can also use AnswerThePublic to show the phrases and questions people are searching for related to your topic. 

Step 3: Analysing Keyword Potential 

With so many keywords to focus on, how do you know which ones are worth targeting and which will be a waste of effort?

You need to analyse the keyword potential. 

To do this, look at the search volume. 

Search volume tells you how many times searchers enter a particular keyword into Google per month on average. This metric is called Monthly Search Volume (MSV). 

Some keywords will be too far-fetched or too specific, meaning they’ll barely have any search volume. You might rank higher for these keywords, but they may not increase traffic if nobody searches them.

On the other hand, some keywords might be too generic and broad, which means they’ll have an extremely high search volume or a high level of competition.

The higher the search volume, the more traffic you’ll potentially get if you rank well for that keyword. But it also means they are more challenging to rank for because of higher competition. It could also mean that the keyword is too board and you may end up driving irrelevant traffic. 

How do you find out the search volume?

You can use tools like Google’s free Keyword Planner or SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, and Ubersuggest. 

Step 4: Understanding Keyword Difficulty

How steep is the competition for your chosen keyword? 

Once you know the search volume, you need to assess the difficulty of ranking for your keyword. 

Keyword difficulty (KD%) measures how hard it is to rank highly in Google’s organic results. The higher the score, the harder it will be to earn a high ranking in the SERPs.

Keyword difficulty scores typically correspond with search volumes. Keywords that get searched tend to be more competitive, meaning they’re more difficult to rank for. 

That’s not to say you can’t compete for high-difficulty keywords – you definitely can. But you’ll need a stellar SEO strategy that includes:

• Very high-quality content
• Backlinks from lots of reputable domains
• Topical authority 
• Strong technical SEO 

If you’re competing against big-name brands, they’ll tend to take up the top search rankings for the most popular keywords because they already have lots of backlinks, content and authority. Therefore, their site ranks high for keyword relevance. 

This is where you can identify less competitive long-tail keywords to target (we’ll cover this later). 

While the keyword difficulty score is a good place to start, a SERP analysis is necessary to get a deeper understanding of how hard it will be to rank for different keywords. 

A SERP analysis looks at the quality of the web pages that rank at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) to determine how hard it would be to outrank your competitors. It considers the domain authority, page authority, backlink profile, and other elements, for each top-ranking result. 

SEO tools, such as Semrush and Moz, make it easy to perform a SERP analysis and decide whether a keyword is too competitive to go after or a good opportunity. Or simply type in the keyword and look at the type of sites that are ranking. 

For example for many ‘best’ related terms, publishers have captured this market due to their domain rating and affiliate relationships. 

I.e. for the term “best air fryers” sites like Taste.com.au, Techradar, Product Review, Choice, Nine News and News.com.au are all ranking in the top positions on page 1. This would make it unlikely for an eCommerce site’s blog to rank for this term or to even match the intent of the searcher (which is likely product comparison without bias). 

Step 5: Utilising Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools can save you time and effort and help you ensure you are targeting the right keywords. 

There’s a growing list of keyword research tools out there to choose from. Some, like Backlinko’s Free Keyword Tool, will help you quickly find a list of keyword ideas. Others, like Moz and Semrush, will help you organise, track, and update your keywords, conduct a SERP analysis, see what your competitors are ranking for, and more. 

As you’d expect, some of the more basic keyword research tools are free, while the more advanced tools require a paid subscription (though most also offer a free trial). 

You can always get started with keyword research using a combination of free tools and trials, then subscribe to a paid SEO tool when you are ready to delve deeper into the analytics. 

Here are some of the top SEO keyword research tools:

• Google Keyword Planner is the go-to free keyword research tool and a great place to begin because you know the data comes straight from Google. The downside is Keyword Planner is made for Google Ads users and doesn’t provide any information about organic ranking difficulty, search intent, etc. But you can use metrics like “Top of page bid” to see how much people advertisers are bidding on a keyword, which shows you keywords with high commercial intent.

• Google Trends is a free keyword tool that lets you explore which topics are trending in regions worldwide (based on popular searches). You can compare the popularity of two or more products or services and estimate the long-term popularity of a keyword or topic. 

• Google Search Console (GSC) lets you see up to 1,000 of the most popular keywords your site already ranks for. Go to “Performance” > “Search results” to see which queries are driving traffic to your site. 
• QuestionDB lets you see the questions people ask on forum sites like Reddit and Stack Exchange, which can give you ideas for question-based keywords. It is free for a limited number of searches. 

• Semrush Keyword Surfer is a free keyword research tool (a Google Chrome extension) that allows you to see keyword suggestions and search volume directly in the SERPs. 

• Moz’s Keyword Explorer is a great all-round keyword research tool. It helps you predict how much search volume a keyword will receive, create keyword lists, check keyword difficulty, and competitor keywords. (Paid tool with free trial)

• Semrush has a suite of tools you can use for keyword research, including Keyword Magic Tool and Keyword Manager. Use Keyword Magic to identify the best keywords from Semrush’s huge keyword database. Once you identify a list of keywords, Keyword Manager lets you save keywords into lists, create clusters automatically, and easily update and manage your lists. (Paid tool with free trial)

• AnswerThePublic is a keyword research tool that uses suggestions from search engines to find questions people are searching for. AnswerThePublic is free for a limited number of searches. 

You can also conduct basic keyword research with Google Autocomplete, a Google Search feature that provides search term predictions.

When you start typing a search phrase into Google, you’ll see some autocomplete predictions. According to Google, these are determined by looking at “real searches that happen on Google and show common and trending ones relevant to the characters that are entered and also related to your location and previous searches.” This makes Google Autocomplete a great way to identify popular search queries for your topic. 

Advanced Keyword Research Techniques 

Ready to get more serious about your keyword research? Try these advanced keyword research techniques. 

Exploring Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are the hidden gems of keyword research. Don’t underestimate their power – when used correctly, they can help you rank high for hyper-relevant search queries and drive organic traffic growth. 

Long-tail keywords are highly specific phrases that searchers are more likely to use when they are further along in the purchase journey and have a clearer idea of what they want. As the name suggests, they are long – they typically have more than three words. Because they are so specific, they tend to have lower keyword difficulty scores but can bring in more qualified traffic – in other words, visitors who are more likely to buy. 

For example, rather than targeting “wedding dress”, which would have a high keyword difficulty, you can get precise with the type of wedding dress and location and target “wedding dress with detachable skirt Sydney”. 

To find relevant long-tail keywords, you can use any of the keyword research tools listed above. A good starting point is Google Autocomplete. 

Once you have a list, you can start using them in your SEO efforts by:

• Creating content focused on specific long-tail keywords.
• Sprinkling them strategically throughout relevant web pages.

Analysing Competitor Keywords

How can you outperform your competition in the search rankings? 

A competitor keyword analysis is essential to remain competitive in your niche and generate organic traffic growth. 

With a competitor keyword analysis, you reveal keywords that competitors rank for, but you don’t. This allows you to find relevant keywords you’re missing out on, as well as opportunities to outrank your competitors and divert potential customers to your site. 

The good news is that keyword research tools can help. 

For example, Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool lets you see the keywords all your competitors rank for but you don’t, meaning they will be highly relevant. You can also see keywords that at least one competitor ranks for but you don’t, which could reveal a unique opportunity to rank. 

You can go deeper and uncover opportunities to outrank your competitors for target keywords. For example, SERP Gap Analyzer helps you find keywords competitors rank highly for with weak content. So you can tap into the opportunity to create even better content and outrank your competitors. 

Leveraging SERP Features

SERP features are the special results Google shows on its search results pages to provide users with more relevant and useful information. 

SERP feature opportunities include Rich Snippets, images, FAQs, review stars, featured snippets, Top Stories, People Also Ask, knowledge panels, and many more. The list is constantly growing. 

Many SERP features appear in “position zero” at the top of the page, driving down traditional organic search results.

If you appear in these features, you benefit significantly from increased visibility. This means you might be better off pursuing exposure in one of the SERP features rather than seeking the number-one traditional organic ranking for a keyword. 

For example, some Google SERP features, such as answer boxes, are typically triggered by long-tail keywords matching the search query. So, consider targeting key long-tail keywords for your brand to match up with user queries and feature in the answer boxes. 

Keyword research tools, such as Moz and Semrush, are handy ways to see how many SERP features each keyword triggers so you can identify SERP feature opportunities. Alternatively, you can simply search on Google to see what appears. 

Best Practices for Keyword Research 

Balancing Search Volume and Competition

While it’s tempting to go for the keywords with a high search volume, it means you’re battling against more sites to rank for the same keywords.

The holy grail of keyword research is to strike the keyword balance of low competition and high search volume. 

This is where long-tail keywords come in. Each long-tail keyword may have a lower search volume, but together, they can represent a goldmine of low-competition, high-volume and hyper-relevant keywords.

Focusing on User Intent

We’ve discussed search intent extensively in this guide, and for good reason. Your SEO success rests on understanding your customers’ intent with every keyword. 

The better you understand your searcher’s intent behind each keyword, the better you can match their intent with your content and SEO strategy.

If a buyer is looking for information on wedding dress styles but you present content that tries to sell them a wedding dress, they may click onto the page, but they’ll leave quickly when they realise you aren’t giving them what they want. A high bounce rate can hurt your search ranking.

During your keyword research, dedicate some time to user intent matching. Make a note in your spreadsheet about the user intent for every keyword. Do they want to learn something? Are they looking for a specific product? Are they comparing products?

Then, focus on creating content that truly matches the intent. 

Continuous Keyword Optimisation

Keyword research isn’t a one-and-done process. SEO is a fast-moving world – Google, competitors, and customers are constantly changing and you need to ensure your keyword strategy keeps up. 

This means focusing on continuous keyword refinement and optimisation. Monitor your keywords on Google Analytics and Search Console – track how well specific pages of your website rank in search results for particular keywords, which keywords generate the most traffic, and which ones are underperforming. 

Search Console shows you the average position of your keywords in the SERPs. Using these insights, you can get to work on keyword refinement, removing any low-performing or irrelevant keywords to focus on those with higher potential.  

Remember to monitor your competitors, too, and adapt your keyword targeting to exploit any gaps. 

Summary

And there you have it! When you follow the steps and best practices outlined in this guide, you should have a list of keywords ready to implement in your SEO strategy and help you get in front of more potential customers in the search results. 

Want some help with your keyword research? Our expert SEO team at StudioHawk can help. 

Get started with our free SEO Master Plan. In a free consultation with one of our Senior SEO specialists, you will get an in-depth audit, traffic analysis, roadmap, and more. Book your free SEO Master Plan today. 

FAQs

What is the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?

Long-tail keywords are highly specific keywords that consist of three or more words. They generally have low traffic volumes but may have a higher conversion rate because they are more niche. 

Short-tail keywords only consist of one or two words and are broader in terms of topics. Short keywords can have a higher search volume, but are more competitive to rank for.  

How often should I perform keyword research?

Once you have your list of keywords, you should aim to perform keyword research on at least a quarterly basis. But it really depends on your business, industry and the type of products you have. If your business changes, you introduce new products or services, or there’s a shift in your industry, you should perform keyword research to ensure you keep up to date with how people are searching. 

Can I use free tools for keyword research, and are they effective?

There are many free SEO tools online that can help you find the right keywords and manage your keyword list. Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Semrush Keyword Surfer, and AnswerThePublic are just some of the free tools available to help. There are also some paid subscription tools that offer free trials or basic versions to help you get started with keyword research, such as Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool and Keyword Manager, and more.