How to do truly effective keyword research (and avoid the common keyword research mistakes)

Posted by Celia on Sep 21, 2011 in Blog, How to do SEO | 82 comments

Part 1 of 2 – Collecting Keyword Data

Whenever I talk to a new client I always emphasize the importance of good keyword research. Any website needs a solid keyword foundation otherwise any future SEO attempt is likely to be futile.

One of the mistakes made over and over again however is choosing keywords that are simply too broad. I can tell you right now that the chances of my little ‘ol site popping up when the term “search engine optimisation” is pumped into google are going to be slim, no matter how much time and effort I spend trying to get there. Likewise a company selling watches is unlikely to rank highly for the term “watch” of “watches”. The terms are too broad and the competition is too fierce. Furthermore these terms aren’t even particularly useful. I would far rather be found on the search term “SEO consultant wanted” than on something like “SEO” – one of these terms is likely to find me a new client, the other term could be related to anything at all.

Both the imaginary watch website and I need to target much narrower search terms. Although internet users start off with broad terms, they don’t often end there – I expect you have experienced this yourself when searching for information on the web.

The first place to start when carrying out keyword research is to open a text document and write down 10 keywords that you think relate to your business and would be good to appear on the first page of google for.

Although it’s important to use common sense, there are some things to consider when coming up with this list:

As I’ve mentioned, very broad terms aren’t always that useful. For example, a virtual assistant may be tempted to write down “virtual assistant” not realizing the upward battle this is likely to be. Instead, terms like “hire a virtual assistant” or “virtual assistant needed” are likely to have far less competition and therefore be much easier terms to dominate. These are good examples of very targeted keywords.

Avoid industry jargon if you are selling to the general public as they won’t be searching for these terms. The general public or those who are new to the industry are likely to be using basic terms and phrases so avoid complicated industry specific terms.

With your starting list in hand you are ready to start expanding it with the help of the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and my handy “Keyword Research Template”.

Download your free Keyword Research Template here!

Step 1

Enter your 10 keywords into column A of the Keyword Research Template

Step 2

Open the Google keyword tool

How to use the Google keyword Tool

Step 3

Enter your 10 words / phrases into the “words or phrases (one per line)” box

Step 4

In the “advanced filters and options box” select the country you are particularly wanting to target. If working for a US based client I select US. If working with an Australian client I choose Australia. If doing research for myself I choose UK. I always leave the language setting on its default “English.”

Step 5

Next select some filters. I usually choose “local monthly searches” greater than 1000, “global monthly searches” greater than 1000, and “competition” low and medium. This gives me fewer results and makes the whole process more manageable.

Step 6

Type in the characters and click search

At this point you will be given results. These results are skewed however and an extra step is needed to narrow them. Don’t forget this step as it is crucial.

Step 7

On the “match type” situated on left of screen select “exact”. The other two options widen the search data and are best avoided. Click search again.

The data you will be given involves a list of keywords that include or are related to your original search terms entered into the box at the beginning. You will see the volume of searches made globally each month for those terms and the volume made locally (in the country you selected in the countries box). The competition data is related to google adwords so can be mostly ignored and just viewed as a guide. I will tell you a much better way to judge the competition of a keyword later.

Step 8

The easiest way to extract this date is to download it. Press “download” “all” (or the select keywords you want first). Choose the format you need – I always choose “CSV” and then click download.

Step 9

Open the spreadsheet once it has downloaded and delete the “competition” column (B).

Step 10

Copy and paste the rest of the columns into the corresponding columns on your Keyword Research Template (columns B,C and D.)

Now that you have this raw data in front of you, it is time to find out which of the keywords are good ones to choose. It may be tempting to just choose the top few with highest numbers of search volumes but this could be a mistake. You have to know which of the keywords have a low competition so that you can be confident you can rank well for these terms.

My next blog post will provide this very information. Don’t miss out on Part 2 of this series “How to do Truly Effective Keyword Research.”

If you would like us here at AshaMoon to do your keyword research for you, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We also offer SEO copywriting, onsite SEO and a range of other professional SEO services. Browse our site to find out about our link building services and social media marketing services or contact a member of the team.