Keywords are the bedrock of search engine optimization.

They are the tools that people use to find the perfect content online for their needs. With that known, how does Google help match the ideal page with a person’s actual search intent?

This article will explain how keyword clustering attacks this problem directly. We’ll help you gain an understanding of the strategy, its myriad SEO benefits, and how you can perform keyword clustering for your website.

What is Keyword Clustering?

Keyword clustering is an SEO strategy in which website owners group, or cluster, related keywords based on their implied intention. Google is able to better understand your content based on these relationships, and, therefore, helps your page gain visibility with the correct audience.

For example, let’s use a car dealership as an example for our business website. Our main focus is “automobiles.” However, this keyword is too vague and can apply to a wide variety of related queries that include that keyword. Therefore, we need to examine that list of terms and cluster them into related groups.

From there, we might ask what is important about the automobile business. It provides both automobile sales and automobile repairs. These can serve as the pillar pages for other keywords that end up looking something like this with “automobile as our pillar”.

From there, you can then begin to choose which keywords are important for your business. You’ll also want to be mindful of the keyword’s search intent before including it in the cluster.

In the above example, certain keywords like “automobile definition,” and “automobile insurance” do not fit into our grouping. While our auto dealer can certainly speak about either topic, the cluster is focusing on “automobile sales,” a transactional keyword.

“Automobile definition” is likely unnecessary, while we would only be able to speak about auto insurance from an informational perspective, which would be better suited as a different pillar within a blog.

Be aware that clusters themselves can become pillars for other clusters as your website expands. “Automobile parts” alone can bring up a slew of related terms that would direct users to content that helps them either purchase specific parts or learn more about their vehicle. Both of which present new content options for your site and new opportunities to boost your SEO.

The Benefits of Keyword Clustering

Keyword clustering is the best way to boost the overall SEO benefits of your website. When you build your website, you should plan all of your content around using related terms that support similar search intent.

When you do so, your website will benefit in the following ways:

1. You’re More Likely to Rank Higher Overall

Google is no longer necessarily interested in the volume of a particular keyword on a page. SEOs and content creators used to look for as many opportunities to cram a word or phrase onto a page to boost their rankings.

Now, Google’s crawler is able to understand the bigger picture. Instead of simply matching a keyword with a query, it wants to find different, but related terms that help solidify the true intention. In other words, Google wants to help users who want to buy a product do so. Likewise, it wants to provide unbiased information to a user just looking to browse.

By working with Google's needs in this way, you help ensure that all of your content gets a visibility boost. When the search engine is confident that your content will satisfy a user's full needs, the more likely it is to recommend your brand.

2. It Helps Attract Better-Qualified Traffic

This is an inevitability when using keyword clustering and gaining more visibility overall.

When it comes to your bottom line, what matters is your return on investment. If your optimized webpage gets 1,000 clicks, but only 10 purchases, it's underperforming. If it receives 100 unique visitors but converts 100 sales, it's a success.

Keyword clustering helps website owners avoid the mistake of chasing vanity numbers like impressions or clicks. While it's important to boost your traffic, it's more important to make sure your content gets seen by the people that are most likely to engage with it.

When you take the time to keyword cluster, you naturally begin to segregate your keywords by the user's search intent. By prioritizing that ahead of time, you can plan content topics that focus on the keyword AND intention to maximize your performance.

3. Boosted Rankings for Additional Search Terms

Including related terms on your pillar page will help that main keyword rank higher in search results.

The added benefit is that the high-ranking page can also help your site get additional clicks for the related terms. This is most common with long-tail keywords that typically net a lower search volume, thus leading many to avoid them.

The truth is that long-tail keywords are a hidden SEO superpower as they tend to exhibit better engagement due to the strong search intent. Because we already value user intent when clustering our content, we have an easier time getting those important clicks from our secondary or tertiary terms.

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4. It Will Boost Vital SEO Metrics

A higher engagement rate with your website content will also boost your most-tracked SEO metrics across the board.

As Google is better able to match the right visitors with your content, your bounce rate will decrease. These qualified leads want to explore your offerings making them less likely to leave. Meanwhile, your average session duration, page clicks, and custom goals will see a boost as they spend more time on a page.

You can leverage even more of an SEO boost by using the best techniques like internal linking. Take advantage of these clusters and their intent to show new customers around your brand while you already have their attention.

5. It Futureproofs Your Website

By structuring your website around pillars and clusters, you'll have an easier time adding new pages and content in the future.

Many site owners will make the mistake of creating new pages to help rank for certain keywords as time passes and the site grows. This makes sense as new information, techniques, and guides become available every day. The newest, latest information will benefit from the highest rankings.

The issue arises whenever you already have a page ranking for that keyword. By adding new pages that rank for the same keyword, you end up suffering from what's known as keyword cannibalization. Two of your pages are fighting for the same authority as opposed to having one super page that could outrank your competitors.

With keyword clustering, everything is better organized for future content additions. Similarly, you'll have an easier time referencing existing content and simply making the necessary updates to those pages. In short, keyword clustering sets you up to make smarter choices for your website's SEO.

How to Perform Keyword Clustering?

Keyword clustering is not necessarily a difficult process as much as it can be a time-consuming one. This will vary depending on how specific your niche is and how many industry-related terms are actually relevant to your brand.

To get started with your keyword clustering strategy, follow these important steps:

1. Start Compiling a List of Keywords

No matter what your strategy is, SEO content creation begins here.

The best strategy is to take advantage of whichever SEO tool or keyword finder you're most accustomed to using. We make frequent use of SEMRush, but tools like Moz or Ahrefs are excellent alternatives.

Don't forget about any existing keyword data you have on hand. You'll want to consider how you'll organize any existing content into your clusters to avoid common errors like keyword cannibalization.

Next, follow the tried-and-true SEO strategy of directly examining your closest competitors. You're not necessarily looking at the top of the ranks, but the websites that are closest to your actual position. Determine what keywords they're using, how they group their content, and what type of content they provide to support their efforts. Then, differentiate yourself and determine how you can do it better.

You'll also want to save time by pruning out any unnecessary keywords. Many of the keywords yielded may have tangential relations to your industry, but many will not have anything immediately to do with your core offerings. Avoid adding queries like this to your clusters to avoid confusing search intent.

2. Identify the Core Term to Create Your Groups

After you compile your list of terms, you'll want to begin the process of grouping or clustering your keywords.

You do this by looking for the words or phrases that appear most frequently throughout the list. This can turn into a tremendous time-sink, making it much more reasonable to seek out a service that specifically offers clustering assistance. Thankfully, all of the tools we recommended above offer clustering and segmentation tools to help you identify the most commonly-appearing terms.

When you observe your keywords by frequency, you should naturally begin to see similarities. The constant term in each is your core, allowing you then further segment your keywords into distinct clusters.

Going back to our first example in this article, “automobile” was our core, while we went on to create cluster pages for “automobile sales” and “automobile repairs.” Both are extensions of automobiles and relate, but ultimately serve two distinct purposes for our audience.

3. Plan and Create Pages for Each Cluster

With your groups made and the search intent identified, you can begin the process of creating the actual content. We started with the grouped content as it will play a significant role in building up your central pillar page.

These cluster pages are crucial for content marketing as it allows your writers to explore topics in greater depth. They should aim to fully understand the user's search intent while satisfying every need they have.

You'll want every cluster page to expound on precise topics with at least 1,000 words, if not more. Do your best to keep unrelated topics to their own page, while internally linking to those topics whenever relevant. This not only helps create a beautiful network of information but helps you maximize your SEO benefits for each website URL.

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4. Assemble the Pillar

Finally, you can begin creating a pillar page that helps deliver all of the information available on your core topic.

Many sites already have pages that serve as a pillar, whether it be the home page, a product categories page, or a service page. The mistake many make is failing to provide it with any meaningful content outside of linking to the cluster pages.

Instead, the pillar page ought to be the go-to page that someone can use to find any answer on the core topic. You should create content that effectively walks readers through the subject while taking every effort to link out to your clustered content when relevant. Then, the user has the opportunity to open the new link or bookmark your different site pages for later viewing.

Repeat the process of creating a pillar page for every cluster group you made during step two. Double-check to make sure all of your clustered content helps to support your pillar.

Common Keyword Clustering Mistakes

While keyword clustering is an important SEO strategy, it doesn't grant automatic results. Critical mistakes may prevent your site from seeing any rank increase.

Be mindful of these everyday SEO mistakes when planning your website's pillars and clusters.

1. Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword clustering generally helps to avoid this particular issue. Nevertheless, it's not uncommon for site owners to inadvertently cannibalize their keyword rankings, especially as your page number count and content library grow.

It makes sense for you to add content when you want to improve your rankings for that keyword. The problem with creating two unique pages is that Google's crawler wants to index one page per domain as this is the ideal practice. When it sees the request to index two pages for the same keyword, it's unable to pick the rightā  one. You end up hurting your ranking efforts rather than helping them.

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Instead of creating a new page, consider adding new sections of content to the existing page. As long as the old information is still relevant, it can remain while benefitting from the updated data.

Likewise, if the older page has outdated, irrelevant content, consider replacing all of the content or deleting the page entirely. There is no one correct option and your strategy should be based on your current keyword rankings.

Keep a map of all the content and keywords used throughout your site. Before creating a new page for your SEO, look back to your map and act accordingly to avoid cannibalizing your progress.

2. Keeping Your Pages Static

Another mistake website owners make is believing that creating a web page is a one-and-done endeavor. Injecting updates of new content to your site is the best way to keep your pages modern and eligible for higher rankings.

Most site owners will try to do this by creating new pages weekly with strategies like creating a blog. While this is highly recommended, your pillar and cluster pages also need regular updates.

The reason for this is that Google's crawler is always looking for the most reliable, up-to-date data. The crawler is likely to favor a brand-new page with accurate data as opposed to a page that was last edited three months prior.

It's best practice to check in on your website pages at least every few months. Of course, this frequency can change depending upon how often your industry goes through changes that could affect your content and the accuracy of the information within.

Even if your core content is still valuable, it's healthy to check in on your site and see if changes can be made to improve or merge content. You should also honestly reassess your old content for readability, grammar mistakes, or general structure errors. Completing these quick fixes is a great way to refresh the page for crawlers.

3. Failure to Implement Internal Linking Strategies

This critical mistake causes many site owners to lose out on easy boosts to their overall site performance.

When we create our keyword clusters, we are laying the template for how all of our ranked keywords relate to one another. They all feed into the core topic, the pillar, but their shared nature also allows for countless internal linking opportunities that should come naturally.

For example, when a user looks up our example website for automobile sales, there's room to explore that intention. While the core intent is to find a vehicle to purchase, you may be able to leverage that intent to explore your related content. You might want to show off different types of vehicles, vehicle parts, or specific vehicle brands.

You should ensure that each page focuses on the topic at hand. However, capitalize on natural opportunities to share your additional content with the reader as it pertains to their immediate interest. You're simply presenting them with an option to engage with more content and making it easy for them to do so.

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4. Your Pillar Page Contains the Bare Minimum

This is another common mistake that is a result of misunderstanding the pillar page's purpose.

Because the pillar page is the foundation that links out to cluster pages, site owners mistakenly think the pillar page requires little content. After all, it's the cluster pages that delve into the deep minutiae of specific products or services that your brand offers.

However, your pillage page still requires content for crawlers to understand its purpose and how it relates to other content. While you should leave the fine details for cluster pages, the pillar page is ultimately meant to provide the user with all the information they need about the core topic. The cluster pages are there if they want to expand their knowledge on the related topics.

Ideally, your pillar page should have enough content to satisfy users and crawlers, but leave enough intrigue to motivate additional clicks. By providing quality content even on your pillar page, you solidify a cornerstone of your site's foundation, hence the name pillar.ā

Structure Your Site Around Keyword Clustering

The old manner of mapping your keywords isn't enough to keep up with Google's changing algorithm.

By implementing keyword clustering, you get to put a greater emphasis on delivering high-quality content without placing as much stress on keyword frequency. Instead, you bolster your content by smartly segmenting keywords into clusters to explain their relationship.

Not only will clustering help you rank higher, but it will also help you boost your key SEO metrics across the board. Be sure to cluster intelligently, avoid cannibalizing your keywords, and make use of smart internal linking whenever possible to take your results further.

Keywords are the bedrock of a quality SEO strategy.

They influence everything from site structure to the type of content you create. Keywords are what our customers use to find us online.

That means your competitors are also performing their keyword research strategies against you.

Let's discuss competitor keyword research, what it means for your SEO, and how you can use competitor keyword analysis to your benefit.

What is a Competitor Keyword Analysis?

Before we answer this question, let's first define a competitor keyword.

A competitor keyword is any term or phrase that a company in your industry uses to vie for improved SERP rankings. They use these keywords to plan their webpage content, paid ads, blog articles, and more.

This is no different than what you should be doing for your brand's website.

A competitor keyword analysis is a process of actively researching the keywords a competitor is targeting. You can use that knowledge to investigate how the brand is using those keywords.

If a competitor outranks your brand, you can investigate their keyword research to discern what makes their content superior to Google.

Conversely, you can identify weaknesses in their keyword strategy and exploit them to improve your rankings. If your team can create more engaging, high-quality content, you may be able to leapfrog them in SERPs.

Effectively, a competitor keyword analysis is like a road map. Take a look at your surroundings, determine what gets results and what doesn't, and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

How to Perform Competitor Keyword Research?

Competitor keyword research is a straightforward process. However, there are a few steps you'll need to take before you can get down to the finer details.

Step 1 - Identify Your Top Competitors

The first step is to determine which competitors in your industry are in direct competition with you online.

Your top competitors will demonstrate these characteristics:

• They offer products or services that are similar to yours
• They target a similar audience
• They’re close in ranking for the same or similar keywords
• You can reasonably compete with an effective strategy and budget

Your closest competitors will also vary based on how large of an area you serve.

If you are a local brand, you'll want to focus on businesses in your industry within the same county and surrounding areas. You can perform a quick Google search to bring up the nearest companies. Bear in mind that the brands ranking well online may differ from the ones you may be directly aware of or interact with in person.

For example, if you're a brewery, you could search breweries near meā  or brewery zip code.ā  Google will pull up a list of the nearest competitors. Specifically, you'll be interested in the local 3-pack that appears at the top of the SERP.

Brands that earn the 3-pack ranking demonstrate exceptional SEO. This is the result of many factors including NAP optimization, user reviews, and effective keyword selections. You can also check out high-ranking results just below that just miss the cut for these positions.

National or eCommerce competitor analysis is similar with the exception that there is no local 3-pack. You'll want to search for online retailers that deal with the same or similar products as your business.

Bear in mind that the size and scope of the brand are important when determining competition. Your small online startup is not going to have the resources necessary to dethrone a corporate juggernaut like Amazon.

Focus on brands like you that manage to obtain and withhold the top organic rankings. It's their strategies that you'll want to investigate if you want to improve.

Step 2 - Investigate Competitor Websites with SEO Tools

With your top competitors identified, you should have a list of domains in hand.

There are myriad free and paid SEO tools to assist with competitor keyword research.

1. Semrush

Semrush is an amazing keyword research tool that allows you to research by specific terms or via domain.

You can take one of your competitor domains, enter into the organic research field, and instantly generate a list of keywords found on their site.

Alternatively, you can enter your domain. Then, underneath Domain Analytics, choose Competitors. This will generate a list of keyword rankings for your site and compare them to other domains that are just above or below you in SERPs.

Semrush allows you to see a variety of insightful metrics including:

• Position rankings
• Average search volume
• Keyword difficulty
• Cost-per-click
• Traffic percentage by domain
• How many times a domain appears as a result for a keyword

Semrush also offers a variety of filters that allow you to customize your search by specific geographic locations.

It starts at $119/95/month with the ability to track up to 500 unique keywords. However, they do offer a free trial so that you can determine if this platform is right for your business.

2. WordStream

WordStream is a platform that puts a greater emphasis on PPC marketing.

However, they do offer a free keyword tool with many of the same features and benefits as Semrush.

The research process is similar. You can enter any keyword or URL into the search tool and instantly find a list of relevant search terms.

It offers some of the same key metrics including search volume and CPC. It also has a competition metric, showing how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword. This is comparable to Semrush's keyword difficulty.

Step 3 - Compile Your Research

After you research your listed competitor domains, you need to organize your findings.

Compile all of the discovered keywords and their associated metrics into a format that's easy for your team to follow. Your SEO tool of choice will likely offer the ability to take all of your collected data and export it into a user-friendly Excel file. You can then import data from Excel into various analytics tools to further manipulate and analyze the information for deeper insights.

Semrush offers its Keyword Gap tool for this express purpose. After entering the root domains of the competitors you wish to track, simply export the data into a file format of your choosing.

Likewise, you can download any WordStream reports as a CSV file, which can be easily uploaded into Microsoft Excel. If you're working on a paid ads campaign, know that these files can also interact with Google Ads to assist with planning.

Step 4 - Analyze the Competitor Keyword Data

Now that we've isolated the data, we can begin to conduct a proper assessment of our top competitors.

For starters, it's a smart idea to eliminate keywords with a high difficulty from contention. However, do not delete the data. While it's unwise to burn resources on keywords that won't generate the best ROI, you might be better positioned to target them at a later date.

Keywords that feature a high difficulty are in strong contention by several parties. Those brands have likely been pursuing those keywords for some time, making it virtually impossible for you to make any headway at this time.

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With those terms eliminated, you should now have a much shorter list comparably.

Next, begin the process of reviewing keywords used by specific competitors. Some of these may be terms that your team is already trying to use for rankings. There may also be additional terms that are not present in your SEO strategy.

Think carefully about which missing terms are most applicable to your brand. If the keyword seems to describe something tangentially, but not directly related to your business, you can eliminate it from contention.

This should leave you with a list of the following:

• Keywords used by both your brand and competitors
• Keywords you’re not currently using, but present real opportunities for better rankings

Step 5 - Check Out Competitor Keyword Usage in Action

The final step in this process is to investigate how your competitors utilize the keyword for rankings.

This applies to both types of keywords we narrowed down in the previous step. Particularly, you'll want to focus on competitors that currently outrank you for terms you have in common.

You can do this by navigating to the URL that is ranking for the keyword in question.

Consider what the competitor is doing with the content. Many factors can contribute to superior content rankings including:

• The subject matter
• The quality of the content
• Content layout (headlines, sub-headers, clean organization)
• Internal linking and anchoring
• Keyword frequency
• Secondary and tertiary keyword usage

Also, look for other success indicators such as likes or shares. If a page or a particular piece of content is gaining large engagement numbers, you'll want to take note. Let the consumer tell you what content they want to see.

Of course, additional off-page factors may contribute to superior rankings and domain authority for a competitor. Among these are backlinks, meaning that other sources share the competitor's content with their audience.

Keywords by themselves simply tell you where to aim. However, by taking the time to better understand why a domain ranks higher for a keyword, you can gain real insight as to how you can adjust your strategy.

Also, do not simply attempt to copy or imitate the competitor directly. Focus on the aspects of your brand that help it stand out. Then, use that unique perspective to add flavor to content that only you can provide.

Finally, don't ignore or rule out competitors that you're currently beating. Rankings can change overnight with how frequently Google's algorithm changes. Stay up-to-date with their keyword and content strategies, and always assume that you could fall back in rankings at any time.

Conclusion - Should You Use Competitor Keywords?

A competitor keyword analysis is critical for any successful SEO strategy.

To improve your ROI, you need to make gains in your organic traffic and rankings. You cannot achieve this without proper keyword selection. Capitalizing on the right search terms will help you connect with the right users and help you outshine competitors in the same industry.

Whether or not you should use a competitor keyword depends upon key factors.

• Does the keyword directly pertain to my business?
• How difficult is it to rank for this keyword?
• Can I use my unique value proposition to outrank my competitor for this keyword?

If the keyword satisfies one or more of these conditions, you may want it to consider for use either now or down the line.

Finally, high keyword rankings among competitors will tell you a lot about their marketing strategies. Pay close attention to the type of content they create, how they present it, what makes it strong, and when it presents a weakness.

Then, use all of this information to guide your content creation process. Consider how you can differentiate your brand from the competition, and add that unique spin to your keyword-focused content.

Potential customers are searching for a service or product like yours on the internet right now.

The goal of keyword research is simple ā it helps you convert as many of these potential customers as possible.

Another goal of keyword research is to attempt to be listed as high as possible in the search results for a particular phrase or word. Doing so helps a business move ahead of its competitors.

Hence, we cannot emphasize its importance enough.

Conducting keyword research means finding phrases and words (also known as keywords) which people use in Bing, Google, YouTube, and other search engines.

This kind of research affects every other SEO task you undertake, including content promotion, searching for content topics, and much more.

Keyword Research: The Most Important Benefit

One of the most significant benefits of keyword research is it helps businesses familiarize themselves with the search intent.

Search intent is a term used to describe the purpose behind conducting an online search. It has become increasingly important because search engines such as Google are prioritizing user experience' above anything else.

When you gauge the intent behind the phrases or keywords that people use for searching information, you can create improved content strategies and produce targeted content that brings traffic to your website.

Let's discuss the types of search intent:

1. Informational: Internet users with informational intent want to search for more information on a subject. Users use informational keywords to update or educate themselves regarding a particular topic. An example of an informational search is “types of loans.”

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2. Transactional: An internet user carries out a transactional query with the intent to buy a service or product. A transactional query doesn’t always imply a purchase but depicts the user’s readiness to make a conversion.

3. Commercial: When the user has not yet made up their mind regarding which product or service to choose, they use this type of query, which may not lead to a sale directly. A majority of commercial queries display results that help the user in making a decision regarding a purchase.

4. Navigational: A navigational query helps locate a website or pages when the user enters brand keywords rather than typing the target URL in the address bar. For example – “Gmail login” is an example of a navigational query.

Now that you have understood search intent, you may wonder how to do keyword research for SEO. There are many ways to do it, the most important of which we will discuss in this guide. Let’s start:

1. How to Research for Keyword Ideas?

How can one come up with keyword ideas? It is not as difficult as you may think.

First, you have to brainstorm a comprehensive list of topics that your potential customers are likely to be interested in. For instance, if you run a digital marketing agency, think of topics related to your business that people will search for.

Some of these topics would be:

1. Content Marketing
2. Blogging
3. Social Media
4. Website traffic
5. Email marketing

Note: These topics cannot be termed as keywords yet.

Once you have prepared the list of topics, follow these steps:

A. The “Searches Related To” Section

The “Searches Related To” section that appears at the bottom of Google’s search results proves helpful in finding keywords. For example, one of the topics you listed was “email marketing.” Now, head over to Google and search for the same. Scroll to the bottom, and you will find a heading “Searches related to email marketing.”

Under this heading, you will find 8 keywords that are closely related to “email marketing.” These keyword ideas are presented to you straight from Google. Hence, the search engine is crystal-clear in its message that several people are searching for these 8 keywords. So, it is best that you utilize it to your advantage.

Insider Tip: Click on one of the keywords in the ”Searches Related To” section, then scroll to the bottom of the search results. You have a new keyword list ready with you!

B. Wikipedia Table of Contents

Were you surprised by the word “Wikipedia”? You are certainly not alone. A lot of people don’t know, but Wikipedia is an excellent source of finding keyword ideas. Industry experts have curated its content and organized it into categories, which we certainly can use to our advantage.

These are the steps you need to follow to search keyword ideas on Wikipedia:

1. Open Wikipedia and enter a broad keyword such as ‘tea.’
2. Now, its Wikipedia page will open.
3. Scroll and look for the ‘contents’ section that lists the subtopics
4. The subtopics listed here are excellent keywords that will be difficult to find elsewhere.
5. You may also spot “See also” when you click one of the subtopics. For instance, if you open the subtopic called ‘Chemical Composition’ on the Wikipedia page of tea, you are shown – See also: Phenolic content in tea and Health effects of tea. When you click on any of the two links, you are presented with another table of contents.
6. The subtopics listed on this page can also be used as another set of keywords. Interesting, isn’t it?

C. Use YouTube and Google Suggest

Take the topics from your list and enter them into Google one by one. Now, check the terms that Google is suggesting every time. These terms can be great additions to your keywords list. Remember, if Google is giving you suggestions, it means that lots of people are actually searching for those suggestions.

Do the same thing with Youtube and Bing to get a ready list of keywords.

D. Search for Famous Topics From Forums

You can always search for forums where your potential customers hang out. All you need to do is search phrases in Google keeping this structure in mind:

• “Keyword” forum
• “Keyword” forums
• “Keyword” board

Once you locate a forum, check the sections the forum is divided into. Each one of these sections is a potential keyword that you can use.

2. How to Find Keywords with Keyword Research Tools?

You can search keywords without a tool, but tools tend to make the whole keyword search process much easier. Let's discuss some excellent recommendations:

A. The Google Keyword Planner

The data you receive from the Google Keyword Planner is accurate because it comes from Google itself. Unfortunately, this tool is created to help businesses with their Google ad campaigns. However, this tool is also an excellent source of keyword ideas and enables you to find search queries with lots of searches.

B. Keyword Surfer

Keyword Surfer is yet another tool that helps in keyword research. It is a free Chrome extension that allows you to gain insights into the estimated search volume and CPC in the search bar itself. You will also be able to check different keyword ideas along with associated data.

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C. SEMrush

If you want to invest in a paid keyword tool, look no further than SEMrush. All you need to do is type in your competitor's URL in Google and view the keywords they rank for. You can then use the exact keywords for your website. A brilliant time-saver, isn't it?

D. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest produces keyword ideas from search suggestions on Google.

Just enter a term in the tool, and it will get you long-term keywords. It also provides you data on every keyword such as CPC, search volume, etc.

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Now, you may wonder what is a long-tail keyword and why use it? We will discuss it in the next section.

3. How to Know a Keyword’s SEO Difficulty?

75% of searchers don’t go past the 1st page of the search results. It is important to know if a keyword is too competitive to rank for. You may find it difficult to get past the third page of Google if you use an extremely competitive keyword.

On the other hand, a keyword that doesn’t have too much competition provides you a good chance to reach the top 3. So, let’s find out more about a keyword’s SEO difficulty so that you can make the best decision in selecting your keywords:

A. Types of keywords in SEO

At the time of keyword research, you must be aware of the different keyword types to get the desired benefit. Let’s discuss the different keyword types:

a. Short-tail keywords

Short-tail keywords are phrases that contain only two to three words. They have a high search volume and hence, are very competitive. Users use these keywords at the starting stages of research when their search intent is not very clear.

For example, “running shoes” is an example of a short-tail keyword.

b. Long-tail keywords

This type of keyword has lesser search volume as compared to a short-tail keyword. It is composed of more than 3 words and tends to be longer than other keyword types. Specific in nature, these keywords clearly state the search intent.

It is also important to know that long-tail keywords are less competitive as compared to short-tail keywords. For instance, “running shoes for summer” is an example of a long-tail keyword.

These types of keywords have high conversion rates. Let’s see how:

People who are searching for long-tail terms tend to be much further in the buying cycle. For instance, consider a keyword – “paleo diet.” Someone searching for a “paleo diet” is perhaps trying to know more about it. This means they don’t have any intention of purchase.

But if a person is searching for a “paleo diet supplement,” which is a longer version of the term, they are more likely to be closer to making a purchase. Therefore, the traffic from these keywords tends to convert well.

c. Short-term fresh keyword

Short-term fresh keywords are the ones that have been recently hyped on social media or have been in the news. In other words, these are the keywords that are currently trending. A fresh keyword can get more organic views. But once the hype is over, be ready for a harsh fall.

In 2018, an instance of a fresh keyword was “The Avengers: Infinity War.” Think of any newest blockbuster for an example of a fresh keyword in the current year.

d. Long-term evergreen keyword

Evergreen keywords are those keywords that are relevant regardless of time. If you use long-term evergreen keywords in a content piece now, you can rest assured that people will search for this content even after 2-5 years. When you do this, you get consistent traffic over the years.

Some examples of evergreen articles are:

• 10 Ways to Soothe A Crying Baby
• How to Make a Dog House
• Top 10 Ways to Enjoy Apples

While producing good evergreen ideas, you may feel a lot of them are already covered, that too in excess. At this time, you can search for long-tail keywords which do not have super-high competition but do have volume.

Tip: Try to keep your evergreen pieces based around the keywords you want your website to rank on.

e. Customer-defining keyword

When you reach the stage of keyword research, you already know about your target audience. You are aware of whether they are females, males, kids, etc. If you are targeting a particular group, make sure your content is clear in addressing them. For instance, a customer-defining keyword can be “video games for kids.” When you use these keywords, it draws people from your targeted category and builds credibility for your business.

B. Check Websites on First Page of Google and Export Their Organic Keywords

You must know a faster way of evaluating the competition level of a keyword. To do this, search for your keyword in the search bar of Google. Now, check the sites that rank on the first page. If you see uber authority sites such as Wikipedia on the first page, you should reconsider using the keyword. On the other hand, if you see a few smaller blogs on the first page, it means you can try to hit the first page too with the help of this keyword.

How To Check Organic Keywords on SEMrush?

In case you want to check the best keywords of your competitors, visit the Organic Research Tool in SEMrush. When you use the tool, you get one step closer to the top of the SERPs. Here’s how to use the tool:

1. Go to Organic Research Tool in SEMrush

2. Enter the URL and click on the search button

3. Check the keywords from the list and include the suitable ones in your SEO campaign

CanIRank

Interestingly enough, there is a complete tool called CanIRank dedicated to keyword difficulty. It evaluates the competition level of a keyword relative to your site. For example, once you enter the keyword “CRM” into the tool, it will look at the first-page competition of Google compared to your website’s authority. It will then give you a “Ranking Probability.”

4. How to Select Keywords from the List of Keywords

Now that you have a keywords list, you may want to know which keywords to choose from it. There isn’t a tool that tells you the same; hence you need to consider a few factors to choose the right keywords.

A. By Checking Search Volume

Short-tail keywords can have hundreds of monthly searches. On the other hand, long-tail keywords have relatively low search volumes. Ensure you use a keyword that has reasonable search volume. Refrain from using keywords that nobody is searching for.

B. By Estimating Organic CTR

The number of Google searchers who click on an organic result has gone down. This is because featured snippets give you an answer right away without the need to click anywhere. It is also because Google is packing more ads in the search results as compared to before.

So, knowing about search volume isn’t enough. You need to estimate organic CTR to get a complete estimate of the number of clicks you will receive from the first-page ranking on Google.

Organic CTR is the percentage of searchers who click on a search engine result.

So, to estimate organic CTR, look at the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) by entering your keyword. If there are already several things on the first page, like a featured snippet and many Google ads, then it is understandable that you will not get a lot of clicks even if you rank number one.

C. Analyzing Keyword Trends

Google Trends is the best way to see if your keyword is slowly dying or growing fast. Add your keyword in Google Trends, and you will be able to see its “interest over time.” If it is growing, you can go ahead with the keyword as it is likely to reward you with increased traffic over time.

5. Helpful Tips and Strategies

Now that you are aware of the basics, it is time to know some advanced tips and strategies. Let’s start:

A. Use Barnacle SEO

Let’s suppose you have discovered a “perfect” keyword and achieved a rank in the top 3 for it. You may think that your work is done. However, the keyword can provide you more traction with Barnacle SEO.

Barnacle SEO is a practice where you use the authority of another site for ranking on the first page. For instance, suppose that “voice search SEO” is your best keyword when it comes to conversions and the post you write about it ranks in the top 3 for this keyword. But this means you have only one spot in the SERPs. In an attempt to take more than one spot on the first page, you can create a YouTube video that is optimized for this keyword. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

B. Find Niche Keywords

Some websites offer you scope for discussion on topics that are associated with your niche. One of the best examples of such websites is Reddit. It helps you discover the potential keywords that you have not yet added to your list.

To find keyword ideas on Reddit, head over to the website and search for a broad topic your potential customers will be interested in. Then, select a subreddit where you think your potential customers are likely to be hanging out. Keep an eye on threads that have plenty of comments to get keyword ideas.

C. Use Google Search Console for Keyword Ideas

The Google Search Console can provide lots of keyword ideas. For this, you need to log in to your GSC account and go to the “Performance Report.” This report displays those terms that provide the most clicks from Google search.

As a next step, sort the list by “Impressions” and check keywords that get loads of impressions,  but not necessarily clicks. Choose one of these keywords to produce a piece of content that is optimized around it.

Why do this?

This keyword that you choose is what people are searching for. Plus, you already know that Google considers your website a good fit in the search results. Now, you can publish content that is highly focused on this specific keyword and you are all set!

D. Optimize Content Around Synonyms and Closely Related Terms

Don’t stop after you optimize your page around your target keyword. To get more search engine traffic, optimize it around synonyms. For instance, if you have created a post on your main keyword – “search engine visibility,” you can add variations of the keyword in the post, too. For instance, add “SEO visibility” to your post. Doing so gives you an opportunity to rank #1 for the keyword and its variations.

E. Search for ‘Shoulder Keywords’

So many people only optimize their websites around those keywords that are very closely related to what they are selling. This can be a huge mistake because product keywords are highly competitive. There are tons of keywords your target audience is searching for when they are not looking for what you are selling. These are called “Shoulder Keywords.” These are the keywords that are not directly associated with what you are selling, but are the ones your potential customers are searching for.

Hence, you can use shoulder keywords to publish fantastic pieces of content and when your customers notice it, they are more likely to purchase from you in the future.

To understand this better, let’s take an example. Let’s suppose, you offer a marketing analytics tool. So, apart from optimizing around “analytics software” and “marketing analytics tool,” you can also publish content around shoulder keywords, such as “how can analytics help optimize your website,” “marketing analytics benefits,” and so on.

Bottomline

With a ready list of keywords, you can focus on the right topics for your website. This will, in turn, help you achieve short-term as well as long-term gains.

So, now that you know how to do keyword research for SEO, it’s our turn to ask – which keyword research method did you love the most? Which tools will you definitely use?

If you are an agency and want to offer the best results to your clients, you can always consider hiring result-oriented white label SEO services from DashClicks. It is hassle-free, time-saving, and affordable!

To receive the maximum traffic from Google, you need to know what people are looking for and the search terms they are using the most. If you want to outperform your competition, you need to know how to perform keyword research and rank for those keywords.

Keyword research becomes even more crucial when running PPC campaigns as their success depends heavily on your ability to choose the best keywords that can result in conversions.

What is PPC Keyword Research?

It is the process of finding popular search terms and queries that people use on search engines such as Google to look for products and services they need. Reverse engineer this process, and you can optimize your website by adding relevant keywords to your content. It will help you to target potential customers.

You can't rank on keywords overnight and start getting traffic from the next day. Technology is changing fast, and the only way to rank on top of search engine results is to create content on the latest topics. Search Google for trending topics in your niche and create content on it. Soon your website will start ranking for those keywords.

What You Shouldn't Do When Selecting PPC Keywords

Finding new keyword ideas can be challenging. It can be trickier if you don’t know about keyword competition. So, don’t select only broad terms such as “burgers,” “travel,” or “Miami.” You shouldn’t use redundant phrases such as “social media,” “YouTube marketing,” and “directory listings” either.

There are two reasons why you shouldn't choose such keywords:

1. They give vague results as search engines can’t understand the user intent.
2. These short-tail keywords have high competition and CPC. Visitors who come to your website via long-tail keywords are more likely to buy. Click here to know more about long and short-tail keywords and how to find them.
   

You should also focus on region-specific keywords. The infographic below compares long-tail and short-tail keywords and why the former is a better choice.

Courtesy: SEO Pressor

Though you can rank for primary keywords on Google, most of your revenue-generating traffic will come from long-tail keywords that people are using with purchase intent. These keywords will bring your business the most revenue. For example, queries like agencies that offer long-form article writing services near meā  reflect a high purchase intent. If you use them on your static website, you'll attract potential customers.

Find User Queries through Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is an SEO tool that gives you the exact questions people ask when searching for products and services similar to yours. For example, if you are looking for tips on minimalism, Ubersuggest will give you questions like "How can I declutter my home as a beginner minimalist?"

You can use tools like Ubersuggest to find long-tail keywords. Since Google loves long-form content, create detailed content (3000-6000 words) around these keywords to make your article start ranking on Google.

After the Hummingbird update, Google has stopped ranking content from popular sites or with the highest number of backlinks if it offers little or no value. Meanwhile, it puts on top of search results articles or videos that provide comprehensive and industry-specific content. It is why Wikipedia ranks on top.

Look Up Quora for PPC Keyword Ideas

If you want to know interesting, trending, and informative questions and their answers, you can go to Quora and type in your search keyword.

Quora is an excellent platform for social listening and discovering trending topics. You will find a list of user-generated questions related to your niche on it. You must use them to explore PPC keyword ideas. They provide a wealth of information about what people are looking for and their pain points.

Use Google Keyword Planner

It comes free of cost with a Google Ads account and helps with keyword research when you set up an ad campaign on Google. You need to sign in to your Google Ads account to get the best results from Google Keyword Planner. Among other features, it gives you cost-per-click pricing of each keyword and keyword ideas for your static website.

To create an account, you need to follow the instructions and enter your business information. Click on “Tools” and choose “Keyword Planner.” You will see two other tools under keyword planner—“Discover New Keywords” and “Get Search Volume and Forecast.”

These will help you generate thousands of potential keywords and keyword ideas in a single click. However, be mindful that the tool is built for PPC advertisers on Google. Many of its features, such as the keyword building feature, are for people interested in setting up ad campaigns. They will not help you want to find keywords for SEO purposes.

PPC Keyword Research for Google Ads vs. SEO

There is a difference between keywords for SEO and Google Ads. Since Google Ads clicks expensive, you need to target the keywords with a low cost-per-click to get relevant traffic. Moreover, Google Ads keyword research is restricted to a small subset of all the possible keywords, including those offering the highest ROI.Ā

How to Research PPC Keywords for Successful Google Ads?

You can follow these steps to find relevant keywords and create ad groups for your campaigns:Ā

1. Brainstorm

The first step of PPC keyword research is to find suitable and relevant phrases for your business. Brainstorm to discover these search terms. Jot down the keywords you come up with. Use a spreadsheet for optimal results. Use Google Keyword Planner to work on these ideas and find relevant keywords. Divide them into sections and create a list. It will serve as a solid groundwork propelling you to discover the best keywords for your ad campaigns.Ā

2. List Branded Keywords

To create branded keywords, divide your keywords into two parts. The first set should represent your brand, and the second should be related to competitor brands.

For example, if you are selling dog food, your customers must be familiar with Royal Canin and Taste of the Wild. You can use "Royal Canin'' as a keyword to target the customers looking for Royal Canin or similar products. Using keywords to include well-known rival brands will help more people find you online, especially if you are relatively new in the market. It will also help you narrow down your target audience and win customers.

You must also use your own branded keywords. You can try different combinations. For example, you can add your product or service's name with the brand and develop several relevant variations, such as Nescafe gold, Nescafe coffee, Nescafe cup, Nescafe coffee price, and Nescafe cheeky mug pack.

3. Find Product and Service-Specific Keywords

Sometimes customers are not looking for any particular brand, but specific products and services. Therefore, you should prepare a list of product and service-specific keywords and try their different combinations using Google Keyword Planner.

For example, if you have a store selling designer clothing, you may use the following keywords:

1. Designer sequin dresses for parties
2. Designer sequin dresses for women

Specific keywords are more effective than generic keywords because high-intent consumers use them.

4. Use High-Intent Keywords

When a user goes deeper into the sales funnel in the final stages of the buying process, they want to find the information they are looking for relatively quickly to complete their purchase. You need to target such users because they are actively shopping and not browsing the internet just for information. Using high-intent keywords can help you do it.

Here are a few examples of high-intent keywords:

1. Winterwear sale
2. Jackets sale
3. Fashion stores with 50% discount

These keywords are not product-specific, but they reflect that the user has a buying intent and is looking for discounts and sales.

5. Get Competitor Insights

Before you start using a keyword tool, try to get insights into the strategies used by your competitors to attain high SERP rankings. Find the keywords your competitors are bidding the most on and include them in your campaign.

Discover the keywords they are ranking for with the help of SEO tools such as SpyFu. Along with providing in-depth research about competitor keywords, SpyFu also gives the following insights:

1. CPC keywords your competitors are using
2. The price they are paying per click
3. Their monthly ad expenditure
4. Ad position and searches they appear in  

You can use this data to outbid your competitors. List the keywords you get through competitor insights and add them to your brainstorming list.

6. Use Left-off Keywords

You can use Google Keyword Planner to expand on your left-off keywords. Add the search term your audience may be using and incorporate suggestions given by the tool.

At this stage, you should have finished your keyword research. However, you should still add those keywords which you think are expensive or have high competition. We will cut and refine the list in the next step.

7. Refine Your Lists

When you are ready with your lists, start refining them. Go back to the Google search bar, click on "Upload a file," and upload all the lists compiled in a file format. Access the keywords according to the following metrics:

1. Estimated click-through rate
2. Potential impression
3. Monthly searches
4. Average CPC you can afford

It will help you find many "low competition" and "low-cost" keywords with high search volume. You should select high-value keywords even if the cost per click is a little more.Ā  They will bring in more conversions and add to your campaign's effectiveness.

8. Bundle PPC Keywords Into Ad Groups

Now you have powerful PPC keywords shortlisted. Before you start targeting them, divide them into different ad groups. These are groups of keywords that you can combine in one ad campaign. For example, you can have a headline such as "end of season sale winterwear." It can include keywords like "jackets on sale," "pullovers on sale," and "woolen clothes on sale." Do not include keywords like "stockings on sale" in this ad group as it is an entirely different product range.

Add PPC Keywords in Google Ads Using Ad Groups

Another advantage of using Google Keyword Planner is that it allows you to directly select the keywords you want to target and make ad groups. It doesn't require any copy-pasting.

Apart from subject relevance, you can also make groups according to user intent and their stage in the buyer's journey. If you create more ad groups with custom copies to target different audiences based on their needs, you will receive more clicks and conversions.

Conclusion

PPC keyword research is an extremely crucial part of your overall digital marketing strategy, so it's essential to get it right. Even though it might look tedious and complicated, you should create many ad groups to target different customer segments and reap long-term benefits. But if all of this feels too time-consuming or cumbersome to you, hire a professional to run your Google Ads to achieve maximum ROI. You should try DashClicks' white label PPC services.