What are Keywords?
Keywords are the words or phrases people type into Google and other search engines, and social media, when making a search. A keyword research strategy is one of the essential components for SEO success. Such a strategy helps website owners rank higher in the search engine results pages and secondly to identify their target audience.
Why is it necessary to search for Keywords for a Website?
Keywords are needed to
- meet the purpose of SEO
- satisfy search intent;
- cover a topic in detail;
- rank better in search engines;
- increase organic traffic;
- get more appropriate search terms.
The types of keywords and their Importance
There are two categories of keywords and several types under these two, with overlapping meaning. These two categories are
- primary – for example laptop, and
- secondary – Hp, Del, MacBook, Acer and other types of laptop.
Such categories are used for the search types of keywords mentioned below: Their meanings overlap in some cases.
Information and Navigation Keywords-
These are used when a search is being made for
- information,
- direction,
- facts, or knowledge,
without the aim to do a transaction related to the search. The user wants to fix a problem.
- Question phrases like
- ‘what is’,
- ‘how does’,
- ‘how to’
are used in the former type of search.
- Whilst Google map directions,
- amazon shopping,
- hotel and plane booking are examples of the latter.
- It may just bring valuable users to your site depending on the type of information it is.
- Transactional – examples of transactional keywords are
- buy,
- goods,
- cheap,
- best etc.
How does Google determine Keywords?
In addition, more terms or other variations of words (LSI), are used to give further meaning to keywords. Latent semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are used by Google to understand what a post is about. Reference Search Engine Journal:
“Google relies on LSI keywords to understand content at such a deep level.” by SEJ
How to find Searchable Keywords for Free
Most keyword tools have free and paid options. The free options are for a period or for making a few searches for a period of time. Below, let’s explore methods of doing keyword research without paid tools.
Let’s say you have a topic niche in mind for your writing and a list of relevant keywords. These are seed keywords, that should be written down or stored in a Google or Word document until you’re ready to perform some research. Seed keywords can be a list of topics, words or phrases related to your niche or subject.
If the phrases are made up of five or more words they are known as long-tail keywords; and can sometimes be more specifically related to what is being searched for.
For example “how to start a vegetable garden in a small space”. This is better than just searching for “vegetable garden”.
Step 1:
Google Auto Suggest or Auto Complete Method
- Put the keywords on your list into Google one after the other and go through the sites that come up to get more ideas to write on.
- As you put the keywords phrases into Google, go through the suggestions that come up. If there are some that youll want more info about, click on it. It goes back into search and more results are revealed.
- Place and click the cursor at the middle or end of the last word in the Google search bar. More terms are revealed.
- Use as many question phrases as possible including what, why, where, which and action verbs in this kind of research.
- Also use the words of the alphabet one after the other in the phrase. The image below show results when the letter ‘c’ is added to the phrase.
Copy or make a screen capture of these results and save in a Google or Word doc to use again.
Step 2
Use ‘People Also Ask’ (PAA) on Google
To find more search terms, move to the ‘People Also Ask’ section on the first page of Google.
Have you noticed, that more questions are revealed, when the down arrow beside a questions in PAA is clicked?
Go through more of these questions with their answers to uncover unique keywords and phrases for your post.
Step 3
Related searches at the bottom of the first page of Google
Use the ‘related searches’ at the bottom of the page for the same purpose. Put the phrases one after the other into Google
Use as many of the steps as possible in your search for keywords; not to use all at a go, if it’s not possible for you to do so.
Step 4
In addition use Google operators mentioned below for the same purpose:
- Use _ underscore before, in the middle or after the phrase. This acts like ‘fill in the blank’
- Use “ “ quotes around the keywords. – This will bring up only websites with the exact phrase in their title or sub titles
- Use * asterisk
- Use @
- Also plurals of some of the words
- Local names or location based searches, and
- Question phrases
User generated Phrases
Step 5
Sometimes you’ll find a question from a forum like Quora, on the first page. Answer that question thoroughly as a blog post. This could land your post in that position on the first page. Find below, an example of a user generated question:
Step 6. Use social media for keyword research
On social media, use the hashtag (#) symbol and also ‘@’ followed by the keyword. This will categorise the keyword, make it specific and easy to find.
Step 7. Use Keyword Generator Tools
There are several keyword generator tools online like Google Keyword Planner, Jaaxy, Ubersuggest, Wordstream keyword tool, Google trends, Soolve. Most paid tools have free options for several days or several searches for a period of time. Use these options also to find keywords for your blog.
Conclusion
Several factors go into SEO. These techniques related to keyword search for SEO success are free and some of the best to use. You may use those that resonate with you and add some more as time goes on. Use them naturally in your writing, together with quality content that provides value to your readers.
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