How to do a Keyword Research in an SEO Process: Criteria and tools

In today's Crawling Mondays, I would like to go through one of the most fundamental critical activities in an SEO process, the keyword research. The keyword research will allow us to identify the best potential query opportunities to target those that are much more meaningful for us in the SEO process, the ones that we really want to focus on, to monitor, to track our visibility for, and the ones that we will really, really, really like to be number one and the first positions in search results. So I know that there are so many different tools nowadays, so many different data sources. Different from I remember when I started doing SEO. And therefore, I would like to take you with a few of those different tools that I take usually into consideration, a little bit of the criteria that I also take into consideration to select, to narrow down, to validate and filter out those queries that are not necessarily that meaningful, the ones that are really, really meaningful. And for this, of course, it is critical to have our clients' input, their validation, their know-how, Because there is never going to be like someone like really, really, really, really in the know with the know-how of the business, of course. So this is a process that it is indeed critical, but where we don't only need to take SEO criteria into consideration, as with everything, right? But also the business-related criteria. And this is why it is critical that in this process we get the ongoing validation and there is a back and forth and continuous input from a client perspective in all of this. However, let's take a look at which are these main data sources and these main inputs and from where we can start to build this set of queries that we should definitely target in order to maximize our visibility, the ones that will be much more profitable, the ones that will have more opportunities and potential to grow. I always like to start from where we are, right? And the best possible source of keyword data, of query data, uh, for our websites at the moment, uh, from what we are already achieving, is the Google Search Console in the performance report. So here we can come and take a look a little bit of which are the top terms that are bringing us organic search clicks, impressions, the click-through rate, the position. So here, right away, we can see how well we are ranking for these terms, if these terms are really, really that meaningful and important for us, and from where are they coming to, because we can see here the list of countries which are providing these terms. We can filter out also further and take a look at, for example, if the terms that are bringing us, uh, visibility and, and, and more clicks at the moment are the same from the US, then let's say we can, we can compare even the US versus, let's, another English-speaking country like the UK. Or if these terms differ, uh, this can start giving us input of not only the, the, the potential traffic that we can Um, bring what, what this, uh, what the, the number of impressions. We are already in the top 10 positions, for example, but also the, the type of engagement that we have at the moment with the click-through rate, uh, if it is good, if it is bad, despite the, the, based on, based on the, based on the position that, that we have for, for, for these terms. And also, uh, to take a look at which are the pages that we are ranking with for the same terms. And this is the thing, right? Realistically, like with the Google Search Console, we can obtain this, but it requires a little bit of more filtering, right? Because we need to go to the queries and take a look at which are the pages ranking for this particular query. If there are many pages, if we have potentially content cannibalization issues, et cetera, right? So a way to avoid this and obtain this data right away is with the Google Search Console integration with Google Data Studio. So for example, this, the, the, the little dashboard that I showed you last week in the last Crawling Monday. So we can see directly here the queries connected with the pages and their impressions, the, the current clicks, the click-through rate, if this has improved or decreased, and in, in the specific timeline that we have set for it. We can also easily filter out and, and see how many of this are being brought by our desktop results versus mobile versus tablet too. And we can really go granular and take a look and, and, and check out the most important terms for each particular page at the moment. A second step is to expand this list of already targeted queries even further with third-party data sources. So for example, with Ahrefs or with Semrush or with Sistrix, they are all going to provide us already an expanded list of terms, of queries for which our website is already ranking for. And we can see the trend over time. We can easily go again here in this case through the different countries that are already bringing organic search rankings for our country. We can see also, and I like really much the way that This has been shown, and in the case of Ahrefs, the top competitors for each country. So we can quickly see which are the other websites that are targeting the same type of queries that we are, not necessarily the ones that are our competitors from a business model perspective, but those that are really, really targeting these terms and that we want to take a look at in the next step to identify which are the terms that they are targeting, how different they are from, from our own, which, which is the existing gap, uh, with them. Expand, uh, the view, uh, in, in this particular case, and we can see which are these top terms, their search volume. And again, in, in the Google Search Console, we could see the impressions, and this will highly correlate with the search volume in the case we, we are already targeting, uh, we are already ranking top 10 the top 10 positions for these queries, right? However, in this case, it's very straightforward the way that we are shown, um, the, the search volume for any of these queries independently on the position that, that we, we, we are, uh, the traffic that the tool is, is identifying that, uh, this, these terms are, are bringing us already, the position and how, what is the trend over time if we have improved or decreased the particular URL, uh, that is at the moment, uh, being ranked for, for, for these terms. And this is something also particularly useful and, and, and, and to identify also for, for potential, uh, content format opportunities, right? The first search features that are being shown and, and for this, for, for, for the SERPs of, of these keywords, right? Uh, to, to, to provide us ideas of the different type of of content that we can create the different formats, if we can create videos, if images at some point, if we see that the image packs or if the top stories, for example, if at some point it will be an informational query that we would like to even address with our blog, if it can compensate at some point to even create AMP for the blog because we want to be included in the top stories, in the news carousel, for example. So all of this potential opportunities also to expand our visibility, not only to, to rank in the first position, but expand the visibility and, and, and the search results for these queries. We can also start identifying them here right away to, to, to also consider them in an SEO process, because it's not only about creating content, but also identifying what type of intent, uh, we are targeting with this content, uh, what is the type of format that we want to create, uh, this content with in order to better address and, and, and and really answer the query, the question that is being asked by the user, right? To really fulfill the user intent. Once that we identify also a larger list, a larger group of queries for which our website is already more or less ranking for, is already bringing a little bit of visibility, right? We want to take a look at the ones already bringing the same for our competitors. Competitors, right? So we are going to, to, to go through the same steps and, and do it so for the top players in, in our industries or, or those that we know that are, are ranking us for these top terms that we have already identified are bringing us more, more visibility, right? It's important to understand how they are addressing many of these queries in a way that you might not be doing so, right, to compare, to understand the existing gap. And a very simple way to do this is, uh, the one of the keyword gap from Semrush. I love this, this, this report here because it allows us to, to compare, um, our domain with the ones of our top competitors directly here and see which are the unique, uh, keywords for each one of them, the common ones, or the ones that they are share and bring a big list here and be able to compare and see how we are ranking versus them for any of these top terms and see the search volume for them. So of course, we can see here that potentially they are addressing or we are addressing or any of us are addressing a few very, very high search volume terms that are not necessarily that relevant, that well connected with the products. Uh, of course, if especially if these are huge websites, right? Um, so it is important to filter out and see which, which, which are the ones that are, are really meaningful. Uh, but you can even do it so here. So for example, just include me the, the keywords including remote. Uh, so here I can see for that, for remote jobs, I am ranking like this and these players are ranking in these other ways. That is a meaningful term that is also very popular for, for them as well as for me. A little bit of the trend over time. If I export this, I will get a percentage of, of, of, uh, that will be connected with the average search volume. So I can apply it to see what is the, the, the search volume per month if, if it is something that is important for me to identify the interest over time, to, to identify also the seasonality of, of these terms, to also take that into consideration, um, whenever I want to start addressing the, uh, and creating content and prioritize the content in order to, to rank for them. Um, of course, if in the SEO process. Of course, after identifying the already ranking terms for my own website and the ones of my competitors and better understand which are those that might be much more meaningful for me, the ones that I am not yet addressing at all, for which I'm not ranking at all, potentially because I don't even have content for them and I will really want to prioritize, is to really generate much more keywords ideas, uh, to, to really view and, and properly assess the, the opportunities behind all these queries. If it is a very, very important topic or, or, or, or head term that does so many different, uh, queries around this particularly important topic in, in, in my sector connected to my business, and my— maybe at this point, um, the website is only addressing this term with a subcategory, let's say, or even with, uh, not necessarily that well or a good important filter in, in, in my web structure, right? And, and then of course I, I come and check here and I identify, especially at the beginning, right, where I have— if you haven't worked with and in this sector and it is the first iteration of the SEO process and you see there is a huge term, there's a huge topic. So it's important that for all of this important different type of categories that you have identified before. You can generate much more terms ideas to identify how many connected permutations of queries are generated for each one of them or are being searched for each one of them, right? So for example, here for remote work, I come here with Keyword Finder. I love this tool because it allows me to generate suggestions or just generate with the autocomplete feature to make sure that, uh, the— this particular term is included and in the query, or also generate questions ideas for, for these terms, right? So for example, here the autocomplete for remote work from anywhere, I can select any country too, and in English, and it will provide me all of these searches, right? Uh, remote work, um, at-home jobs, um, remote work benefits, remote worker definition, remote work part-time. So these are important ideas that I can see that have a relatively good search volume, top search volume. And I can also quickly see here, this is something that I really like about this tool, um, what are the top, um, players already ranking for, for any of these terms. So I can already see if these are being addressed very quickly by my already identified competitors, if there are even additional competitors that I, I haven't yet taken into consideration to do the same previous process that I described with them too. What is again the search volume over time, the interest over time, a little bit of the seasonality, uh, for each one of this, of, of these keywords, um, to take also that into consideration and, and to, to, to prioritize them, to put a weight on them in, in, in my SEO process, of course. And, and, and of course, this, this all these tools will tend to give you like a metric of how difficult it is to target based on, on, on, on the websites that are already ranking for them and, and, and, and the potential opportunity that there is around this, this, this, this topic, these queries, where the search volume, right? Uh, but of course it's always important that you, you do your own validation, that you identify yourself, um, especially for those much more important ones, the ones that you really want to, to focus on where there's much more opportunity and, and, and that will require a non-trivial type of effort for you to see if there's real meaningful type of activities for them. And I have to say that I always like to complete, uh, this, um, keyword generation process with, um, the one that is provided by the SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool. I love this tool because it it doesn't only give me what, for example, this idea of additional ideas or terms connected with the head term that I add here, with the initial term that I add here, but it also categorizes the disconnected ideas and additional terms in a way that I can easily identify additional, um, additional subtopics or even additional potential, um, subcategories or segments or filters that I want to take into consideration in my, in my content strategy, in the way I structure my content on, on, on, on the website and the content organization, the web structure of my website, right? And, and the most important terms connected with that. So you gather all of these potential ideas Right. I will say that a good next step before identifying how you are already ranking for any of these terms, just again, just check how you're ranking to make sure that you prioritize those terms that you are already potentially ranking more or less well, because of course it will be easier to take you from the top 20 position and the top 3 than start doing it so and ranking from scratch, right? But even before that, I will say it is a good idea also to, to use a tool like this one of Cognitive SEO Keyword Tool that will allow you to easily see, um, which are the websites already ranking for, um, this, these terms. And, and, um, a little bit to, to complement the data that you will get with Keyword Finder. For example, Keyword Finder will tell— will list you the websites already ranking for these terms. And you can already see which type of pages are this, if these are really informational type of, of content, transactional type of content, products, category levels, or, or blog posts, for example, and, and the level of popularity. But to compensate this, you can do the same, uh, with for this top terms, much, much the much more important terms, and, and see it from content perspective, right? Because you want to easily see how— which are these top pages already ranking for these queries, which is this type of content, right? That's the last fundamental piece of the puzzle in order to have all the most important data in order to go through your list and select and prioritize that list of top terms that you should target in your process. Um, is to identify how you are ranking for it already, right? Especially if for some reason it wasn't shown for any of— in any of these tools, uh, from where you gathered the data, to double-check, to validate. Um, and for this, I have to say that I really like SEO Monitor, which is one of the, the, the rank tracking tool, uh, main ranking tracking tool that I use. Uh, but it, it also has this keyword research option here that it will allow me right away to see if, of course, if I already— I am already tracking this term or not. It will likely be not in this case because it's a new term for, for me, but also it will allow me to, to verify again the SERP features, how I am ranking in desktop and mobile here, um, if, if, if, if the ranking is consistent between the two. Maybe if not, it might be potentially that I have some sort of issues in my mobile version, for example, if it is far worse than my desktop one. So again, it allowed me to identify and validate potential opportunities to, to optimization of my content. And, and again, the, the search volume for, for, for, for the same terms, the, the trend over time, and they already identify in the case that they can A little bit, they provide this metric for how easy it might be to target it or not, right? So again, here is an additional data source for me to connect with the previous one. So right now at this point, I will have the search volume trend over time, the type of term, if it's more informational, transactional, which is the already existing page Uh, if I have it here that is shown for which I am ranking for, for this term, how well I am ranking, if I am ranking, uh, good or bad, in order to, to, to, to see if it will be easier for me, rather easier or not necessarily that easy. If my other, uh, uh, the competitors, if this other website already ranking well for it or not, I would like to also add another another additional metric here in order to, to, to take the, the competition level into consideration and the type of SERP features connected to it, right? Because it's not only about creating the content or finding the content, but also already obtaining the information on what type of content I can create and how I can optimize this content to expand the visibility for it, provide more information to Google, and, and, and, and together with the client to, to identify this good set of queries, of terms that are really reasonable to target, not only purely from an SEO perspective, of course, based on the status of the website and the maturity process of the process. If it is the first SEO process that is being done on the website or there has been already a few ones in the past and you have already addressed and targeted and you're already ranking for more long-tail type of terms, for example, or easier terms, and you have a level of authority that is as good as the ones of the top players in your industry, for example. So taking all of this into consideration, I believe that you will already have good enough data, data that you can also obtain through many different data sources, many different tools, not only some specific ones or metrics that are only provided by some specific tools, right? But that you can easily obtain from many data sources independently of the keyword tool that you use and set your own set of keyword goals to target. And hopefully by going through this process and showing all of this criteria to take into consideration, now it will be easier for you And of course, there are so many ways to do this. Please share if you do something additional that you can consider that it might be valuable for, for, for me to take into consideration and also for anybody watching the video. Thank you very much for another Crawling Mondays and looking forward to see you next one. Bye-bye.