A Beginner's Guide to Keyword Research for SEO in 2023
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential element of digital marketing success that can expand your reach to help your business boost sales and build relationships with potential customers.
Keyword research is one of the most important building blocks for optimizing your website and content for search engines. It helps you identify the most relevant search terms and phrases that your potential customers use when looking for products, services, or information related to your business. When done right, keyword research can help you craft content that resonates with your target audience and drives more organic traffic to your website. But, if done wrong, it can lead to wasted time and resources. That’s why understanding what keyword research is, the different types of keywords, and how to do it is so important.
If you're a small business owner with no prior SEO experience, understanding the basics of keyword research can seem daunting. But don't worry! We'll walk you through the essential steps you need to take to get started with keyword research in 2023.
In this article, we will share with you the key strategies for doing keyword research for search intent and how to validate the keywords you find so that you can be sure your website has the best possible chance of success!
Before you begin:
- It's important to analyze and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your website. Doing so will help you make more informed decisions while conducting research.
- To maximize your SEO success, make sure that keyword research is closely aligned with your overall SEO strategy and objectives.
- Always keep your target audience in mind: when researching, prioritize satisfying their search intent and delivering value to your users.
Keyword Basics
When you write page content or an article based on one targeted keyword, your page/article never really ranks for just that keyword; it ranks for a range of keywords that the search engines think are relevant to their searchers.
There are two steps to finding good keywords for your blog or website.
Start by brainstorming the topics that are most relevant to your industry and business. Make a list of all related keywords, questions, and topics you can think of. Use free tools like the Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends tool to generate more ideas.
Use keyword research tools like Moz Keyword Explorer, Google Keyword Planner (for researching paid keywords), and/or a free SEO keyword research browser extension like Keyword Surfer to identify the most relevant and popular keywords in your industry.
I will walk you through the types of keywords and the methods for searching for those that are most relevant.