How to Choose Keywords for SEO

Keywords are a crucial part of SEO. They are words and phrases that identify what your audience is in search of and what your content revolves around. Consequently, choosing the best keywords for SEO becomes equally as important. 

Keyword research isn’t a one-way road. It varies based on factors like website, budget, aims, and objectives, as well as the specific industry you’re in. 

So, it’s hard to craft a short and general step-step-step guide. Nonetheless, here is a basic framework that can be easily adjusted to whatever your goals and resources are:

Choose a seed keyword

For any keyword research, seed keywords lay the ground for starting. They are simple words that define your niche or identify competitors. For instance, if you want to promote your events planning service, words like “events planning,” or “wedding party,” are seed keywords that come to mind. 

Once you have a business, it’s easy to brainstorm seed keywords before getting into full-blown keyword research. However, this may be a little more difficult if you’re still searching for a niche. Solve this by taking a monetisation approach to finding a product you like or narrowing down a broad seed keyword. 

Turn it into Keyword List

As mentioned, a seed keyword is only the foundation of keyword research. Now, you need to get those seed keywords to grow an enormous list of keyword ideas, including long-tail keywords. 

At this point, you’d have to bring in the best keywords tools to work the magic. A good one to start with is Google’s Search Console tool, where you can find keywords that you already rank. 

Also, you can find more keywords using platforms like Google Adwords and Ahrefs Organic Keywords tool. Ahrefs also has a Site Explorer tool that shows you keywords your competitors rank for – this can leave you with enough keywords to get working with for months. 

Competitor research may fill up your CSV file, but you need to do better if you’re an industry leader. You need to mine keywords none or only very few of your competitors are targeting. 

The best way to go about this is by using effective keyword tools, and you may even find free ones. Some free keyword tools are Soovle, Ubersuggest, and AnswerThePublic. 

You may need premium tools such as Ahrefs or Moz for more robust and informative research. 

Group and Prioritize Your List

Categorize keywords with semantic and contextual related under a parent topic. You can also group keywords into searchers’ intent or business value. 

Next, prioritize the golden or easy-to-rank keywords on your list to start your campaign. This would be the less competitive keywords in your spreadsheet. 

For instance, it will be almost impossible for a startup business to target the keyword “digital marketing.” You may have to localize or niche it down to a topic to see impacts. 

Finally, you should check PPC data and analytics from time to time to see if there are new keyword opportunities.