Keyword Discovery
The first phase of keyword research involves developing new keyword ideas. Sometimes this can be the most challenging part of the process. If your team is unfamiliar with keyword competition, they tend to select very broad words to target such as entertainment, hotel, or Las Vegas. Others will pick obscure phrases that hardly anyone will search such as Comps, Cabana and DJ Set. First things first, you need to find suitable, related phrases for the business.
I usually start with a simple brainstorming session. Look at what the main focuses of the business are, what unique solutions they provide, maybe check the competition and see what keywords they are targeting. Keep a list of all of suggestions (a spreadsheet like Excel works great for this). Once you have a decent starting point, you are ready to expand those ideas using the keyword tools listed below.
Keyword Research Tools
Where do we get the knowledge about keyword demand, referrals, and usage? From research sources like these:
Google Keyword Planner
Google discontinued their “Google Keyword Tool” and replaced it with the “Google Keyword Planner” as they continue to shift their focus on supporting PPC advertisers rather than organic search marketers. Although useful for our SEO purposes, the new tool is heavily focused on PPC ads. You will have to sign up for an AdWords account to use it – it’s free and you don’t have to enter payment information.
Pros
- Ability to focus research on geo-targeted areas and specific languages.
- The tool divides keywords into suggested ad groups which might provide some insight into which keywords Google deems to be semantically/topically related.
- The “multiply keyword lists” feature allows you to search on combinations of words from two different lists allowing you to combine term modifiers (such as location or color) and compare search volume.
- Filters can remove keywords below a certain search volume
- Keyword limit has been increased beyond 100 words
Cons
- “Average monthly searches” is calculated over 12 months so don’t use this toll for trending topics – use Google Trends for that.
- The option to only search for words closely related to your term has been removed.
- Device targeting has been removed – you are no longer able to segment volumes for desktop vs. mobile searches. These two buckets have been combined so volume numbers are higher for the Keyword Planner than they were for Keyword Tool.
- “Local” vs. “Global” search volume is no longer automatically displayed – Global (all locations) is the default. Users must drill down into specific locales for local search volume.
READ: Google’s Keyword Planner Tool is a useful starting point in keyword research. This article, Using Keyword Planner to Get Keyword Ideas and Traffic Forecasts, will help you get started with research, search volume, traffic forecasts and traffic patterns. Google offers a lot of free information and tools to help SEO’s, Webmasters and other online professionals be more successful.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) can provide you with detailed reports about your web pages including some keyword data.
Pros
- Data comes from Google
Cons
- Webmaster Tools will only show you how many impressions your site got from a keyword – the data does not display the terms you are not already ranking for.
- Data comes from Google – there are disputes over the accuracy of the data and GWT is considered less reliable than the Keyword Tool data.
Bing Keyword Tool
Microsoft’s research alternative to Google offers a lot of features and is the API behind a lot of online service tools (including the SEOMoz toolset).
Pros
- Users are able to narrow searches to more accurately track recent search data.
- Recent keyword volume trend data displays alongside other metrics.
- A “strict” filter acts like the old “closely related” filter in Google’s Keyword Tool.
- The tool is still in “Beta” and more features and improvements keep rolling out.
Cons
- Data comes from Bing which has fewer users (and lower search volumes) than Google.
- Drilling down into geo-graphic target is only available at the country level.
- Bing Webmaster Tools requires a verified site in order to use the tool – it is free.
READ: Similar to Google, Bing offers SEO’s, Webmasters and online professionals a lot of tools for success. Bing’s Keyword Research Tool is a fundamental first step in understanding what content to create as you identify search volume and traffic potential.
Wordtracker
Wordtracker is a paid keyword research tool that is considered an industry standard which provides good data.
Pros
- Offers KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) data allowing you to gauge keyword competition.
- Partners with SEMRush to provide paid users with paid search data as well.
- Filter results by match type: “keywords in any order”, “exact keyword inside a search term” and “exact keyword only” as well as “related terms.”
Cons
- The full tool requires a paid subscription – there’s also a free version that offers less functionality (Global searches only, no SEMRush data, and limited to 50 results per search).
- Limited data sources which can skew results based on demographics. Data comes from either “major search engine advertising network” or from metacrawlers (like DogPile) which search multiple search engines at one time depending on which version of the tool you’re using.
READ: Looking for more information on keyword research? Wordtracker offers a free multi-part course on keyword research as part of their Wordtracker Academy. The 3 part getting started section includes: 1: How search engines use keywords; 2: Targeting your primary and secondary keywords; 3: How to narrow down your keyword list.
SEMRush
An online paid software solution that provides competitive organic and advertising data, keyword research, and other search metrics.
Pros
- The free version provides PPC and SEO information in one view – useful for marketers running hybrid PPC/SEO programs.
- Data can provide competitors root domain and the specific URL that ranks for your keyword term in the first 20 slots.
- Individual keyword reports can display Related and Phrase Match terms with volume.
- Keyword volume data comes from the Google Keyword API – more trustworthy than other sources of keyword data.
Cons
- SERP information doesn’t take into account local, video, carousel, or other non-text result types.
- Drilling down into geo-graphic target is only available at the country level.
- More effective at researching individual keywords (once you have them) versus generating lots of new keyword ideas.
Google Search
The Google search query interface (the search box) offers an excellent starting point for keyword research and development. By NOT hitting enter when searching, Google will provide keyword suggestions – the same suggestions that drive most searches.
Pro
- Completely free
- Google suggestions are close to their original query (if they come up).
Cons
- Limited to everything that comes up with the ‘start’ word – no “related terms” data.
- No keyword volume data.
- Google Suggestions may be skewed based on your location and search history.
Alternative Search Suggestions
Most people stick with Google as that is the main search engine to target, but it still doesn’t hurt to get additional keyword ideas from elsewhere. The following search engines have similar suggested search options that appear below the search box when you start typing in keywords. Depending on your keyword, each search engine will offer different suggestions.
Other options
Other sources for keyword information exist, as do tools with more advanced data. Here are a few of the starting points I’ve used to begin keyword research:
Google Trends is based on actual search data and will show you how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world and in various languages. This type of historical data is perfect for monitoring market conditions and can be used to predict market demand.
Depending on your industry, Google Trends also offers “hot trends” which allows you to explore live trending topics. These are live keywords your audience could be searching with right now.
Google Correlate is an often overlooked (free) research tool that finds searches that correlate with real-world data. You start by entering a query into the search box to find search terms that have a similar pattern of activity. As you can imagine, some search terms are often more popular in one area than another. Search filters allow you to find patterns of activity for a specific country, an individual state, even a latitude and longitude.
Similar to Google, YouTube offers an auto-complete search bar at the top of every video page. This is a great way to find the top video search terms within your niche.
Amazon’s online market place offers millions of products all tagged from descriptive terms and product descriptions. Finding relevant and popular long tail keywords for products is especially easy (Example: Canon PowerShot SX50 HS 12MP Digital Camera with 2.8-Inch LCD).
Soovie is a free online tool that will scrape search suggestions from Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Answers.com and Wikipedia. Not only does it grab search suggestions, it will download the results in a .CVS file to use in Excel, bookmark your search and display the “current” most searched for terms. This is a good free tool for developing long tail keywords.
Another search “suggestion” scraper that will grab the results from Google, video sites, shopping and news portals. This tool also offers foreign language support for those working on non-English projects.
A new “paid” tool with limited free searches. The reason this tool made the list is because you can search Google, YouTube, Bing and App Store. The App-Store search feature is perfect for developers and SEO’s working in the ever expanding mobile world.
Similar to Yahoo Answers, Quora is a crowdsourced “Questions and Answers” website that tries to share and grow the world’s knowledge by allowing users to ask and answer questions. By researching questions posted by your audience, you will be able to get real world examples of some of the issues they want solved.
SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
A great place to start your search. This site is run by Aaron Wall, a long-time leader in the online community with a ton of experience behind him. Cons – data is supplied by Wordtracker and you will need to create a free account to access the tools.
One of the best tools for tapping into your competitor’s strategies (and it has a 30-day free trial). Pro – allows unlimited keyword searches to help identify profitable choices. Con – it only targets the US and UK.
Moz Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis Tool
The Moz SERP Analysis tool will show you the percentage of difficulty for each keyword, giving you an idea of how hard it will be to rank. You will also see the top ten sites ranked for each keyword, each site listed with it’s domain authority and the number of root domains linking to it. This is the type of data that will help you decide which keywords to target.
Moz does offer a a 30 day free trial, so if you have just one keyword research project to do you could subscribe, complete your work and then cancel.
ScrapeBox is a paid tool that has been dubbed the “Swiss Army Knife” for SEO… It is a search engine harvester, mass link builder, proxy harvester, comment poster, link checker, and dozens of other tools rolled into one inexpensive piece of software.
The keyword harvester function is often overlooked but it’s like using Ubersuggest on steroids. Imagine taking one or more keywords and scraping thousands of related keywords from: Google Suggest, Yahoo Search Assist, Amazon, YouTube, Bing Search, Google Product Search, Shopping.com, Yahoo Shopping, Ask.com, Ebay.com, Google Play, Wikipedia and Alibaba Product Search all simultaneously and in just a few seconds.
READ: Looking for more information on how to use ScrapeBox for keyword harvesting? This article, Goodbye Ubersuggest, Say Hello to Scrapebox, by Jacob King is a great starting point. When you’re done with this article, I highly suggest you follow with Jacob’s full ScrapeBox tutorial for even more ideas on how to use this tool.
More Tools
This list is far from complete. There are dozens of great tools for research, each with specific features that may or may not appeal to your needs. Here are a few more to consider:
READ: Still looking for more? This article, Tools, Tools Everywhere! Which SEO Tools Are Worth Your Time, in Search Engine Land offers you even more choices to consider. Broken into Free and Paid Tools, this makes an excellent starting point if you can’t find enough using the tools listed above.
Competitors Source Code
Primitive yet simple. By viewing the source code of websites that are already ranking for the keywords you want, you can get a glimpse of what they are focusing on. Meta information, H tags, titles and descriptions are right there for you to see.
Conclusion…
Search providers are constantly updating their services, keyword tools come and go, and no “one” keyword tool can provide all of the data you need. As a result, I recommend you use a couple of tools to cross check your information for the most reliable results. The safest suggestion I can offer is to use a tool that gets data (at least a part of it) from Google as those keywords are probably more popular within the Google SERPs. This directional approach is more likely to be successful than treating the data from any one tool as gospel.
When considering search volumes – take into account the growing trend of personalized/geo-targeted results. There is no way a search tool can predict how often your website will be ‘personalized’ in or out of a search query.
Search terms with the highest search volume are not always the best choice. Certain terms specific within your industry may be important to target even if they’re lower in volume: 1) they are important to your brand or, 2) they convert highly and the lower traffic numbers don’t matter.
READ: If you are using the same tools and techniques as your competitors, you’ll end up competing on the same keywords, resulting in an ongoing SEO battle. This article by David de Souza outlines a number of tools and techniques that go beyond conventional keyword research to find the ‘hidden gems’ your competition missed: 4 Under The Radar Keyword Research Sources You Can Use To Find Hidden Gems.