How to Find Keywords: Effective Keyword Research Methods

Learn practical methods for generating keyword ideas, using keyword research tools effectively, and evaluating keywords for search demand, traffic potential, and business value.

Main Theme

Key Points and Facts

Definition of Keyword Research and Two Major Steps

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search terms that people enter into search engines.
The process consists of two major steps: generating keyword ideas and evaluating if they're worth targeting.
The goal is to find keywords with good traffic potential, low competition, and high relevance to your business.

Importance of Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools provide data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and other SEO metrics that help evaluate keywords.
Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner can significantly streamline the keyword research process.
While these tools require paid subscriptions, they're essential investments for serious SEO work.

Starting with Seed Keywords

Start with 'seed keywords' - broad terms that directly relate to your website's main topics.
For a golf blog, examples might include 'golf balls', 'golf clubs', and 'golf hats'.
These seed keywords will serve as the foundation for discovering more specific keyword opportunities.

Using Phrase Match to Expand Keyword List

Use keyword research tools to find 'phrase match' keywords that contain your seed keywords.
For example, searching for phrase matches of 'golf balls' might reveal terms like 'best golf balls', 'golf balls for beginners', etc.
This approach helps you discover variations and long-tail keywords related to your main topics.

Five Key Elements for Initial Keyword Screening

When evaluating keywords, consider these five critical factors:

Search Demand: The keyword needs to have sufficient search volume to be worth pursuing.
Traffic Potential: Consider the actual traffic that top-ranking pages for this keyword receive, as not all searches generate clicks.
Business Potential: Evaluate whether the keyword has value for your business and can help you achieve your goals.
Match Search Intent: You need to be able to create content that aligns with what searchers are looking for when they use this keyword.
Ranking Difficulty: Assess how difficult it will be to rank for this keyword based on the competition.

Filtering Keywords by Search Volume

The monthly search volume of a keyword indicates how many people are searching for it.
While higher search volume generally means more traffic potential, it often comes with higher competition.
For new websites, targeting keywords with lower search volume (e.g., 100-1,000 monthly searches) can be a more strategic approach initially.

Evaluating Traffic Potential

Search volume doesn't always accurately reflect the actual traffic you could receive from ranking for a keyword.
Traffic potential is determined by examining how much traffic the top-ranking pages for a keyword actually get.
Tools like Ahrefs can show the estimated monthly organic traffic to the top-ranking pages for a given keyword.
Traffic potential is often a more reliable metric than search volume for prioritizing keywords.

Evaluating Business Potential and the Importance of Matching Search Intent

Business potential is simply a keyword's value to your business.
Even if a keyword has high search volume and traffic potential, you need to consider whether you can match search intent.
Example: The search results for 'golf clubs' are mainly e-commerce category pages. For a golf blog monetizing through affiliate marketing, creating the same type of page to match search intent is not possible, so the business potential is low.

Filtering Keywords Through Case Analysis

Example: The keyword 'best golf balls' has high search volume and about 5,000 monthly US visit traffic potential.
For a golf blog using affiliate marketing, 'best golf balls' has high business potential (value 3) because it's easy to create a 'best' list article recommending products.
Search results also show list-form blog posts, matching search intent. Therefore, this keyword passes the initial screening.

Using Keyword Modifiers to Further Mine Keywords

Modifiers are words added to base keywords.
Example: For the base keyword 'golf hats,' you can add 'best,' 'top,' or 'current year' as modifiers.
Modifiers can reveal search intent.
'Best' indicates that searchers might be looking for list articles with product recommendations.
'How' or 'what' suggests that search results might be tutorials or informational content.

Using Modifiers to Filter Keywords with High Business Potential and Easy-to-Match Search Intent

For affiliate marketing websites, you can use modifiers like 'best,' 'top,' 'vs,' 'review' to filter out keywords with more business potential.
In keyword research tools, you can use the 'Include' filter, select the 'Any word' option, and paste a list of modifiers to find keywords containing these modifiers.
Example: Using these modifiers, the golf blog found about 30 keywords that might have high business potential.

Using Modifiers to Find Informational Keywords

You can use modifiers like 'how,' 'what,' 'who,' 'where,' 'why,' 'guide,' 'tutorial' to find topics for informational blog posts.
Similarly, you can use the 'Include' filter for screening.

Using Modifiers with Broader Seed Keywords to Get More Ideas

If you have few keywords after using modifiers, try using broader seed keywords.
Example: Changing seed keywords from 'golf balls,' 'golf clubs,' 'golf hats' to the broader 'golf' can help find more potential topics related to informational modifiers.

Finding New Keyword Ideas by Analyzing Competitor Websites

Keyword research tools typically only find words and phrases containing your seed keywords.
Looking at pages on competitor websites that bring the most search traffic is an effective way to discover new keywords that might not contain your seed keywords.
'Competitors' here refers to 'organic search competitors,' i.e., websites ranking for keywords you want to rank for.

How to Find Organic Search Competitors

In Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, click on your keyword list, then go to the 'Traffic share by domains' report to see which websites get the most search traffic based on your keywords.

Analyzing Competitors' "Top Pages" Report

Click the arrow next to the domain you want to research further, then click 'Top Pages' to see which pages on that website bring the most search traffic.
Example: Through analyzing Golf Digest's 'Top Pages' report, we discovered keywords like 'game improvement irons' and 'what degree is a sand wedge,' which might not appear in reports based on initial seed keywords.

Repeating Competitor Analysis and Finding New Seed Keywords

Browse competitors' 'Top Pages' reports, look for potential topics, and initially evaluate them using the five key elements mentioned earlier.
Add promising keywords to your keyword list.
If your keyword list is still not rich enough, try finding new seed keywords in competitors' 'Top Pages' reports.
Example: In Golf Digest's 'Top Pages,' we discovered 'sand wedge' and 'fairway woods' as two new potential seed keywords.

Expanding Keyword Research Using New Seed Keywords

Based on new seed keywords, you can use phrase match reports and other features to discover more related keywords, just like you did initially.
Example: Based on 'sand wedge' and 'fairway woods,' you can further expand to keywords like 'pitching wedge,' 'putter,' 'putting,' etc.

Summary

This article details practical methods for generating keyword ideas, emphasizing the importance of using keyword research tools and providing a set of strategies for expanding keyword lists through seed keywords, phrase matching, search volume filtering, traffic and business potential assessment, matching search intent, and utilizing keyword modifiers and competitor analysis. It also emphasizes the need to initially consider keywords' search demand, traffic potential, business potential, and search intent matching during the keyword idea generation phase, laying the foundation for subsequent keyword validation and ranking difficulty assessment.