Defining Keywords for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

How to Research Keywords to Optimize Your SEO

The goal of your marketing research in this area is to start building a list of words or phrases that are highly relevant to your brand and product, and service. It comes down to the key question, “What would someone type into Google to find my product, service, and website?” You start by creating a core keyword list of three to five keywords that summarize your product.

You will also want to define secondary keywords by expanding the core keyword list to include more specific terms. Your focus will be on finding keywords that are low in competition and have high traffic. This type of secondary keyword is essential to being able to quickly gain organic traffic, as well as creating low-cost paid advertising opportunities.

The Google Keyword Planner Tool will allow you to search for keywords to determine how many searches per month are being done for each term, how much competition is competing for it, and related search terms.

You will also want to examine what type of content is ranking in Google (Content Competition). By analyzing key search terms in Google, we will see what content is currently taking the top spots. This will give you a better idea of what you would be competing against and where the opportunities lie.

Conducting this research early on in the development is critical as it will inform the selection of a product name, value proposition, and so forth. This ensures a solid foundation for all future SEO efforts.