The Complete Guide to Basic Keyword Research

People Buy and Research Using Keywords

According to Internet Live Stats, Google receives more than 70,000 searches per second. What do you use when you use Google?

Keywords or a word combination called keyphrases.

In doing so, Google will look for the most useful, relevant, and updated information regarding the topic.

Two kinds of keywords exist: one that shows intent to research, and another indicating an intent to buy.

Brands that relate themselves in both arenas enrich their marketing success potential online.

Keywords Are The Core of Any Marketing Strategy

Editors tell their writers to write about a particular topic. In doing so, they give writers some keywords to get ideas popping into their heads.

In the same vein, searchers use keywords to find articles and content they want to read. Content marketing strategies focus on circling content around keywords relevant to their business. In doing so, they gain viewership whenever someone uses those keywords.

True enough, keyword research sounds simple on paper. In reality, it requires great attention to detail, an understanding of keyword and brand relevance, and measuring for your goals. Know more about it below.

How to Start On Keyword Research

Understand Keyword Value to Your Brand

Let’s say you’re a cake-baking company specializing in animals cakes. Therefore, the word “animal cakes” is an extremely valuable keyword for your brand. Then again, so are “cake,” “baked cakes,” “bakeshops,” and other similar terms.

You can choose to target about 3-7 terms for your website pages and content. However, you cannot use all the 100 keywords relevant to your brand. Keyword value is important, and in this example, I would use “animal cakes” because that is my shop’s specialty. More on this later.

Competitive Insight

If you have no idea which keywords to use for your online marketing campaigns, you can refer to your competitors and the keywords they use on their content.

Many online marketing platforms provide a competitor keyword research tool (for a fee or limited use).

One of the most useful ones is Ahref’s tool that helps you find out your competitor’s best practices in using keywords and content in their campaigns. In this way, you can rank against the competition too.

Identifying Your Niche

Going back to the first step, “animal cakes” is a good keyword to use and I will choose it to target content. This is because I have a special niche.

Another example, as a basketball blog, I’m not going to target a general and all-encompassing “basketball.” Rather, I will use “basketball nutrition,” “basketball amateur nutrition,” and other variants because it gives me a specific topic to write about.

Niche is everything in a sea of information because it helps you stand out. Therefore, using “owl cakes” is definitely an excellent keyword to target.

The Buyer Persona

As a cake-baking store, our target is a general number of people. However, because we bake colorful animal cakes, our targets are mostly kiddie parties.

Therefore, our buyer persona focuses on parents who will want to celebrate their children’s first, fifth, or seventh birthday with a wonderful animal cake. Then, our content should be something parents can read, sympathize with, and use to their advantage. Our keywords should be “animal cakes for 5 year olds,” “animal cakes for kids,” “zebra cakes near me,” and more.

For example, we can focus on using keywords that teach them how to bake our cake. It sounds counter-intuitive. However, can you find a parent with enough time to try once and accomplish a great feat that is an animal cake? They’d rather have us do it for them.

True enough, this topic falls on the content strategy category. However, it pays to look at the way keyword research has an impact on content marketing and virtually every aspect of digital marketing.

Using Forums to Your Advantage

You’ll find yourself running out of content ideas and keywords to target. If all else fails, you’re free to join communities relevant to your niche. For example, I can join a baking forum to help people and lead them to my site for further information on certain topics.

True enough, you can advertise on forums. However, most shun promotional posts on threads. Instead, helpfulness and contribution is something forum members highly value. In this light, it’s similar to content marketing with a keyword focus except you’re doing it in real time.

Conclusion

Basic keyword research focuses on understanding the value of keywords and their role in content marketing, finding your buyers, understanding their intent, and using it to your digital marketing’s advantage.