How To Do SEO Keyword Research: 10 Easy Steps For Beginners!

Ever feel like your content isn’t getting the attention it deserves? The secret could lie in your keyword research.

Imagine you know exactly what your audience is searching for. You can create content that answers their questions or solves their problems.

That’s the power of keyword research, which is the backbone of every successful SEO strategy. It helps you uncover your audiences’ search terms.

If you’re wondering how to do SEO keyword research, don’t worry. You’re not alone, most SEO beginners feel the same. Whether you’re new to SEO or looking to sharpen your SEO skills, you’re in the right place.

In this blog, I’ll share the step-by-step guide to conducting SEO keyword research like a PRO! By the end, you’ll find the perfect keywords to boost your rankings and connect with your audience. Let’s dive in!

What Is Keyword Research in SEO?

Nowadays, everyone uses search engines (like Google) to look for information, products, or services through several phrases. These search queries or terms are called keywords.

SEO Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing what terms or phrases (keywords) your audience uses in the search engines. For example, someone interested in digital marketing might search for “What is White Hat SEO“

Key Metrics of Keyword Research

• Search Intent: The reason behind a search query, such as informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial.

• Relevance: How closely a keyword aligns with your content and audience.

• Search Volume (SV): How many people search for a particular keyword within a specific time frame.

• Keyword Difficulty (KD): How hard it is to rank for a keyword based on competition.Cost-Per-Click (CPC): The average cost advertisers pay per click for a keyword in paid search campaigns, indicating its value.

Why Keyword Research Is Important for SEO

• Improves Website Visibility: Keyword research helps identify the search terms your target audience uses. So, you can target the right keywords and optimize your content for those terms accordingly. It helps you to rank higher in SERPs and increase your website visibility.

• Aligns Content with Search Intent: Understanding search intent helps you create content for audiences that improves user satisfaction and engagement.

• Drives Targeted Traffic: Keyword research ensures you attract users actively searching for your products, services, or content. Therefore, you can drive more targeted traffic organically.

• Helps Beat Competitors: Analyzing keyword competitions helps to find competitors’ gaps. It allows you to utilize opportunities for your site to outrank your competitors.

• Enhances Local SEO: Local keyword research is crucial for local SEO and business growth. It helps you reach your targeted local audiences from specific areas and boost your leads, conversions, and business growth.

In short, the main purpose of SEO keyword research is to connect your content with the right audience.

How To Do Keyword Research For SEO: Step-By-Step Guide

Remember, Keyword research isn’t just about finding keywords: it’s about understanding your audience’s needs and providing real value. So, let’s start with it!

1. Understand Your Audiences

The success of keyword research depends on how well you understand your audience. If you don’t know your targeted audience search terms, getting your expected results is impossible, even using the most advanced SEO tools. So, you must know your audience. 

Ask yourself and analyze the answers;

• Who are my customers or readers?

• What are their demographics (age, location, gender, etc.)?

• What are their interests, challenges, and goals?

• Find and analyze their pain points

• In-depth niche research

You should include all your findings and create a buyer or audience persona. After that, you can start finding keywords based on your targeted audiences.

2. Brainstorm Your Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the foundation of a successful keyword research process. What are Seed Keywords? They are short and broad phrases directly related to your niche, product, or service. 

In other words, seed keywords act as a launchpad to generate a broader list of long-tail keywords, related terms, and search phrases. Now, let’s explore more,

First of all, you must think about your business or website:

• What products, services, or information do you provide?

• What topics are most relevant to your audience?

• What problems does your business solve?

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. You should think about the terms they would search for. Your competitors are also an excellent source. Thus, you must analyze the content they rank for and extract potential seed keywords. 

For example, one of your competitors targets small business owners to sell White Hat SEO Services. He may use “Affordable SEO Services for Small Businesses” or “White Hat SEO Services for Small Businesses“

However, Seed keywords should be broad, as they’ll generate related terms and variations in the next stages of keyword research. 

So, you should avoid targeting long-tail keywords at this stage. You should also review your existing content to find common themes or terms if you already have a website or blog,

3. Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools are essential to find the best keywords. Several keyword research tools are available from free to premium. You should choose one based on your budget and requirements.

However, Google Keyword Planner (Free), Ahrefs (Freemium), SEMrush (Paid), and Ubersuggest (Freemium) are highly recommendable keyword research tools.

Now, start entering your seed keywords into the tool. These are broad terms or phrases related to your topic.  For example, If your blog is about White Hat SEO, you might input:

• “White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO“

• “Top White Hat SEO Techniques“

4. Analyze Keyword Metrics

Analyzing keyword metrics is a critical step in the SEO keyword research process. The metrics provide valuable insights into how a keyword performs and its potential to drive traffic. Let’s explore the essential metrics to evaluate and use effectively in your SEO strategy.

• Search Volume

High search volume indicates popular keywords and low volume suggests niche terms. So, you should target moderate-volume keywords for better-ranking potential. You can also combine high-volume keywords with long-tail keywords to capture diverse traffic.

For example, “How to do SEO keyword research,” check if it’s frequently searched to gauge interest.

Keyword Difficulty (KD)

High KD keywords are competitive and require significant resources. Therefore, you should focus on low to medium-difficulty keywords. However, you can reserve high-difficulty keywords when you’ve built strong domain authority.

For example, “What is keyword research in SEO” may have a lower KD than “SEO keyword research,” making it easier to rank.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

High CPC indicates keywords with strong commercial intent. That’s why you should also focus on keywords with a balance of search volume and CPC for monetization potential. CPC can also highlight keywords worth targeting if you’re not running ads.

For example, a high CPC for “how to learn SEO keyword research” suggests users searching for it may be ready to invest in a course or tool.

Trends

Seasonal trends or emerging topics can reveal opportunities. You can use Google Trends to identify if a keyword’s popularity is increasing, stable, or declining. However, you should target keywords with consistent or upward trends.

For example, “How to do SEO keyword research” may spike at the start of the year when businesses plan their strategies.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

High CTR means the keyword generates engagement and low CTR may signal SERP features capturing attention. So, you must optimize content for keywords with high CTR potential and craft compelling meta titles and descriptions. You can also target keywords where organic listings dominate the SERP.

SERP Features

Keywords with heavy SERP features may reduce organic traffic potential. Therefore, you must analyze whether you can rank for a SERP feature like a snippet. However, you should avoid targeting keywords with too many SERP distractions unless you can dominate those features.

For example, “What is the purpose of keyword research in SEO” might have a featured snippet opportunity.

Now, you should choose a mix of high-volume, low-difficulty, and intent-matching keywords and create a balanced list. You should also prioritize long-tail keywords and look for keywords your competitors rank for, but you don’t.

Finally, analyze keyword metrics carefully to find realistic and valuable keywords for your website. It’ll help you build an effective keyword strategy and achieve higher rankings and targeted traffic.

5. Understand Search Intent

Search intent or user intent is the reason behind a user’s search query. It’s the purpose of their search, whether they’re looking for information, exploring options, or ready to make a purchase. 

That’s why understanding search intent is crucial for effective keyword research. Because it ensures your content matches what users need and improves engagement, click-through rates, and rankings. There are four types of search intent:

• Informational Intent: Users seek knowledge or answers to questions, such as, “What is keyword research?”

• Navigational Intent: Users are trying to find a specific website, brand, or page, such as “Google Keyword Planner login.”

• Transactional Intent: Users are ready to take action, such as purchasing or signing up. For example, “Buy keyword research tool.”

• Commercial Intent: Users research options before making a purchase decision. For example, “best keyword research tools.”

To identify search intent, I prefer to search the keyword on Google and analyze the type of content already ranking for the keyword. 

However, you should focus on intent-driven keywords like “Why is keyword research important for SEO” for blog posts or “Best keyword research tools” for product pages. You should also write content that directly addresses the search intent. 

For example, you’re targeting the informational keyword “How to do SEO keyword research.” Therefore, you need to write a detailed guide covering each step rather than just defining the term, include FAQs for common doubts, and add visuals to simplify complex steps.

When you understand and prioritize search intent in your keyword research, you’ll create optimized content for search engines and your audiences.

6. Find Related Keywords

Once you’ve understood the search intent, the next step is to find related keywords. It helps you to expand your reach, diversify your content, and attract a broader audience. 

Related keywords also improve rankings naturally using variations of your primary keyword. But how to find them? Let’s explore the effective methods.

• Search your primary keyword on Google and note suggestions. 

• Scroll to the bottom of the SERP to see related terms.

• Analyze top-ranking pages for your seed keyword and look for repeated terms and phrases in their content.

• Use keyword research tools to discover related terms with useful metrics.

• Check Google’s “People Also Ask” questions. It’s a goldmine for related queries.

• Use Social Media and forum Platforms like Reddit, Quora, and niche Facebook groups. 

Now, you must review and analyze the data to find related terms and phrases of your seed keyword. For example, your primary keyword is “How to do SEO keyword research.” 

The related keywords should be “How to SEO keyword research for free” “What is keyword research in SEO” and “Best tools for keyword research”

7. Group Keywords into Clusters

Now, it’s time for keyword clustering. You must analyze your keyword list based on similar search intent and identify overlapping search terms. For example, if your primary keyword is “How to do SEO keyword research,” related keywords might include:

• “How to conduct keyword research for SEO”

• “How to keyword research for SEO”

• “keyword research techniques for beginners”

All these keywords share the same intent: teaching users how to perform keyword research for SEO. Thus, you should group them into a single cluster. You can also use keyword clustering tools to group keywords based on relevance and intent automatically.

However, organize your keywords into meaningful groups to improve content focus and relevance. As a result, the content covers multiple related search queries and satisfies users, improving your SEO performance. 

8. Prioritize Keywords

After keyword clustering, you should consider a few crucial factors to prioritize cluster keywords and select the primary keyword. First of all, you must analyze the keyword metrics. Such as:

• Search Volume (SV): Choose high search volume keywords that attract more visitors. 

• Keyword Difficulty (KD): Target lower-difficulty keywords for quicker results, especially if you’re starting.

• Cost Per Click (CPC): Keywords with higher CPC may indicate strong commercial intent and are useful for monetized content.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Consider keywords that generate higher CTR in SERPs.

For example, if “How to do SEO keyword research” has a lower search volume and medium difficulty, you should prioritize it over a medium search volume and high difficulty term like “SEO keyword research basics.”

Besides, you should prioritize keywords closely aligned with your audiences and business goals. You should also focus on high-intent keywords and consider current trends and seasonality. So, you can allocate the search terms that will impact your SEO goals.

9. Content Optimization

You’ve identified and listed your focus keywords. Now, it’s time to optimize your content to rank for them effectively. So, you should start placing keywords strategically and ensuring your target keywords appear naturally in:

• Title Tags: Add the primary keyword at the beginning for better CTR and keep in 50 to 60 characters (max.)

• Meta Descriptions: Create a compelling description with your keyword to encourage audiences. (Recommended length 155 to 160 characters)

• Headings (H1, H2, etc.): Include keywords in your headings naturally.

• First 100 Words: Mention your primary keyword early in the content.

• Image Alt Text: Use keywords to describe images for SEO and accessibility.

Besides, you should avoid keyword stuffing and create valuable and engaging content. That’s why you must focus on a few essential points to optimize your content perfectly.

• Write in a conversational tone that matches the audience’s reading level.

• Use short paragraphs and bullet points.to improve readability

• Optimize the content based on search intent

• Use internal and external Links

You must ensure each point to optimize your content and dominate in search engines.

10. Monitor and Refine Your Keyword Research Strategy

Keyword research isn’t a one-and-done task. You must continuously track performance with analytics tools. You can use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor how your keywords are performing in the SERPs.

If any targeted keyword isn’t ranking well, update the content improving keyword usage and content depth. You can also add new and related keywords to expand the scope. 

Besides, you should identify new search terms and competitor keywords that you haven’t covered yet. You can use advanced keyword research tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to easily collect the data. So, you can use it to refine your strategy and find gaps to exploit.

However, search engine algorithm updates can affect your rankings over the night. That’s why you must keep up with them and refine your keyword strategy accordingly.

Key Takeaways

• Keyword Research is Essential: It’s the most crucial part of SEO. Otherwise, it’s impossible to find the search terms of your targeted audiences.

• Understand Your Audience First: It helps you find targeted keywords that match their needs and intent.

• Seed Keywords Are Your Starting Point: Start with broad terms that define your niche, then expand to find more specific opportunities.

• Tools Make It Easier: Leverage keyword research tools to uncover search volume, difficulty, and trends like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush.

• Metrics Matter: Always evaluate search volume, keyword difficulty, and intent to pick keywords that balance potential traffic with achievable rankings.

• Search Intent is Key for SEO success: Align your content with users’ needs, whether it’s answers, purchases, or comparisons.

• Think in Clusters: Group related keywords together to create comprehensive content that covers a topic thoroughly and boosts your chances of ranking.

• Optimization is Continuous: Research is just the beginning. Optimize your content, track performance, and refine your strategy over time.

Ready to improve your SEO? Implement these tips and watch your rankings and traffic grow!

Frequently Asked Questions

Ending Thoughts

Keyword research is more than just a task; it’s the foundation of a successful White Hat SEO strategy. To ensure SERP ranking and drive organic traffic, you must learn how to do SEO keyword research. It is also essential to create content that meets your audience’s search intent.

Whether targeting high-traffic keywords or tapping into niche long-tail opportunities, the key is aligning with search intent and providing real value.

Start using these strategies today, and watch your content climb the rankings. 

Need an expert? Contact us to claim your Free SEO Audit and Consultation with a White Hat SEO Specialist. Also, feel free to share your queries in the comment section.

Ready to take control of your SEO success? It all starts with the right keywords!