Keyword research is crucial for SEO, helping identify what users search for and their intent, thereby optimizing content for better conversions. It involves targeting both head and long-tail keywords, with the latter being less competitive and often leading to higher conversion rates. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush aid in uncovering keyword opportunities, and keyword research informs site architecture and content planning to enhance user experience and drive ROI.

1. Applications of
Keyword Research

2. Is SEO Dead?
40,000
Google Searches
per second
1.17 billion
Google Users
— Users have been searching this myth for years —
Keywords are at the heart of every search on the web, but it’s the keywords you target
that make the difference.
• Do your keywords attract traffic that converts to sales or goals?
• What is the search intent behind a keyword?
• Do you know exactly what your target customers are searching for?

3. Why do we need it?
Put simply, keyword research is an integral process in SEO used to
identify and research exactly what people are entering into search
engines for a chosen industry. Not only does it tell you what people
are looking for, but how they feel and the intent behind a search.
A comprehensive list of keywords can be used to optimise
webpages in order to rank for what your target customers are
searching for. Ultimately, this is about serving the right content to
satisfy the user need and as a result increase conversions and user
engagement.

4. Head vs. Long-tail
Sourcing long-tail keywords is imperative to keyword research.
In today’s online market, we all know that broad head terms are
extremely competitive and expensive to target.
Long-tail keywords are specific and more descriptive phrases. Often
they will have a significantly lower search volume, however the
searcher is further down the buyer journey and know what they are
looking for, leading to a higher chance of conversion.
High Cost &
Competition
Low Cost &
Risk Low Cost &
Risk
High Probability of
Conversion
1 Word Phrases
“jeans”
2-3 Word Phrases
“mens jeans”
More Descriptive Phrases
“mens black skinny jeans”
Head Terms
Highly competitive and high search volume
terms with lower conversion rates
Keyword Search Volume
maxi dresses 135,000
mens jeans 27,100
ps4 console 40,500
Long-Tail Keywords
Less competitive and lower search volumes,
but higher conversion rates
Keyword Search Volume
size 12 maxi dresses 30
mens black skinny jeans 2,400
second hand white ps4 10

5. Intent
Understanding the consumer

6. Every search on the internet has an aim. These mostly fall into one of three categories. Understanding
the searchers intent will determine what can be achieved from targeting a keyword.
Transactional
£ Value: High
Intent to make a purchase,
complete a task or source a
local business. Near end of
conversion funnel.
e.g. ‘chinese in hertford’
‘buy samsung galaxy s8’
Navigational
£ Value: Low
Performed with intent to land on
a specific website / brand.
e.g. search ‘tkmaxx’ to find:
http://www.tkmaxx.com/
Searchers Intent
Informational
£ Value: Low
Searches that look for an
answer or how to do
something. Generally no
commercial value.
e.g. ‘when was the UKs
hottest summer?’

7. Insights
Key Techniques for Keyword Research

8. Google Keyword Planner
Google’s Keyword Planner is the bread and butter tool used for
Keyword Research and is extremely simple to use:
• Enter keywords related to your products and services and click
‘Get Ideas’ to generate suggestions
• Export the list to Excel and filter out any irrelevant terms
• Repeat for multiple keywords, collate lists and remove duplicates
• Sort list into keyword targeted clusters
Keywords
Internal page or homepage
Your niche
• Avoid broad keywords (otherwise you’ll get competitive head terms)
• Get more targeted results by using all 3 fields (see right)
• Use ‘Keyword filters’ to include or exclude certain keywords
• As of September 2016, Google now groups search volume data if
you don’t have any live PPC campaigns
Tips:

9. Google Trends
Google Trends is a tool that shows how often particular search terms
are entered relative to the total search volume in a given location. It
is best used in conjunction with Google Keyword Planner.
Trends enables you to look at when terms are trending, at what time
periods and in which locations. Compare similar terms to spot rising
and declining trends.
It is great for showing the life of a keyword and how factors like
seasonality or location affect them.
If you scroll down, you can see ‘related queries’ which can be
exported to Excel. Run these through Keyword Planner then sieve
out the relevant terms.

10. Long-Tail Methods
There are many methods for finding long-tail phrases,
here’s one of our favourites:
Answerthepublic is a useful tool providing content
ideas from an entered search term. Search with some
of your keywords and run through Keyword Planner
for search volume. This will often uncover some
hidden gems to target.

11. Related Searches
Google’s related searches is great for finding long-tail keywords.
When you type in the search bar, Google gives a bunch of
suggestions. But how do we extract this data?
Fortunately, we have free tools to do this for us such as
keywordtool.io. It’s particularly good because it adds a character
before and after the keyword, generating a huge amount of
suggestions.
Type your key phrase into the search bar, then click ‘Copy all’ (see
below) and run them through Keyword Planner to get your search
volumes.

12. SEMrush - Competitor Research
Reviewing competitors is a great way to further understand
the customer, find alternative keywords and unlock different
avenues for ranking opportunity.
Using SEMrush?
• Enter a competitors domain
• View full report for ‘Organic Keywords’
• Use the advanced filters to remove branded terms leaving
the most useful data for the Excel export
• Repeat with other competitors and collate your keywords
• Remove duplicates and check for relevant terms and
additional keyword clusters
Available from $69.95 a month

13. Forums
Looking at industry related forums can sometimes uncover a
hidden gem; related questions and discussions points.
Just search using one of the following structures:
“Keyword” + “forum”
“Keyword” + “powered by vbulletin”
“Keyword” + “board”
Look through forums to find the topics people are talking
about. Run topics and questions through Keyword Planner
to add to your list.
Alternatively, go straight to forums you already know such
as Reddit or industry specific forums.

14. How can we apply it?

15. Theme Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Audi
BMW
Seat & Mini
Jaguar
Peugeot
Skoda
Used Audi Used Audi
New Audi New Audi
New BMW New BMWUsed BMW Used BMW
New Seat New Seat
New Jaguar New JaguarUsed Jaguar Used Jaguar
Used Seat Used SeatUsed MiniUsed Mini
New PeugeotUsed Peugeot
New Skoda
New Skoda
Used Skoda
Used Skoda
Strategy Planning
Execution
Keyword Research is the backbone to most SEO strategies, unlocking wealths of information to drive decisions. It can be used to
understand your audience and plan when to execute key content strategies. E.g. planning around peak search times round the year.

16. Site Architecture The architecture for a site has various impacts on your sites
performance:
Usability - User friendly pages improve the user experience
by giving them a logical route throughout the site.
Rankings - A well thought out content structure enables you
to target the right pages with unique content.
Conversions - Provide a natural journey that moves the user
towards a purchase.
But how do we know what structure to use?
Keyword research determines key clusters that people are
searching for and how these link together from broader
terms to long-tail. This puts keyword research into action by
creating pages highly geared towards your keywords and
increasing a sites ranking opportunity.
Identifying new opportunities in the research means you can
target other relevant terms to your business.

17. Content Planning
A content plan can be greatly enhanced with the inclusion
of keyword research.
It forms the basis of content plans by digging into the
behaviours of the target audience and working out what
they are searching for.
Relevant content can then be produced that targets these
areas and keywords.
Furthermore, you can use seasonality trends for target
keywords to inform when is best to launch a piece of
content.

18. HOW TO DELIVER ROI ON KEYWORDS
Keyword research can be used to
forecast the monetary gain from
targeting specific keywords or
URLs.
It is much easier to justify the cost
of implementing projects when
you can see the financial benefit it
can bring.
See below how we can work out
the ROI from targeting keywords:
Avg. Search
Volume of
Keyword
Click-
Through Rate
of ‘Keyword’
Ranking
Postiion
Number of Site
Visits
Conversion
Rate
Number of Site
Visits
Average Order
Value
Additional
RevenueX = X X =

19. TAKE AWAYS
User Intent - People use search for numerous reasons. We can
categorise queries into transactional, navigational and informational
searches to determine what the user is looking for and it value.
Insight - Use multiple research methods to uncover as much as
possible about your service and user needs. Triangulating data
sources will give better quality data.
Strategy - Support business decisions with keyword research by
working out the ROI from targeting keywords / clusters.
Content Planning - Drive your editorial calendar with topics you
know the target audience are looking.
______________________________________________________________
Top Tip: Search habits change over time. Keyword research should
be refreshed so you’re always targeting in line with your audience.