SEO tip 9 – Do a keyword research for knowing what to write

December 19, 2011

Before you start writing, there is always good to do a keyword research for knowing what to write. Because you do not want to write a 100% onpage optimized text that appears on spot one in Google if nobody is searching for the text, right? That would be waste of time and money. So before writing, make sure to do a keyword research.

What tool to use in keyword research?

There is one good free one, that is the Google Keyword Tool. That is more or less the standard tool for keyword research, from which everyone starts. And you have probably tested it already, but here is some more texts about how to really find the words to write about.

Start with a broad keyword research

When you are at the keyword tool page, start with writing a topic you are interested in writing about.

Google keyword tool - facebook covers

I started my keyword tool really broad with searching for "Facebook covers"

Now when the new Facebook layout is launched, nobody wants to read my posts about how to make Facebook profile banners anymore, so I have to write a new one about Facebook covers soon. It would be impossible for me to rank well with a blogpost about Facebook covers, there are too much competition, but I start with searching for that anyway.

Keyword tool gives you suggestions

keywoord research for facebook covers

So, I get a whole lot of suggestions of phrases to write about. I choose 10-20 of them and also adds some from my mind and puts them into the search box again.

facebook cover in keyword research

So, now I have a couple of headings to chose from. I will now write two or three blog posts about some of those “keywords”. And I will write it optimized like in my SEO checklist. And hopefully my blog post then ends up somewhere quite high in Google.

Which words to chose in the keyword tool result table?

That is always a good question. You have to chose the keywords with less competition and a lot of searches. Searches you see to the right. Competition is a little harder, but try to search the words in common Google search engine and see which sites appears in top 5. If it is small sites or blogs, then the competition might be quite low. If it is big brands and corporate sites, the competition might be a little higher. And if there is a lot of sites with the exact phrase in the title (The blue line you can click on for every spot in the search results), then the competition might be quite high as well, because that shows that someone else are trying to get the spots as well, by writing texts about exactly the same.

Some more keyword tool tricks

If you are not writing in English, remember to change the “location and language” in keyword tool to your language, and then just look at the column to the right, where it says “Local monthly searches”.

Put the “Match type” to “exact” in the left sidebar. Then you will only see how many are searching for exactly the phrase you are targeting. But I am also targeting a lot of long-tail words in every blogpost, so for me the “broad” or “phrase” is enough data.

If you find keywords with more than 1000 local monthly searches in “exact” mode and there are low competition, do not hesitate, write about the keyword! Like NOW!

If you find keywords with more than 10000 searches in “exact” mode, buy a domain including that keyword and make a whole site about it. :)

Remember that the numbers are not 100% reliable, and often just about 0ne third of the monthly searches presented. Thanks for reading about how to do keyword researches in Google keyword tool!

I bet you like these posts as well:

  1. SEO-trick 3: Checklist for writing search engine optimized texts
  2. SEO-trick 6: Buy keyword-domains and build campaign-sites
  3. SEO-trick 16 – Use a company blog for getting traffic from trends and seasons
  4. SEO-tip 5: Easy content optimization for local search
  5. Search by drawing - Google Correlate
See more articles in the category: SEO Copywriting, SEO, Search engine optimization

Important information

This is the search engine optimization (SEO) and web tactics webiste/blog for Jonathan Björkskog, working at and co-owning Genero Digital Agency, a digital advertising agency based in Helsinki, Finland. If you searched for my Swedish blog, you find it here: jonathanbjorkskog.net.

That's one of my passions.

If you were searching for the other one, kitesurfing, you should check out my kitesurfing blog instead.

Free SEO tool

Be sure to check your website's and blogs SEO-performance in our new SEO-tool! It is totally free!
Provided by Genero.fi
You want more hands-on help with writing optimized texts? Then check how to write search engine optimized texts here!

Hosted at Bluehost

Advertising

C’mon, I am on Facebook as well

Head over to the wall and send me all your questions about Facebook, SEO, or any other awesome topic on the internet!

This WordPress Template

Do you want this clean WordPress template that I am using on this blog? I will drop it as a FREE Premium theme on my template site when it gets ready. If you want it now, for testing and customizing, drop me a mail and I will send it your way. jonathan.bjorkskog[a]gmail.com, or ask for it on twitter..
Content Priority Theme by Jonathan Björkskog @ Genero