How Keyword Research Should Be Done In 2021

Keyword research has been the most initial but crucial part of the success of any SEO strategy. Same way if you are offering the best keyword research service then you must give heed to what’s coming in your way in 2021.

As you all know Google has released many updates in the past to enhance the users’ search experience.

Likewise, in the year 2020 3 core updates were released which focused on optimized, relevant and fresh content.

Now it is the responsibility of SEOs to be on their toes and propose an effective keyword research strategy to improve their service quality.

Moreover, if you want your page to rank # 1 on the search engine you must be good enough to target keywords that drive traffic and generate leads or sales.

Thus, to help you guys I am writing this blog which will serve as a complete guide about how to do keyword research effectively in 2021.

Furthermore, to improve the service quality I will also show you how to choose keywords for SEO in this blog.

So let’s start by interpreting the actual definition of keyword research.

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and choosing search terms that your target audience is searching for on the search engine.

Later on, you create content around those keywords that should match the searcher’s intent with a particular search term.

SEOs generally choose keywords based on some common metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty.

Now to offer high-quality SEO keyword research services you should not be doing the same thing as a keyword research agency.

I have proposed a keyword research strategy that will improve the keyword research service for small businesses.

6 Tips For Improving Keyword Research Services

Thus, here are some pro tips that I use while doing keyword research.

1. Choose keywords with a minimum search volume of 100 or more.
2. Keywords with a higher cost per click can generate business for you right away.
3. Use a keyword research tool like ahrefs to get an overview of the traffic that the top 4 pages are getting for that search term.
4. Using the same tool, review the URL or page rating for the top 4 pages.
5. After that, check the number of backlinks the top 4 pages have gained.
6. Analyze the content format, type and angle for the search term on SERPs.

• Content Format: Pricing page, service page or blog post.
• Content Type: For beginners, guide, tutorial or list post.
• Content Angle: Year, location.

Why Keyword Research Is Important?

Keyword research is important because it helps you in analyzing valuable insights into search terms. These search terms are searched by your target audience on various search engines.

Moreover, reviewing these insights will help you in defining your content strategy.

Therefore, you will be able to create content with your targeted keyword that will match the user’s intent. Hence, the page experience will improve and you will be ranked higher on the search engine.

More On The Best Keyword Research Service

Keyword research, as a whole, has changed drastically over the past decade. Unimportant keywords at that time have now been the most important to target for SEOs.

This has happened because the searcher’s behavior has evolved ultimately and now people are searching continuously until they get a solution for their problem.

In today’s time and even in 2021, keywords with content that solves the problem of the searcher will be more important than the exact match keywords.

Thus, to offer a better keyword research service you must understand the intent of the searcher for any particular keyword.

4 Steps Process For An Effective Keyword Research

I will now propose an effective keyword research process that will help you in listing search terms most relevant to your business.

Afterward, you will also get to know about the keyword strategy through which you will get found for these search terms on the search engine.

Ranking on these keywords will help you in meeting your goal which is to generate sales or leads.

Step 1: List down the most important and business-related topics

In the first step of the keyword research process, you need to think of the most relevant topics for your business that you want to rank for on the search engine.

By doing this you will come up with 5-10 topics to cover in your content. Now you need to select each topic and look for one specific keyword that is the most relevant to your topic.

For instance, if you are a digital marketer and want to rank for the most relevant topics then your desired topics would be:

• Social media marketing
• Pay per click advertising
• Search engine optimization
• Landing page optimization
• Email marketing
• Inbound marketing
• Lead generation

Now you need to find the search volumes for these topics and then decide which topic would be more popular based on search volume.

Step 2: Choose relevant keywords for your topics

Once you have chosen the topics, you will now look for keywords most relevant and specific to each of the topics. You will be aiming to get ranked for these keywords so be careful with your keyword selection.

This process is the most important because people are making searches for these keywords so you must choose the right one for the right topic.

From this exercise, you will be able to get specific keywords for the topics that will increase your business.

However, if you are unable to come up with more topics from the same exercise then ask this from those who are talking to your customers in the first place.

You can ask them for the most common queries customers come up with. Hence, you can also choose these queries as the topics for your content.

Step 3: Comprehend how search intent affects keyword research

Search intent or user intent has been the most important thing to look for during keyword research. Most of the SEOs ignore this factor and choose keywords on their face value.

You need to understand the user intent behind the keywords to extract the meaning of the search term. Therefore, only then you will be able to solve the problem of the searcher otherwise you will not get ranked on the search engine.

For instance, if you want to get ranked for “link building strategies for beginners” then your content must be focused on basic link building strategies.

You cannot get ranked for this keyword if your topic covers “advanced link building tactics”.

This is why understanding user intent is the most important thing while offering keyword research services.

The best way to identify search intent is by manually putting your keyword in the search engine and then look at the top 10 pages’ content format, type and angle.

Step 4: Focus on related search terms

This keyword research process is one bonus strategy that most SEOs are not targeting. If you ever run out of keyword ideas then this strategy can do great things for you.

Just type in your seed keyword in the search engine and scroll down to the end of the SERPs. There you will find related search terms for your seed keyword.

Just add the most relevant ones to your keyword list. Moreover, you can also put these related search terms on the search engine and get more keyword ideas from their related search terms.

4 Steps To Finding and Choosing Keywords For Your Business

Once you have made a list of keywords that you want to rank for, now you need to prioritize keywords based on their importance and relevance. These are the 4 keyword research steps that you need to follow to find and choose keywords:

Step 1: Review three key factors of choosing top keywords

Before you choose your keywords and wait for your page to rank on them, you need to measure your keyword potential on the following metrics:

1.      Relevance

Your content will only get ranked if it is relevant to your audience. This is why focusing on search intent is important.

If you want to get ranked on the search engine, your page must match the intent of that search. Moreover, your page must be the best among your competing pages for that keyword.

2.      Authority

Another key point here is page authority. The authority of your page must be high which will help you get ranked on the search engine.

One way to gain page authority is by creating content full of informational and helpful sources. Next, you must also promote your piece of content to get social signals and backlinks.

3.      Volume

You should also check the monthly search volume of your focus keyword before looking to rank for it.

If your topic doesn’t have a good search volume then even if you get ranked for that keyword, you will not be able to get website traffic.

Ultimately no website traffic means no leads or sales.

Step 2: Mix your head terms with long-tail keywords

Before discussing this keyword research step let’s just clear the difference between head terms and long-tail keywords.

Head terms are usually shorter and more generic keywords, typically contain one to three words. On the other hand, long-tail keywords are long keyword phrases containing more than three words.

Now having a mix of both head and long-tail terms you will be able to propose a well-balanced keyword strategy for your website.

Ultimately, this will help you in attaining your short-term as well as long-term wins.

This is necessary because head terms are more frequently searched but difficult to rank for while long-tail terms have a low search volume but are comparatively easy to rank.

With this strategy, you will be able to win #1 positions on the search engine for your long-tail terms in a quick time. While the head terms will take more time to get ranked in the top positions.

Step 3: Do a competitor analysis for these keywords

This is my most favorite strategy for finding business-generating keywords. You need to do a competitor keyword analysis to understand what your competitors are doing.

Take a look at their top keywords for SEO and choose those keywords that are most relevant and important for your business.

Additionally, you need to check the landing pages for the keywords that you have chosen from your competitor.

Now all you need to do is to create better content than your competitor while using your keywords wisely.

Step 4: Use the google keyword planner to filter your SEO keywords list

Once you have a big list of mixed keywords now you need to filter them using a keyword research tool.

For this step, I prefer using a mix of Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends.

From GKP, I narrow down the keyword list based on their search volume and traffic potential. Now here’s a pro tip. Before deleting keywords with low search volume or traffic potentials, you need to review them on Google Trends.

If the trend of those keywords is on the up then targeting them with a piece of content will be worth investing in.

Otherwise, if there trend in a downward, you should not give heed to these keywords and advance with your keyword research service.

Best Keywords For SEO Strategy

You need to understand that there are no best keywords, just those with higher searches by your target audience. Using this as a base, you need to propose your SEO strategy wisely so that you can rank your content and increase website traffic.

For me, the best keywords to include in your SEO strategy contains relevance, authority and volume.

You need to evaluate the keywords with higher searches based on:

• The authority of the competitors you are up against
• And the quality of top-ranked content

Finally, you have a pool of keywords that you will be targeting topics relevant to your business. This will ultimately help you in attaining your business goals.

Remember that you must reevaluate your list of keywords, once in a quarter would be a good practice.

As you continue to gain more authority in the SERPS, you should continue to add more keywords to your list to enhance ranking opportunities while sustaining your current rankings.

Final Words

I hope now you will be able to enhance your keyword research service this year and even in 2021. Moreover, this post must have enabled you to propose an effective keyword research strategy.

Now if you have any questions in your mind regarding how you can offer keyword research service then do let me know in the comment section below.

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