The Ultimate Guide to SEO Keyword Research

In this guide, we'll walk you through how anyone can start generating qualified traffic through in-depth keyword research. By the end of these 5 steps you'll be able to create content targeted to your customers without being stuck for ideas or wasting hours on research. You'll also find a couple tools and secret techniques we've discovered to get your content marketing work done faster and better, at scale.

Step 1: Brainstorm a List of Topics

Start by thinking about the products or services you offer. Go deep into the questions or problems your ideal customers have and make a big list. Don't worry about getting the perfect topics at this point, we're just trying to get as many ideas out there at the start so the next steps can be that much easier.

A little trick we've found is to use the ChatGPT AI tool and ask it to write an entry in the perspective of a specific customer. By giving the AI a persona to work with, you'll have an easy way to go deep into your customers mind without hours and hours of research. You can even ask it to list a bunch of pain points or objections customers might have towards an product or service.

Step 2: Use Keyword Research Tools

Once you have a list of topics, it's time to make a list of potential keywords.

If you're struggling, give a go at a keyword research tool. There are a lot of choices to choose from (paid and free) like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs. All you've got to do is type in your list of topics into the tool. You should get tons of keywords that fit well for your business.

Now, pick the best ones that makes sense to you. Keywords with high search volume, and a low competition score. These are the opportunities we're going to take advantage of in the later steps.

Before trying any tools or anything else, we recommend mind-mapping. Write down a topic and mind-map as many words related as possible whether it makes sense or not. Since this is an unrestrictive method, you'll be able to get tons and tons of ideas within 5 minutes.

Step 3: Analyze Your Competitors

See what keywords your competitors are targeting and how they're using them in their content, you're looking for any gaps that you could take advantage of. This shouldn't take too long but it will aid in your content creation process so you have a more well-rounded plan going forward. Also, it'll give you a live example to analyse and figure out how to get started if you've never done this before.

Step 4: Group Your Keywords

Before we get stuck into creating content, group each of the keywords based on their intent. You might have keywords related to "how-to" topics or product reviews. This means we'll be able to cater your content to individual users, so when new visitors land onto your content, they'll be far more likely to stay engaged on your website.

Try this quick exercise to get you in the right frame of mind to get this done within minutes. Picture the blogs you'll make from your keywords as if they're YouTube videos. Then ask yourself, "what would YouTube recommend as the next videos?". That's exactly how you want your content to be grouped so users are enticed to stay engaged.

Step 5: Create Content and Optimize Your Website

Now you should have everything you need to create the content. Use the keywords naturally into headlines, subheadings, and body copy. But don't force them in. Go through your onsite optimisation using these keywords and make sure to check the meta descriptions, title tags, and alt tags.

These steps are all you need to start attracting qualified users to your website. If you need help with your SEO strategy or keyword research, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.