Keyword Research Guide

Keyword Research

Many people think that obtaining backlinks to your website is the single most important thing you can do. I don’t believe this is true. Getting the right keywords for your business is THE most important thing you can do for your website and ultimately your business. Keywords are the foundation of SEO success in every sense of the word and this includes On-page Optimisation, Social Marketing, Pay Per Click, Link Building … everything. All of these SEO processes use your keywords. If you are using the wrong ones, you are wasting your time.

Research your Business and Services/Products

Before you know what to look for, you have to know what you are looking for. If you haven´t already, you need to research your business and the services or products you offer. If you are the owner of your business then this should be pretty easy. Make sure you know everything about your business and what you do. What the business is good at and what are its strengths. You have to be clear about the Message your website is saying, its Unique Value Position, geographic scope, potential customers and its Goals. Only by knowing what you´re looking for will you be able to find it in your keyword research.

Brainstorm for Keywords – Colleagues, Customers, Strangers

Come up with as many keywords as you can in as many ways as you can. Take a page in your notebook or spreadsheet and start writing down keywords you think are related to your business. Don´t be shy and don´t worry about getting it right, just write down everything. Ask your employees to do the same, your family, kids, even strangers on the street. We all think we know what is best for our business, myself included, but we’re wrong. We have to be flexible and listen to others. If your business is going to succeed, it is the ‘others’ who will become your customers!

Research Competitors

Believe me, you’ll have plenty. Type in some of the keywords into a search engine you hope to be found for and just look at them all. They all want to beat you to that number 1 position believe me, but you have one advantage over them. You are finding the absolute best keywords for your website, which I can guarantee many of your competition, have not. Look at your competitors, their websites, how their Titles are constructed, the Headings they use, what the content says. These should tell you the keywords they are optimising for. Compare them to yours. Are their keywords ordered differently? Remember, choose keywords that searchers are likely to type in to search engines and remember the order of your keywords make a difference. Searchers are typically lazy and don’t want to type in long words and ones that are difficult to spell.

Thesaurus Guide

Check out a thesaurus for different ways of saying the same thing. It may well throw up some surprising words that are just perfect for your website. Your may want to check out the Visual Thesaurus. This will probably hold your interest slightly longer than thumbing the Thesaurus book at home. Don’t get bored and think it is not important. It is important and if done right, you only have to do keyword research once. You don´t want to have to do this Keyword Research Guide all over again do you? Just visialise that image of your competition on those SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and how you too can be there, above them all!

Refine your Keywords

From all the keywords you have collected, split them into single keywords, double keywords and 3-keyword phrases. All of your double keywords should contain one of your single keywords and the same for the 3-keyword phrases. Use a spreadsheet and align them under one another so that they naturally flow. The idea is to get 5-10, and no more than a dozen single keywords with which to use on your favourite keyword research tool.

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Wordtracker Keyword Tool

Next thing you need to do is to find out if any of these phrases are actually searched on, and also how many people are searching for them. Wordtracker is one such keyword research tool I have used in the past and recommend. You can find out all about how to use Wordtracker from my Wordtracker Keyword Tool guide.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Google Adwords offer their own research tool which many Search Engine Optimisers use. To use their tool you have to open a Google Adwords account which at present costs £10. Well worth the money and you can find out all about it from my Google Adwords Keyword Tool Tutorial.

Master Keyword Report

If you have been following this Keyword Research Guide and not simply jumped here through curiosity, then you should now have on your computer many Keyword Reports for all your single keywords and double-keyword phrases.

The next thing is to produce a Master Keyword Report that details all the keyword phrases you think are related to your business, but this time in a format that is actually useful. Whether you have performed your keyword research using Wordtracker or Google Adwords, your lists of keywords are not in a useful format.

What I do is create a spreadsheet tab for each single keyword researched and on that spreadsheet I list each keyword phrase by copying and pasting each in turn from my Keyword Lists and ordering them in the following format:

Keywords (Global Monthly Searches)
SEO (5,000,000)
SEO Keywords (60,000)
SEO Keyword Research (26,000)
SEO Keyword Research Tools (9,000)
SEO Expert (32,000)
SEO Expert London (12,000)
Professional SEO Expert (5,000)

This allows me to see at a glance how competitive my phrases are. As the phrases get longer, the number of searches on the Internet gets progressively less, as would be expected. I group similar keywords together, including plurals. This for me is now a useful format. As you work through your keyword list, remove redundant phrases as you find them.

Do this for each single keyword in your research lists. This is not for the faint hearted because it will feel like it is going to take forever. But, take regular breaks, don’t give up and eventually you will end up with a great looking Master Keyword Report and within that report are some fantastic keyword phrases for your business.

SEO Expert Tip

Don’t underestimate the power of Keyword Research. Take a few days from your busy schedule and follow this Keyword Research Guide. Do it once, do it right and don’t look back.