Keyword Research Techniques

Where to start your keyword research?

Knowing where to start with your keyword research can seem like a daunting task but there are a few simple steps I like to follow to keep the process streamlined and stress-free.

#1 Keyword Seeds 

I like to start by mind-mapping out any ideas or key business focuses (note: I would approach a competitor analysis or keyword gap analysis very differently!). For example, if I - or my client - were a Flooring Company, I would start by mapping some variation of the following: "Laminate Flooring", "Hardwood Flooring", "Carpets" and "Carpet Fitters near me", and this is what the search return would look like:

This gives you an overview of volume, user intent and overall difficulty. If you are a household name, government site or highly established in your sector, you are more likely to rank for higher difficulty keywords. In this case, a brand like Carpetright would find ranking for ‘carpets’ much easier than the local flooring store. From here you will want to get more relevant/tailored keywords for each of these seed keywords - this can easily be done by using the Keyword Magic Tool (or equivalent if you’re not using Semrush). 

#2 Keyword Magic

The Keyword Magic Tool is great at helping us find matching keyword inspirations. You can even put your domain into an AI-powered cell on Semrush to get personalised estimates (specifically for how difficult your domain may find certain keywords to rank for).  Depending on what keywords and how many you choose to target - you may need to tailor your keywords so that they don’t cannibalise your other content. 

Keyword Cannibalisation is when multiple pages on the same site are targeting or ranking for the same keywords, effectively making them their own competition. This can be indicative of poor keyword mapping (which we will cover in point 3) and subpar content which will in turn lead to lower authority ratings and keyword rankings as well as leading to user confusion or a poor user experience.

To optimise, consider answering more niche questions with detailed specifics, such as ‘herringbone vs parquet flooring’ for one blog, rather than trying to target everything with a single ‘herringbone hardwood flooring’ article. 

You can learn How To Avoid Keyword Cannibalisation further here.

#3 Where will your keywords be implemented?

If you’re looking to build a detailed site structure that works for humans (whether that is as a new domain or as a site migration project) consider whether you will be targeting longtail keywords and providing users a more detailed/informative blog area on the site - or if you will be keeping the site stripped back and targeting keywords on the main landing pages. If your strategy follows the latter, your pages will need to work harder. Keyword Mapping should then be a crucial part of the plan. 

Keyword Mapping is essentially the process of selecting specific keywords for the most appropriate pages on your website to optimise their visibility. This process helps to:

• Streamline keyword tracking
• Reduce the risk of cannibalisation
• Improve content planning (and execution) 
• Increase site authority by establishing user trust. 

Below is a plan of how I prefer to map my keywords. I find this covers all important bases for me and helps manage expectations for the above. 

You may wish to add FAQ sections or further content details to target the long-tail keywords (if your budget and time allow for a full blog area, I would incorporate this into the ‘blog or supporting content’ section of the plan, whereas if you are sticking only to focus landing pages, I would add FAQ’s and aim to thoroughly cover the target keywords. Be sure to cover any PAA and FAQ questions and use your keywords in metadata and titles - remember that your customers will have many entry points from many different keywords!  

#4 Finding the target keywords for you

Depending on the intricacy and size of your site, you may wish to hand-select the most appropriate keywords by filtering (volume, difficulty and intent) and scrolling via the Keyword Magic Tool or using the Keyword Overview page. 

There are two template concepts I swear by when looking to build a keyword strategy/ content plan, depending on the site size and expected outcome. The basic template would be something like the image below, which uses the same Flooring example as above - to build page authority and reach a wider organic audience using primary keyword  & secondary keywords.

If you wanted to be a really detailed, blog-heavy site, you could take one of the Secondary or Longtail Keywords and create a blog or page with them in the Heading, making them their own Primary Keywords with Supporting Keywords - this is great for targeting very niche topics and showing expertise in wider topics. For example: 

You may have noticed that ‘how to lay laminate flooring pattern’ has been crossed out, although it has reasonable search volume. That is due to intent, if the client is a Flooring Fitter and Retailing Store, they will most likely offer fitting services and supplying Do It Yourself content detracts from their services and may impact their conversions. However, if the client was a DIY Blogger or even a site such as Homebase or B&Q, that keyword might be appropriate. 

These processes can be repeated to build entire spreadsheet docs with keywords in a plan that is then easily applied or moulded into a Content Plan. Working like this also allows you to spot Internal Linking Opportunities, Keyword Tracking (we can cover this another time!) Content Gaps (or Seasonal Content Ops). 

Other areas to consider when diving into Keyword Research

So, we have a better understanding of how to use keyword searching tools to find what’s appropriate and works for us (or our clients), and we know how to start to pull this into a keyword-led content plan. But, there are other areas to consider when delving into keyword research. This includes:

Current rankings 

• If your site is currently ranking for irrelevant keywords, or your content simply isn’t driving traffic at all, consider doing a Content Audit (or speak to an agency like us to help you!)
• If you’re currently ranking for the same keywords on multiple pages. This can be a common issue but is often resolved with a strong content plan, and tailored keyword implementations in page structure, metadata and internal linking. 
• If your site is particularly niche (and therefore is targeting keywords with a lower search volume) or is a smaller business starting from scratch in a more saturated market or against dominant players (gov sites etc). In these cases, I will remind you that “every little helps” (thanks Tesco) and by targeting the appropriate but smaller volume keywords, you will be more likely to have higher engagement and conversion rates. Plus, by targeting those niche keywords, you’ll be demonstrating your E-E-A-T regarding the topic, which will go in your favour for your keyword rankings overall! If you are anxious or overwhelmed going into this - contact us. Reflect Digital are SEO experts, this is what we do and we would love to help you.

Key Takeaways

When starting Keyword Research, consider the depth that you wish to go: 

• Is this a simple query or a specific data point you're after? In which case, use Google Trends! 
• Or is this a full, in-depth Keyword Research? Use a professional tool such as Semrush or Ahrefs and start building yourself a strategy plan - or reach out to an SEO expert for support.
• Digital Marketing Agencies (and freelancers) exist! If you don’t have an in-house SEO team or are after a more experienced lead, there are plenty of resources and support out there. 

For a list of our SEO services or more information on how we can help you, please call or email Reflect Digital today.