Mastering Keywords for Search Engine Optimisation

In today’s competitive online landscape, leveraging keywords for search engine optimisation (SEO) is the cornerstone of creating a successful digital presence.

What is keyword research and why is it important

Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing the words and phrases that people use when searching for information, products, or services on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This research helps website owners, marketers, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialists understand which terms are relevant to their audience and what has the potential to drive traffic to their site.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

1. Helps Understand Audience Intent: By discovering what your audience is searching for, keyword research helps you understand their needs, pain points, and intentions. This allows you to tailor your content and services to what users are actually looking for.

2. Optimizes Content for Search Engines: Once you know the keywords that people are using to search for topics related to your website or business, you can optimize your content around those keywords. This increases the likelihood that your pages will appear in search results, which can lead to more traffic.

3. Improves Organic Search Traffic: By targeting relevant keywords that are frequently searched for, you can improve your site’s ranking in search engines. Higher rankings mean more visibility, which ultimately results in more organic (unpaid) traffic to your site.

4. Identifies Market Trends and Competitors: Keyword research provides insight into market trends, popular topics, and what your competitors are ranking for. This helps you identify content gaps and opportunities where you can outperform competitors.

5. Helps with Paid Search Campaigns: For paid advertising campaigns like Google Ads, keyword research is crucial to identify which terms are worth bidding on. It helps you focus your budget on keywords with high conversion potential, increasing your return on investment (ROI).

6. Ensures Relevant Traffic: By targeting specific keywords, you ensure that the traffic you’re attracting is highly relevant to your business. People who search for specific keywords are more likely to engage with your content or make a purchase if your offerings align with their search intent.

7. Informs Content Strategy: Keyword research can guide your content creation strategy by helping you focus on topics that are most likely to generate traffic. This can also help you find long-tail keywords (more specific phrases) that are easier to rank for but still highly valuable.

Keyword Research for Search Engine Optimisation

Effective keyword research is a critical part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and digital marketing. The fundamentals of keyword research involve identifying the right keywords that will drive relevant traffic to your website, ensuring that the content resonates with your target audience, and optimizing it to improve search engine rankings. Here are the key fundamentals of effective keyword research:

1. Understand Your Target Audience

Before you even begin to research keywords, it's essential to understand your audience:

• What are they looking for?
• What problems do they want to solve?
• What questions do they have?

Understanding your audience’s search intent will help guide you in selecting the right keywords. Knowing your customer profiles (buyer personas) is essential in anticipating the terms they might search for.

2. Brainstorm Seed Keywords

Start your keyword research with seed keywords. These are broad, general terms related to your industry or niche. For example, if you run a fitness blog, seed keywords could be “fitness,” “workout,” or “exercise.” Seed keywords serve as the foundation for your research.

3. Use Keyword Research Tools

There are several tools available that help you expand your seed keywords into a more comprehensive list of relevant keywords.

At lookkle we offer our keyword research tool with a trial use without registration of a daily search where up to 1000 keyword suggestions are offered for an entered keyword.

This tool give you insight into:

• Search volume (how often people search for a particular keyword)
• Keyword difficulty/competition (how hard it is to rank for a keyword)
• Search intent
• Related keywords and long-tail phrases. A long-tail keyword is a more specific, longer keyword phrase that typically contains three or more words. Long-tail keywords tend to have lower search volume compared to short-tail keywords, but they often have less competition.

4. Focus on Search Intent

Search intent refers to the purpose behind a user’s search. Keywords can generally be categorized into four main types of search intent:

• Informational: Users are looking for information (e.g., "how to start a blog").
• Navigational: Users are trying to find a specific website or page (e.g., "Facebook login").
• Transactional: Users are ready to make a purchase (e.g., "buy running shoes").
• Commercial Investigation: Users are considering a purchase and researching options (e.g., "best smartphone for photography").

When selecting keywords, consider what stage of the customer journey you want to target. For instance, transactional keywords can be beneficial for eCommerce websites, while informational keywords are ideal for content-driven websites like blogs.

5. Analyze Keyword Metrics

When evaluating keywords, consider the following metrics:

• Search Volume: Indicates how often a keyword is searched. High search volume typically means more competition, but also more potential traffic.
• Keyword Difficulty (Competition): The level of difficulty in ranking for a specific keyword. This metric helps you gauge how competitive a keyword is in search engines.
• CPC (Cost Per Click): If you’re planning on running paid ads (like Google Ads), CPC shows how much advertisers are willing to pay for clicks on that keyword.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The likelihood that a user will click on your result if you rank for a keyword.

Balance the search volume and competition of a keyword to find the right targets. Keywords with lower competition but decent search volume can be great targets for smaller or newer websites.

6. Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases (e.g., "best affordable wireless headphones for running" instead of just "headphones"). These keywords typically have:

• Lower search volume
• Lower competition
• Higher conversion potential (because they are more specific)

Long-tail keywords are often easier to rank for and can attract a more qualified audience.

7. Analyze Competitor Keywords

Look at the keywords your competitors are targeting, especially the ones that rank well for organic traffic. Tools like lOOkkle allow you to analyze your competitors’ keywords, which can give you insight into their strategies and help you discover additional keyword opportunities that you might have missed.

8. Group Keywords by Relevance

Once you have a list of keywords, group them into clusters based on relevance. This helps you structure your content effectively.

For example:

• A broad topic like "SEO" could have subtopics or clusters such as "on-page SEO," "technical SEO," and "content marketing."
• Each cluster can then target specific long-tail keywords.

This approach helps with topic authority and gives search engines a clear understanding of the context and relevance of your content.

9. Evaluate Keyword Difficulty

After identifying potential keywords, you should evaluate the level of difficulty in ranking for those terms. Consider:

• The domain ranking of the sites currently ranking for those keywords. Use Lookkle's organic traffic analysis tool, where we can see the ranking of a website and the traffic it receives from search engines.
• The quality and relevance of their content. 
• The backlink profile of those pages. Use the lookkle backlink analysis tool, where we can see the list of backlinks of a website, ranking and organic traffic of each page that links.

10. Monitor and Update Your Keyword Strategy

Keyword research is not a one-time task. Search trends, user intent, and competition are always evolving. Therefore, it's important to continuously monitor the performance of your chosen keywords and update your keyword strategy accordingly.

• Use Google Search Console to track how your site is performing for specific keywords.
• Revisit keyword trends periodically to ensure your strategy remains aligned with the latest market conditions.

11. Use Keywords Naturally

Finally, it’s important to remember that while keyword optimization is important for SEO, overstuffing your content with keywords (known as keyword stuffing) can harm your ranking and readability. Make sure to use your keywords naturally within high-quality, relevant content that provides value to the user.

Discover Keywords by analyzing Website Rankings on Google using the Keywords tool

If you're looking to discover keywords by analyzing website rankings on Google, using a Keywords Tool is an effective way to gain insights into the terms and phrases that are driving traffic to specific websites.
This approach helps you understand which keywords your competitors are ranking for, identify keyword gaps, and find opportunities to enhance your own SEO strategy.

Here's a breakdown of how you can use a Keywords Tool to discover and analyze keywords:

• Enter the Website URL:

  • Go to lOOkkle's Keyword Ranking tool.
  • Enter a website URL and get detailed data on the keywords that site ranks for.
  • By analyzing the rankings of a specific website (e.g., a competitor's site or your own site), the tool provides you with the list of keywords for which that site is showing up in search results.

• Analyze Ranking Keywords:

  • The tool will provide you with a list of organic keywords for the website. These are the terms and phrases that are driving traffic to the site through search engines like Google.
  • For each keyword, you get the following data:
    • Search Volume: How often the keyword is searched.
    • Keyword Difficulty: How competitive it is to rank for that keyword.
    • CPC (Cost Per Click): If the keyword is used in paid advertising campaigns, this shows the cost.
    • Position in SERPs: The current ranking of the website for that keyword.
    • Traffic Estimate: How much organic traffic the website is getting from the keyword.
    • SERP Features: Does the keyword trigger any special SERP features (e.g., Featured Snippets, Knowledge Panels)?

• Identify Keyword Gaps:

  • Once you see the keywords your competitors are ranking for, you can identify keyword gaps. These are valuable opportunities for you to target terms that your competitors may be overlooking or not ranking for as well as you could.
  • For example, if your competitor ranks highly for certain keywords but your website does not, it might be a good idea to create content around those keywords or optimize your existing pages to compete for those rankings.

• Examine Competitor’s SERP Position:

  • Check SERP (Search Engine Results Page) positions for your competitors' ranking keywords. This helps you see which keywords are generating the most traffic for them, and whether they are ranking in the top positions for high-value keywords.
  • You can also track the changes in rankings over time to assess the impact of your competitors' SEO strategies.

• Expand Keyword Ideas:

  • After discovering which keywords a site ranks for, you can often expand on this by looking for related keywords, long-tail keywords, or similar search terms that may have less competition or better align with your target audience.
  • Many tools will suggest related keywords or offer filters to refine your keyword search based on metrics like search intent, location, or language.

• Track Keyword Performance:

  • Some keyword research tools also allow you to track keyword performance over time. This can be valuable for monitoring your own rankings or tracking a competitor's keyword progress.
  • With this feature, you can set alerts for changes in position or new keyword opportunities.

Free Keyword Research Tools

1. Google Keyword Planner

   • Best For: Beginners, Google Ads users, and general keyword research.
   • Features: Google’s free tool allows you to discover keyword ideas, see historical search volume, and estimate the cost-per-click (CPC) for paid campaigns. You can get keyword suggestions for specific topics and even filter by location.
   • Limitations: Requires a Google Ads account, and some data is only available in ranges, not exact numbers.

2. Lookkle Keyword Research Tool (Free Version)

   • Best For: Getting a snapshot of keyword trends, competition, and search volume.
   • Features: Lookkle provides a simple and effective way to explore keyword research, tracking search volume, competition level, and other important metrics. It offers an easy-to-use interface for identifying high-potential keywords for your site or business.
   • Limitations: The free version have limitations on the number of queries you can perform per day. Paid version starts at $9.95 per month, ideal for small businesses or individuals.

3. Ubersuggest (Free Version)

   • Best For: Basic keyword research and competitor analysis.
   • Features: Ubersuggest offers keyword suggestions, search volume, competition data, and SEO difficulty. It also provides information on backlink data and domain authority.
   • Limitations: Limited daily searches for free users. Advanced features are locked behind a paid plan.

4. Answer The Public

   • Best For: Finding long-tail keyword ideas based on questions.
   • Features: Generates a list of question-based keywords and related phrases that people are searching for. It helps identify long-tail keywords and content ideas based on the search intent of users.
   • Limitations: Limited number of free searches per day.

5. Google Trends

   • Best For: Understanding the popularity and trends of specific keywords.
   • Features: Google Trends allows you to explore search interest over time, compare different keywords, and analyze search trends across different regions.
   • Limitations: Doesn’t provide search volume, just relative data based on user interest.

Paid Keyword Research Tools

1. SEMrush

   • Best For: Comprehensive keyword research, competitive analysis, and SEO auditing.
   • Features: SEMrush offers a wide array of keyword research features, including keyword difficulty analysis, search volume, CPC estimates, and related keyword suggestions. You can also explore competitor keyword rankings, backlinks, and SEO strategies.
   • Limitations: Requires a subscription (starting at $119.95 per month). Some advanced features may be overwhelming for beginners.

2. Ahrefs

   • Best For: Advanced SEO and backlink research.
   • Features: Ahrefs provides keyword research tools, SERP analysis, and competitor analysis. It offers insights into organic search traffic, search volume, keyword difficulty, and search trends. Ahrefs is particularly useful for analyzing your competitors’ keywords and backlinks.
   • Limitations: Starts at $99 per month, and it can be expensive for smaller businesses or individuals.

3. Moz Keyword Explorer

   • Best For: Finding keyword opportunities and analyzing SERPs.
   • Features: Moz offers keyword difficulty scores, search volume, and suggestions for related keywords. It also provides SERP analysis and page optimization suggestions.
   • Limitations: Pricing starts at $99 per month, but you can get limited free access with a Moz account.

4. KWFinder

   • Best For: Finding long-tail keywords with low competition.
   • Features: KWFinder specializes in finding long-tail keywords and analyzing their difficulty level. It provides search volume, keyword competition scores, and suggested related keywords.
   • Limitations: Paid plans start at $29.90 per month. Limited features for free users.

5. Long Tail Pro

   • Best For: Finding profitable long-tail keywords for SEO campaigns.
   • Features: Long Tail Pro focuses on finding low-competition long-tail keywords that are ideal for SEO strategies. It also provides detailed keyword analysis and competitor research.
   • Limitations: Paid plans start at $25 per month, and it’s geared more toward advanced users and agencies.

Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting Keyword Research

Step 1: Define Your Goals

Before diving into keyword research, you need to clarify your objectives:

• What is your website about? Identify your niche and the primary focus of your website.
• Who is your target audience? Understand the personas you’re trying to reach and their search intent.
• What are your business goals? Are you aiming for higher traffic, more conversions, or brand awareness?

Your goals will guide the type of keywords you focus on, whether it's for generating more organic traffic, improving conversion rates, or expanding your product offerings.

Step 2: Brainstorm Seed Keywords

Start by thinking of a few seed keywords (broad terms) that describe your business or website. These keywords should be general and relevant to your niche.

• Example for a pet store: "pet products," "dog toys," "cat food"
• Example for a fitness blog: "fitness tips," "workout routines," "healthy recipes"

Seed keywords will act as the foundation for your keyword research and will help you explore related keyword ideas.

Step 3: Use Keyword Research Tools

Now, use keyword research tools to expand on your seed keywords and generate more specific and relevant keyword ideas.

Example Using Lookkle Keyword Research:

1. Enter your seed keyword (e.g., "dog toys") in the tool.
2. Review the list of keyword ideas, focusing on their search volume and competition.
3. Export the keyword ideas into a list for further analysis.

Step 4: Analyze Search Intent

For each keyword, understand search intent why people are searching for it. Search intent typically falls into four categories:

1. Informational: Users want to learn something (e.g., "how to train a dog").
2. Navigational: Users want to visit a specific website (e.g., "Amazon dog toys").
3. Transactional: Users are ready to make a purchase (e.g., "buy dog toys online").
4. Commercial Investigation: Users are comparing products before making a purchase decision (e.g., "best dog toys for small dogs").

Choose keywords that match the intent of your audience. If you're running an e-commerce website, focus on transactional or commercial investigation keywords. If you're running a blog, informational keywords may be a priority.

Step 5: Assess Keyword Metrics

When analyzing your keyword options, look for these important metrics to help you decide which keywords to target:

1. Search Volume: Indicates how many people are searching for a keyword each month. Higher search volume means higher potential traffic, but often more competition.

2. Keyword Difficulty: Measures how difficult it is to rank for a keyword. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush provide a keyword difficulty score. Aim for keywords with moderate competition, especially if you're just starting out.

3. Cost Per Click (CPC): If you're planning to run paid ads, CPC can help you understand the competition for a keyword in paid search campaigns.

4. SERP Features: Look for any special features (like featured snippets, images, or videos) that may appear in the search results for a given keyword. This can provide extra visibility in search results.

Step 6: Explore Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases that often have lower search volume but can result in higher conversion rates. These keywords usually indicate a clearer intent and are easier to rank for.

For example:

• Short-tail keyword: "dog toys"
• Long-tail keyword: "best chew toys for small dogs with separation anxiety"

Long-tail keywords tend to be more targeted, resulting in more qualified traffic. Use keyword research tools to explore variations of your target keywords.

Step 7: Evaluate Competitor Keywords

One of the best ways to find valuable keywords is to analyze your competitors’ websites. By doing this, you can discover keywords they are ranking for that you may not have thought of.

• How to do it:
  • Use tools like lOOkkle to enter the domain of a competitor and find which keywords they rank for.
  • Look at keywords driving the most traffic to their site and assess their keyword difficulty.
  • Identify keyword gaps (keywords they rank for that you are not targeting) and use them in your content strategy.

Step 8: Organize and Prioritize Keywords

Now that you have a list of potential keywords, it’s time to organize them:

• Group by intent: Organize keywords into categories based on their search intent (e.g., product-related, informational, local, etc.).
• Prioritize: Focus on keywords that are:
  • Relevant to your business and target audience.
  • Achievable in terms of competition and keyword difficulty.
  • Capable of driving conversions (not just traffic).

A good strategy is to focus on a mix of short-tail, long-tail, and branded keywords.

Step 9: Optimize Content Around Chosen Keywords

Once you've selected your target keywords, it's time to optimize your content for those keywords:

• Create high-quality content that answers the searcher’s query.
• Optimize on-page SEO: Include the keyword in the title tag, meta description, URL, headers, and throughout the content. Ensure the content flows naturally for both users and search engines.
• Include related keywords and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords that are contextually related to your main keyword.

Step 10: Track and Measure Keyword Performance

After you've published your content and optimized it for your target keywords, track the performance using SEO tools like "Check Website Ranking in Google by Keyword".

• Monitor rankings and see how your chosen keywords are performing.
• If certain keywords aren’t performing well, consider optimizing content further, adding more targeted keywords, or analyzing the competition to improve your rankings.

Analyzing Keyword Metrics: Search Volume, Difficulty, and Competition

When conducting keyword research, it’s essential to evaluate key metrics that help determine the value and potential of each keyword. Three of the most important metrics to focus on are Search Volume, Keyword Difficulty, and Competition. Understanding these metrics will guide you in choosing the best keywords for your SEO strategy.

Here’s a breakdown of each metric and how to analyze it effectively:

1. Search Volume

Search Volume refers to the number of searches a particular keyword receives within a specific time frame, usually on a monthly basis. This metric helps you understand the popularity and demand for a keyword.

Why is Search Volume Important?

• High search volume indicates more people are searching for that keyword, which means there’s a larger potential audience and more organic traffic.
• However, high-volume keywords are often more competitive and harder to rank for, so balancing between volume and competition is crucial.

How to Analyze Search Volume:

• Tools to Use: Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Ubersuggest, Lookkle Keyword Research Tool.
• Interpretation:
  • High Search Volume: Ideal for gaining more traffic but might require a more significant effort to rank due to competition.
  • Low Search Volume: Might have less competition, but will likely bring less traffic. However, these keywords often result in more targeted visitors, especially if they’re long-tail keywords.

Example:

• "dog toys" might have a search volume of 50,000 searches per month. This keyword is highly competitive but has a lot of potential traffic.
• "best chew toys for small dogs" could have a search volume of 1,000 searches per month, but this keyword is more targeted and could result in higher conversion rates.

How to Decide on Search Volume:

• Focus on keywords with a healthy balance of search volume and competition.
• Long-tail keywords with lower search volume can often be more effective in niche markets.

2. Keyword Difficulty (KD) / Keyword Difficulty Score

Keyword Difficulty (often abbreviated as KD) measures how challenging it will be to rank on the first page of Google for a specific keyword. This metric is calculated based on various factors, including the strength of the websites already ranking for that keyword and their SEO efforts.

Why is Keyword Difficulty Important?

• A high KD score means that it is difficult to rank for the keyword, as many authoritative websites already rank for it.
• A low KD score suggests that the keyword may be easier to rank for, especially if you have high-quality content or strong backlinks.

How to Analyze Keyword Difficulty:

• Tools to Use: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest.
• Interpretation:
  • High Difficulty: You may need to invest more effort in building high-quality content, backlinks, and domain authority to rank for these keywords.
  • Low Difficulty: These keywords may be easier to rank for, making them good targets for new websites or those looking to enter niche markets.

Keyword Difficulty Scores:

• Keyword difficulty is typically scored on a scale from 0 to 100.
  • 0-30 (Low): Easier to rank for, especially with less competitive or newer content.
  • 30-60 (Moderate): Requires strong SEO efforts, such as high-quality content, backlinks, and optimizing on-page factors.
  • 60-100 (High): Very difficult to rank for. Focus on long-tail keywords or keywords with low competition within this high-volume range.

How to Decide on Keyword Difficulty:

• If you're starting out or working on a smaller website, target keywords with lower difficulty that are highly relevant to your content.
• Use a mix of high and low difficulty keywords to create a balanced SEO strategy.

3. Competition

Competition refers to the number of websites competing for the same keyword and their SEO strength. It’s a measure of how many other websites are trying to rank for the same keyword and the quality of their content and backlinks.

Why is Competition Important?

• The higher the competition, the harder it will be to rank for a particular keyword.
• High competition often corresponds with high search volume and high keyword difficulty.
• Understanding the level of competition will help you assess if it's worth investing time and resources in ranking for that keyword.

How to Analyze Competition:

• Tools to Use: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Ubersuggest.
• Interpretation:
  • Low Competition: Fewer websites are competing for the keyword, which means it might be easier to rank. However, you should ensure the search intent behind the keyword is clear and the keyword is still valuable for your audience.
  • High Competition: Many websites are competing for this keyword, so it may be difficult and resource-intensive to outrank them. In these cases, consider targeting long-tail keywords or niche-specific terms with lower competition.

How to Assess Competition:

• Search the keyword in Google and evaluate the top 10 search results. Are they authoritative websites with strong content, backlinks, and domain authority?
• If the first page is filled with big players (e.g., Amazon, major media sites, etc.), it’s a high competition keyword.
• If you see smaller, niche websites ranking well, it may be an opportunity for you to compete.

How to Use Search Volume, Difficulty, and Competition Together

When analyzing keyword metrics, balance is key. Here’s how you can use the metrics together to develop a successful keyword strategy:

1. Low Competition + High Search Volume:

• These are golden opportunities. You can target these keywords with well-optimized content and high-quality backlinks to rank quickly and get significant traffic.
• Example: A niche, long-tail keyword with high search volume but low competition could be your ideal target.

2. Moderate Competition + Moderate Search Volume:

• These keywords are often best for intermediate SEO efforts. Focus on building strong content and a quality backlink profile to improve your rankings over time.
• Example: A keyword related to a specific product or service might have a moderate search volume but still attract valuable traffic.

3. High Competition + High Search Volume:

• These are competitive, high-volume keywords that are very hard to rank for. If you target these keywords, you’ll need an aggressive SEO strategy, including content creation, backlinks, technical SEO, and more.
• Example: Broad, highly competitive keywords (e.g., “dog food,” “fitness tips”) might require ongoing efforts and a long-term strategy.

4. Low Competition + Low Search Volume:

• These keywords may be easier to rank for but don’t bring a lot of traffic. However, they could be highly targeted, resulting in higher conversion rates.
• Example: A long-tail keyword related to a niche market or specific problem may have low search volume but higher engagement potential.