What is Keyword Research? A Guide for Top Research Methods & Best Practices

Last updated: Jan 15, 2025

Keyword Research in short

You want your website to come up in search engines for relevant keywords. But what makes a keyword relevant? What keywords should you choose to target, and what influences this choice? You should choose keywords that:

• Are relevant for your target audience
• Are realistic to rank for
• Carry business value
• Are actually searched for

The process of finding these keywords is called Keyword Research. After reading this article, you'll be able to do Keyword Research on your own. Keyword Research is the first step in incorporating the right keywords in your website. The second step is connecting the keywords you've found to the right pages within your website. That results in your Keyword Strategy, which will be covered in another article.

What is keyword research, and why is it important?

Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing the terms and queries people use when searching for information, products, or services online. To perform keyword research, you need to discover popular search queries, evaluate their relevance to your content or business, and assess the competition.

By incorporating relevant and valuable keywords and terms into your content, you’re providing better answers and a better user experience for your target audience. When it comes to ranking well on search engines, creating helpful and valuable content is the name of the game, so keyword research, when done properly, can lead to superior content and improved rankings.

Keywords, keyword combinations, and queries

Before we dive into the technicalities around Keyword Research, let's first get our terminology straight. A search query consists of one or more keywords that are typed into a search engine. Keywords are incorporated into your content. You can incorporate one or more keywords. For the sake of ease, when I refer to 'keyword,' I mean one or more keywords.

The anatomy of a keyword

The important aspects of a keyword you should consider include:

• Monthly search volume (MSV): MSV measures how often a specific keyword or term is searched each month, helping to estimate how much traffic an article on that given keyword could potentially drive.

  Pro tip: Higher MSV isn’t always better. Oftentimes, high MSV keywords are highly competitive to win, so you may be better off choosing a keyword with lower MSV but with an easier path to strong rankings.

• Search intent: Refers to the meaning of a user’s query. What did the searcher hope to find with that specific search term? Search intent helps you align your content with a user’s actual goals and needs, allowing you to provide more relevant and helpful content.

• Keyword difficulty: Refers to the level of challenge you will face when trying to rank for a given keyword based on SERP competition.

• SERP structure: The layout, features, and result types that appear on the SERP for a given query.

• Relevance: Refers to how well a certain query or keyword aligns with your business and brand expertise.

The keyword research process explained

The Keyword Research Process consists of six steps:

1. Brainstorm
2. Compile a list of keywords you've already been found for
3. Compile a list of keywords you haven't been found for yet
4. Merge lists into one
5. Retrieve information on the attractiveness of keywords
6. Further expand a list of keywords with long-tail keywords

Step 1: Brainstorm

In the first step of the Keyword Research process, you look at yourself:

• What keywords should you be found for?
• What are your Unique Selling Points (USPs)?
• Who's your target audience, really?
• Who are your competitors?

Step 2: Compile a list of keywords you've already been found for

Use Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools to find out what keywords you are already being found for in the organic search results.

Step 3: Compile a list of keywords you haven't been found for yet

Competitor analysis

Analyzing your competitors' websites is a great way to find interesting keywords. For each of your competitors, you can analyze the keywords they are visible for in the organic and paid results.

Step 4: Merge lists into one

After gathering your keyword lists, the next step is merging them, removing duplicates, and categorizing the keywords.

Step 5: Retrieve information on the attractiveness of keywords

For each of the keywords, you need to understand the playing field:

• Monthly search volume
• Competition
• Business value
• What the search results look like

Step 6: Further expand the list of keywords with long-tail

Search for interesting combinations for these keywords, typically discovering keywords with a low to moderate monthly search volume.

Keyword research in review

Ultimately, keyword research helps to make your content and website stronger. By understanding what keywords and queries your audience cares about, you can find opportunities to create helpful content that speaks to those keywords, and creating helpful content is the name of the game when it comes to SEO.