Keyword Research
It all begins with words typed into a search box.
Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable,
and high return activities in the search marketing field.
Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your
website. By researching your market's keyword demand,
you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target
with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a
whole.
It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but
about getting the right kind of visitors.The usefulness
of this intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword
research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to
changing market conditions, and producethe products,
services, and content that web searchers are actively
seeking. In the history of marketing, there has never been
such a low barrier to entry in understandingthe
motivations of consumers in virtually any niche.
How to Judge the Value of a Keyword
How much is a keyword worth to your website? If you
own an online shoe store, do you make more sales from
visitors searching for "brown shoes" or "black boots"?
The keywords visitors type into search engines are often
available to webmasters, and keyword research
tools allow us to find this information. However, those
tools cannot show us directly how valuable it is to receive
traffic from those searches. To understandthe value of a
keyword, we need to understandour own websites, make
some hypotheses, test, and repeat—theclassic web
marketing formula.
2. Whatis keyword?
Keyword is a word or phrase that identifies a subject,
concept, or a particularobject.Whenuser wants to find a
product/service, they need to enter some words or phrases
related to that product/service into the toolbarto get back
a list which is arranged based on rank of website related
to that product/service.
To SEO people, keywords are words and phrases that they
want to rank in the search engines. If you have a high-
quality Parisian men's fragrances business, your keywords
may be "Parisian Men's Fragrances" or "Parisian Men's
Luxury Fragrances."
Keywords that you use SEO will be the phrases you want,
you think peoplewill enter into the search box and then
the results will pop up your website, peoplewill click on
and visit your website.
Step 2: Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.
Now that you have a few topic buckets you want to focus
on, it's time to identify some keywords that fall into those
buckets. These are keyword phrases you think are
important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results
pages) because your target customer is probably
conductingsearches for those specific terms.
For instance, if I took that last topic bucket for an inbound
marketing software company -- "marketing automation" --
I'd brainstormsome keyword phrases that I think people
would type in related to that topic. Those might include:
 marketing automation tools
 how to use marketing automation software
 what is marketing automation?
 how to tell if I need marketing automation software
 lead nurturing
 email marketing automation
 top automation tools
And so on and so on. The point of this step isn't to come
up with your final list of keyword phrases -- you just want
to end up with a brain dump of phrases you think
potentialcustomers might use to search for content related
to that particulartopic bucket. We'll narrow the lists down
later in the process so you don't have something too
unwieldy.
(Note: If you'rea HubSpot customer, you'll actuallybe
able to spend a littleless timecutting down
your keywords list.HubSpot'sKeyword App lets you sort
throughyour keywords easilybased on criterialikevisits,
rank, and difficulty,so you can cut through the clutter
prettyquickly.)
Although more and more keywords are getting
encrypted by Google every day, anothersmart way to
come up with keyword ideas is to figure out
which keywords your website is already getting found
for. To do this, you'll need website analytics software like
Google Analytics or HubSpot's Sources tool. Drill down
into your website's traffic sources, and sift through you
organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords
peopleare using to arrive at your site.
Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you
have. And remember, if you're having troublecoming up
with relevant search terms, you can always head on over
to your employees on the front lines -- like Sales or
Services -- and ask them what types of terms their
prospectsand customers use, or common questions they
have. Those are often great starting points for keyword
research.
UnderstandingKeywords
Before you jump into doing keyword research for your
onlinestore, there are a few basic terms you'll come
across that are important to know and understand.
These terms include:
Keywords - A keyword(s), in the context of search
engine optimization, is a particularword or phrase
describing the content of a web page or site. Keywords
act as shortcutsto sum up the contentof a page or site.
Keywords are part of a web page’s metadatathat helps
search engines match a page to an appropriatesearch
query.
Longtail Keywords - Longtail keywords are simply
keywords that contain three or more words. Longtail
keywords are important (hence them having their own
name) because they make up over 70% of online searches
according to SEOMoz and also tend to convert betteras
they catch peoplefurther along in the buying cycle.
Someone searching for "hair extensions" is likely in the
early information gathering stage, however, someone
searching for "20 inch brown hair extensions price" is
likely further along the buying cycle and much closer to
purchasing.
Search Volume (Avg. Monthly Searches) - Search
volume is usually measured in average monthlysearches.
This is the total number of searches each month for each
particularsearch phrase (keyword). Ideally you're looking
for the keywords with the highest search volume. Ranking
highly for search terms with higher search volumes means
more potential traffic and conversion potential for you
and your store.
Unfortunately, there is not a magic number that represents
the perfect search volume for everyone. What constitutes
the “right” search volume is going to be different for
every site.
Competition - Search volume isn't the only thing you
need to consider. Competition is equally, if not more
important. There's no point in trying to rank for keywords
you have no chance of ranking for. Competition refers to
the difficulty of ranking for each particularkeyword. In
an ideal situation, your chosen keywords would have high
search volume and low competition, however, these gold
nuggets are difficult to find and will require some hard
work, patience and maybe a little luck to find.
Keep in mind that the competition in Google's Keyword
PlannerTool refers to paid advertising competitiveness of
keywords rather than organic search competition,
however, this is many times representative of the organic
search competition as well.
8. Evaluatingkeyword difficulty
I already went through the Basic Keyword Research
Process, Method to find keyword in doing SEO by
using tool and your self-thought. This is the last step in
the Keyword research Process which is “Evaluating
keyword difficulty” needed to do SEO.
This step will give you the answer and the right look for
the keywords you choose, to think that it is feasible to
whether have a worthwhileconversion rate or not.
If you are a SEO Leader or a SEO Freelancer, you will be
able to measure this difficulty. From that level of
competition, you can measure how long your keyword
will take to get to the TOP.
In this step, we will need to use some free Google tools to
help with the evaluation of keywords through the Search
Volume statistics (Google search volume) that is Google
Keyword Planner. Please check the content above to
review how to use this tool.
To measure the difficulty of each keyword, you need to
consider these 4 following factors:
1.Keyword ConversionRate.
We will evaluate the difficulty of the keyword through it
conversion rate. I already explained the conversion rate
of the keyword in my previous article, if you haven’t
mastered it, please read it again. Each keyword which, is
searched in the search box, has different purpose. Now, I
would like to add a bit knowledge of keyword to you.
 You need to care about 1 definition
called: “Customer/user’sintention(Traffic
Intent)”, with Traffic Intent, I will divide it into 2
types: Active (Having specific intentionsrelated to
the purchase) and Passive (no intention to purchase,
mostly to consult the information)
 This is very important to understand clearlythe
intentionsof visitors to your website. It is true that
not many visitors access the site for the first time will
be ready to make a purchase. No need to be a
behavior analyst, you will easily analyze their intent
through search queries.
Read more!

Keyword research

  • 1.
    Keyword Research It allbegins with words typed into a search box. Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. By researching your market's keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole. It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors.The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and producethe products, services, and content that web searchers are actively seeking. In the history of marketing, there has never been such a low barrier to entry in understandingthe motivations of consumers in virtually any niche. How to Judge the Value of a Keyword How much is a keyword worth to your website? If you own an online shoe store, do you make more sales from visitors searching for "brown shoes" or "black boots"? The keywords visitors type into search engines are often available to webmasters, and keyword research tools allow us to find this information. However, those
  • 2.
    tools cannot showus directly how valuable it is to receive traffic from those searches. To understandthe value of a keyword, we need to understandour own websites, make some hypotheses, test, and repeat—theclassic web marketing formula. 2. Whatis keyword? Keyword is a word or phrase that identifies a subject, concept, or a particularobject.Whenuser wants to find a product/service, they need to enter some words or phrases related to that product/service into the toolbarto get back a list which is arranged based on rank of website related to that product/service. To SEO people, keywords are words and phrases that they want to rank in the search engines. If you have a high- quality Parisian men's fragrances business, your keywords may be "Parisian Men's Fragrances" or "Parisian Men's Luxury Fragrances." Keywords that you use SEO will be the phrases you want, you think peoplewill enter into the search box and then the results will pop up your website, peoplewill click on and visit your website. Step 2: Fill in those topic buckets with keywords. Now that you have a few topic buckets you want to focus on, it's time to identify some keywords that fall into those
  • 3.
    buckets. These arekeyword phrases you think are important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target customer is probably conductingsearches for those specific terms. For instance, if I took that last topic bucket for an inbound marketing software company -- "marketing automation" -- I'd brainstormsome keyword phrases that I think people would type in related to that topic. Those might include:  marketing automation tools  how to use marketing automation software  what is marketing automation?  how to tell if I need marketing automation software  lead nurturing  email marketing automation  top automation tools And so on and so on. The point of this step isn't to come up with your final list of keyword phrases -- you just want to end up with a brain dump of phrases you think potentialcustomers might use to search for content related to that particulartopic bucket. We'll narrow the lists down later in the process so you don't have something too unwieldy. (Note: If you'rea HubSpot customer, you'll actuallybe able to spend a littleless timecutting down your keywords list.HubSpot'sKeyword App lets you sort
  • 4.
    throughyour keywords easilybasedon criterialikevisits, rank, and difficulty,so you can cut through the clutter prettyquickly.) Although more and more keywords are getting encrypted by Google every day, anothersmart way to come up with keyword ideas is to figure out which keywords your website is already getting found for. To do this, you'll need website analytics software like Google Analytics or HubSpot's Sources tool. Drill down into your website's traffic sources, and sift through you organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords peopleare using to arrive at your site. Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you have. And remember, if you're having troublecoming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your employees on the front lines -- like Sales or Services -- and ask them what types of terms their prospectsand customers use, or common questions they have. Those are often great starting points for keyword research. UnderstandingKeywords
  • 5.
    Before you jumpinto doing keyword research for your onlinestore, there are a few basic terms you'll come across that are important to know and understand. These terms include: Keywords - A keyword(s), in the context of search engine optimization, is a particularword or phrase describing the content of a web page or site. Keywords act as shortcutsto sum up the contentof a page or site. Keywords are part of a web page’s metadatathat helps search engines match a page to an appropriatesearch query. Longtail Keywords - Longtail keywords are simply keywords that contain three or more words. Longtail keywords are important (hence them having their own name) because they make up over 70% of online searches according to SEOMoz and also tend to convert betteras they catch peoplefurther along in the buying cycle. Someone searching for "hair extensions" is likely in the early information gathering stage, however, someone searching for "20 inch brown hair extensions price" is likely further along the buying cycle and much closer to purchasing. Search Volume (Avg. Monthly Searches) - Search volume is usually measured in average monthlysearches.
  • 6.
    This is thetotal number of searches each month for each particularsearch phrase (keyword). Ideally you're looking for the keywords with the highest search volume. Ranking highly for search terms with higher search volumes means more potential traffic and conversion potential for you and your store. Unfortunately, there is not a magic number that represents the perfect search volume for everyone. What constitutes the “right” search volume is going to be different for every site. Competition - Search volume isn't the only thing you need to consider. Competition is equally, if not more important. There's no point in trying to rank for keywords you have no chance of ranking for. Competition refers to the difficulty of ranking for each particularkeyword. In an ideal situation, your chosen keywords would have high search volume and low competition, however, these gold nuggets are difficult to find and will require some hard work, patience and maybe a little luck to find. Keep in mind that the competition in Google's Keyword PlannerTool refers to paid advertising competitiveness of keywords rather than organic search competition, however, this is many times representative of the organic search competition as well.
  • 7.
    8. Evaluatingkeyword difficulty Ialready went through the Basic Keyword Research Process, Method to find keyword in doing SEO by using tool and your self-thought. This is the last step in the Keyword research Process which is “Evaluating keyword difficulty” needed to do SEO. This step will give you the answer and the right look for the keywords you choose, to think that it is feasible to whether have a worthwhileconversion rate or not. If you are a SEO Leader or a SEO Freelancer, you will be able to measure this difficulty. From that level of competition, you can measure how long your keyword will take to get to the TOP. In this step, we will need to use some free Google tools to help with the evaluation of keywords through the Search Volume statistics (Google search volume) that is Google Keyword Planner. Please check the content above to review how to use this tool. To measure the difficulty of each keyword, you need to consider these 4 following factors: 1.Keyword ConversionRate. We will evaluate the difficulty of the keyword through it conversion rate. I already explained the conversion rate
  • 8.
    of the keywordin my previous article, if you haven’t mastered it, please read it again. Each keyword which, is searched in the search box, has different purpose. Now, I would like to add a bit knowledge of keyword to you.  You need to care about 1 definition called: “Customer/user’sintention(Traffic Intent)”, with Traffic Intent, I will divide it into 2 types: Active (Having specific intentionsrelated to the purchase) and Passive (no intention to purchase, mostly to consult the information)  This is very important to understand clearlythe intentionsof visitors to your website. It is true that not many visitors access the site for the first time will be ready to make a purchase. No need to be a behavior analyst, you will easily analyze their intent through search queries. Read more!