What is keyword research?
I always used to find doing keyword research tough, probably because I didn’t actually know what it was. Quite funny, I know. But there’s bound to be many more like me out there who, “do” keyword research and not actually know what they’re trying to do. Heck, there’s bound to be people out there who don’t even know what keywords are.
A keyword is something which someone types into a search engine. For example, if I go to Google and type in “Aaron,” then “Aaron” is a keyword. It’s a word which someone uses to try and find something via a search engine. It then makes sense that a keyword phrase is a collection of words which someone types into a search engine, for example, “Aaron Falloon’s blog.”
As you might expect, keyword research is about finding out what people actually search for (what they type into search engines).
Why you should be doing keyword research
Keyword research is a very important part of SEO (search engine optimisation). If you want to rank high in search engines, you need to choose your keywords carefully.
This blog is about web development, so I might decide to use, “web development,” as a keyword phrase. However, there’s over 194,000,000 other sites ranked for that keyword, which means a lot of competition for me.
It’s really not just as simple as coming up with a list of words
Keyword research isn’t just about finding keywords. It’s about finding good keywords with competition you can beat. For example, I’m going to have a much easier time ranking for, “web development blog,” than I am for my first keyword choice.
To sum it all up, keyword research has two parts to it. The first part is in actually identifying the words and phrases which people search for, and the second part is evaluating those words and phrases. Is there much competition for that keyword? Can that competition be beaten? Is there enough search engine traffic to make choosing that keyword worthwhile?
If you want to learn how to perform keyword research, be patient. I think I’ll write an article on it soon, along with links to some keyword research tools.
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3 Responses to “What is keyword research?”
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G.Suvorov
March 26th, 2008
[...] are two parts to keyword research, finding keywords and the evaluation of them. Sure, it’s a great start to find keywords which you want to [...]
For keywords research try SeoDigger.com.
Essentially it’s a reverse search engine of sorts that will show you the keywords a URL ranks for. Simply type in a URL and the tool will tell you which phrases that URL ranks for with-in the top 20 results. Imagine how useful this is when checking out the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, reviewing a website you’re interested in buying or even just checking out the competition.