How to Do Keyword Research [2023]

I start off by getting a list of keywords from Google-predictive search and suggested search at the bottom of the results page.

PredctiveSearch

Use Google Suggest!

Say your KW is [Football Boots]

Type in football boots a

football boots b

football boots c

football boots d

etc

I then input the keywords into the sites below (or at least 2 of them!):

http://soovle.com/

http://answerthepublic.com/

https://app.kwfinder.com

https://adwords.google.com

and then just use the ones with the most search volume, that aren’t being ranked for by sites we can’t compete with.

Quora.com & SEMRush

Requires Paid Version of SEMRush

You can also use Quora.com and SEMRush for KW research, specifically for longer tailed KWs.

For example, if you have a law site

Go to quora.com

Put quora.com into SEMRush

Click “Organic Research” on the left-side-bar, then – “Positions”

KW Research SEMRush

Filter by keyword (near the bottom)

Advanced filter – containing “Law”

QuoraKWResearch2

This gives a list of FAQs for Law.

SEMRush.com & Your KW Opportunities

Put your domain in the search bar & look at organic research

Download all your KWs that you rank for

Order by Search volume

Conditionally format the rank position so that between 10 and 30ish are yellow

Make a note of those that are worth ‘going after’.

Do same thing with competitors.

SEMRUSH and Competitors

Ann easy and effective way to get more keyword ideas, is to search your keyword(s), go to the keyword overview tool and see who is ranking for it. 

You can then choose to look at what other keywords they rank for.

Amazon KW Research

Find most popular book in your niche and look at the chapter titles for KW ideas.

Put chapter titles into KW Research tool

Reddit KW Research

Search KW in Reddit.
Find questions and threads that are common – add to KW Planner
Wikipedia – search and look at page contents and link anchor text

Check High Ranking Pages for Your Main Keyword

Get the URLs of the top 5 pages for your main keyword.

In SEMRush for example, you’ll see these listed near the bottom when you add a keyword

See what keywords the top URLs / your competitors rank for – they’re sometimes a few random or different keywords in there that are golden.

Use Search Console

Find keywords that you rank for, but don’t have a specific post or page about.

For example, if you have a football blog and rank 35th for “best football goal posts” but don’t have a post specifically about that topic – then you might want to make one, as you’re very likely to rank in the top 10 for it.

If you are looking to optimise an existing page – check what KWs it currently ranks for in Search Console.

  • remember keyword volumes aren’t that accurate. There are loads of blog posts about “0 volume keywords” generating decent traffic. If auto-suggest is suggesting a keyword, it probably has a fair amount of queries each day.