What is keyword and keyword research? Learn about them

What are keywords in SEO-How to find them with keyword research!

The keyword is a term mostly used in digital marketing. Digital marketers use keywords to define search queries. If you want to get some organic traffic from search engines then first you'll have to find the keywords your audience type into search engines.

But how will you do this?

You can do this with keyword research! So, if you want to learn What are keywords and How to do keyword research then stick to this article till the end!

What are keywords in digital marketing and SEO?

Keywords are the words or phrases that people type into search engines to find what they are looking for!

As the word phrases suggest keyword is not necessarily one word, a complete sentence may also be a keyword.

Suppose you are looking to buy a new trouser...You might type something like this into Google.

"Best trousers for men"

Yeah! it is not a word but a complete phrase, but yes, it is still a keyword.

Why keywords are important?

Simply, keywords are important because they are the words that your target audience will type into search engines to find the information they want. And that is your chance because, if you want to drive your audience to your site then you'll have to rank for those keywords otherwise you'll lose the opportunity...

Of course, you can not rank for every keyword, but you can rank for those important to your business.

For example:

If you sell "mobile phones" then you will might want to rank for "Best mobile phones to buy" because it is related to your business! 

How are keywords important in SEO?

Keywords were always important in SEO. About fifteen to twenty years ago the SEO Malaysia was all about keywords and backlinks. Webmasters used to stuff their websites with keywords to make their website rank.

In fact, the most successful SEO technique was to write keywords on white background with white colour, so users can't see them but search engines can.

 But, Search engine algorithms keep evolving with time and so did SEO. And Now advance search engines like Google and Bing keep into account a majority of factors when ranking content. But does it mean that keywords have lost their value? Does it mean that keywords aren't important anymore?

Surely, that's not the case. Keywords are still very important to SEO. And it's almost impossible to achieve higher search engine rankings, without proper keyword research.

How to find keywords with Keyword research?

So now we know what is a keyword? Now, it is time to find some keywords!

There are many ways to find keywords but the easiest and the widely used method is to use keyword research tool. Most of the keyword research tools work in the same way. We type some broad keywords or head terms in the tools and then the tool will respond with a massive list of keywords!

Some of these keyword research tools are free but many are paid!

But in our today's keyword research we are going to use the free version of SEMrush's keyword magic tool.

The free version is quite limited as you can search only 10 keywords a day!

How to do keyword research with SEMrush's "Keyword Magic tool"

Let's say you sell "mobile phones".

Just head on to SEMrush's keyword magic tool.

Enter a broad keyword like "Buy mobile phones"

Now you can see that this term has a high difficulty and it is difficult to rank for it, because of high competition. It means that big brands are targeting it.

Now, I want you to use filters provided by SEMrush to go through the list!

You can use a keyword difficulty filter to find less competitive keywords.

You can go after easy keywords if you are a new site, but if you have a well-established site, you can go after competitive terms.

After applying the filter you can see that SEMrush has figured out some very easy keywords, that you can focus on. 

Tip: Take your time to understand each and every filter!

How to choose keywords!

Now you have learned to find keywords?

 It's time to choose some keywords...

Keep these things in mind when choosing keywords.

Search volume: Is it worth ranking for a keyword no one is searching for?? Obviously not! Your goal is not to rank on the top of Google SERP but to drive some organic traffic to your website. So only choose a keyword that has some significant search volume...

Relevance: Your keywords must match what you are offering. Your goal is to connect with people who are looking for our product or services. If you sell jackets then it will be of no use for ranking on a keyword like "yoga".

Searcher Intent: Your keyword must align with what a searcher is searching for. Before choosing a keyword you must keep searchers intent in mind.

For example, a company selling mobile phones should rank for "best mobile phones to buy" rather than on a broad keyword like "mobile phones".

Because "best mobile phones to buy" has low competition and the searcher has a clear intent to buy!

Here is what the famous digital marketer "Neil Patel" said about user intent with the keyword!

User intent is what makes keywords effective. If you know about the different kinds of user intent, you can optimize your keywords for that intent.

— Neil Patel (@neilpatel) September 14, 2021

How to optimize for keywords-- Where to use keywords!

Now we have chosen some keywords and now it's time to optimize for those keywords!

While optimizing for keywords make sure that you use keywords in the following parts of the content!

• Title tags
• H1 heading
• H2 heading
• Permalinks
• First 100 words of your blogpost

But remember that

"The best way for optimizing for a keyword is to understand the searcher's intent with a specific keyword. And once you have understood it then what you'll have to do is to create content that best matches the searcher intent."

Also, make sure that while using keywords in the given parts of the web page/content "Don't abuse keywords"

Make sure that your title tags, heading tags, URLs, etc exactly and accurately describes your content and aren't stuffed with keywords.