SEO Keyword Research: How We Help Companies Rise on SERPs

When you put anything on the internet, including web pages, blog content, or even social media posts, you want them to be seen by a target audience.

As of 2024, more than 1.1 billion websites are out there, and new ones are coming out all the time. The question is this --- how do you get people to see your site when there are over a billion other sites out there?

The answer? Search engine optimization, or SEO.

What is SEO and Why is It Important?

SEO is the process of writing website content in a certain way by using specific keywords. Search engines use these keywords, which are essentially search queries, to determine which websites will appear at the top of the search engine results pages.

Let's say you are a builder and you want to update your website because there doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic. You must use SEO to do this and to apply SEO to your website, you must do keyword research.

We can break it down even more simply. When someone searches for "builder near me" in Google, you want them to see your website, right? To make this happen, not only do you have to use specific keywords, but you also must have a page that is higher in quality, more relevant, and easier to use when compared to your competitors.

All of this is part of SEO, and we can help at every step, including with keyword research. This is the first step of a successful SEO strategy.

What is Keyword Research for SEO?

Keyword research is the method of picking words and phrases that people are using to find things on search engines. Understanding how to do this is a huge task, and it can be quite time-consuming. The goal of successful keyword research is to find out what your target audience is looking for, and then create content that attracts those people to your site.

When you find out what your target audience is searching for, you can then create content around that.

Successful keyword research will show you how many people are searching for a specific phase. This is known as search volume. It will also show how difficult it is to compete for those terms. Additionally, it gives you some information on how to better optimize content for your page.

This sounds pretty easy, and it is thanks to free tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or even Google Keyword Planner. However, it takes a long time to do, and these keywords really might not be the best, especially if you are getting a lot of high-volume keywords, or keywords that have tens of thousands of searches each month.

Relevant Keywords are Always Changing, So This is a Constant Job

Many people think they can do keyword research one time and it will miraculously work for eternity. Unfortunately, that's not true. Keyword research is always evolving, and though you can get good coverage with a longer keyword list and related keywords included on your page, there are changes you will need to make over time.

Changes in your target audience may require new keyword research, too. Again, we can use an example of being a builder. Perhaps 10 to 15 years ago, marble was very popular for countertops. So, if you already have a website, and you build kitchens, you probably have a lot of content about marble. However, the trend has changed, and fewer people want marble. Instead, they want quartzite. If you don't have any content about quartzite on your website, you won't be attracting the people searching for it. In turn, that means your content strategy needs a review, and that includes more keyword research.

Beginning the Keyword Research Journey

Now that you know what keyword research is and how it can be helpful to keep up with, you can start the process of doing the research. Remember, Sapphire SEO Solutions offers this as a service to our clients. We understand how to do keyword research quickly and effectively, and it is very affordable for those who don't have the time or knowledge to do it.

Choose a Seed Keyword

The first part of keyword research is to choose a seed keyword. This is a term, idea, or topic that is relevant to your company, good, or service. We can go back to the kitchen example, here. Let's imagine that you want to add a new product like quartzite counters. You can start with the term "quartzite countertops" as your seed keyword.

You should not use long tail keywords as seed keywords. A long tail keyword is a longer phrase that is very specific. A good seed keyword should be one that is short, concise, competitive, and high volume.

We did a search on a free tool for keyword research, Moz.com, and got data for the keyword "quartzite countertops."

When we did the search, we saw that the monthly search volume is 15.2k. That means there are approximately 15,200 searches online each month for the term "quartzite countertops."

Keep in mind that seed keywords don't simply give you search volume data. If you keep looking at the page and scroll down, you will then see keyword suggestions. These are also good keywords that you should use in your content based on your seed keyword.

For our search on "quartzite countertops," you can also see the keyword suggestions, below. This list of keywords shows monthly search volume, too, and you can see other phrases that people are searching for.

Oh —— and these change all of the time.

Study Keyword Metrics

Now that you have your seed keyword and some related keywords, you can take a look at the metrics associated with them.

Some of the things you can see include monthly search volume, organic CTR (click-through rate), and keyword difficulty. Most free keyword research sites offer this information, but they might not show additional information that is important for a solid keyword strategy.

The first thing you should take into consideration when checking your seed keyword is if it's producing data at all. If your search term is only getting a few searches a month, it might not be the best starting point. Instead, you want to choose a keyword that can reach a wider audience.

This is just the beginning, of course. A single keyword isn't enough to totally make or break the keyword strategy you have in mind, but it will give you a good idea about how successful your campaign might be.

Keyword Research Takes a Lot of Time and Effort

It takes time to learn about what all of these things mean and what this data indicates for your keyword strategy. This is why many people choose to pay a low price for an SEO keyword researcher to do the work for them.

As you learn more about keyword research, you will get to know what a good combination is regarding the data you get. Yes, a keyword that has a good search volume might be great to use, but if the keyword phrases are difficult to rank with, you can't go head-to-head with your competitors.

In addition to all of this, another thing you will realize as you dive deeper into keyword research is search intent. Most free tools for keyword research will give you a good idea of what the intent is for those who are searching for these keywords.

Using our countertop example again, a keyword like "quartzite colors" would be an informational keyword, meaning the searcher is looking for information. However, a keyword like "quartzite countertop installation" would typically indicate that the people searching have the intent to purchase countertops.

By understanding what type of search intent these keywords have, you can better decide what type of content you need and what a writer like our SEO writers, can create for your site.

Consider Organic Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Another type of data you will see when doing your keyword research is the organic click-through rate or CTR. This shows us how many clicks the keyword is getting, or how things like paid ads are affecting the organic traffic for the keyword. A higher CTR is a better CTR.

Check Out Your Competitors

As you continue to look at this data and research keywords, you will see the difficulty score. This indicates how difficult it will be to get your content higher in search engine results compared to your competitors. A low-competition keyword will be easier to rank with, whereas a highly competitive keyword is going to be much more difficult. The sweet spot here is finding keywords that are low in difficulty, yet high in search volume.

Organize and Group Your Target Keywords

Next, you want to get your keywords organized. This helps you prioritize keywords that may have better search engine rankings and put the lower-performing search terms further down on your priority list.

Most paid tools for keyword research offer this as part of their services, but many free tools do not. Instead, you will have to do this manually. Once you have your keywords grouped, you can make a list of good keywords that you can use in your campaign.

Add to Your List of Keywords by Looking at Search Results

If you are still interested in learning how to do your own keyword research, keep reading...but if it's something that you would rather pass off to an expert, let us know!

Now that you have your keyword list, you want to make sure that it's fully comprehensive, and that you have done all you can to ensure the right keywords don't slip through the cracks. One of the best ways to do this is to look at the SERPs (search engine results pages.)

On Google, there is a great trick for discovering more keywords and it helps you identify what your target audience might also be looking for. As you scroll down to the bottom of the page of search results, you will see a section labeled "People also search for..." and a list of other keywords that are similar to the ones you are focusing on. It's always a good idea to add these to your keyword lists.

Take Your Research Keywords and Create Content

You have a lot of information now about where you should focus your efforts with SEO. These keywords will work as a roadmap for content creation. Keep in mind that SEO is not only adding these keywords to your content. There is a lot more to it.

That's why so many people hire SEO companies like Sapphire SEO Solutions.

Test it Out and See How it Worked

Finally, you want to see how your efforts...or our efforts... are working. One of the best tools to use for this is Google Search Console. If you own a website, you have access to this tool. It will show you the keywords that people are using to get to your site. You can also use Google Analytics, Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Google Ads to get information, too.

Doing keyword analysis after the fact can show you if a specific keyword is working like you want it to, or if your SEO efforts are paying off. The best keywords might not be the ones you suspect, and oftentimes low competition keywords bring in more organic traffic.

Why You Need to Take Keyword Research Seriously

To some people, it's obvious why it's so important to take keyword research seriously, but for others, it might not be. There is a lot to keyword research that isn't listed above. For example, not only is keyword research essential for SEO, but it's also a huge part of content marketing overall. Knowing what people are looking for concerning your business also helps you create a future content strategy, helps you understand the needs of your target audience, and helps you learn more about what people are asking and looking for.

Keyword Research is an Ongoing Task - Let Us Do it For You

The process laid out above isn't a job that you can get away with doing one time. Search engines change constantly. Anytime you add new content, update content, or even create a blog post, you should be doing some type of keyword research. Our team does keyword research almost every day, as we are always updating our site and our blog for our clients.

We would be happy to do the same for you, and because we have been doing SEO keyword research for many years, we know exactly how to do it and what to look for. We work with builders, of course, but also cover many other industries from dentists to lawyers.

If you are interested in purchasing a keyword research report from Sapphire SEO Solutions, all we need is a little bit of information, and we can quickly do the research and create a keyword content plan for you. Get in touch today and save both time and money by letting us do the work.