Nearly 70% of online experiences start with a search engine. When people want to buy a product, or looking for a service, most of them hop onto Google and type in what they are looking for. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the backbone of getting organic traffic to your website and keyword research is an indispensable part of SEO that massively impacts your chance of your website ranking on search engines.
In this guide, we will go through what keyword research is and how to perform keyword research for your online business to increase organic traffic and conversion rates.
The Basics of Keyword Research
Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they are looking for. When you search for the best Italian restaurants in your area, or how to make money online, these are the keywords that you type to help you find the information you want.
Before we dive more into keyword research, it’s important you know that there are different types of keywords, which can affect how you do your keyword research and whether your online business will rank first on Google
Types of Keywords:
Short-tail keywords
Short-tail keywords, or seed keywords, are short phrases such as “shoes” or “pizza.” They are broad topics or things people may search for online. Short-tail keywords are general and often have high search volume, however, for the very same reason, it’s more difficult to rank for.
Another reason you should be careful if you want to target short-tail keywords for your online business is you might attract the wrong audience.
For example, if you are selling running shoes, but your target the keyword “shoes”, you might attract people who are looking for casual shoes or children’s shoes.
Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer phrases that are more detailed, and include additional information such as colors, sizes, functionalities, who is it for, and more. Using the same example, they can be something like “comfortable running shoes for flat feet” or “running shoes for athletic”
These long-tail keywords are less competitive and more specific, which means your target audience is more likely to find you online if you target these keywords.
When you are searching for keywords to target for your online business, there are a few things you have to think about, some of which we have just mentioned, they are competition, search volume, and search intent.
Search Volume
Not every keyword has the same value. Search volume is the number of times a phrase is searched in a month, and it’s a crucial metric to measure in keyword research to ensure that the keywords are worth targeting. Ranking first on keywords that have low to no search volume may be a waste of time, as it won’t drive much traffic to your website or store.
Competition
Search volume is certainly important, but the higher the search volume, the greater the competition. Keyword difficulty refers to how difficult it is to rank a keyword on search engines. If you are targeting keywords with high keyword difficulty, you will have to increase your domain authority and establish yourself as a reliable source through different methods. Only then you will be able to rank on search engines.
Search Intent
Understanding searchers’ search intent is a must if you want your website to rank on Google. Search intent is the goal of a user searching for a particular, and there are generally three types of search intents you should know in order to thrive in your online business.
Navigational: Searches want to find a specific webpage (e.g. Instagram login)
Informational: Searches want to know more about a topic (e.g. how to do SEO for online business)
Transactional: Searches are ready to make a purchase (Best running shoes for flat feet)
It’s obvious why search intent plays a huge role in SEO. If you want to buy running shoes and search for the “best running shoes”, you wouldn’t want to be recommended some guides on “how to take care of your running shoes” or “how to run”.
Google makes sure that the search results are relevant and satisfy searchers’ search intent, and that’s why understanding search intent can give you a higher chance of ranking on the first page
Why is keyword research important?
Hopefully, after going through the basics of keyword research, you now understand why keyword research is important for your online business.
Keyword research involves searching for valuable keywords that are worth targeting to give you a higher chance of ranking on the first page on Google, to increase visibility, and traffic to your websites, and drive sales.
Similar to conducting market research before you launch your product or service, keyword research is crucial to make sure that you are targeting the right keywords that bring value to your online business.
Getting Started with Keyword Research
Step 1: Brainstorming Initial Keyword Ideas
To begin your keyword research, you first have to come up with some keyword ideas or seed keywords that you can put into a keyword research tool.
The traditional way to do this involves writing down some words and phrases that are related to your niche, using dictionaries and thesaurus to find synonyms and related terms. However, with AI, it’s much easier and it gives you a better chance to find phrases that you can never thought of.
You can use AI such as ChatGPT or Gemini. Below is an example of using Gemini to brainstorm some keyword ideas.
Step 2: Put Those Keywords Into a Keyword Research Tool
Once you have some keyword ideas, it’s time to put them into keyword research tools to expand your keyword list and identify other short-tail and long-tail keywords. There are many keyword research tools out there and some of them are free. Free keyword research tools provide limited features but are sufficient if you are at the early stage of your business. However, it’s recommended that you upgrade to better keyword research tools that provide extensive features and more accurate results.
Free Keyword Research Tools
First up, we’ve got Google Keyword Planner. It’s one of the best free keyword research tools available, it’s straightforward and provides numerous metrics such as monthly changes and competition.
To be able to conduct keyword research on Google Keyword Planner, you will need to register a Google Ads account, and it can be done completely free.
Ahrefs provides multiple free SEO tools for beginners to do keyword research, check competitor backlinks, and more. Although the features of the free version are extremely limited, it’s still a valid way to discover new keywords and check the keyword difficulty and search volume.
Paid Keyword Research Tools
Ahrefs is probably one of the best keyword research tools. Apart from the most basic features, it also allows you to perform competitive keyword research, backlink analysis, and more.
One other popular paid option is SEMrush. SEMrush is also an excellent keyword research tool that provides comprehensive keyword data, and competitor analysis features. Furthermore, SEMrush offers 10 free searches a day to give you a taste of its features before coming to the paid plans.
Ahrefs and SEMrush are both expensive and if you are looking for a more affordable option, Ubersuggest is the one to go. It offers a user-friendly interface and 3 free searches a day. However, compared to other paid tools, the features it provides are more limited.
One other tool that can be helpful is AnswerThePublic. This tool is slightly different from other keyword research too as it’s mainly for exploring keyword ideas. It also provides 3 free searches a day for users who wish to experience its features.
Which one do you need?
You don’t necessarily need all these tools and which one you need depends on your budget and what features you are looking for. Start with the free options and see how you go. As your business grows and you start seeing the benefits of a better, paid keyword research tool, you can consider investing in the one you find the most useful.
Step 3. Developing a Keyword Strategy for Your Online Business
- Aligning Keywords with Your Sales Funnel Stages
Not all keywords are created equal. Some are great for attracting new visitors (Informational), while others are perfect for closing sales (Transational). We want to make sure we’re targeting keywords for every stage of the customer journey by creating different content such as blog posts to achieve our goals.
Awareness stage: Informational keywords (e.g., “benefits of minimalist shoes”)
Consideration stage: Comparative keywords (e.g., “minimalist shoes vs sneakers”)
Decision stage: Transactional keywords (e.g., “buy minimalist shoes online”)
By targeting keywords for each stage, you’re targeting a wider audience that is at different stages of their buying journey and creating a smooth path for your customers to make a purchase or subscribe to your service.
- Balancing Short-tail and Long-tail Keywords
Well if long-tail keywords are more specific and less competitive, then I should just target long-tail keywords, right? No, not really.
Short-tail keywords are competitive but they have high search volume and more value. You should still target some competitive short-tail keywords for long-term growth. As you start to create more content such as blog posts, you may have a chance of ranking for those keywords which can drive a ton of traffic to your website.
However, you should definitely dedicate the rest of your time to targeting less competitive long-tail keywords, as those who search for them are often ready to buy or subscribe to your service.
- Grouping Keywords by Topic Clusters
When you are creating content, don’t just target random keywords that you discover, instead, group them into related topics.
For instance, you may have clusters like this:
- Running tips
- Hydration tips for runners
- Running shoe care and maintenance
Each cluster has a main “pillar” keyword and several related long-tail keywords. This approach helps you create comprehensive content that search engines love.
Other Methods to Do Keyword Research
Competitor Keyword Research
Competitor keyword research refers to checking what keywords your competitors are targeting and ranking for. Finding out the keywords that bring significant traffic to your competitors’ websites can help you discover valuable keywords. These keywords are likely to have high search volume and if your competitors are ranking for you, you have a good chance of ranking for them too. However, most free keyword research tools don’t provide competitor analysis research so you may want to consider investing in a paid keyword research tool.
Google lets you know what people are searching for and what is trending. You can use Google autocomplete and the “People also ask” feature to find some trending or high-search volume keywords. When you use this method, make sure to check the keyword difficulty using free keyword research tools.
AI Tools
AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can also be used to perform keyword research. The good thing about using AI tools is you can do the brainstorming for keywords ideas, and even ask the AIs to generate some high-volume, low-competition keywords that you can target.
However, you should double-check with a free keyword research tool as sometimes the results generated do not match what is requested.
Note: The results may be impacted by the limitations of the free version.
Conclusion
By now should you have a better understanding of how keyword research is important for online business and how to find some useful keywords to increase website traffic. This is just the basics of SEO and there’s more to uncover in the future, but don’t be alarmed. Start where you at with the tools you have and start doing your keyword research today.
