1. Keyword Research Fundamentals

Keyword research is the only way to figure out what people are actually typing into search engines. It also helps you answer the following questions:

• How difficult is it to rank for this keyword?
• How much traffic can I expect if I rank for this keyword?
• What kind of content should I create to rank for this keyword?
• Are the people searching for this keyword likely to become my customers?

2. How to Find Keyword Ideas

Brainstorm Your “Seed” Keywords

Seed keywords are the foundation of the keyword research process.

Check What Keywords Your Competitors Rank For

Always look for sites that are similar to your own website (or the one you plan to build).

Use Keyword Research Tools

Google Keyword Planner is probably the most well-known keyword tool. It’s free to use. Although it’s primarily designed for Google Ads customers, you can also use it to find keywords for SEO. Free keyword research tools: https://ahrefs.com/blog/zh/free-keyword-research-tools/

Research Your Niche

3. How to Analyze Keywords

Search Volume

• It represents the number of searches, not the number of people searching
• It doesn’t tell you how much traffic you’ll get by ranking
• It’s an annualized monthly average

Long-tail keywords are keywords with low search volume. They tend to have less competition, making it easier to attract more visitors with shorter, focused content.

Clicks

Paid ads can “steal” a significant number of clicks for a keyword, meaning that keyword might be better suited for advertising rather than organic SEO.

Traffic Potential

In most cases, a keyword’s search volume does correlate with the overall “traffic potential” of the topic. However, paying attention to this detail will help you prioritize keywords and uncover opportunities that your competitors have overlooked.

Keyword Difficulty

Backlinks are crucial for ranking.

You should start working on high-KD keywords early. You should treat high-KD keywords as opportunities to acquire links.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Cost per click (CPC) shows how much advertisers are willing to pay for each ad click on a keyword. It’s more of an advertising metric than an SEO metric, but it can indirectly help us gauge a keyword’s value. One important thing to note is that CPC is far more volatile than search volume. While the search demand for most keywords stays roughly the same each month, CPC can change at any time. This means the CPC you see in third-party keyword tools is just a snapshot in time. If you need real-time data, you’ll have to use AdWords.

4. How to Group Keywords

Target the Parent Topic

Target the Search Intent

The key takeaway here is to align your content with what searchers expect, but you don’t necessarily have to follow the crowd or trap searchers in a bubble of expectations. If you’re confident you can capture searchers’ attention with a different content type, format, or angle, it’s absolutely worth trying.

5. How to Prioritize Keywords

While search volume, traffic potential, keyword difficulty, and search intent are all important factors, you also need to think about which keywords will actually bring value to your business. When going through this process, remember that you’re not just looking for “easy to rank” keywords — you’re also looking for the keywords with the highest ROI. Many website owners make the mistake of only chasing simple, low-difficulty keywords. You should always have short-term, mid-term, and long-term ranking goals. If you only focus on the short term, you’ll never compete for the most profitable keywords. If you only focus on the mid-to-long term, it’ll take a long time before you start getting traffic. Think of it this way: picking the low-hanging fruit is easy, but the fruit at the top of the tree is usually the juiciest. Does that mean the low-hanging fruit isn’t worth picking? No, you should still pick it. But you should also plan ahead and start building your ladder so you can reach the fruit at the top later.

6. Keyword Research Tools

Google Keyword Planner (Free) Unique keyword suggestions and up-to-date CPC data.

Google Trends (Free) Useful for trend comparisons and regional trend research.

Google Search Console (Free) View the top 1,000 keywords you already rank for and the traffic they bring.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (Free) Check all the keywords you currently rank for, along with their estimated search volume, keyword difficulty, traffic potential, and other useful SEO metrics.

Keyword Generator (Free) Generate hundreds of free keyword suggestions from a seed keyword.

Keyword Difficulty Checker (Free) Check a keyword’s difficulty score, i.e., the Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty metric.

Keyword Rank Checker (Free) Check your ranking for any keyword in any country or region.

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer Use this tool when you want to get serious about finding the best keywords for your site. It can generate tens of thousands of keyword suggestions in seconds, filter them down to the ones relevant to you, and easily assess their traffic potential and ranking difficulty.

Original source: https://ahrefs.com/blog/zh/keyword-research/