Keyword research is an essential aspect of SEO that can help you rank on search engines and get more web traffic. While Keyword research can improve your organic traffic, the process of researching the right keywords to rank you high can be tedious. The reason why both newbies rely on SEO tools to help them in SEO optimization efforts.
One of the so many SEO tools available in the market to help in Keyword research is Ahrefs. Ahrefs is a feature-rich SEO software suite. It has modern SEO tools for site audits, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and link; All these are in the effort to help you hack SEO and rank better on SERPs.
There is no doubt websites are built on content, and content emanates from keyword research, and so finding a keyword strategy that works is a process. Ahrefs’s keyword explorer can make the process easy and efficient. It is a complete research tool that offers you a ton of features.
When doing keyword research on Ahrefs, there are several steps involved:
- Brainstorm keyword ideas
- Finding the search volume and Keyword difficulty
- Establish their search intent
- Find and utilize keyword synonyms.
Brainstorm keyword ideas
Getting keyword ideas is not the hard part; vetting the keyword is. Ahrefs can give you hundreds of ideas at the click of the button. The best way to generate ideas is to spy on your competitor to know which keywords they are using to get ranked on Google you would also like to be ranked for. You can find your competitors by searching those keywords on google and copying their URLs. Alternatively, you can use Ahrefs’ Competing domains tool and save yourself a lot of time and effort.
The Ahrefs’ Competing domains tool allows you to plug in even ten competitors. Then it will populate keywords that you are not ranking for, but your competitors are. You then export the list populated to an excel spreadsheet or use it within Ahrefs.
Finding their search volume and Keyword difficulty
It is advisable to have between 50-100 keyword ideas to work with in your SEO effort. These are keywords you have sifted through, vetted, and feel comfortable using in your web content later. With your list of keywords ready, your next step will be seeing which ones on your list can help you rank.
Ahrefs as a keyword research tool can help determine keywords with potential based on search volume and keyword density. KD is one of the metrics that you will use on Ahrefs to decide which keywords will help you get traffic. Keywords with a high KD score will be hard to rank your site, and so it will be unhelpful to pursue such words in your SEO.
Another important metric you can use to know which keywords are worth is search volume. Search volume is a critical metric because websites get organic traffic from search engines. Getting to know which keywords have real search volume can help you utilize the actual keywords people are using on search engines, which can direct traffic your way. Always go for Keywords that have lower keyword difficulty and probably high search volume.
Establishing the search intent
After eliminating keywords from your list with high keyword difficulty and low search volume, you will remain with keywords you are confident tackling. Your next step will be to determine the intention of the people searching for these terms and how they fit in either your marketing or revenue efforts.
To achieve this, Google each keyword on your list and analyze the first 3-5 results. Look at their meta title and description, view the entire page and check the page’s angle. There are always three search intentions; informational intent, commercial intent, and transactional intent.
Knowing the search intent will help you to understand which content to craft later. The search intent determines the type of content. People searching with the intent to get information are different from those with transactional intent. Those with the transactional intention are looking to buy something, while those with the informational purpose want to know about something.
People with informational intent are always looking out for information on what a particular product service is. They also want to know how a product works. Meanwhile, those with transactional intent are looking to buy, so they will go to ecommerce websites with better bargains.
Find and utilize keyword synonyms.
Although this step is optional, it can boost your SEO efforts and help you rank better. You can use related words and long-tail keywords to create your content. This is often overlooked but it can really help boost your ranking.
Summary
Keyword research is essential in SEO, and therefore, you should approach it with utmost seriousness. Use several tools to keyword difficulty and search volume, and don’t rely on only one tool as one tool can be reliable in making a decision. Search intent is paramount. Be keen on crafting content that matches with what people are looking for. If you do the above you are well on your way to ranking highly on search engine searches.
