How to Research SEO Keywords
The first step in finding the right keywords for your SEO campaign is having proper knowledge of your business domain. Every business will have particular words and phrases they want to focus on when it comes to Google’s search rankings.
For example, does your business want to be higher on the first page for ‘Organic Hummus’? Maybe your business does auto body repair and you want to see your business above a competitors when ‘Auto Body Repair Near Me’ is searched.
These particular keywords are important to find and hone in on when it comes to your business and your particular sphere of competition / industry.
How do you find the right keywords and determine which ones are popular?
There are many tools you can use to streamline your SEO process. But the first step in this research period is to outline the aspects of your business you feel are important.
Are there particular areas that are underperforming in sales compared to others? What defines your business? Try to separate the aspects of your business into separate categories.
For example, Bright Productions may separate our business aspects as:
- Web Design
- Social Media Assistance
- Social Media Marketing
- Online Advertising
- Google Ad Grant Assistance
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Marketing
Helpful tip: think of keywords that a potential customer would search such as:
‘Web Design in the Bay Area’, ‘Social Media Help Near Me’, ‘Google Ads Agency’, ‘SEO Companies Sonoma County’
We may decide that these are important keywords to us – and we would use them as seeds to generate more keywords using Google’s Keyword Planner tool. Using the planner’s Find Keywords section can help us generate lists of keywords that Google specifically deems worthy to show us due to traffic levels and relevancy.
We can enter our keyword seeds as well as a website (a competitor’s or your own) – and then dissect the list of keywords Google generates.
You will have to determine which keywords in the list are actually relevant to your business. Keywords with high traffic numbers as well as low competition would be good targets for your SEO campaign. Make sure they are directly relevant to your business, as you do not want to waste time on ones that will not actually be triggered by a consumer who could potentially engage with your website.
Our next step includes adding several of these keywords to an Excel / Google Sheets document and organizing these potential keywords.
We use an in-house Google Sheets document with custom tailored Average Monthly Searches values that are scaled to each individual client and results from Google. We then use weighted averages and automatic cell color formatting to easily determine which keywords are likely to be a better choice than others. We dynamically adjust the Search / Competition / Relevancy weights based on the client’s needs and what they feel is more important to their success.
See a sneak peak of that document below:
Next step: determine which keywords are best suited to your needs.
Do you want higher traffic (Av Monthly Searches) to be more of a determining factor in the keywords you choose?
Do you want keywords with less competition to have a larger influence?
We use this method for the flexibility and ability to pick and choose which keywords best represent the business domain.
If you are not sure what to do with these keywords once you have them – check out our article on SEO and our offerings for improving rankings here!
This is the general idea behind our method for choosing keywords for our clients. We hope you are able to manage your own keyword research using our tools!
We love input from clients and working together to find keywords that best represent their business focus.
If you feel you need help with keyword research or SEO in general, feel free to contact Bright Productions here!