What’s a Keyword?
A keyword is a word or a concept that has great significance. It is the words or phrases that an internet user types in to a search boxes to find what they are looking for.
Keyword research is important because it’s the language of your audience. Click To TweetKeyword research is important because it’s the language of your audience. Think beyond just SEO. You have to find the root of what your audience’s frustration, wishes and problems are.
You want to include keywords in your blog or on your site as much as possible; however you don’t want to just use them randomly.
[HOT TIP]Randomly placing keywords is known as ‘keyword spamming’ which ultimately causes people and search engines to hate you. Don’t do it!
You want to be reputable and trustworthy. Spamming is never an associated quality of those adjectives. Click To TweetWhat is Keyword Research?
Keyword research allows you to see what people are searching for as well as guess what else they may search for so that you can then optimize for those keywords.
When you do a Google search it brings up a page of results where it shows a listing of different sites related to your search topic. The search engine records what you searched for. They then keep track of it and of how many people search for different terms.
This is helpful to you and for you. As a consumer, you benefit from businesses and marketers being able to research information and provide you better products. As the business or marketer you benefit in that you can get an idea of what people are searching for and what words they are using to look for it.
A keyword search tool pulls this information from several different search engines to guess how many times people search for that keyword. It’s not 100% accurate as it doesn’t have the records from all search engines out there however it gives a good guess.
Researching your keywords will help you determine their popularity and competition. Ideally, you want your keyword to have high popularity but be low in competition. During your research you may also come across related keywords that you can capitalize on as well.
Keywords can help you make or break a website. They allow you to learn about your customers and what their needs are. Keywords are not only about getting people to your site but also getting the right kind of people to your site. The people that will find the most benefit out of what you have to offer.
Where can you do this keyword research?
Google AdWords Keyword Planner- google.com/AdWords/KeywordTool
Google Trends- trends.google.com
Wordtracker – wordtracker.com
Moz Keyword Explorer- moz.com/products/pro/keyword-explorer
The Moz Blog (www.moz.com/blog) offers some great resources and articles on multiple topics worth checking out such as SEO, Blogging, Branding, Conversion Rate, and much much more. It’s definitely a site you want to bookmark to reference.
I had no concept of keywords, until now. Thank you! As a blogger, I am definitely going to keep this info handy. My eyes usually glaze over when I see words like SEO and branding, but you made this easy to understand and completely doable. Thanks so much!
Hi Kelly! I’m glad it was helpful for you! Keywords and SEO can be overwhelming and frustrating hopefully these tools help though!
Thank you for this! I feel like SEO is something that I have to constantly keep teaching myself!
Hi Steph! You’re welcome! I think SEO is something that we all continually are learning and growing with 🙂
I am always struggling with this aspect of blogging. Thank you for all the resources. Should work on it before it is too late.
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It can definitely take some time to master. I hope you find the resources helpful!
Very informative post. Keywords are definitely so important. Thank you for sharing these keyword resources.
Hi Annette! You’re welcome! Keywords are important (and sometimes a pain..lol) Glad it was helpful!
Great information for a starting blogger like me!
Glad it was helpful Lyndsay!
I struggle with choosing a keyword for my blog posts. SEO is such a learning curve!
It really is! Just remember that you’re not alone in it!
Thanks for this break down, I’m trying to pay more attention to keywords and this will definitely help!
You’re welcome! I’m glad it was helpful. Keywords can be overwhelming sometimes!
I am always forgetting about keywords – I have to force myself every time to use Yoast SEO in order to remember to add my keywords enough to my post lol.
I can understand that, Yoast SEO is a big help and one of my favorite plugins!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on keyword research. I’m currently using Google for this task, but I’m considering other options. I’ll check out some of the ones you linked!
You’re welcome! Google is definitely helpful and a staple go-to for keyword research.
I can get a little obsessive about KW research if I’m not careful.. Love it!
Hi Shan! I know what you’re saying! lol It can definitely suck you in!
Great information for new bloggers and seasoned blogger, alike.
Thanks Amanda!
Thank you! I am still figuring all of this stuff out, and this post was really helpful.
Hi Ashley! I’m so glad. Thank you!
You just reminded me that I need to go through all my posts and remove some tags because of this spamming issue, thank you And thank you for the research links, this was totally my gameplan this week.
Hi Anita! I’m glad it was helpful!