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The Fundamentals of Keyword Research

Some of you may be new to SEO and keyword research, and others may have some experience already.

Learn how to identify and prioritize relevant keywords that resonate with your target audience, ensuring maximum visibility and engagement. Gain insights into the importance of long-tail keywords, competitive analysis, and the ever-evolving landscape of search engine algorithms.

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a beginner, this guide demystifies the world of keywords, providing actionable tips to enhance your website’s search engine ranking and overall online performance. Stay ahead in the digital game by mastering the fundamentals of keyword research, and witness the transformative impact it can have on your online presence. Elevate your SEO strategy, drive organic traffic, and connect with your audience on a whole new level. Start your keyword journey now!

Here, we will be covering the following topics:

What are keywords?
Why are they important?
Different types of keywords,
Overview of the keyword research process,
Utilizing SEO tools in keyword research and
Understanding search intent.

1. What are Fundamental keywords and why are they important?

Let’s start with the basics. Keywords are the words and phrases people type into search engines when looking for something.
1. If you want your website to be found by those people, you need to ensure your website is optimized for those keywords.
2. For example, let’s say you own an online store that sells handmade jewelry.
3. Some of the keywords that you might want to optimize would be “handmade jewelry,” “unique jewelry,” “artisanal jewelry,” “handcrafted jewelry,” and so on.
4. Including these keywords in your website’s content, title, description, and other elements can increase the chances of your website appearing in search results when someone searches for those terms.
But it’s about more than just being found.
1. Keywords also play a crucial role in understanding your target audience and their needs.
2. By researching and identifying the relevant keywords to your business, you can understand what your potential customers are looking for, and tailor your content and offerings to meet their needs.
This is why keyword research is so important. It’s the foundation for any successful SEO strategy. It helps you understand your target audience and create content that will attract them to your website.

Different Types of Keywords

Now, let’s talk about the different types of keywords.
Based on the length of the keyword phrase, keywords are classified into short tail and long tail keywords.
Short-tail keywords are single word keywords or short phrases, such as “shoes” or “running shoes.”
1. These keywords have a lot of competition as they generally denote a broad spectrum of things.
Long-tail keywords are longer phrases, such as “men’s running shoes” or “how to lace running shoes”
1. These keywords denote more specific things and that’s why they are searched less number of times and not many websites would be competing against each other for long tail keywords.
2. It means the search competition will be low and you can rank quickly for such keywords compared to short tail keywords.

In terms of SEO, keywords can be classified into target keywords, LSI keywords and NLP keywords.
Target keywords are the specific words and phrases that you want your website or content to rank for in the search engines.
1. For example, if you have a blog about healthy eating, your target keywords might be “healthy recipes” or “diet tips.”
2. For an SEO specialist, target keywords are the foundation of their strategy and the starting point for any optimization efforts.
3. Let’s say you’re starting as an SEO analyst or SEO strategist for a new website that sells health supplements. There are two main approaches you can take.
  1. The first approach is ‘when the business has already determined the topics they want to write about or the pages they want to create’.
    1. In this case, you will use SEO tools to find the best target keywords for those specific topics.
  2. The second approach is when the business has no clear direction on what they want to write about.
    1. In this scenario, you’ll start by using SEO tools to research the niche, the website is in and find the target keywords that make the most sense for the website.
    2. For each target keyword, you will develop a comprehensive content strategy, including a content outline, subtopics to cover, and a list of both LSI and NLP keywords to be naturally integrated into the content. We will see about LSI and NLP keywords in a minute.
    3. This is a straightforward process that can be broken down into two steps.
      1. First, research the target keywords that are most relevant and likely to drive traffic to the website.
      2. Second, create a content strategy that incorporates those keywords naturaly and effectively.
LSI keywords: LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing, and these are related keywords to the main keyword that help search engines better understand the context and meaning of your content.

For example, if your target keyword is “healthy eating,” your LSI keywords might be “nutritious meals,” “meal planning,” and “dietary guidelines.”
It allows a content writer to cover different aspects of their topic and make their content more comprehensive.
An SEO specialist will use LSI keywords to help their content rank for multiple variations of their target keyword, which can increase visibility and drive more traffic to their site.
NLP keywords: NLP stands for Natural Language Processing, and these are keywords that are typically used by voice search users or keywords that sounds like natural human speech.

For example, if your target keyword is “healthy eating,” your NLP keywords might be “what are some healthy foods to eat,” “how can I eat healthy on a budget,” and “what are some healthy meal prep ideas.”
By looking at these keywords you can understand how users are searching for information and what questions they are asking.
An SEO specialist will use these NLP keywords to better understand the intent behind a user’s search query and create more relevant content that answers their questions.
In summary,

Target keywords are the foundation of your SEO strategy,
LSI keywords help search engines understand the context and meaning of your content, and
NLP keywords help you understand how users are searching for information and what questions they are asking.
By utilizing all three, you can create a comprehensive SEO strategy that helps you rank higher in search engines and drive more traffic to your site.

The Keyword Research Process

Now that you understand the different types of keywords let’s talk about the keyword research process.
1. The process starts with identifying relevant target keywords for your business and your target audience.
2. You can use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and SERanking or many other free and premium SEO tools to find keywords related to your business.
3. Once you have a list of keywords, you need to analyze the competition for each keyword.
  1. This will give you an idea of how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword.
  2. Those same SEO tools can give you the keyword difficulty score to analyze the competition for that keyword
4. After identifying and analyzing your keywords, it’s essential to understand the search intent behind the keywords.
  1. This means understanding what the person is looking for when they search for that keyword.
    1. Are they looking to buy something?
    2. Are they looking for information?
    3. Are they looking for a local business?
  2. By understanding the search intent, you can create content that will satisfy the needs of that person.
5. Finally, you need to create a keyword map and strategy.
  1. A keyword map is a visual representation of the keywords you want to target and their attributes in terms of volume, competition and other attributes.
  2. A keyword strategy is a plan for using those keywords in your website’s content, title, description and other elements.

Utilizing Keyword Research Tools

Now, let’s talk about keyword research tools. Many keyword research tools are available; some are free, and some are paid.
1. In this course, we will use some premium tools such as SEMrush, SE Ranking, Keyword Surfer and some free tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and much more.
2. These tools will help you find and analyze keywords and get insights into the competition and search volume for those keywords.
  1. Search volume is nothing but how many times a particular keyword is searched for in the last month.
  2. For example, a popular keyword like dog breeds might be searched for half a million times last month.
3. In addition, I will also walk you through how I use these tools for advanced keyword research, including keyword difficulty, keyword gap analysis, and much more.
4. Remember, keyword research is an ongoing process. You should continuously monitor your keywords and adjust your strategy as needed.
5. But with the right tools and understanding, you can create a solid keyword research strategy that will help drive traffic to your website and improve your SEO.

To Conclude

I hope you now understand keyword research and why it’s so important.
It’s the foundation for any successful SEO strategy.
It helps you know your target audience and create content that will attract them to your website.

Now, I’ll leave you with a practice activity.

I want you to think about a website or business you are familiar with.
1. It could be a store you like to shop at, a blog you follow, or a service you use.
2. Now, try to come up with one or two keywords that someone might use to find that website or business through a search engine like Google.
Think about what potential customers or visitors might be looking for and try to put yourself in their shoes.
1. For example, if the website you chose was an online store that sells running shoes, some keywords you might come up with could be “best running shoes” or “running shoes for men.”
Try to come up with one or two short and long-tail keywords that you think would be relevant and useful.
1. You can write it in your notes or simply imagine in your mind.
Small, consistent actions lead to big results.
1. As you move along with this course, you are taking one step closer to mastering the art of SEO and reaching your goals by doing these practice activities in each lecture.
2. You are not only reinforcing the concepts you’ve learned but also gaining valuable hands-on experience that will set you apart as an SEO expert.

2. How to Conduct Keyword Research Using Google Keyword Planner

We’re going to dive into action and learn how to conduct basic keyword research using Google Keyword Planner.

In this lecture, we will cover
1. how to use Google Keyword Planner to find keywords,
2. how to analyze the competition and search volume for those keywords, and
3. how to create a keyword list that will help you optimize your website.

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Basically Google Keyword Planner is a free tool designed for advertisers to find keywords to target in their ad campaigns.
To access the tool, you’ll need a Google Ads account, but don’t worry, you don’t need to spend any money on ads to use the tool.
Search for keyword planner on Google search and you will get this result “choose the right keywords to use” and in the URL, you can see keyword planner.
If you find it click on it to go to keyword planner. If it asks for sign-in, use your Google or Gmail account to sign in, and then you’ll be taken to this page.
Click on discover new keywords. Since this is a tool meant for advertisers we don’t need “get search volume and forecast” for now. Let’s get straight into discover new keywords to find keywords for our keyword research.
Once you have come to this page, you can start by entering a word or phrase that’s related to your business or product.
You can also choose your language and country.
So let me enter ‘handmade jewelry’.
You can straight away, go ahead and click get results to start our keyword research for the niche, ‘handmade jewelry’.
Here we are getting a lot of keyword ideas, such as ‘handmade earrings’, ‘handmade bracelets’, ‘handmade necklace’, ‘handmade rings’ and much more.
Once you have a list of keywords, the next step is to analyze the competition and search volume for each keyword.
You get the search volume in terms of average monthly searches.
1. Google keyword planner doesn’t give you an exact number as the average monthly search, it gives it in a range.
2. For example, the 10 to 100 or a 100 to 1000 or 1000 to 10,000. In such a range keyword planner gives you the search volume.
3. If there is a significant change in the search volume in the past three months, you can see it here.
  1. Some keywords like ‘handmade silver earrings’ has got its search volume reduced by 90% in the last three months.
4. You can also see year on year change here i.e comparing the past 12 months.
  1. If you’re searching in January month of a particular year, then it will compare to the same month in the previous year and the comparative figure will be given to you here.
5. The search volume will give you an idea of how many people are searching for that keyword each month.
  1. Keep in mind that a keyword with a high search volume doesn’t always mean it’s the best keyword to target.
  2. You should also consider the relevance of the keyword to your business and the intent behind the keyword.
  3. Since the keyword planner is mainly intended for advertisers, we cannot get the search intent here. We need to use premium tools like SEMrush to get that info.
Google Keyword Planner will show you the ad competition level for each keyword, which can be helpful in understanding how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword in ads.
1. This competition column is meant for advertisers, which means for ‘handmade earrings’ if the competition is high, it means multiple advertisers are competing against this keyword.
2. Well it doesn’t directly relate to SEO competition because this competition just means that many advertisers are competing for this keyword and not many websites are targeting this keyword.
3. But in reality, if advertisers are targeting a particular keyword, this month then in a few months, such as in three months or in six months SEO experts like me, will sense that a particular keyword is in more demand among advertisers and they will start to target this keyword in their websites to get more ad revenue.
4. Once, more and more websites are targeting a certain keyword, that will become difficult to rank for in Google search results too.
5. So though the competition is not directly related to SEOs we can get a hint about how much harder this keyword will be, to rank for, in the months or years to come.
6. But remember, high competition doesn’t always mean it’s impossible to rank, it means that you’ll have to put in more effort to achieve it.
So the essential columns that you need are keyword, volume and then competition.
By just entering our niche, ‘handmade jewelry’, we get a lot of keyword ideas ranging from ‘handmade earrings’ to ‘unique jewelry near me’ and lot other.
1. In essence, we have got more than 1500 keyword ideas.
2. Among these almost half of them should be relevant to our niche and some of them may not be relevant to our niche.

Creating a Keyword List

In the coming lectures, we will discuss in detail how to analyze and select the keywords based on volume, competition and other criteria. But here I’m just showing you a glimpse of the process and how to use keyword planner.
Once we’ve analyzed the competition and search volume of the keywords, it’s time to create a keyword list.
1. Select a list of keywords that you want to target on your website.
2. When selecting the keywords form the list, make sure to include a mix of short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords, and LSI keywords.
3. This will help you target a wide range of search queries and increase your chances of ranking for those keywords.
4. Click on ‘download your keyword ideas’ to export it to a spreadsheet.

Optimizing Website Content and Meta Tags

Once you have your keyword list, it’s time to start optimizing your website for those keywords.
1. This means including the keywords in your website’s content, title, description, and other elements.
2. Make sure to use the keywords in a natural and relevant way so that it makes sense in the context of your content.
3. We will discuss about optimizing our website for keywords in on-page optimization section

To conclude

I hope you now understand better
1. how to use this powerful tool to find and analyze keywords and
2. how to create a keyword list that will help you optimize your website.

I’ll leave you with a practice activity,

Go to the Google Keyword Planner tool.
Enter a website URL or niche that you like to analyze.
Click on “Get Ideas”
Scroll down to “Keyword ideas” and analyze the list of keywords that are shown.
Make a list of at least 10 keywords that you think would be relevant for that website or business.
Think about the business’s potential customers or visitors to that website, and choose keywords they might search on Google to find that website or business.

3. Search volume of a keyword

Search volume is one of the most important indicators of a keyword’s potential value.

It tells us how often people are searching for a particular keyword or phrase on a search engine like Google.

Imagine you’re an online shoe store owner, and you’re trying to decide which type of shoes to stock in your store.

You might consider the search volume of different shoe types to help you decide.
For example, if you see that the keyword “running shoes” has a high search volume,
- It might be a good idea to stock a variety of running shoes in your store.
- On the other hand, if the keyword “clogs” has a low search volume, it might not be worth stocking many clogs in your store.

Another example is if you’re a travel agency and you’re trying to decide which destinations to promote on your website.

You might use keyword research to see which destinations have a high search volume.
For example, you might find that keywords like “Hawaii vacation” or “Caribbean cruise” have a high search volume, indicating that these are popular destinations that you should promote on your website.

Here is a list of keywords that I brainstormed for 4 different niches to discuss the keyword research section with you.

When you come up with your own ideas for keywords, you will have to manually find the search volume for each such keywords.

To check the search volume of a single keyword, I would suggest Keyword overview tool from small SEO tools
To check the search volume of multiple keywords in bulk, I would suggest Keyword volume tool from hoth, which produces the same results as small SEO tools
You can also use Searchvolume.io tool if you want to know the search volume of a keyword in any particular country. It also allows you to export the list as a CSV file.
- You can open it in a spreadsheet to filter the info based on your needs.
These are all free SEO tools. Alternatively you can use premium tools like SEMrush or SE Ranking or Ahrefs to check all these information of a keyword at one place.

It’s important to note that search volume can vary depending on the time of year, current events, and other factors.

In this spreadsheet, I have added some random details, they don’t pertain to the actual search volume.

Earlier we just had a list of keywords. But once we have the volume data, we could sort from largest to smallest and suddenly some keyword appear more important to target than the other.

If you own a coffee shop, it’s very humanly to think why should we bother targeting these lower search volume keywords, let’s just put all our efforts into the top 3 keywords, ‘how to brew coffee’, ‘best coffee beans’ and ‘buy whole bean coffee online’ and pack in 4000 visitors every month.

If you’ve thought so, wait till the next lecture to see why that’s not a good idea.

By understanding the search volume of a keyword, you can make informed decisions about which products or services to promote, which topics to write about on your blog, and how to optimize your website for search engines.

Here’s the practice activity for you,

You might have come up with a few sets of keywords in the previous practice activities
Find the search volume of those keywords using any of the tools we discussed in this video
You can always find the necessary links in the resources section of the lecture

4. The keyword difficulty of a keyword

Keyword difficulty score measures how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword in search engine results pages.

It is a score between 0 and 100, with 100 being the most difficult to rank for.
Keyword difficulty or KD is important for SEOs and marketers because it helps them determine how much effort and resources they need to invest to rank for a certain keyword.

You can understand keyword difficulty as a competition score. The higher the score, the more competition there is for that keyword.

Higher Keyword difficulty means that many websites are trying to rank for that keyword, and it will be harder for your website to outrank them.

Several tools like SEMrush or SE ranking can be used to find the keyword difficulty of a keyword. They use various metrics and algorithms to calculate the keyword difficulty score, such as

the number of backlinks,
the number of websites ranking for the keyword, and
the quality of the websites ranking for the keyword.

For example, let’s say

You own an online store that sells running shoes and
You want to optimize your website for the keyword “best running shoes.”
Using SEMrush, you find that the keyword difficulty score for this keyword is 81 out of 100.
- This means that there is a high level of competition for this keyword and it will be difficult for your website to rank for it.
- However, with detailed keyword research and SEO strategy, you can still achieve a higher ranking for this keyword.

Another example is, let’s say

You own a blog about travel and
You want to optimize your website for the keyword “best places to visit in europe in december”
Using SEMrush, you find that the keyword difficulty score for this keyword is 45 out of 100.
- This means that there is moderate competition for this keyword, and it may be easier for your website to rank for it compared to the previous example.
- With a well-planned content strategy and optimized on-page elements, you can improve your chances of ranking well for this keyword.

Let’s go to my list of keywords. Here I’ve added the keyword difficulty values myself.

These are some example values added to explain the keyword research process. They aren’t taken out from any particular SEO tool.

Now I have arranged this list in the ascending order of keyword difficulty.
By looking at this you can understand that keywords like ‘best coffee beans’ or ‘how to brew a coffee’ are far more competitive than easy keywords like ‘cold brew coffee recipe’ or ‘coffee shops near me’.
By bringing keyword difficulty into picture the list of important keywords seemed to have changed suddenly.
Wait, we are not done yet! The scenario will change once again as we move into the next lecture.

To conclude,

Understanding keyword difficulty is crucial for developing a successful SEO strategy.
It helps you identify the keywords that are worth targeting and the effort required to rank for them.
By using tools such as SEMrush, you can easily find the keyword difficulty of a keyword and optimize your website accordingly.
Remember, always target keywords that are relevant to your business and have lower keyword difficulty scores for better chances of ranking in SERPs i.e. search engine result pages.

Here’s the practice activity for you,

Go to keyword difficulty checker tool from small seo tools
Enter 2 or 3 keywords that you’ve come up with
Find the keyword difficulty score of those keywords

5. Search intent

We can classify keywords into 4 different types based on search intent: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial keywords.

When I first started learning about SEO and the concept of search intent, it was easy to understand the different types of keywords. But when it came to actually categorizing keywords, I found myself often getting confused between transactional and commercial keywords. Sometimes between commercial and navigational keywords.

I don’t want you to have that same experience. So I’ve provided you with plenty of examples and comparisons to make it as clear as possible. Let’s dive in and learn more about search intent!

First, let’s talk about informational keywords.

When users seek information on a particular topic, they use informational keywords.

These keywords are typically used in the early stages of the buyer’s journey when they haven’t yet made a decision to purchase a product or service.
For example, a student searching for ‘how to write a research paper’ is using an informational keyword.
1. They are looking for information on how to write a research paper and haven’t yet decided on which service or product to use.
Another example would be someone searching for ‘best hiking trails in Yosemite National Park’. They want information on the best trails to hike in Yosemite, and may not have decided on which trail to hike or which guide service to use yet.

Informational keywords can be found in various niches such as healthcare, travel, education, and more.

For example,

in the healthcare niche, ‘symptoms of flu’ is an informational keyword,
whereas in the travel niche, ‘best places to visit in Europe’ is an informational keyword
and in the education niche, ‘online courses for graphic design’ is an informational keyword.

These keywords are used to gather information, research and make an informed decision.

Navigational keywords

When users are looking for a specific website or webpage, they use navigational keywords.

These types of keywords are typically brand-based or domain-based.
They are often used by people who are already familiar with a brand or product, and know the exact name of the website or webpage they are looking for.

For example, if someone is looking for the official website of Nike, they may type “Nike.com” or “Nike website” into the search engine instead of the address bar.
1. This is a navigational keyword, as the user knows the exact website they are looking for and is not looking for information on a general topic related to Nike.
Another example could be a user, who wants to check their account balance on a bank’s website. They may type “Axis bank account login” into the search engine.
1. This is also a navigational keyword as the user is looking for a specific webpage, in this case, the login page of their bank account.
Here’s another example: if a user wants to listen to music on spotify, they may type “Spotify login” or just “Spotify” into the search engine.
1. This is also a navigational keyword as the user is looking for a specific webpage, in this case the login page of Spotify.

In all the above examples, the user is looking for a specific webpage or website and is not looking for information on a general topic related to the keyword.

“Coffee shop near me” and “gym near me” is also an example of a navigational keyword.

In this case, the user is searching for a coffee shop in their vicinity, and the keyword “near me” indicates that they are searching for a location-based result.

“Romantic restaurants in New York” is also a navigational keyword.

When someone types this into a search engine, they are looking for a specific type of restaurant in a specific location.
The keyword “romantic” indicates that the searcher is looking for a specific atmosphere or type of dining experience.
“New York” is the location where the searcher is looking to find romantic restaurants in.
This keyword indicates that the searcher is looking to navigate to a specific category of restaurants in a specific location.

Navigational keywords are often short, specific and brand-related – unlike informational keywords which are generally not brand specific but provide a lot of information about that topic.

Understanding navigational keywords can help businesses optimize their website for users who are searching for their brand or specific pages on their website, which can lead to increased website traffic and engagement.

Commercial keywords

When someone is in the research phase of making a purchase, they use commercial keywords.

These keywords indicate an intent to research a product or service before making a purchase but not the intent to purchase right away. These keywords are often used by consumers 1 stage before the buying process and often include phrases like “best,” “reviews,” “comparison,” and “top.”

Examples of commercial keywords are:

“best running shoes for flat feet”
“hair straightener reviews”
“top 10 smartphones under $500”
“car insurance comparison”

In the niche of “technology” some examples of commercial keywords would be

“best laptops for graphic design,”
“smartphone comparison,”
“top gaming laptops.”

“Personal trainer near me” may look like a navigational keyword as it has the term ‘near me’ but it can also be classified as commercial because it suggests that the user is looking to pay for a service. While the keyword “near me” implies a navigational intent, the keyword “personal trainer” indicates that the user is looking to pay for a service, which is a commercial transaction.

Commercial keywords indicate that the user has almost made the decision to purchase, hasn’t finalized yet and is looking for more information about a specific product or service before making that purchase.

These keywords are often used by businesses to target potential customers and drive sales.

Transactional keywords

They are used when someone is looking to make a purchase or take some sort of action. These keywords indicate the intent to complete a transaction or make a purchase.

These keywords are often used by customers who are at the bottom of the sales funnel and are ready to make a purchase right away.
Typically these keywords include words like “checkout,” “buy now,” or “purchase.”
In the niche of “fashion” some examples of transactional keywords would be “buy designer handbags online,” “discount designer shoes,” and “luxury fashion brand handbags.”

It’s important to note that the same keyword can have different search intent depending on the context and the user’s query.

It’s also important to understand that these types of keywords are not mutually exclusive. A keyword can belong to multiple search intents too based on the situation.

Let’s move into my previous examples from 4 different niches

You can easily classify these keywords appropriately.

Let me walk you through it.

Under the fitness niche, ‘workout fitness’ and ‘exercise’ are single-word keywords and they target a broad spectrum of topics under the fitness niche. Hence they are classified as short-tail keywords.
1. Same goes for travel, vacation, finance and investments
‘Budget travel tips’, ‘how to improve credit score’, ‘best gym equipment for home use’ – all these keywords have multiple words in them and they are more specific towards what topic they cover. So they are classified as long-tail keywords.
Keywords like ‘buy dumbbells, purchase fitness equipment, buy a plane ticket, rent a car, buy stocks’, all have keywords such as ‘buy or purchase or rent’, so you can easily classify them as transactional keywords.
Keywords like ‘book a hotel room, open a savings account, apply for a loan’ – Though they don’t have the direct keyword ‘buy or purchase or rent’, you can easily classify them as transactional because you know, there is an intent from the customer to pay some money or make a transaction that involves money.
1. But keywords, like ‘join a gym’ doesn’t have ‘buy or purchase or rent’ or doesn’t even have a direct intention to transact using the money. Then how is it classified as a transactional keyword? We will look at it later.
Let’s move to navigational keywords. Here ‘find a gym near me’ has got the ‘near me’ navigational keyword and keywords, like ‘find flights, find cheap hotels, find vacation packages’ has an intention to navigate to a comparison website or an aggregator website, which compares flight ticket prices or hotel prices or vacation package prices. Hence, they are classified as navigational keywords.
Same goes for ‘find a financial advisor, find the best interest rates, find online budgeting tools’ – all these three keywords have the intention to find a tool or a comparison site or an aggregator site to find an advisor or the best interest rate or the budgeting tool and hence they are classified as navigational keywords.
1. But keywords like ‘yoga classes, at-home workout videos’, how are they classified as navigational? We will look, into it later.
Now let’s move on to informational keywords. ‘Best exercise for apps, how to lose weight, benefits of yoga’ – these are straightforward informational keywords because users are trying to get some information, find some information, or Know stuff.
The same goes for ‘best travel destinations, how to plan a trip, passport information’. Similarly, ‘how to invest money, how to create a budget, how to improve credit score’, all these keywords have no other intentions such as finding a particular site or going to a particular location or completing a transaction or it doesn’t even mean that the customer is at one stage or 2 stages before completing a transaction. Hence they are not even commercial keywords too. That’s why it’s purely informational keywords.
Let’s go to the commercial keyword. ‘Best gym membership deals’ – Once a user searches this keyword and once he finds the best deals, then he will search for that website, navigate to the website or he will search for ‘buy the gym membership’ and take that membership. So they are just one stage before making a transaction and hence, it’s a commercial keyword. The same goes for ‘last minute vacation deals’ Once they find such a deal, it’s almost under the last minute, so they will make that purchase or make the transaction.
Keywords like ‘best credit cards, best online banks and best personal finance apps’ all these keywords indicate that the user is at one stage before making a transaction. Such as when the user finds their best credit card, the next stage, he will apply for that credit card. Once the user finds the best online bank, the next stage, he will create an account in the bank, Or visit that page and sign up for a form to let the bank official or the bank executive to call him or email him. Same goes for best personal finance apps. When the user gets to know the best one, in the next step, he will just go to the play store or app store and download and install that app on his mobile phone. So they are just one step before making a transaction or before converting and hence these keywords are commercial keywords.
But keywords like ‘personal trainer near me, gym equipment for sale, travel insurance, travel credit cards’, how are they commercial keywords? Let’s look at all these complicated keywords now.

I’ve formatted these complicated keywords in bold. Let me quickly explain them.

“Join a gym” is classified as a transactional keyword because it implies that the user is ready to make a purchase or take some sort of action toward joining a gym.
“yoga classes” is classified as a navigational keyword because it is a specific service or location that someone may be searching for, and it sounds like “find a gym near me” which is often used in a similar way.
1. Most of the time, people look for a yoga class where they can go and practice, and hence it has the potential to be a navigational keyword.
“At-home workout videos” is classified as navigational because it implies that the user is searching for a specific type of workout video that they can do at home.
“Travel cards” and “travel insurance” are classified as commercial keywords because they imply that the user is searching for a product or service that they can purchase to make their travel experience more convenient or secure.

Not only can a keyword fall into multiple categories, but also the intent behind a keyword can change depending on the context in which it is used.

For example, “personal trainer near me” could also be considered a navigational keyword if the user is looking for a specific personal trainer’s website.

The fine nuances between commercial and transactional keywords are subtle and can be overlapping.

The main difference is that commercial keywords are more general and can indicate the intent to purchase a product or service,
while transactional keywords are more specific and indicate the intent to complete a transaction or make a purchase.

In conclusion,

Understanding keyword search intent is crucial for effective keyword research and creating content that matches the user’s intent.
By targeting the right keywords, you can drive more relevant traffic to your website and ultimately increase conversions.

Now, as an activity,

I want you to take a look at your own website or business and identify the keywords you are currently targeting.
Then, classify them into one of the four categories of search intent that we discussed.

6. What keywords should you target now?

Here is my final list of keywords classified by niche, search volume, keyword difficulty and search intent. For any niche or website, you can get a list of keywords in this format using keyword research tools.

But if you don’t know how to pick the right ones or what to do with them then there’s no use to learn the keyword research tools.

Generally you can classify the sites in either of these types.

Websites offering services or products
Websites that generate revenue through affiliate commissions
Websites that generate revenue through ads

Based on the type of websites you need to pick the keywords. There’s no 1 general rule to pick a keyword for all types of sites. That won’t work.

For websites that offer services or products,

You don’t need a huge amount of traffic, you just need highly targeted highly converting traffic.
1. Most of the small business and local business websites fall into this category.
2. You need to target transactional keywords on their service pages and product pages.
3. Most of the sites will have some 4 to 5 content pages.
  1. If the site sells multiple products or offers multiple services then even 5 won’t be sufficient.
    1. Practically you cannot attract more visitors without valuable content.
    2. Creating backlinks can help but without content pages, anytime in the future you may be hit by the Google algorithm.
4. If there aren’t enough content pages on the site, as an SEO for the site, ask them to create at least 5 content pages as bare minimum.
  1. This doesn’t include pages like our privacy policy, terms and conditions, about us or contact us or sitemap pages.
  2. On those 5 content pages you’ll need to target commercial keywords.
  3. Effectively you’re creating a 2 stage funnel.
    1. You’re trying to attract users who are just 1 step away from making a purchase or transaction.
    2. You help them make that decision.
    3. If you’ve got a copywriter at your disposal, then use them to convince the visitors to buy your product or use your service.

In this case, I would target

‘Best coffee subscription service and coffee subscription service’ keywords in my coffee subscription page.
‘Buy whole bean coffee online and organic fair trade coffee beans’ keywords in my product pages

Similarly If I have a fitness website where I sell fitness training and equipments, I would target

‘best home gym equipment’ on my product pages
‘Online personal training and Online fitness program’ in my service pages

I hope you now get the idea.

For websites that generate revenue through affiliate commissions

Highly converting low volume keywords won’t be enough for a site like this.
Low-conversion, high volume keywords too won’t fit your needs.
You need a balance between traffic volume and conversions.
So you need to target commercial keywords on pages where you write about product comparisons and reviews.
1. Sometimes if you’re just writing about the product releases or product news, you can target informational keywords on those pages.
Typically in case of affiliate sites, you won’t have pages that sell products or services from your site directly.
1. You would normally link to the external product pages and service pages using your affiliate links, that’s why I didn’t suggest you to use transactional keywords for affiliate sites.

In this case, I would create pages targeting,

Fitness tracker or protein powders for muscle building or workout equipment in fitness niche
Latest smartphone releases in technology niche
Travel rewards credit card, luxury resorts in the caribbean in the travel niche
And so on

It’s better to offer email subscriptions and social media follow opt-ins or YouTube channel subscription opt-ins, because users may not decide even after going through the articles on your site.

If you can get them to follow your social media pages or your YouTube channel or get them on your subscriber list, you can use them as leads and eventually persuade them by offering valuable content.

People buy from people they trust.

So if you can show your face on your social profiles, your youtube channel or even on your site images and videos, your conversion will increase in the long run.

For websites that generate revenue through ads

All you need are high volume keywords.

Generally informational keywords fetch you more search volume. So that should be your preference.
When more users visit your site, you can show more ads.
1. The chances of getting clicks on the ads increase.
2. This will increase your ad revenue.

In this case, I would target

How to brew coffee, cold brew coffee recipe in coffee niche
How to lose weight, best workout routine, exercise for beginners in the fitness niche
Luxury travel and budget travel in travel niche

As your site grows,

If you start to create pages where you use affiliate links to products or services, use commercial keywords there.
If you start to sell your own, merchandising products or if you have come with offering some services on your site,
- that’s when you’ll need to target transactional keywords related to that product on those product pages
- or transactional keywords related to that service on those service pages.

If you wonder where keyword difficulty comes into picture!

It’ll be there throughout your SEO journey.

Irrespective of the type of website, if your website is new and doesn’t have any backlinks from highly reputable websites then you should stick to low or easy difficulty keywords.

Alternatively, use Semrush to determine your site’s domain authority (DA) and keyword difficulty for the keyword you’re targeting.

If your DA is less than 30 stick to keywords with easy or possible difficulty scores. Else you would have to put in a lot of effort to create a lot of dofollow backlinks, which will take 10X to 20X the effort you put in for a low difficulty keyword.
1. Most of the new sites or most of the small business and local business sites that need SEO fall under this category.
But if your DA is between 30 to 50, target keywords up to 75 Keyword difficulty.
If your DA is more than 50, probably you already have an in house SEO or you are already an SEO expert to make appropriate decisions.
1. I’m not joking. Getting a DA above 50 legitimately, is not that easy.
2. Without 100s of backlinks or without getting backlinks from very popular or highly reputable sites, this won’t be possible.
3. So I’ll leave that to you.

In terms of search volume

For transactional keywords even a search volume of 100 is decent, not low.
For commercial keywords a search volume of 500 is decent but 100 is low.
For informational keywords, a search volume of 1000 is decent, 100 is very low.

Now you should have an idea of how to pick the right keywords by categorizing the website type and looking at the search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent.

For practice activity,

I want you to use the keywords list that you’ve categorized by search intent from the previous lecture and think about which keywords are right for the type of website that you’ve now or that you’re working on or that you want to create.
Before that, categorize your website type from the types we discussed in this lecture.

7. Creating Buyer Personas

Once you have a good understanding of search intent, the next step is to create buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It includes information about the customer’s demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals.

By creating buyer personas, you can gain a better understanding of your target audience and create content that addresses their pain points, needs and interests.

How to Create Buyer Personas
1. There are several ways to create buyer personas, but one of the most effective ways is to conduct market research. This can include surveys, interviews, and customer data analysis.
  - If the site already has enough traffic coming to your site, you can also use tools like Google Analytics to gain insights into your website’s visitors.
  - If the site is new, but if the physical business is doing good, sit with your client and have a clear idea about the businesses they do and learn about their customer demographics.
  - You can also explain the business to Bing Co-pilot or ChatGPT and ask for some sample buyer personas.
  - Once you have the data, you can use it to create detailed profiles of your target audience, including their age, gender, income, education level and purchasing power.
You might think that creating a buyer persona isn’t that necessary and you can skip it.
1. From my experience, without a clear understanding of the business’s target audience,
  - you risk wasting resources on ineffective marketing efforts,
  - offering products that do not meet the needs of their audience,
  - and missing out on potential sales opportunities.
I understand, most of you might be new to this, you might wonder how this is related to SEO? Is it worth the time? And a lot many questions like that. Let me explain with an example.
1. Creating a buyer persona helps me to tailor my SEO strategy specifically to the target audience of the website they are optimizing.
  - Without a buyer persona, I’m likely to miss important insights into the target audience’s behavior and preferences, resulting in a less effective SEO strategy.
2. For a coffee shop, the target audience is likely to include individuals who are passionate about coffee, frequent coffee drinkers, and busy professionals.
  - To create a buyer persona for this target audience, I would conduct research to understand their pain points, interests, and behaviors.
  - For example, the pain points of the target audience might include limited time in the morning to prepare coffee at home, a lack of good coffee options near their workplace, or a need for a quick caffeine fix on the go.
  - To address these pain points, I could optimize the website for keywords related to “quick coffee options” and “coffee near me.”
3. In terms of interests, the target audience might be interested in high-quality coffee, unique flavors, and sustainable coffee sourcing.
  - To appeal to these interests, I could create content that showcases the coffee shop’s unique coffee blends and sustainable sourcing practices.
4. If I do not create a buyer persona, I risk – creating content and optimizing for keywords that are not relevant to the target audience.
  - This could result in a website that fails to attract and engage the target audience, leading to lower rankings, fewer conversions, and lower ROI.
  - That’s why, creating a buyer persona is crucial for me to understand the target audience and tailor my SEO strategy accordingly.

8. How to Use Buyer Personas

Once you have your buyer personas, you can use them to

Guide your marketing efforts, and
To make sure your content fits the needs and interests of the people you want to reach.

Here are a few specific examples of how to use buyer personas in a practical sense

Target the right keywords

One of the biggest challenges in SEO is finding the right keywords to target.
1. By using buyer personas, you can get a clear picture of the keywords your target audience is searching for.
For example, let’s say you own a clothing store that specializes in athletic wear.
1. Your buyer persona is a 25-year-old fitness enthusiast who is looking for comfortable and stylish workout clothes.
2. By knowing this, you can target keywords like “athletic wear,” “fitness clothing,” and “workout clothes”.
3. These are the keywords that your target audience is likely searching for, and by optimizing your website for these keywords, you’ll be able to drive more targeted traffic to your site.

Create content that resonates

Once you have targeted the right keywords, it’s time to create content that resonates with your target audience. This is where buyer personas come in handy again.
By knowing your buyer persona’s pain points, interests, and needs, you can create content that speaks directly to them.
For example, you can create a blog post on “5 tips for comfortable and stylish workout outfits” or a video on “How to choose the right athletic wear for your body type.”
These types of content are not only relevant to your target audience but also provide value to them.

Promote your content

Now that you’ve created valuable content, it’s time to promote it.
1. Share your content on social media and other online channels where your buyer personas spend their time.
2. This way, you’ll reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your website.
For example, if your target audience is active on Instagram, you can create eye-catching graphics and share your content on your Instagram page.
1. You can also run targeted ads on Instagram to reach a wider audience.

Optimizing website structure:

The structure of your website plays an important role in SEO. By using buyer personas, you can create a website structure that meets their needs and expectations.
For example, if your target audience is tech-savvy, you can incorporate advanced features like AI chatbots and augmented reality.
1. On the other hand, if your target audience is older and not as tech-savvy, you might want to keep your website design simple and easy to navigate.
2. You can also choose your website colors, font choices that soothes the eyes of your buyer persona.

Targeting local SEO:

If you have a local business, it’s important to target local SEO.
1. By using buyer personas, you can determine the locations where your target audience is located and optimize your website accordingly.
For example, if your target audience is mostly located in Los Angeles, you can target keywords like “best clothing store in Los Angeles” or “Los Angeles fashion store.”
1. This will help you rank higher in local search results and drive more traffic to your website.

Optimizing for voice search:

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular and it’s important to optimize your website for it to stay ahead of the competition.

By using buyer personas, you can get a better understanding of how your target audience uses voice search and optimize your website accordingly.

For example, let’s say your buyer persona is a busy mom who uses voice search to find quick and easy recipes.
1. To optimize for voice search, you can create a FAQ section on your website with common questions such as “What are some quick and easy dinner recipes?” or “What are some healthy snacks for kids?”
2. This type of content is ideal for voice search as it provides quick and concise answers to common questions.
Another example would be to focus on long-tail keywords that reflect the natural language used in voice searches.
1. So instead of targeting the keyword “recipes,” you might want to target phrases like “quick and easy dinner recipes.”

Finally, it’s important to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and has fast loading times, as most voice searches are done on mobile devices.

By making it easy for voice assistants to understand and return your website as a result, you’ll increase your visibility and drive more traffic to your site.

Using buyer personas, you can create better marketing campaigns, get more people to buy, and make customers happier.

Conclusion

I hope you now have a better idea of how to use this information to create a successful keyword research strategy and optimize your website’s content to attract your target audience.

It’s a simple and effective way to drive more targeted traffic and leads to your website.

As a practice activity,

I want you to do market research and create a buyer’s persona for a website or business you know well.

9. Sample SEO Strategy

Here’s a simple SEO strategy that I would follow if a coffee shop on Wall Street asked me to do SEO for their website.

Assuming that a new coffee shop is started in the busy wall street, the first thing I would think about is

What would the buyer persona of their customers be like?
What would be their pain points? their needs? their interests?

The buyer persona would likely be

Busy professionals who are seeking a quick and convenient coffee to start their day or a pick-me-up during a busy work day. They may also seek a place to socialize with coworkers or meet clients for business meetings.

Their pain points may look like:

Limited time to wait in line for their coffee

Coming to Needs:

They would need a

Convenient location to find a place to work or have a meeting in a professional setting
Comfortable seating and cozy workspace
A quality coffee that comes fast and is easily accessible

Regarding their Interests:

They would like

Keeping up with the latest trends in the coffee industry
Staying productive and focused
Networking and building professional relationships
Enjoying a good cup of coffee in a stylish and trendy environment.
And some high-quality coffee options

See! Once I get that, I can use it in each of my SEO processes such as keyword research, content creation and marketing strategies.

Let me elaborate.

When I identify keywords, I think from the potential customer’s point of view such as what language they might use to find coffee shops in Wall Street!

For example, “coffee shop in Wall Street”, “best coffee near Wall Street”, “coffee near Wall Street subway”, etc.

When I analyze the competition for the keywords I choose:

I use tools like SEMrush or SE ranking or Keyword surfer if the business targets a big area like an entire state or country.
I use Mangools tools for very specific cities.

This will give you an idea of the level of competition for each keyword and which keywords might be easier and more worthy of targeting.

If I need to target some highly competitive keywords, then I’ll identify the long-tail versions of those keywords, as Long-tail keywords are more specific and less competitive than generic keywords.

For example, keywords like “best cappuccino on Wall Street” or “organic coffee near Wall Street” are more likely to convert visitors into customers because they are searching for exactly what the coffee shop offers.

If the website already has some existing pages, I would map these keywords to those existing pages.

For example, the keyword “best coffee near Wall Street” could be targeted to the homepage, while “best cappuccino in Wall Street” could be targeted to the product page.

In addition, if I have also found some keywords with decent search volume and low competition, I’ll create new content on those keywords.

I’ll include the different variations of those keywords in the page title, meta description, subheadings, alt tags of images and body content.
The content should also be well-written and engaging, as this will keep visitors on the site longer and increase the chances of them becoming customers.

Since the coffee shop is located on Wall Street, I would create content that highlights its proximity to popular landmarks, events, or attractions.

For example, “The Best Coffee Shop in Wall Street: Steps Away from the Stock Exchange” or “Refuel with Us After a Busy Day at the NYSE”.
This will help the coffee shop rank well in local search results or go viral in social media.

I would also encourage customers to share their experiences at the coffee shop on social media.

This can be done by offering discounts, hosting events, or simply asking them to tag the coffee shop in their instagram posts.
I can then add these testimonials and experiences to the website to make it more interesting and improve the overall user experience.

I’ll try to keep the website up-to-date with fresh, keyword-optimized content.

This could include blog posts about new coffee trends, promotions, or events at the coffee shop.
Adding new content to the website on a regular basis will keep people interested and boost its search engine rankings.

With this, we have covered all the essential lessons in keyword research.