What is keyword research?

Keyword research is a critical component of search engine optimization (SEO) that involves identifying the keywords your audience uses when searching for the products or services you offer. By understanding these search terms, you can develop a strategic list of keywords to target, ensuring that your content aligns with what potential customers are looking for.

This process requires delving into your audience’s language and analyzing search traffic volume data to uncover popular and relevant keywords. Without effective keyword research, you might find yourself using language that doesn’t resonate with your audience or competing with industry giants — a battle that can be hard to win.

Regularly updating your keyword strategy helps you create content that attracts high-quality traffic and stays current with search trends. Keyword research is an ongoing effort to keep your visibility and competitiveness in search results.

Why is keyword research important?

Proper keyword research is important because it clarifies what search terms your audience uses. At Yoast, we frequently encounter business owners who use one set of words to describe their products while their target audience uses a completely different set of words! As a result, potential customers can’t find those websites. In other words, there’s a mismatch.

To avoid this mismatch, you should do thorough keyword research. This research will ensure you use the same words as your target audience. In addition, you should also consider your audience’s search intent. This will help you figure out what exactly your audience is looking for. All left is for you to write high-quality content that answers your audience’s questions!

Originality versus findability

What about originality? Isn’t it better to stand out and use different keywords than your competitors? Let’s say you (or your marketing department) decide to give a product an uncommon name. This can be a wise marketing decision because people can remember your product more easily. For example, you might stand out more if you rent out vacation cottages instead of vacation homes.

But beware: very few people search for [vacation cottages]. So, if you optimize your text for cottages, you’ll probably rank well on that specific term. However, because your audience uses a different word, you won’t generate much traffic or reach many potential customers.

Essential concepts of keyword research

Before jumping into keyword research, we’ll briefly explain some of its essential concepts.

Focus keyword or keyphrase

A focus keyword or keyphrase is the word or phrase you want a certain page on your site to be found in Google. You determine your set of focus keyphrases by doing keyword research. Yoast SEO uses these words to analyze your content and suggest improvements.

Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are more specific and less commonly searched for than head keywords. They focus on a niche. The longer and more specific search terms are, the easier it is to rank for them. Why? Because there will be less competition.

However, long-tail keywords are still worth ranking for! Even though fewer people are searching for them, they might be more motivated to buy, subscribe, sign up, etc.

Keyword strategy

Your keyword strategy is about your decisions based on your keyword research. For instance, what content are you going to create first? Will you focus on the head or tail? How and where will you publish it? Will you create a piece of writing, a post or a product page, a video tutorial, or an infographic?

Search intent

Digging into search intent is key here: discover what a searcher wants or needs. You’re not just looking at keywords. You’re also looking at the underlying goals of what a searcher wants to know, do, or buy. Your content should provide a solution to the searcher’s “problem.” 

Your audience and keyword research

Once you’ve determined what you have to offer, it’s time to consider your audience. How does your offering connect with the needs and goals of real people? Ultimately, SEO is all about making sure your users find what they’re looking for. However, there’s more to it than choosing the right keywords. Understanding your audience’s needs is essential for making great user-centric content, which is also an important part of good SEO. So, you must first find out which words your potential audience uses to find the information they want.

Let’s look at an example. At Yoast, we call our SEO training courses platform “Yoast SEO Academy.” So, at first, it might seem logical for us to optimize for the keyword [Yoast SEO Academy]. However, when we analyze traffic data, it turns out that our audience searches for [SEO training] or [SEO courses] way more often. So, it makes much more sense to optimize for that term instead.

Every company has its internal vocabulary, which often doesn’t match the vocabulary of its audience. Therefore, you should always select your keywords from your audience’s perspective. Using the integrated Semrush features in the Yoast SEO plugin, you can find keyword data and suggestions with just a few clicks. You can also try out the Yoast Suggest tool for more ideas.

What about your competition?

Lastly, you simply can’t devise a proper keyword research strategy without considering your competition. Often, websites optimize for terms they have no chance of ranking for. For instance, keywords with a high search volume can help a website connect with much bigger audiences, but you’ll only see positive results if you rank well. The search terms that deliver the highest traffic are highly competitive, so you must research your competition and assess the situation.

You could go overboard and thoroughly analyze all the competitors in your field, which can certainly be worthwhile. But let’s stick to the basics for now. It’s quite easy to get a general idea of your SEO competition. Just Google some search terms you would like to rank for, see which companies appear, and compare them with your site’s rank. How big are the companies you are competing with for those top three rankings? Would your company fit within these results? This is all quite easy to determine using only Google search results.

But be aware! You can’t just blindly trust the search results because Google tailors them to your personal search history, which means your site will come up higher for you than for others doing the same search. You can get around this by searching in incognito mode, although there’s even a local search component. If this is likely a problem for you, consider using a VPN to conceal your location or use Valentin.app to even choose a location yourself!

Using generative AI in keyword research

AI is changing SEO and, therefore, also keyword research, making it faster and more precise. Using AI, you can discover new keyword opportunities that might be missed with traditional methods. AI tools can quickly identify trends and find long-tail keywords that are less competitive and align well with what users are searching for.

Understanding what users intend with their searches is crucial, and AI helps with this by analyzing queries and suggesting how to tailor your content. It can classify keywords into intent groups like informational or transactional, helping you create content that meets user needs.

For content optimization, AI suggests ideas and improvements for your pages, ensuring they’re relevant and effective. AI tools provide insights on keyword placement and other on-page factors that can help improve your SEO.

To get started, consider using tools like Semrush or Ahrefs for AI-driven insights. These tools help you understand keyword trends and competition, giving you a strategic edge. Generative AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini are useful tools for improving your keyword research process.

With AI’s help in your keyword research, you can better understand user intent and create high-quality, highly relevant content. This improves efficiency and makes sure that your SEO efforts impact your performance.