Keyword research is the process of finding out the search terms that are entered by people when they are using search engines. These search terms may help you to form both content strategy as well as marketing strategy.

The following guidelines can be followed for finding right keywords.

1. Make a list of topics relevant to your business

Come up with 5-10 topics that you think are relevant to your business. Think of those topics as general buckets and use these topic buckets to create SEO keywords click here to read.

Think from your target consumers point of view. What are the topics they would look for? If you are blogger make a list of the topics that you write most about. Or if you are a service company, look for the topics that come in sales conversations more often.

2. Fill up your topic buckets with keywords

Once you have found your topic buckets the next step is to fill those buckets with keywords. These keywords are probably the words that your target audience is using in conducting searches. Hence they are important in building a good ranking in search engine results pages. However this will not be your final list of keywords. It only gives you an idea of phrases that you think your potential customers might be using. You will have to use different tools to narrow down the list later on.

3. Research related search terms

If you are struggling to find out multiple keywords there is an easy way out for you. Go to Google and put in the keyword. Scroll down and look at the related searches that people are conducting. It will give you bunch of ideas about potential keywords. To broaden your perspective Google those keywords and get more relevant search results.

4. Make sure to check for a mix of both head terms and long-tail keywords in every topic bucket

If you are confused about head terms and long-tail keywords, let me explain the difference to you. Head terms consist of one to three words while long tail keywords consist of more than 3 words.

It is important to have a mix of both type of keywords in your website because it will help you keep a balanced approach. Head terms are usually searched more often than long-tail terms hence they’re more competitive. Consider two scenarios.

A) Blogging
B) How to write a good blog

Of course it will be tougher to rank term A as it is boasting the most search volume. But do not get disappointed. While it’s convenient for people just to search blogging but the traffic you will get from term B is more appealing. Because the person who is searching for term B is more specific and hence would be more interested in your website but the person vaguely searching blogging may be looking for some content very different from what you are offering.

5. Analyze how keywords are ranked by competitors

You don not have to blindly follow your competitors. But when you have a good idea about competitors way of ranking certain keywords, it will give you motivation to improve ranking of those keywords for yourself as well.