What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing the specific words and phrases people type into search engines like Google. It helps you understand what keywords are most popular and the search intent of your target audience. Including these valuable keywords strategically in your content helps it rank higher in search results.
Keyword research helps you:
- Understand what your audience is searching for and what words they use.
- Choose the best keywords to target when optimizing existing pages or creating new content.
- Find topics to create new content about.
- Uncover competitor strategies and competitive gaps.
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Best practices for researching keywords
To evaluate a keyword, you want to gather answers to these three questions and consider them together:
Do a lot of people search for that keyword?
Also, does its popularity vary depending on the time of year? You can understand a keyword’s popularity and seasonality from its monthly search volume.
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When people search for that keyword, what are they intending to find?
This is known as the person’s search intent. There are a few signals you should review to help you understand search intent.
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Does the keyword have relevance to your business?
Even if a keyword is popular and has a clear intent, it may just not be relevant to your business or audience.
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Considering all three of these factors as you look at keywords will help you determine which ones are good opportunities to target.
Evaluating keywords is a strategic activity and not a science. For example, a keyword with very clear search intent highly relevant to your business may be a better opportunity than one with less clear search intent and less relevance to your business, regardless of its popularity. This is because you have a better chance of ranking highly when you can offer the content that people are looking for.
How do I research keywords in Conductor?
Refer to our lesson: Research a topic with Explorer