Keyword Research for Beginners: The Basics

In recent weeks, more and more brick-and-mortar business owners have seen the necessity of moving at least a portion of operations online. In the new "normal" of COVID-19, now and tomorrow, these same business owners see the online world as both an opportunity and an incredible challenge. 

Where to begin? How do you compete? SEO Sparta has a series of posts outlining the steps to building a fully-optimized website, including Website Design, Website Development, Content Creation, and Conversions. 

However, perhaps the most simple way to begin thinking about moving online is keyword research. By researching your market's successful keywords, you can learn how to brand your business and how to compete against the current top ranking sites. Successful keyword research can also give you valuable insights into your potential customers.

Also, at SEO Sparta, we've found that for our SEO clients no activity offers a higher ROI than keyword research. For a new online business, in fact, keyword research is the most important part of an online marketing campaign.

More to the point, ranking for the right keyword often means the difference between success and failure. You want to attract traffic to your site; far more important than traffic, however, is conversions--when a visitor performs an action on your site, like buying your product, sharing your content, or signing up for your newsletter.

As the popular SEO website, Moz, says in its helpful guide to keyword research, "It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors"--in other words, conversions.

So how do you attract the right type of visitor? 

Start With a "Working Keyword"

Most online keyword research guides urge webmasters to begin with a keyword research tool. Before you use any of the available tools, however, clarify your business offering in a general sense. 

Just don't be too general. Do you sell watches? Well, "watches" will likely not be the most effective keyword for your site. Instead, identify the keywords you believe to be most relevant to your unique site's content. Perhaps you're a Philadelphia-area purveyor of Swiss watches. You might begin with the working keyword "Philadelphia Swiss Watches."

Google the Competition

Once you have identified your "working keyword," Google the word or phrase. This is the best way to quickly and easily identify your core competition. Browse your competitor's sites. Try to identify why and how they rank for your working keyword; just as important, take note of any other potentially useful product descriptions that might inform your own keyword research.

Find a Suitable Keyword Research Tool 

You have a working knowledge of your own keywords and your competition's keywords. Now you can use a keyword research tool.

You will find many available tools online--most will ask you to begin with a working keyword; many work on a similar premise to Google AdWord's Keyword Planner:

"You can search for keyword and ad group ideas, get historical statistics, see how a list of keywords might perform, and even create a new keyword list by multiplying several lists of keywords together."

Other good keyword research tools include Moz's Keyword Explorer and WordStream's Free Keyword Tool.

The purpose of these tools is simple. As WordStream writes in its guide to finding "niche keywords," a good keyword research tool "will help you identify a wide range of potential keyword opportunities including less obvious terms that could potentially drive traffic and sales."

Pay close attention: the "less obvious" keywords could be the perfect avenue for a new site to rank quickly. Most likely the most effective keywords for your site, especially a local site, will be long-tail keywords that incorporate locations.

Refine Your Keyword List 

The research tools will give you many options. Your next task is to refine your list. The tools should give you the ability to refine as well. Your goal, to begin, is to find a minimum of 10 keywords that speak most precisely to your offering.

Google the Competition Part II

Again, many keyword research tools will enable you to select keywords based on relevance and competition. However, as before, you can Google each keyword and research the competition on your own.

Writtent has a nifty DIY formula for analyzing the relative competitiveness of any keyword.  In general, however, the advice of Backlinko is quite sound:

"If you see a page littered with authoritative, big brand results, you might be better off moving to the next keyword on your list. But if you take the time to evaluate keyword competition, you can usually find keywords that get great search volume AND have little to no competition."

Some business owners might want to try to rank for the most competitive keywords. However, using a mix of highly competitive and moderately competitive keywords is often the best option.

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Once you have selected a sound list of keywords, you must create relevant, engaging content based on the keywords. For help writing the best content, learn "How to Create Shareable Content."

And remember: Keyword research is an on-going process. You might refine or change your strategy depending on your initial results. As WordStream writes:

"It's important to remember that just because a keyword tool returns a keyword doesn't mean you'll be able to rank for it, or that the traffic it sends from search engines will end up converting. Make continual keyword management a priority and be vigilant about analyzing and acting on keyword research to improve your results."

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Content Marketing with SEO Sparta

If you're looking for an SEO company that understands how to effectively promote websites with carefully researched keywords, contact SEO Sparta.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--with an emphasis on natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective content marketing campaigns.

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If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

Contact us