Keyword Research: Beginner’s Guide [2024 Updated]

If you are new to Search Engine Optimization, then let me tell you that “Keyword Research” is a part of On-page SEO searching for relevant and profitable keywords to rank.

In my early days, I used to randomly pick a Keyword related to my niche and write tons of content. The problem with this is that you are shooting your arrows in the dark unknown of what you are gonna hit.

In this guide, I’m going to explain what is keyword research, why it is important, and how to increase your website’s visibility and attract relevant visitors to your website.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is a process of finding relevant and profitable words, queries, and phases with decent search volume that users are searching on Search engines like Google, Bing, etc.

For Example: Keyboard Prices in Nepal

A quick keyword research on “Keyboard Price in Nepal” shows what Nepalese people are interested in knowing about the keyword “Keyboard”.

We can see hundreds of “commercial intended” keywords on Mechanical, Gaming, and Dell. People are interested in knowing the price range of this keyword which can be a lead and potentially be a customer if you are selling a keyboard.

On the other hand, you can see 1000s of searches for “Piano” on the same list which has a similar keyword but the product is different, it is a musical instrument where people are searching for prices of “Yamaha” and “Casio”.

These researches help us with information that will save time, resources, and money. Targeting the right keywords for better results and organic traffic from search engines.

Why Is Keyword Research Important?

Keyword research is important in SEO as it will show data to help you choose keywords that are best to go after for the best result.

It helps you create targeted content that satisfies users’ answers and needs. Doing so, you can earn organic ranking in search result page (SERP).

Which is more valuable and cheaper than the paid ads traffic.

Proper Keyword research will connect your business to a potential customer. For this, you must understand what do they want, and need and what could solve their problem.

It also helps in understanding if the keyword you are after will deliver traffic with the possibility to convert and what is your visitors worth.

Basics: Keyword Research

Search Volume

Search Volume or Volume is one of the most important parts of Keyword Research as it shows how many people are searching for the keyword in Search Pages.

Targeting a keyword with no searches does not make sense. In the mean time High Volume traffic is also not worth if they are not relevant to your niche or website.

High Volume are usually informational intended which is best for brand awareness. (Eg. How to use/clean a Coffee Machine)

Low-volume searches are keywords that are in the transactional intent, meaning users are ready to purchase (Eg. Buy Coffee Machine) 

Relevancy

Good wants relevance when they provide a webpage to the searchers, meaning they will provide the most relevant information based on user’s past clicks.

Let’s go with an example [Apple] what does this click on your mind? Most users these days will say “Apple Company” and that is what Google will show.

If you want the fruit then you must search for “Apple Fruit”.

Looking at SERP is one of the important parts of Keyword searching to know what kind of pages are being pushed on the Top.

Type of Search: Understand Search Intent

As the name suggest Search Intent in simple term is what the User intends to do with their search.

Users can search for the same keyword with different intent and in the SEO community we’ve differentiated it into 4 categories:

1. Navigational: Looking for a specific page (Eg: Keyboard’s website)
2. Informational: Looking for information on a topic (Eg: The difference between Normal and Mechanical Keyboard)
3. Commercial: Researching products (Eg: Affordable Keyboard) 
4. Transactional: Looking for a product with intent to purchase (Eg:  Buy Fantech MAXFIT 61)

Choosing Keywords: How can I find keywords to rank?

The first step to finding a keyword is to Brainstorm Ideas or a seed keyword like “ Coffee Machine”. Once you search that keyword you will find thousands of related keywords.

Not all the keywords are necessary to your business you need to filter it out according to needs and relevance.

After choosing your Keyword you can use SEO tool’s metrics such as Estimated search volume and Difficulty and analyze SERP.

Keyword Research Tools

There are more than enough SEO tools like Ahref, Semrush, Ubersuggest, and Wordstream to name some that will help you find keywords based on your SEED Keyword.

They have their own metric ranking a keyword’s difficulty, volume measurement, and showing queries, questions, and more related keywords.

Google Search Console: Optimize Existing Content

All major Search Engines provide a free search console to help you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot the site’s visibility on the Search Page.

You can use this to find keywords and optimize your existing content so that you rank for more keywords effectively.

Most of the time we rank for keywords that we did not intend and using this tool we can find and optimize our page or create an entire new page if needed.

How to use it?

1. Open Google search console
2. Go to Search Result
3. Tap on Pages
4. Filter to Clicks or Impressions (optional)
5. Choose a page and look through the Queries

Search Suggestions in Search Engines

If you do not have enough budget and want organic result then taking suggestion from Search Engines directly is one great way to find Long tail Keywords.

Google Auto-Complete

One good example is Google’s auto-complete as shown below, when you type your seep keyword they auto-complete with suggestions that users are already searching for.

People Also Ask

Another good approach would be looking to the “People Also Ask” section inside the search.

These are questions people are looking for, which are directly related to your keyword. You can find these questions for free on the middle or above results on Google pages.

Alsoasked.com and Answerthepublic.com are popular tools you can use for free to find similar questions.

Related Questions

Finally, at the end of Google you can find related keywords that are searched by users, these are keywords related and are usually similar to autocomplete.