![\"Keyword](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/definition.jpg\")
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A keyword is much more than just a word or a phrase. Keywords represent the questions that potential buyers are typing into their browsers, hoping that Google will bring them answers. This means researching keywords is not just a process of finding keywords with high search volumes<\/b>; it also impacts the content that you create. Because if a keyword is a question for information, your content is the answer. This means understanding the intent behind the keywords you target is crucial<\/b>.<\/p>\n
By understanding high-value keywords and user search intent \u2013 whether informational (e.g., \u2018pizza delivery options\u2019) or transactional (e.g., \u2018buy products\u2019) \u2013 you can refine your SEO strategy<\/a> to answer more user queries, gain more organic traffic, and generate more revenue.<\/p>\n Keyword research is crucial to your SEO efforts because it helps you get your content in front of your audience at just the right time\u2014when they are searching for it. Keyword research involves:<\/p>\n In order for search engines to suggest your content as the right answer for any given user query, they have to understand what your content is about. One of the ways they do this is by reading your site\u2019s navigation and URL structure. The key to having a machine-readable site structure is understanding the topic your site covers as a whole. And the best way to do that is through SEO keyword research. I\u2019ll cover this process in detail when I discuss seed keywords.<\/p>\n Getting this right will give your site solid foundations on which to build your long-term SEO strategy, potentially bringing customers and leads to your business while you sleep.<\/p>\n Firstly, you should do keyword research right at the beginning of any SEO project. This will help you:<\/p>\n Next, you should do keyword research before you create any content. The reason is keyword research can help you build out content briefs and find subtopics that are related to your content, which could either appear as a section in your content or become a piece of supporting content.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, there\u2019s more to ranking on search engines than just adding your keyword to your title tag. Search engines are designed to understand the intent behind a user query and rank content that best answers that user intent. This means before you create any content, you must first understand the intent behind the search query.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been in SEO for a while, you\u2019ll know that Google breaks the internet into topics and subtopics. It then ranks sites based on topical authority<\/a>: how authoritative they are within their chosen topic.<\/p>\n This means that the process of ranking websites broadly consists of building a structured network of content that answers a large volume of niche-related questions. The more user queries you answer in a niche, the more authoritative you become.<\/p>\n Keyword research will help you find and answer all of those user queries. It will also help you structure your web content so that search engines and users can find it easily.<\/p>\n Here is how you do that.<\/p>\n When you start to work on a site, your first job is to figure out what the site owners want to showcase. This means that the main navigation<\/a> acts as a hint regarding the business objectives of the website you are trying to optimize, so starting your research there makes sure you cover a lot of the business’s top priority topics.<\/p>\n In general, each site should focus on one general topic, and the menu should represent a list of subtopics. For instance, parents.com is focused on the parenting niche. The top-level menu lists the subtopics that the site is broken down into, including:<\/p>\n Although these are subtopics, to keep the language simple, for the rest of this post, I\u2019ll refer to them as topics.<\/p>\n Your keyword research process starts here.<\/p>\n Build out a separate keyword list for each topic by using a seed keyword. Seed keywords are broad keywords that represent an entire subject. They are typically made up of one or two words and include no modifiers. In the case of parents.com, good seed keywords could be:<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve identified a seed keyword, drop it into your favorite keyword research tool<\/a>. This will bring you a vast amount of keywords all within the topic. For instance, below, I\u2019ve dropped the seed keyword \u2018pregnancy\u2019 into the Similarweb Keyword Generator<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n The result is a large unfiltered list of keywords. Export this list into an a Google sheet and do the same for all of the other topics you see on the site. In the case of parenting.com, once I\u2019ve exported the parenting keywords, I\u2019ll still have to find keywords for:<\/p>\n Since each category is a separate topic within the parenting niche, you should keep each category in a separate tab in your spreadsheet.<\/p>\n One of the quickest ways to find keywords to target is to look at keywords you are already ranking for but have no dedicated content yet. It\u2019s common for Google to rank your content on keywords that are only tangentially related to your target keyword.<\/p>\n If these ranking keywords represent content that can\u2019t be added to any of your pages, it might make sense to create a new page targeting these keywords and linking back to the original content.<\/p>\n You can easily find these keywords using the Search Results report in <\/b>Google Search Console<\/b><\/a>. Dig through these keywords and add keyword opportunities to each of your keyword lists.<\/p>\n To explore:<\/p>\n These keywords present opportunities to:<\/p>\n This method helps you find better keywords to focus on and discover new areas for content expansion.<\/p>\n The next step is using a competitor analysis tool<\/a>. The reason is simple: SEO is competitive by its very nature. To rank above your competitors, all you have to do is be slightly better than them.<\/p>\n This is especially true for keyword research. Search engines favor sites that cover topics more comprehensively than their competitors, seeing them as more authoritative. This means for each topic you want to rank for, you must compare your site to the top market leaders. Look for keywords that top sites in your niche are ranking on where your site has no topical coverage.<\/p>\n So, when performing SEO competitive analysis<\/a>, make sure to:<\/p>\n To demonstrate, I\u2019ve dropped parenting.com into the Similarweb Website Explorer<\/b><\/a> and compared the site to its top four competitors. Now, before comparing keywords, it\u2019s important to remember that you are generating separate keyword lists for the different keyword categories that exist on the site you are working on. This means you should filter the keyword lists by topic. And since I\u2019m already focusing on pregnancy<\/i> keywords, I\u2019ve filtered the keywords, focusing only on keywords that include the word \u2018pregnancy\u2019.<\/p>\n By looking at the Competitive Traffic Share column<\/b>, you can easily identify keywords where your competitors are ranking and driving traffic, but your site is not. This provides a clear breakdown of how your site’s traffic and growth potential compares to your competitors.<\/p>\n Export these keywords and add them to your keyword lists. Be sure to do that for all of your topics.<\/p>\n After completing the previous steps, you’ll have a substantial list of keywords for each topic. The next step is to create order out of each keyword set.<\/p>\n 1. Divide the keywords into main categories.<\/b> For example, if you have a keyword list for digital marketing, your categories might include:<\/p>\n You should silo these categories on your site. This will ensure that each category is easy to find and navigate. One of the best ways to do this is to create a folder for each category.<\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n examplesite.com\/digital-marketing\/<\/i>seo<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n examplesite.com\/digital-marketing\/<\/i>content-marketing<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Another important step is to include your structure in breadcrumbs on your pages. This could look like this:<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Break down each category into <\/b>topic clusters<\/b><\/a>.<\/b> Using the SEO category as an example, your clusters could be:<\/p>\n Each cluster should consist of numerous keywords with many different search intents and should exist within its dedicated folder. In other words, the SEO folder will include SEO tools, keyword research, and backlinks clusters.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Group keywords with similar search intent.<\/b> If you’re unsure which keywords share the same intent, simply Google them. Google\u2019s algorithms are designed to interpret search intent<\/a> and display results that best address that intent.<\/p>\n For instance, looking at backlink-related keywords, you might see different intents:<\/p>\nWhy is keyword research (still) important?<\/h2>\n
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When should you do keyword research?<\/h3>\n
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![\"3](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/benefits.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow to do keyword research in 7 easy steps<\/h2>\n
1. Start by analyzing the main navigation<\/h3>\n
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![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/parents.png\")
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![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/kwgenerator.png\")
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![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/researchspread.png\")
<\/p>\n2. See what you already rank for with Google Search Console<\/h3>\n
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![\"Exploring](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/gsc.png\")
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3. Use competitor analysis tools<\/h3>\n
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![\"competitive](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/capregnancy.png\")
<\/p>\n4. Segment your topic keyword list into subcategories and clusters<\/h3>\n
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![\"Dividing](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/maincategories.png\")
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![\"Dividing](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/topics.png\")
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![\"Dividing](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/kwgroups.png\")
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