Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide (2023 Updated)

If you are not doing Keyword Research, there is no use of any SEO Strategy. Keyword-Research
And if you are! Let’s find out either you are keeping a good track or doing it just Okay?
I would always ask you to spend a little extra time on your keyword research and claim your success in SEO.
And this guide is exactly going to walk you through your week or missed points, so you will be a confident SEO person.
Today, I’m not only going to tell you about “How to do Effective Keyword Research“,
Once you’ll get it right, you will be ready to rock in your search engine optimization skills.
If you are a beginner or at the first level of SEO and stuck at any of the below points, then today is your day.

  • Do I actually know, what is keyword research?
  • If YES! then how to do that?
  • I have a lot of keywords but don’t know what to do with them?
  • I have low CPC from my Adsense income and don’t know how to improve it?
  • I don’t know how to find low competition keywords?
  • Should I target High Competition Keywords as I’m a newbie?
  • Can I make $$$$$$ from my Blog?
  • Everybody is an online marketer today then how can I rank higher as I don’t know anything.

And looking for answers to all these questions!
Not only these, In Fact, but I’m also going to tell you a lot more and you will have solid concepts about hunting the perfect keywords for you. Yes, you’ll have to hunt them.
Even if you are an expert, I would love your high-value feedback and suggestions on my write-up.
Just to highlight once again. Actually, I want you to cram this quote so as to always remember the importance of the right keywords.

No Keyword Research = No Use of SEO

So, Are you ready to move on?
Oh, wait:
Don’t you wanna grab today’s Bonus Learning TIP!

Learn Well But Plan To Do It Your Own Way

I always have my own ways to work out with anything, this is what gives me ultimate uniqueness and my max speed.
Similarly, I would say:
“Must learn the strategies of experts, but do it the way you can give your best.
Discover yourself, and you’ll be amazed to know your abilities.”

Let’s hit the very first concern about our today’s topic…

Find Your Niche to Work On

Were you really expecting this heading right now? Trust me, It’s all OK!
And, you have to work on selecting or, I should say finalizing your niche before thinking anything about “Keyword Research“.
This guide is actually not about finding your niche for a website or blog.
Otherwise, I could have to lead you to a super cool tutorial. But even now, I am not going to leave you completely blank.
Let’s say you want to know the best tips for niche selection right now.
If you are an SEO beginner you should:

1. Choose Your Passion

Here is the deal:

Always choose to work on your passion relevant niche

Now don’t tell me that you don’t have any passion.
Do you have any questions about that?
Why should I choose a passion, is it compulsory?
You can surely deviate from your passion while choosing a niche. There is no harm in that, you can work on anything but….
Make sure you have learned a solid path to follow.
But being a beginner or even level one, choosing your passion is highly recommended. It has priceless advantages.

Note: If you are finding difficulties in understanding the SEO terms I am using, there is no need to worry.
Everything will get linked in the upcoming parts of this guide.
So if, even at the end something is not clear! Must share your feedback in the comments, as we want to make it the most practical resource for beginners.

We were talking about the niche. In SEO, you’ll be developing content that should be great to beat your competitors.
Adding value to your content can ensure your success. I mean your website or blog should present the users with something extra, which your competitors are lagging.
Now the questions is “How can you add value to your content”
Here are three quick methods to have more value:

  1. If you are well experienced in your selected niche, you’ll have a lot more valuable points to share with your audience.
  2. If you are passionate about your selected topic, you can beat your competitor’s content.
  3. Select any niche and start doing smart research to add value to your content.

Have you selected your blogging topic yet?
Yes, Great!
Otherwise, let’s have another awesome and quick exercise on niche selection.

2. Think About Yourself

It is another very effective way to figure out something to work on.
Simply start thinking deep and fast about yourself to dig out the answer to these questions.

  •        Can you help out the internet community with anything?
  •        Do you have the unique ability?
  •        Can you make a difference in what’s going on normally?
  •        Can you present a better way?
  •        Are you a problem-solving person?

You should better note down a detailed answer, just by thinking about yourself.
In simple words:

Discover Your Intelligence.

You can work on similar questions to find something to move on to.
Just as an example, it may be like you are excellent at solving computer hardware issues. and you may shout out loud
“Yes! I can do that particular thing in a perfect way”
Hope your niche bucket isn’t empty anymore, and we can move on to the next point.

For Keyword Research, You Must Have

Once you are done with the niche agenda, the next thing to get you prepared for keyword research is that you should renew a few more aspects.
Actually, I must call these requisites for beginners for improving their ability to find awesome keywords.
You might have already known these aspects, but I’ll make sure to add your existing knowledge.
So!
Just before knowing how to do it, you must have a certain level of information about what it is.
Here is the very first thing you should grab besides the right niche:

1. Basic SEO Knowledge

Do you know the basics of Search Engine Optimization?
Sure it’s very much compulsory.
In case you want to update yourself, you can find our SEO Guide very helpful.
I have inserted a lot of hard work to make it truly dedicated for SEO beginners. Must give it a read and suggest to newbies if you find it useful.
Let’s check out the next heading.

2. Common Sense

Yes! It may look funny!
But trust me, it is going to be absorbing and informative.
I really don’t mean that some of us don’t have common sense even and they need to get it somehow.
Everyone has it, but the thing is we need to activate this sense of ours.
Why is it so?
After reading everything on the internet about Keyword Research, you may end up with some killer quotes.
Here is one of my favorites, if I may define it:

Keyword Research is about finding the user’s intent

In other words, what precisely a user is looking for, on the worldwide web.
And when it’s about the user’s intent, we humans are too predictable. Our mind along with powerful collective senses is the best tool to do this or to get this done.
Not clear yet! Don’t worry I’ll do it with examples in the next heading of “How To Do Keyword Research.”
For now, as a little exercise, I’ll ask you to start thinking about How you search on the internet about everything.
Should we move on to the next one?

What is Keyword Research?

In a typical way, I would say keyword research is about finding the words or phrases which have high value and low competition regarding ranking higher in search engine results.
Wow… that was too straight. Let’s dive in a little deeper to have a broader concept, as I have got a few more definitions.
It is much more about understanding the psyche of the searcher. What precisely a viewer wants and how he asks on the internet.
It is not only about finding high value and low competition keywords but finding the one which You will be able to rank.
Yes! in fact, nothing is impossible. No one is gonna stay in the first position of search engine results forever.
As my focus is dedicated to newbies, so in this guide, we’ll work on finding low competition keywords.
I have classified this into three subheadings. And the first one is:

What are Keywords?

In simple words, whatever you type in google or any other search bar is a keyword.
Hope you already know that.
Depending on their length, keywords are usually divided into three categories. Check below for examples in the brackets:

  •        Head (“cars”)
  •        Body (“old cars”)
  •        Long-tail (“cheap cars for sale in the USA”)

Up next are some parameters which will tell you the value of keywords.

Keyword Value Parameters:

The value of a keyword is described by different parameters linked to it. You might have heard of search volume, cost per click (CPC) and competition, etc.
When doing keyword research, you have to take good care of these factors.
What if I ask about your point of view regarding High-Value Keywords!
In case you already know about the keyword parameter, you might have an answer like that:
Keywords with High search volume, High cost per click, and Low competition are the best!
The perfect answer I must say.
But wait! Do you really know there is still a lot more to explore?
As it is said:
“It’s not always about getting the visitors but, right kind of visitors.”
Now you must ask:
What are the right kinds of visitors and how they are related to keywords?
Let’s explore keyword parameters to know more.

#1 Search Volume of Keywords

How many times a keyword is being searched is its search volume. Usually, in tools, it is presented on a per month scale.
Let’s say the keyword “travel agency” has an estimated search volume of 165000. It means people are searching for this keyword about 165000 times a month.
Search volume is a critical factor when we talk about finding keywords for SEO.
And of course, we are looking for high traffic, we should select keywords with high search volume.
Keyword research tools provide us this information, and we’ll work on it right in this guide.
If we link this factor with the types of keywords described above, I would say:

  •        Head Keywords (1 word in length) have the highest search volume.
  •        Body keywords (2 to 3 words long) have lower search volume as compared to Head.
  •        Long-tail (3 or more words) has the lowest search volume among the three types.


But overall search trends are somewhat absorbing in the case of long-tail keywords.
“More than 70% out of total search volume (for all keywords in the world) is covered by long tails.”
For example, just think of your own way of searching.
How many times have you typed in the search bar a single or two words long keyword?
How about using long phrases like “how to repair memory card”?
Oops! Isn’t it a good keyword to work on?
Actually, every one of us uses long-tail keywords, a lot more times as compared to single or two-word search queries.
Let’s take a look at the graphical view of these theories for better understanding.

#2 Keyword Type

How actually the kind of keyword is determining its value?
I mean what’s the big science in it!
Are you really curious to know this?

It is the type of keyword related to user’s intent, which adds value to the keyword

Let’s do an exercise to understand this:
Think of a single word keyword and try to guess what the user wants from Google to know.
For example, “car.”
There are lots of possible answers to this search, as you can say the user may be:

  • Looking for what is a car
  • Looking for car repair
  •  Looking for car shops
  • Looking Seeking to buy a car

I tell if a user is typing only this one-word “car” in the search engine, his search is incomplete.
The most probable is, he might be looking for the definition of the car only.
Depending on the user’s intention, the principal types are as under:
Keywords with buying intentions: These are the keywords that clearly show that the user wants to buy something.
These are also called “Buy Now Keywords,” and are the highest value keywords if we talk about the type of keywords.
Do you know why is it that so?
The Internet is actually an advertising platform where almost all companies around the globe, are looking forward to market their products for increasing sales and then profit.
These companies pay huge to advertisers and publishers to find people with intentions to buy their products.
This is precisely where buy now keywords comes into action.
Usually, these keywords include the following words:

  • Buy
  • Coupon
  • Discount
  • Deal
  • Shipping
  • Cheap (products)

You can explore the internet to get long lists of these words.
These keywords have the highest cost per click value.
So, keep your mind sharp when hunting for low competition keywords. That would be more than wonderful if you can dig out some buy now low competition.
Product-Relevant Keywords:  When you are searching for a particular product, you are regularly using these keywords.
Like if I want to buy a phone or anything like this, I ought to look for the best product, or I’d be looking for comparison and reviews, etc.
So whenever you come across words like these:

  • Best
  • Comparison
  • Reviews
  • (Product Name) Price

Consider these very good as well.
For an exercise, you can start thinking more dark for similar kinds of words and can keep on filling your buckets.
What else research resource I can recommend when you have the internet?
Let’s move on…
Informational Keywords: Simply look at the words below:

  • How
  • What is
  • Best Way
  • (topic search)

When somebody is looking for some kind of information, he might use these words while searching on the internet.
These keywords don’t have much value when we talk about advertisements and sells but these should not be ignored at all as they have the highest search volume in all types.
And when you’ll have traffic on your website, maybe you’ll be able to convert them to be your customers.
So, it is a must to analyze the keyword type to know its value.

#3 CPC (Cost per click) or Suggested Bid

If you haven’t heard these words before…
Cost per click is the amount/price, an advertiser has to pay in exchange for one-click on his ad.
CPC is very directly related to the type of keywords just as you can compare their value.
Informational keywords will have lower CPC while buy now have the highest.
It also varies with the location of the audience. Traffic from European countries has a high CPC.
When sometimes a person has good traffic and a high CPC location but still his cost is low. That can be a case he might not be using the buy now or product category keywords.
If you have been using the Google Keywords Planner tool, you might have read Suggested Bid. It is the same as CPC.
Our target is to find keywords with good CPC/Suggested Bid.
Keywords with an intention to buy something will always have higher CPC as compared to their other types.
Next time you’ll be analyzing CPC keep in mind the below factors:

  • Keyword Intent (Type of keywords).
  • Audience Location.
  • Ad relevancy.

Exercise: Open google keyword planner and start doing keyword research in your niche to know its suggested bid. Google the niches with good CPC. Learn the CPC science by doing research experiments.
The first two factors are just common, but do you know ad relevancy?
Here is the answer:
Either your website/blog is displaying ads related to your niche or not…!
If you have a niche website with good CPC as per information from google keyword planner, but still not getting that average value of your keywords!
Then, it might be possible that the ads showing on your blog are not relevant to your selected niche.
Now the question is why is it happening?
Actually, Google is improving its algorithms to provide its users with the best relevant ads as per our interests. Google is watching our daily searches very closely and keeping a track of our search interests.
I can remember once I searched for hosting prices and I kept on viewing related ads even when I was on websites totally different from that niche.
I hope you have an idea and can start experimenting to find why your blog’s CPC is low.
Keep on learning and share if you can discover more interesting info about CPC variations.

#4 Google Ad-words Competition

If you are aware of the google keyword planner tool, you might have seen a column named competition in it.
If you don’t know, we’ll see it in the keyword research tools section of this guide.
That competition is the advertiser’s competition. It doesn’t show value but three levels:
High……Medium……Low
Some new guys think that it is a keyword ranking competition. Well, it has nothing to do with ranking.
But if we are looking forward to evaluating a keyword, this competition means a lot.
A keyword with a “High” level of advertiser’s competition means that a number of advertisers want their paid ads to be shown when someone searches for that keyword.
Usually buy now keywords have high value for this competition.
These keywords also have a high tendency to convert. By convert, here I mean from a page view to click on the ad shown on the website.
Adword’s advertiser competition is another important factor that can increase your site’s CPC.
You can also have an idea of the value of a keyword by searching it on google and look at how many ad results are appearing.
Just like in the pic given below:

If your keyword is showing a high number of ad results, congratulations it’s actually a high-value keyword.

#5  Google Keyword Trends

Have you seen “Trends” somewhere in your Gmail account?
Don’t worry it’s not hard to find.
The thing here to mention is that we need to view the trend of a keyword to know its value.
By viewing the trend, you can have an idea of the past performance of a keyword.
Just look at this pic:

If google trend shows a smooth and non-dropping graph for your keyword, means that this keyword is not gonna die soon and will bring traffic to your site.
Further, we’ll look at a few more great points in the tools section of this guide.
Up till now, let me know if you have an awesome idea about any other factor which will add value to your keyword research.
I am looking forward to moving on to the next section.
But before that make sure you have grabbed strong concepts to analyze the value of your keywords. And if not properly, we can still discuss it in the comments section.

Keyword Competition and Potential

While doing keyword research you might have come across terms like “Keyword Competition” and “Keyword Difficulty”.
These terms are to describe how much effort is required to rank these keywords.
Once we have found a bunch of high-value keywords perfect for our business, it’s time to know either we should work on these or should move on to a whole new topic.
“Analyze the keyword ranking difficulty”
There are a number of tools available that will show you keyword difficulty or competition in the form of a number from range 1 to 100.
For example, let’s say KC (keyword competition) or KD (keyword difficulty) of a keyword is 32. This means it’s easy to rank as compared to another one with a higher value.
But I’d always suggest analyzing keyword difficulty manually. Don’t dive into the tools in your very first shot.
“You have to understand the manual evaluation of a keyword completely before using any tool.”
Now the question is how to do that?
Before answering this one let’s read some key points about difficulty depending on the information we already have.

  • Head keywords are super competitive, don’t try without a plan and a certain level of experience to beat
  • #1 position on google? must think about top 10’s efforts to reach that point
  • Your brain is the best tool to start with while analyzing the difficulty
  • For a very high competition, it’s about creating the best ever resource available on the internet.

Now let’s start:

1. User’s Intent Evaluation for Top Results

When it’s about a manual analysis of a keyword’s difficulty, the most important thing is:
Search your keyword and analyze, if the top results are giving a satisfactory answer to your search query?
If they are providing valuable information, then we need to check other SEO factors. Otherwise, if they are not telling anything related to what the user wants to know; we can consider this rank-able.
If top 10s have Low-Quality Content, which means poor grammar and complex sentence structure (not easily understandable), it’s a win for us.
Here I would like to tell you a very interesting thing about your chance to find a low competition keyword.
“Google still says that it doesn’t have satisfactory answers to about 30% of the total search queries.”
Now just do a little bit of google research to check how many search queries are being made monthly or daily and then check how many people from the world know SEO.
You’ll surely be motivated to continue.

2. Major On-Page Weak Points:

When we talk about major on-page SEO factors in general, it means to check the presence of the main keyword in URL, TITLE, HEADING, and Description.
If top 10s are lagging all these things, it’s a good sign for us.
We must check the website’s content presentation and user experience. View the sites to check if you are finding these irritated and boring with poor loading speed.
Check the content length to be short like less than 500 words even.
Boom Low competition spotted…!
After checking what visually and informatively is weak, is our target keyword.
But wait we have a few other factors as well which we’ll use some tools and then you can surely say that you got a wonderful keyword.
Do you know the Page Authority and Domain Authority?

3. Page Authority and Domain Authority:

Install MOZ bar extension in your browser, make a free MOZ community account, enable the extension, and log in to your MOZ account.
After that search a keyword in google and you’ll see the results something like this:

Moz-Toolbar
These black bars under each result, are showing DA, PA, and no of the link of these results.
The lower the value of these, the lower will be the keyword competition.
Look to find results with values of DA and PA less than 15 or maybe 10, on the first page after searching your keywords.
Congratulations these are very low competition keywords.
Up next is to check the link profile.

4. Link Profile and Referring Domains

This is where you’ll be in need to use tools. MOZ bar can tell you how many backlinks do the pages have but can’t show the quality of these links in the free version.
Also, check how many domains are referring to each result on the first page of Google or any other search engine.
We’ll discuss these parameters further in the tools section. For now, just remember that we are looking for keywords with the low value of these parameters when searched on google.
“A very low competition keyword means, winning all the above cases.”
You must learn more about keyword difficulty; I mean some in-depth knowledge with the passage of time. That will increase your confidence. I don’t know why it always attracts me for newbies:

I use to say that, along with your intentions to find low competition and high-value keywords.
Don’t ever delete high competition body keywords (2 to 3 words). Learn well, target these comparatively high competition keywords, must take over the on-page SEO, plan some internal links, track keyword performance, take user feedback about your content quality and work as an expert no matters slow.
In that way, once you’ve worked on a high target, your less difficult work will look like nothing to you, within a matter of weeks.

5. Keyword Potential

Now let’s talk about the keyword potential. If you can recall keyword value parameters, you may get an idea about keyword potential.
If you can recall keyword value parameters, you may get an idea about keyword potential.
Yes! In fact, that decision to choose high-value keywords. But I’d like to add a little more info..!
To know keyword potential is to find out how important and valuable it is to work on a keyword.
I’ll not talk in numbers but in general.  A very interesting parameter which I almost didn’t mention separately is the commercial intent of a keyword.
Trust me it’s more important than the search volume of any keyword. And newbies never care about that. Another big reason for Low CPC if you are a publisher.
Yes! If you are planning to earn from Google Adsense or any other ads company, you are going to be a publisher.
Getting back to commercial intent, just intend to look for a keyword with the type “buy now or product”, high advertiser competition, suggested bid, and healthy google trends.
Separate these keywords for your special treat.
Here is what you can do to make sure that the one you have separated from your general list of keywords:

  • Look for high suggested bid and advertiser competition in Google AdWords keyword planner
  • Search that keyword in Google to see how many ad results are appearing, the more number of ads the more value it has

I hope you guys have a much better clue now for which keywords to select and on what basis. Let’s move on to look into a few tools which are extremely helpful.
Let’s move on to look into a few tools which are extremely helpful.

Using Tools For Keyword Research

Once you know what you are looking for in reality, it will be easy to find out how to do that.
And correct tools will speed up the process and make it easy for you. So before discussing a number of very important software tools for keyword research one by one, be intimated what are you going to get from this guide.
In the end, by using a mixture of a number of cool tools we’ll be having our hands on our ultimate requirement.

Yes! High Value, Low Competition Keywords and another most important thing!

I am not gonna tell you how to open and then log in and then open the next window named…. Bla Bla Bla
But the more important thing which you need to tie with you.
And, that is:
What will you get from which tool and how?
Should I mention the first one now?
Wait! Just a few key points to go:
Remember!

  • Keyword research tools will give you keywords along with their value parameters.
  • Some of the tools can have parameters that others may haven’t.
  • Parameter values are not hardcore realities and should be considered as estimates to get an idea.
  • Must understand the definition of a parameter, about which you don’t have an idea.

I hope you already know the seed keyword. If not, in general, “search engine optimization” or “SEO” can be your seed keyword, a case your niche is SEO.
You will be required to insert your seed keyword in tools to get a list of relevant keywords
Now you are ready I think.

#1 Google Adwords Keyword Planner

You need to set up Google Adwords Account to get access to Google’s personal keyword planner tool.
For now, I am assuming that you know the keyword parameters of this tool and how to use this tool to get the list of relevant keywords. If you don’t have any idea! Give a quick look at this guide.
It might be the very first tool crossing your way when you’ll be starting a keyword research campaign. And almost every search engine optimizer uses this.
So, there are many chances of a good number of competitors working on the same, if you have found a keyword using only this tool.
So what to do now?

  • Do multiple tries and combinations
  • Use google suggestions and related searches to find more keywords

For better concepts:


I often say to everyone:

Step out of Google Keyword Planner

But at the same time, it is also a must use the tool. It usually gives directly related keywords.
Should we move to the next one?
Wait:
PS: By the way whenever I say “wait” like this, trust me I use to mention something worth waiting for even when you are reading that comprehensive article.
This tool shows search volume. But these days it isn’t showing exact values but generally ranges in case you are not running any paid AdWords campaign.
So what to do now?
Here is the answer:

Google Keyword Planner Alternative

  • Get A list of keywords from google keyword planner
  • Install Keyword Everywhere extension in your browser
  • Click on the extension button and then click on “bulk upload keywords” like this:

Keywords-Everywhere
Copy and paste your list of keywords in the next window:
Bulk-Keywords
Then click on “Get Search Volume and CPC”

Keywords-Result

#2 Google Itself

Sure I am not kidding…!
It is something like:
If you are a newbie you may miss to find out that Google and other search engines are also keyword research tools.
And:

Google is the best and most important keyword research tool.

What we can directly get from this tool is:

  • Search Suggestions.
  • Related Searches.
  • Results view for manual keyword difficulty analysis
  • User’s intentions

Learn to use advanced search methods of google

I mean let’s say if you want to find specific things related to your niche, you have to learn how to use the google search bar a little more than a normal user.
For example, we shall be in need to find discussion forums for a little deeper step of keyword research in which we shall look for exact user queries.
Type in the google search bar and see what you get

  • “your keyword” + “forums”
  • “your keyword” + “boards”
  • “your keyword” + “powered by VBulletin”

After that, explore the results to find out more.
Google Trends is an awesome part of this search engine. It gives you information about how much interest user has in your topic.
And there is a lot more about search engines which can be helpful when we want to go deep in our research work. For now, we are just focusing on understanding how can it be started.
Let’s move on to our next tool.

#3 MOZ Keyword Analyzer

SEOs have trust in this tool for keyword analysis…!
It gives:

  • Search volume
  • Cost per click
  • Keyword difficulty
  • Keyword opportunity
  • Keyword potential
  • Related keywords

Keyword opportunity and keyword potential are cool things that I like very much about this tool.
Opportunity is related to the click-through rate of your particular keyword. This means if you are in the top 10 results, it measures how many chances are there for the user to click on your result.
The potential in this tool takes into account competition (keyword difficulty here) and opportunity and overall tells you either you should work on this keyword or not!
And of course! A bigger value of these parameters means you should grab that.

#4 SEMrush

It is the favorite one of SEOs.
What’s the cool thing about this one!

It shows ranked keywords of any website

And I hope no one minds checking the keywords of their competitors. Pretty cool info, as these will be keywords you may not get your hands on, by any other means.
Further, you can also start research by using a seed keyword.
It will generate long-tail keywords that include your searched keyword.

#5 Ubersuggest and Keywordtool (.io)

When you search for something on Google, it gives you related suggestions when you are typing in the search bar.
These are googling suggestions, and it gives four at a time.
Ubersuggest and Keyword Tool extract these for you to fill up your list of keywords.
You can easily copy data from this tool and check keyword value parameters with other tools like google keyword planner and MOZ etc.

#6 Keyword Shitter

Well insert your seed keyword in here and get a lot of long-tail keywords.
A lot of other tools are also available. I hope you won’t mind reading this one from Brian Dean.
Any questions up till now? Must comment on your favorite tools and why these are your favorite.
Moving to the next section, the most important if you have understood the above-mentioned sections.
Yes, the next section is most important and I couldn’t actually mention it at the start because its place is right now.
For best understanding, I have to take care of the proper placement of sections within a guide.

How To Do Keyword Research?

In here, I’ll tell you a little more about “what you have to do” instead of “how to do it.” I’d expect you to figure out your own way to do keyword research.
Just remember:

Keyword research is very closely linked to content development.

The best thing is to let the content creator do this task.
A story doesn’t end when you have found your target keywords (ones with high value and low competition).
The next thing is actually very very important.
Here is what you need to do for every single target keyword of your SEO campaign:

  • Figure out the user’s basic intentions for the searched term.
  • Find the exact user’s queries.
  • Collect LSI.
  • Develop a content structure.
  • Repeat for all target keywords.

To achieve the desired, let’s walk through the necessary steps I personally use. But before that, keep your focus on a single topic. Something we call macro niche SEO.

#1 Make Your List

The very first step is to make a list of keywords along with value parameters (Search volume, CPC, Difficulty/Competition, potential and commercial intent, etc.)
Let’s say you are thinking to work on niche “SEO”.
Use it as your seed keyword, place that in different tools and make a huge list may be.
Do I still need to tell you how to do that! I am sure you can do it.
Don’t forget to use multiple tools (to get search suggestions) as you’ll get different keyword ideas from different tools.
I am assuming that you have made your list containing a lot of long-tail keywords by intelligently utilizing research tools.
So, why shouldn’t I move to the next step?

#2 Filter Your Keywords

It is a manual type of work. You have to look at the list to achieve your ultimate targets.
Firstly, remove the duplicate entries from your list. Then remove irrelevant keywords (there can be a lot of these).
Now as we are beginners, we need to separate high competition keywords (remember don’t delete these).
SEOs recommend keyword competition/difficulty less than 35 for beginners.
In your niche you’ll surely find something useful, otherwise, you have to work a little hard to do deep keywords analysis. Stay tuned to BlogRex for the update on this topic.

#3 Categorization and Content Planning

This step is very clearly stating what to do.
Let’s work on our example of “SEO.”
I’ll categorize my filtered list by separating keywords as:

  • Keywords related to Keyword Research
  • Keywords related to On-Page SEO
  • Keywords related to Off-Page SEO

These are the major categories of SEO, while we can also go deep like “keywords related to content development” and “keywords related to link building”.
Categorize the keywords as per your content planning.
Your niche may have more categories and then you can separate content topics etc.
After categorization, highlight your target keywords (with good value) in each category. Like my target keyword for this post is “Keyword Research.”
Is it done yet!
Let’s roll:

#4 Related Searches, LSI and User Intent

Now it’s time to work on each targeted keyword one by one.
And, here is what to do:

  • Pick up a keyword
  • Type in google search
  • Note down “searches related to” at the bottom of results. These are LSI.
  • Note down “People also ask”

Look at this for example:
Related-Keywords
Open the top ten results to have a clear sense of the user’s intention.
Brainstorm to discover something missing by the top ten results. Which you can add to your web page.
Think of a better presentation way compared to the top 10 results.
Move to the next point.

#5 Q & A and Discussion Forums

Explore the discussion forums and Question Answer sites like Quora and Yahoo Answers etc.
Type in your target keyword or related queries in your mind and search the topics.
You’ll find exact questions for which your user wants answers.
Sometimes that exact question can be a very good keyword itself. So you can try checking its search volume and other ranking factors.
Must answer these queries in your content.
You can try BoardReader.com to find forums related to your niche. Use social media communities to find out the needs of people related to your topic. And Congratulations! You are done.
BoardReader.com Repeat the process for every target keyword and start developing content and then BOOM.


Bonus

That’s where these 5 strategies by Brian Dean come into play. Here’s how they work:
1. Online Forums: Forums are a little old school, but there are popular forums in pretty much every niche. And they’re a watering hole where your target audience asks questions (which are usually things people also type into Google). If you notice a thread coming up over and over again, it’s likely a keyword that people type into Google and YouTube.
2. Wikipedia: Thousands of hand-curated topics. Each category in a Wikipedia entry is a potential keyword. Most internal links that point to other Wikipedia entries are also potential niche-relevant keyword ideas.
3. “Searches related to…”: Just scroll to the bottom of Google’s search results and see what keywords they suggest. This is an absolute gold mine.
4. Amazon.com: Book titles and table of contents are both awesome keyword research opportunities.
5. Quora.com: Kind of a modern-day Q&A website. Perfect for generating new ideas for keyword research.

Your Way Forward and Wrapping it Up

This time way forward is very clear in the above section. So I’ll wrap it up with a few discussion points for you guys!

  • Do you think it is useful for beginners?
  • Want BlogRex to add something specific in this post to make it more useful?
  • How are you doing keyword research?
  • Should I make a case study?
  • Do you think all the queries, I mentioned in the beginning, have been answered?

Hope you enjoyed your time with BlogRex. Must share your feedback in the comments and share this with your friends.

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