SEO Basics: Understanding Keyword Research for Business Growth

Understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a must for any business looking to grow and thrive. One of the most crucial aspects of SEO is keyword research. Yet keyword research is also one of the most misunderstood (or mis-recommended) aspects of SEO, which means that the advice given to entrepreneurs often has them either doing keyword research wrong, or misunderstanding how to do it best.

Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that potential customers use when searching for products, services, or content related to your business. By understanding and implementing effective keyword research, you can drive more traffic to your website, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing the terms that people enter into search engines. The goal is to use this information to guide your content strategy, ensuring that your website and content align with what your potential customers are searching for.

Keyword research is not just about finding the most searched terms, or the ones with the best “cost per click” or whatever else you may have been told. 

It should be about understanding the specific needs and questions of your potential customers, and providing the answers they’re looking for. This is where the value of long-tail keywords, which we’ve been recommended to use for years, comes into play. These are more specific phrases that people search for, and they often have less competition than more generic terms.

Don’t be mistaken in thinking that keywords are individual words – think of them more as topics related to your audience. It’s never a single word like “marketing” (at one time it was, but those days are long past).

Why is Keyword Research Important for Business Growth?

Keyword research is vital for business growth for several reasons:

1. Understanding Your Audience: Keyword research helps you understand what your potential customers are interested in and what information they’re looking for. This allows you to tailor your content and services to meet their needs.
2. Driving Traffic: By optimizing your website and content with the right keywords, and using them strategically, you can improve your search engine rankings. This can drive more organic traffic to your website. But always keep in focus that rankings aren’t your goal (because the importance of rankings has drastically changed).
3. Increasing Conversions: When your content aligns with what your audience is searching for, they’re more likely to engage with it and take the desired action, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting you for more information.
4. Staying Competitive: Understanding the keywords your competitors are targeting can help you identify gaps in your own content and SEO strategy. You can then adjust your approach to take advantage of these opportunities.

How to Conduct Keyword Research

Conducting keyword research involves several steps:

1. Identify Your Topics: Start by identifying the main topics that are relevant to your business. These should be broad categories that your potential customers might search for. For example, if you’re a digital marketing agency like us, your topics might include “SEO,” “content marketing,” “social media marketing,” and “email marketing.”
2. Find Keyword Ideas: Next, come up with keyword ideas for each of your topics. These should be terms that you think your potential customers might search for. The focus should ALWAYS be on the customer, and never on any “algorithm”. You can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, SEMrush or Ubersuggest to generate ideas and see how often people search for these terms.
3. Analyze Keyword Difficulty and Search Volume: Once you have a list of potential keywords, you’ll want to analyze each one to see how difficult it would be to rank for it and how often people search for it. Again, you can use tools like we listed for this. However, keep in mind we are placing less and less emphasis on the difficulty and search volume as search changes, especially with the introduction of AI-powered search.
4. Choose Your Keywords: Based on your analysis, choose the keywords that you think will be most effective for your business. These should be terms that have a high search volume and a low to medium difficulty level.
5. Implement Your Keywords: Finally, implement your chosen keywords into your website and content. This includes your website’s meta tags, headers, and body content, as well as any blog posts or other content you create.