Why Is Keyword Research Important for SEO?

Keyword research is like a secret tool that helps you find the best words to use in your online writing and marketing. In simple terms, it's about figuring out what people are searching for on the internet and using those words strategically.

Learning how to conduct keyword research is a fundamental SEO task that every digital marketer should be familiar with. Keyword research helps you understand what words and phrases people are using when they search for information related to your topic. By knowing these keywords, you can use them in your content and increase the chances of your work showing up at the top of search engine results. 

Keyword research also gives you insights into what's popular or trending online, helping you stay up to date with what people are interested in. It can also help you stand out from the competition by discovering unique ideas or topics that haven't been explored as much. 

In the next sections, we'll explore the benefits of keyword research in more detail and share some strategies to help you use it effectively.

There are three types of keywords determined by their length:

1. Long tail keywords

2. Short tail keywords

3. Middle tail keywords

The sort of keyword you want to use for marketing will be determined by the type of visitors you want to drive to your site. Search volume decreases as keywords become longer. All other indicators, like conversion rates, favor long-tail keywords.

Long tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases that target a niche audience. They typically consist of three or more words and have lower search volumes but also lower competition. 

Long tail keywords often have higher conversion rates as they attract users with specific intentions. Examples of long tail keywords include "best running shoes for flat feet and knee pain," "digital marketing tips for small businesses in 2023," or "family-friendly resorts in Hawaii with water slides."

Short tail keywords are also known as head keywords or broad keywords. They are short and general keyword phrases that consist of one or two words. They have high search volumes but are often highly competitive. But, because these terms are less focused, the conversion rate is the lowest. Examples of short tail keywords include "shoes," "digital marketing," or "travel destinations."

Short tail keywords are difficult to rank for, and it might take quite a bit of money and time to reach page one of Google for them. So, unless you're doing search engine optimization for a big company, it's best to avoid them when doing keyword research.

Middle tail keywords are sometimes called body keywords. These are slightly longer and more specific than short tail keywords. They usually consist of two to three words and have a moderate search volume and competition. 

Because there are many unexplored terms in the industry, middle tail keywords are an excellent choice for keyword research. Since they are more targeted to the searcher, the conversion rates are also lower.

You can find three to four-word searches that are easy to rank on the first pages of Google for any company. Examples of middle tail keywords include "running shoes for beginners," "social media marketing strategies," or "best vacation spots in Europe."

Using a combination of these types of keywords in your keyword research and content strategy allows you to cover a range of search intents and attract a diverse audience. Short tail keywords help you capture broader visibility, while long tail keywords can bring in more targeted and qualified traffic. It's important to find the right balance and relevance based on your specific goals and target audience.

Choosing keywords requires careful consideration to make sure they align with your content, target audience, and goals. Here are some tips:

The first stage in selecting keywords is to consider the search intent of your visitors. And to do so, you must examine the buyer's journey.

The journey of a buyer involves three important steps:

1. Awareness Stage: At this stage, the buyer becomes aware that they have an issue or a need. 

2. Consideration Stage: The customer outlines their problem and investigates possible solutions.

3. Decision Stage: Finally, in the decision stage, the customer makes a choice that they believe will solve their problem. 

Understanding this buyer journey helps businesses and marketers create strategies to reach potential customers at each stage. By providing helpful information, addressing their needs, and offering the right solutions, businesses can guide buyers through this process and ultimately make a sale.

The second stage in determining how to choose keywords is to do keyword research to narrow down your target terms. You'll need a keyword research tool for this to gather important information for making good choices.

After selecting a keyword tool, open it and start looking for short and middle tail keyword suggestions. Long tail keyword suggestions should start to appear as you search.

As previously said, short tail keywords are too hard to target. Instead, simply use these terms as seed keywords in the program to produce ideas for middle and long tail keywords.

After you've finished searching for keywords, compile a list of the terms and phrases that receive a lot of traffic. Aim for at least 10 long tail keyword searches per month and 100 middle tail keyword searches per month.

When doing keyword research, it's important to consider the competition for your desired keywords. If the competition for a keyword is too great, you may be wasting your time trying to create and rank new content for it. This is known as keyword or SEO difficulty, and is based on the following: 

• Authority & Trust: The topical authority and trust that your domain and pages have earned is an important factor in determining Google search rankings.
  
• Backlinks are the number of external links that send link juice to that site.
  
• Facebook shares: The number of Facebook shares a URL has received for the same keyword.
  

Keywords with a difficulty level of 0-9 are considered easy, whereas keywords with a difficulty value of 50 or more are considered difficult or impossible.

If you're using a paid keyword research service, you can quickly find the competition score for a term or phrase by looking at the relevant field.

Keyword clusters are a group of keywords that are closely linked but not identical. 

A keyword cluster might look like this:

• “SEO software for eCommerce sites”
  
• “SEO software for online stores”
  
• “SEO software for e-commerce”
  

As you can see, the definitions of these terms are very similar, yet they use different wording. 

It would be a bad idea to write separate pieces of content for each of these keywords, as this could lead to keyword cannibalization. Instead, content writers should combine all closely linked keywords into a single piece of material. A basic rule of thumb for how many keywords to focus on per page is two to three.

This is simple to do by looking for a few of your keywords on Google and noting the sort of content that appears on the first page of the search results. Your study will soon show whether the topic is best expressed through text, lists, graphs, tables, graphics, and so on.

Google is giving you the answer here. So, to make it easier to rank for your target keywords, match the correct structure for your content. You should also consider the length of the content.

In conclusion, keyword research is important for several reasons. 

The primary idea behind keyword research is to figure out what people want to read about and then build your content on those topics. And, depending on where a person is in the buyer's journey, different keywords are more relevant to target.

In a nutshell, keyword research is like a secret weapon that helps you understand your audience, attract the right people, stand out from the crowd, and create valuable content.