To build from the last lesson, keyword research is the method of taking the broader topic keywords, called head terms, and creating a list of potential search phrases, called long-tail keywords, that you can incorporate into your posts and pages.
The payoff of keyword research is that your writing can then include terms and phrases that real people search for relevant to the things you’re writing about. You’ll potentially rank, or rank higher, for those terms in search engines, which could translate to more visitors for your site.
Another example of long-tail keywords in practice can be seen in the scenario of shopping for shoes online. Searching the generic head term “shoes” will deliver countless sites where you could buy shoes, but the search results aren’t detailed enough to be useful. Searching for a long-tail keyword like “size 8 women’s leather hiking boots” will yield a set of results that are more tailored to your needs.
That’s why keyword research is important. Most people will attempt to be somewhat detailed when searching for specific information, so having a better understanding of what those detailed searches are, can help you better optimize your content. That, in turn, makes it easier for search engines to match your content with what people are actually looking for.
Although there are countless tools that can help you research keywords, in this lesson we’re going to focus on a couple of free options. Just know that there are plenty of premium alternatives available to you if you do a search for “keyword research tools” and they have features that you may find helpful if you’re a serious content-creation machine.
A favorite keyword research tool is Google itself, and you can learn about people’s search habits in relation to your topic simply by running a few searches. Let’s kick off our long-tail keyword research by looking up “chocolate chip cookie recipe↗︎.”
Of course, you’ll see the expected list of recipes; let’s scroll to the bottom to find the real gold: Google’s related-searches section. This “Searches related to…” section is an often-overlooked part of the Google search results page, but it’s wildly useful for searchers and content creators alike. This section is generated based on actual user searches, as well as Google’s algorithms.
You’ll already see some great long-tail keywords in this first list, but for even more ideas, click on one of those related searches and scroll to the bottom again. You’ll get another related-searches box with even more targeted suggestions! Clicking on “homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe” yields these suggestions:
Another favorite keyword research tool is KeywordTool.io. The real power in Keyword Tool is that you can search Google, YouTube, Bing, and Amazon all within the same interface. The data that you see when using this tool comes from the various auto-complete, or suggested, results from the different search engines.
In this lesson, we’ll use Keyword Tool to generate keyword ideas from YouTube, Google, and Amazon. The YouTube search can often yield great keyword ideas if you’re writing a “how-to” post, and Amazon keyword ideas generally revolve around products related to a keyword.
Within the Keyword Tool dashboard, click on the YouTube tab. We’re going to return to our cookie example from earlier, enter “chocolate chip cookie” into the search field, and click the Search button.
⭐ Note: If necessary, the country and language can be specified. Keyword Tool supports non-English results if you need them!
Typically, you’ll see quite a few keyword suggestions presented, and that may very well include a mix of repetitive terms and new ideas. If you’re tracking your long-tail keywords on your computer, you’re able to check the boxes of those you’d like to keep, and click the Copy button in the lower right-hand corner of your browser window, which then allows you to paste them into your keyword list (e.g. in a spreadsheet) without having to manually write them down.
Along with a normal search, Keyword Tool provides a search that returns questions related to your keyword, allowing you to explore real questions that people ask in internet searches. Within Keyword Tool, click on the Google tab, and then on the Questions tab.
You’ll see several results in the form of questions. If you look at a very generic term, you’ll see more questions than if you use a more specific term. If you can incorporate those questions into your blog post and have it sound natural, you’ll already be ahead of the pack attracting visitors to your site! Just be sure to answer any questions you ask in your content, as that’s precisely why some people might be visiting.
You can also select and copy these questions to add to your spreadsheet, and although you might not want to use them word for word, consider incorporating them in your content in some manner.
If you’re writing content that is product-centered (or even if a product is tangentially related), the Amazon search can surface some interesting supporting keyword ideas. Beyond direct keyword matches, search engines will also look for terms that they expect to be related to your main keyword/topic.
If you’re an Amazon affiliate (or use a similar program), this is a great way to find products that you can link to with your affiliate code when using your keywords!
With the Amazon search, you’ll typically want to break your head term down to a single word, without any sort of adjectives or modifiers. So, in returning to our example, we’ll replace the phrase “chocolate chip cookie” to use the single word “cookie” instead. Searching for that keyword returns a number of suggestions, and we can immediately see some useful keywords that can also be considered when writing content.
Using Google and/or Keyword Tool↗︎, perform keyword research on the head terms from your list/spreadsheet. When you find keywords that resonate with your chosen page or blog post, add them under their respective columns. You may notice duplicate keywords and/or terms that don’t make sense for your content, and you can delete those from the list. A good start would be 10-20 long-tail keyword terms under each head term, but the exact number might vary depending on your particular topic.
The next step is to try and use some of these long-tail keywords in your chosen page/post, in a natural, organic way. Doing so can help more people find your content, because different people search for things with different terms. How many of these terms you use is up to you. You’ll need to find the balance between the potential of reaching a larger audience and having your content read too repetitive or unnatural, which can deter readers.
You may be feeling like this is a lot of extra, time consuming work, but it doesn’t have to be. Of course, you certainly can do this process for every single page and post in your site, but that’s not required to help optimize your site for search engines. Over time, with the consistent publishing of blog posts, you’ll likely end up with cornerstone content. They provide detailed and essential information about you in order to attract traffic to your website, which will be your most important and/or most popular pieces. These are the ones that you will want to do deeper keyword research on.
To take your keyword research a step further. Be sure to watch our webinar replay with our SEO expert guest speaker, David Zimmerman:
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