Keywords are the building block of any successful marketing campaign. Finding the right keywords to advertise and market your business is difficult, but in these 6 steps you’ll have a better understanding of how to find the most sought-after keywords that other competitors in your industry are overlooking.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Create detailed personas to think of different ways your potential clients my be searching for you. Your average person wouldn’t have the knowledge or expertise you have in your industry and therefore don’t know technical terms you may use when describing your services. Create detailed buyer personas to identify their needs, pain points, and the language they use. Ask yourself a variety of questions to help expand your keyword research list such as:
- What are the demographic characteristics (age, gender, income, education level) of your current most profitable customers?
- What specific problems or pain points does your product/service solve for your customers? Understanding their challenges reveals search intent.
- Which platforms, websites, or information sources does your target audience trust and frequently use? This shows where they seek information.
- What buying objections or concerns does your target audience typically have before making a purchase? This reveals research patterns.
2. Brainstorm Relevant Topics
Generate ideas for content based on your products or services, industry trends, and customer questions. You can utilize artificial intelligence for this as long as you properly prompt the chatbot to give you a list of keywords worth researching. It’s word noting that Google’s Gemini may have a bit more direct access to user’s search intent and patterns. 70% of online searches involve long-tail keywords so make sure to research all avenues remember, no question is a dumb question.
About 95% of keywords have a search volume of 10 or fewer searches per month, making it crucial to do an extensive keyword research process. Roughly 14.1% of keywords are phrased as questions such as how and where.
3. Using Keyword Research Tools
While Google Keyword Planner delivers direct search volume data, seasonal trends, and bid estimates, SEMrush specializes in competitive keyword analysis and content gap identification. Ahrefs complements these with detailed difficulty scores and backlink requirements for ranking. These platforms collectively analyze monthly search volumes, keyword difficulty, related suggestions, long-tail variations, historical trends, cost-per-click metrics, SERP features, and user intent signals. The combined data from multiple tools enables marketers to validate keyword opportunities and develop comprehensive targeting strategies. This multi-tool approach is particularly effective for identifying low-competition keywords with meaningful search volume, creating opportunities for quick SEO wins.
| Tool Name | Tool Function |
| Google Keyword Planner | This tool, primarily designed for Google Ads advertisers, provides valuable insights into search volume, competition, and related keywords. It’s particularly useful for identifying long-tail keywords and discovering seasonal trends. |
| SEMRush | A comprehensive SEO toolset, Semrush offers robust keyword research capabilities. It allows you to analyze search volume, keyword difficulty, and competitive landscapes. Additionally, Semrush provides valuable insights into SERP features and user intent. |
| Ahrefs | This tool excels in providing in-depth keyword research data, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and click-through rate (CTR). It also offers valuable insights into competitor backlink profiles and organic traffic sources. |
| Moz Keyword Explorer | This tool offers a user-friendly interface and provides valuable data on keyword difficulty, search volume, and opportunity score. It also helps you identify related keywords and track keyword rankings over time. |
4. Analyze Search Intent
Search intent represents the underlying purpose behind a user’s search query – whether they’re looking to learn information (informational), find a specific website (navigational), research products (commercial), or make a purchase (transactional). Understanding search intent helps identify keywords that align with different stages of the customer journey. By analyzing intent, businesses can create content that precisely matches what users are searching for, improving relevance and conversion potential. For example, terms like “how to” indicate informational intent, while “buy” or “price” suggest transactional intent. This understanding ensures keywords target users with the right intent at the right time. If you want to learn more about the effects of user search intent on content strategy read this article.
5. Prioritize & Organize Keywords
Focus on keywords with high search volume, low competition, and high relevance to your target audience. You can sort the columns as you like in your choose keyword research tool listed above. You can also use spreadsheets whether it’s Google, Microsoft, or something different to cluster and map keywords. This will give you a headstart on content strategy and scheduling, interlinking webpages and blogs to strengthen your navigation and user experience.
6. Create a Keyword Map
Keyword mapping and clustering is the process of organizing keywords into related groups and assigning them to specific pages or content pieces on a website to create a strategic content hierarchy. This process involves analyzing search terms for common themes, user intent, and semantic relationships.
To perform keyword mapping and clustering:
- Group keywords with similar search intent and themes together
- Identify primary (high-volume) and secondary (supporting) keywords within each cluster
- Map keyword clusters to existing content or plan new content around them
- Create a content hierarchy showing which pages target which keyword groups
- Ensure each page focuses on a distinct topic to avoid keyword cannibalization
This organization helps:
- Structure website content logically
- Prevent pages from competing for the same keywords
- Guide internal linking strategy
- Identify content gaps and opportunities
- Create comprehensive topic coverage
- Plan content that addresses related search queries efficiently
The goal is to create topically authoritative content that satisfies user intent while maintaining clear keyword focus for each page.
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