Keyword Research Without Agencies: Manual For Beginners And Online Store Owners
Does your website have poor rankings in search results? There's a way to fix this!
If search engines "don't like" your website, there might be something wrong with the keywords you are using.
In this article, you will learn how to improve your website's rankings by optimizing them for the right keywords.
How do you conduct keyword research, and what tools will be helpful? Read further to find out.
If search engines "don't like" your website, there might be something wrong with the keywords you are using.
In this article, you will learn how to improve your website's rankings by optimizing them for the right keywords.
How do you conduct keyword research, and what tools will be helpful? Read further to find out.
Why Do You Need Keyword Research?
If you want your website to be visible to search engine users, you need to collect high-quality, relevant keywords and compile them into a keyword list.
What are these relevant keywords? Terms and phrases your target audience uses to search on Google. Then, you should distribute these keywords between your website pages and metatags.
Keyword indicators you should keep in mind:
What are these relevant keywords? Terms and phrases your target audience uses to search on Google. Then, you should distribute these keywords between your website pages and metatags.
Keyword indicators you should keep in mind:
Search volume: how often do users search for this term
Keyword difficulty: how high is the competition level
Cost-per-click (CPC): how much a click costs if the user clicks on an ad containing this keyword
Generally speaking, keywords are all words and word combinations that describe your activities, services, or products, and fully cover the subject matter of the website.
Your keyword list should also match the wishes and intentions of users and your business goals. Now, let's go through all the steps of collecting a keyword list for your website:
Your keyword list should also match the wishes and intentions of users and your business goals. Now, let's go through all the steps of collecting a keyword list for your website:
1
Find relevant keywords
2
Expand your keyword list
3
Delete unnecessary keywords
4
Group keywords
5
Look for alternative keyword sources
How Do You Create A Keyword List For Your Website? Basic Keyword Research.
To create your keyword list, you should collect the search terms that are relevant to your topic and website.
First, brainstorm some keywords that best describe your product/service at the basic level, and save this list in Google Spreadsheets. At this stage, there's no need to go into much detail.
Then, go to Serpstat and take the following steps:
First, brainstorm some keywords that best describe your product/service at the basic level, and save this list in Google Spreadsheets. At this stage, there's no need to go into much detail.
Then, go to Serpstat and take the following steps:
1
Run each basic keyword through Keyword Research → SEO Research → Keyword Selection and find all the variations of search queries that contain the given keyword.
4
If necessary, you can sort and filter the keywords in all columns.
2
If you want to optimize your website for SERP Features, such as rich snippets, knowledge graphs, or local packs, you should pay special attention to keywords with Special elements in SERPs. You can select any type of snippets from the filters and get the list of keywords that rank for it.
3
Now you can get to the next step, and add even more thematically related keywords to your list.
Go to Keyword Research → SEO Research → Related Keywords. Here you can gather synonyms, colloquial variants, and LSI keywords.
Go to Keyword Research → SEO Research → Related Keywords. Here you can gather synonyms, colloquial variants, and LSI keywords.
We've created the Serpstat Website SEO Checker which allows you to find out the key metrics of any site in just a few clicks.
To examine a domain, you don't need to open Serpstat in a new tab - all necessary data is available with one click directly on the site!
Click on the icon and you'll get multiple SEO metrics about a domain or page: visibility, traffic, keywords, top competitors in the region, etc.
Read the post to learn about the benefits of the updated Serpstat checker.
To examine a domain, you don't need to open Serpstat in a new tab - all necessary data is available with one click directly on the site!
Click on the icon and you'll get multiple SEO metrics about a domain or page: visibility, traffic, keywords, top competitors in the region, etc.
Read the post to learn about the benefits of the updated Serpstat checker.
How Do You Expand The Keyword List?
3
The answer is simple — competitor analysis. It's a reliable source of relevant search queries.
By analyzing your competitors' SEO tactics that allow them to successfully rank in search results, you can collect ideas for improving your website's performance.
There are several approaches you can take.
By analyzing your competitors' SEO tactics that allow them to successfully rank in search results, you can collect ideas for improving your website's performance.
There are several approaches you can take.
1
Check what keywords your competitors use.
Enter the domain in the search bar of Domain Analysis → SEO Research → Keywords. You will get the list of keywords the competitor ranks for in organic search results:
Enter the domain in the search bar of Domain Analysis → SEO Research → Keywords. You will get the list of keywords the competitor ranks for in organic search results:
2
Find missing keywords.
Compare your domain with competitors to collect the list of keywords they are using and you don't.
Go to Domain Analysis → SEO Research → Domain vs. Domain.
Compare your domain with competitors to collect the list of keywords they are using and you don't.
Go to Domain Analysis → SEO Research → Domain vs. Domain.
3
Search Suggestions and Search Questions.
These are search terms suggested by search engines when the user types a keyword into the search bar. Сollecting such queries will allow you to fill even more gaps in your keyword list.
Go to Serpstat Keyword Research → SEO Research → Search Suggestions, and/or Search Questions.
These are search terms suggested by search engines when the user types a keyword into the search bar. Сollecting such queries will allow you to fill even more gaps in your keyword list.
Go to Serpstat Keyword Research → SEO Research → Search Suggestions, and/or Search Questions.
3
Search Questions are also an excellent source of headlines for your content, as they are the exact questions real users want you to answer.
How Can You Delete Negative Keywords?
By this point, you would have collected a substantial list of keywords. Well done!
But if you look closely at your keywords, you may notice that some of them seem a bit off. They may not completely match the theme of your website or include competitor brand names, irrelevant locations, etc. These are so-called negative keywords, and using them may have a negative impact on your website.
That's why "cleaning up" your keyword list is almost as important, as collecting it.
The most common types of negative keywords are:
But if you look closely at your keywords, you may notice that some of them seem a bit off. They may not completely match the theme of your website or include competitor brand names, irrelevant locations, etc. These are so-called negative keywords, and using them may have a negative impact on your website.
That's why "cleaning up" your keyword list is almost as important, as collecting it.
The most common types of negative keywords are:
Free, cheap, used
Competitors' brand names
Place names that are not important to your business
Misspelled keywords
Duplicate search terms
How can you filter out these keywords? Serpstat offers a variety of options. You can exclude any search terms (keyword), as well as place names (filter toponyms), delete typos (misspelled keywords), and more.
How Do You Group Keywords?
By this point, you've collected a keyword list and removed negative keywords and other unnecessary search terms from it. Now, how are you supposed to use such a huge keyword list on your website pages?
You should divide them into groups according to your website categories, types of products/services, etc. The process of grouping keywords is also called keyword clustering.
Manual keyword clustering is an option, but not the best one. It's a complicated, extremely time-consuming, and tedious process. The bigger the website and keyword list is, the more endless it gets. Luckily, Serpstat has a solution: the Keyword Clustering tool.
It allows you to automate the clustering process — you can import and group up to 50K keywords! You can learn more about Clustering in the article below:
You should divide them into groups according to your website categories, types of products/services, etc. The process of grouping keywords is also called keyword clustering.
Manual keyword clustering is an option, but not the best one. It's a complicated, extremely time-consuming, and tedious process. The bigger the website and keyword list is, the more endless it gets. Luckily, Serpstat has a solution: the Keyword Clustering tool.
It allows you to automate the clustering process — you can import and group up to 50K keywords! You can learn more about Clustering in the article below:
You can learn more about Keyword Clustering in the article below:
Conclusion
To get a complete list of relevant keywords for a website, you should:
1
Collect the basic list of keywords that will help you find more keywords.
2
Expand the keyword list with variations and synonyms, and through competitor analysis.
3
Complete the keyword list with search suggestions and search queries.
4
Delete irrelevant and negative keywords.
5
Carefully group the search terms and create the website structure.
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