A successful campaign to increase valuable traffic to your website starts with understanding the right keywords that you want your website to rank for. Keyword research can help you determine what potential customers are searching for and uncover opportunities where your site can move up to the first page in search results. The following resources provide helpful ideas and tips for conducting effective keyword research for your company. I have also included my top takeaways from each article or resource.
How to Do Keyword Research: 17 Industry Experts Shared Their Methods & Tools Rana Shahbaz
-Use Ubersuggest to get suggested keyword based on a root phrase.
-Look for keywords that are related to the problem you are solving.
How to Improve Your Rankings with Semantic Keyword Research SEOMoz
-Semantic search tries to determine what people mean when they enter keywords.
-Search for a keyword in Twitter search to see how people are talking about specific keyword phrases.
5 Tips for Conducting Semantic Keyword Research Search Engine Journal
-Related searches indicate what Google “thinks” are semantically related keywords.
-Write for humans first, search engines second.
The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research Viperchill
-Use Yahoo Answers to find popular questions that people are searching for.
The Beginner’s Guide to SEO – Keyword Research SEOMoz
-There has never been a lower barrier to entry for understanding the motivations of buyers in any niche.
Keyword Research for Web Writers and Content Producers Copyblogger
-Keyword research indicates what people are interested in and what language they use.
Google Related Searches Blind Five Year Old
-Review “related searches” for keyword ideas and keyword modifiers.
Keyword Research for SEO SEO Nick
-Make sure to set the Google Keyword tool to exact match to get a realistic monthly search volume.
-“Local” in the Google Keyword tool refers to the local country, not the local area.
How to Take Your Keyword Research to a Higher Level Search Engine Land
-Keywords that you have not assigned to a specific page will be a distraction.
SEO Strategy For Business – How To Build A Keyword Opportunity Model SEONick
-Use this Google spreadsheet to estimate the value of specific keywords for your business.
4 Under The Radar Keyword Research Sources You Can Use To Find Hidden Gems Search Engine Land
-Use http://stats.grok.se/ to find out how many people have visited a specific page on Wikipedia.
Minimum Viable Keyword Research John Doherty
-Your domain strength helps determine which keywords you have a chance to rank for.
How to Research Keywords: Tips, Competition and Squirrels Orbit Media
-Use Google Trends to see if a keyword is becoming more or less popular.
-The competition level in Google’s Keyword Tool estimates competition for Adwords not organic search results.
5 Unexpected Keyword Research Sources Search Engine Journal
-Check popular industry forums and review titles of popular threads.
-Listen to how customers describe your offering over the phone.
Extending Keyword Research: Learn from Your Offline Audience Seer Interactive
-Think about questions that people are asking offline.
-Create FAQ pages to answer common questions.
Conducting a Keyword Performance Audit Zazzle
-Export your visits from keywords in Google Analytics into Excel and compare this to the values of the estimated monthly exact search volume from Google’s Keyword Tool.
-Google’s Keyword Tool might not be accurate for recently trending keyword phrases.
Spy on Your Competitors for Keyword Research Authority Labs
-Look for keywords where Google thinks sites like yours should rank well.
Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid Single Grain
-Consider the competition level of the first page of Google; don’t be deterred by a large number of results for a keyword phrase.
Beyond Google Adwords Keyword Research Quicksprout
-Bing’s Keyword Research Tool shows the exact amount of times a keyword phrase showed up in search in the past 30 days or longer.
-Use strict mode for the equivalent of exact match.
When Keyword Targeting Gets Tough SEOMoz
-If it makes sense for users, put multiple keywords on the same page.
-Use natural language on your pages.
-Combine keywords that make sense.
-If it is a competitive keyword phrase, consider a separate page.
If you would like to suggest a helpful resource that we missed, please mention it below in the comments.
Good list of keyword research articles & tools – thanks! I’ve seen a few of these but not all.