6 Steps for researching keywords

1. Getting started with a brainstorm list

2. Acknowledging that you need a keyword research tool

3.Refining your list using suggested keyword phrases from an analysis tool

4.Verifying keyword phrase relevance

5.Looking at search volume to determine consumer demand

6.Analyzing the competitive space to make sure you and the searcher think the keywords mean the same things, and to decide if the space is too competitive.

Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the "right" keywords can make or break your website. Through the detective work of puzzling out your market's keyword demand, you not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole. It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors. The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated - with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are already actively seeking. In the history of marketing, there has never been such a low barrier to entry in understanding the motivations of consumers in virtually every niche.



How much is a keyword worth to your website? If you own an online shoe store, do you make more sales from visitors searching for "brown shoes" or "black boots?" The keywords visitors type into search engines are often available to webmasters, and keyword research tools allow us to find this information. However, those tools cannot show us directly how valuable it is to receive traffic from those searches. To understand the value of a keyword, we need to understand our own websites, make some hypotheses, test, and repeat - the classic web marketing formula.

I don't believe finding the right keywords are important because if you write your article to answer questions your target market are looking for, and writing them naturally as if you are sitting across from them at a coffee table, the keywords will be there naturally. Using any formula is limited because when there is one small change ( search engines changing the rules because of people trying to rank for basic linear content) you have to change all the rules for creating new content. The search engines want original natural content to feature on the search engines, not the right keyword articles. Those keywords are just a proxy. The expert level writers use this method and just write. It tends to be evergreen, especially when you also go deep, be strategic and then add on the linear only after you have mapped it out and even the roadmap of how to get to what you are teaching in your post. But just creating a natural post, without all the hard work of trying to rank for the search engines will get you ranked for people for now. People that are looking for your post, learning more about your credibility so they can trust you'll deliver and buy over and over. There is a madness to this and you have to look at the big picture because everything has to be there if you want the right keywords to be effective, or why even care to rank. Write for people looking for a solution and not for the search engines. A lot less trouble and you can maximize your content distribution instead of wasting time on things that don't matter...just my opinion.

Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines "speaks the same language" as its potential visitor base with keywords for SEO that help connect searchers to your site.

Most beginning search marketers make the same mistakes when it comes to SEO keyword research:

Only doing SEO keyword research once,

Not bothering to update and expand their SEO keyword list, or

Targeting keywords that are too popular, meaning they’re way too competitive.

The search engines want original natural content to feature on the search engines, not the right keyword articles. Those keywords are just a proxy.