As a writer, we know exactly how important keywords are. They help to make our content easily searchable and they give us ideas for what to write about. Incorporating keywords into our content is easy, but finding the right keywords can be tough. The need for keywords is the same, but coming up with effective ones has changed and is now the challenge. Today we’ll discuss how to do blog keyword research to find keywords that will best fit your content.
Make a List of Topics
The first thing we recommend you do before you even start your blog keyword research is to make a list of topic ideas. This will make it a lot easier for you to find keywords, because you’ll already have a sense of what you want to write about. Starting your blog keyword research without a list is like going into battle without a weapon; imminent doom from the start.
Your list should have topics that are relevant to your business and services. It’s a good idea to have topics on things you normally write about, so that your keywords will be consistent with your previous content. Making a list of topics will also help you narrow down your keywords to find those that will best fit your blog.
Now once you’ve finished your topics list, it’s time to start finding those keywords.
Brainstorming Your Own
Brainstorming is probably the simplest way to come up with keywords for your blogs. Many people (including myself) will take a step back, look at their topic and jot down whatever keyword comes to mind. Coming up with your own is simple, but it isn’t as effective because you won’t know how well your keywords will be ranked in comparison to others on search engines.
The goal here is to start thinking about different keywords. You can come up with as many keywords as you like and build the list to be as long as you want. You can filter and narrow it down later when you compare what you’ve brainstormed with those you find online.
Google Analytics
You can also use Google Analytics for your blog keyword research. Google Analytics is very easy to install and it’s one of the best ways to track data from your website. You can use Google Analytics to track specific words and phrases people are searching to find your business. You can sift through your web traffic and organic search pages to find them. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. If you see that people are searching for keywords like ‘social media marketing’ and ‘social media advertising’ to get to your website, then it’s probably a good idea to stick with those keywords and others that relate.
Search Engines
Search engines are great for blog keyword research for a number of reasons. First, when you type something into a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, etc.) it’ll automatically give you suggestions before you even finish typing in what you want to search for. These suggestions are based on what people are actually looking up. So you can use this convenient feature to find more keywords and add them to that list you brainstormed earlier.
The ‘related search’ words on your search engines are another helpful way for you to find more keywords. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain. Once you search for something on Google, you can find their related searches at the bottom of the page. For example, if you search for ‘blogging tips,’ you can find the ‘Searches related to blogging tips’ underneath the results. The words and phrases from ‘related searches’ might help you come up with other keywords.
Research Tools
Aside from search engines and Google Analytics, there are other tools available to help you do blog keyword research. One popular tool is called SEMrush. This research tool allows you to check out your competitors and other similar businesses and see their keywords. SEMrush will give you a report of keywords and phrases for any website domain. This is very helpful in finding keywords that other businesses are using in their blogs.
Another great tool to use is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. This is very simple to use, all you have to do is search for a word and it will give you various keyword ideas related to that word. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool will give you better results if you have a Gmail and AdWords account. Just make sure you’re signed in to both accounts when you’re using this tool and you’ll get around eight times the results.
Other tools that help with blog keyword research are the Google Keyword Planner and the SEOToolSet. The former will let you know how many times a specific word or phrase has been searched for on Google while the latter does the same for not just Google, but also Bing and Yahoo. These two tools are very useful, because you can find out exactly how many times a word has been looked up. The higher the amount of searches for a word means there’s a higher demand for that service or business. You can use this information to tailor your keywords to resemble those that were searched more often.
Finalizing Your Keyword List
After you’ve built your keyword list using these different methods of blog keyword research, it’s time to filter them down to those you will actually use. Compare your brainstormed keyword list with those keywords you found using the keyword researching tools and see where yours rank. Start by getting rid of any low-ranked keywords. Chances are your list is still long, so let’s narrow them down even further.
You should choose keywords that target your audience’s interest. Put yourself in their shoes and think about which keywords they would most likely use. Pick words that describe your business and what issues your services solve. The more specific the keyword the better, so try to leave off any vague or broad keywords that may refer to multiple things. Also, when choosing keywords, go for a mixture of head (phrases that are a couple of words long) and long-tail (longer and more specific phrases) terms for a good blend.
Remember to check your keyword ranks every few months to make sure people are still searching for them. If you want more information on blog keyword research, don’t hesitate to contact us at Nao Media. We’re a writing content agency, so we know a few things about writing and using focused keywords in our content. Hope you enjoyed reading and we look forward to hearing from you.
