How to perform keyword analysis for SEO? Step by step guide
SEO is based on data and strategy. Inherent in both of these areas is the selection of keywords, with which the goal of conducting such activities is related. That’s why in this guide you’ll learn how to conduct a comprehensive and effective keyword analysis to increase your site’s visibility in search results and beyond.
The role of keyword analysis in SEO
The role of keyword analysis in SEO strategy is extremely important. It is a process that allows you to understand what phrases and terms are most frequently used by potential customers when searching for products, services or information on search engines. With keyword analysis, you can tailor your website’s content to respond to specific user queries, which in turn helps increase its visibility in search results. Key aspects in which keyword analysis plays an important role are:
- Understanding user needs: Analysis allows you to identify the phrases that are most relevant to your target audience. This allows you to better understand their needs and preferences.
- Content optimization: With keywords identified, content on the site can be better tailored to users’ queries, increasing the chances of ranking higher in search results.
- Marketing strategy: keyword analysis helps plan effective marketing campaigns, including paid advertising like Google Ads, and creating content that attracts organic traffic.
- Market competitiveness: Allows you to understand what keywords are being used by your competitors so you can adjust your own strategies to gain a competitive advantage.
- UX and conversion optimization: Keyword analysis also helps optimize the user experience (UX) on the site, resulting in higher conversion rates.
Importantly, keyword analysis is a key element in building a website’s visibility in search engines by better understanding and meeting user expectations. As a result, this leads to more effective actions to increase traffic to the website.
The most important parameters of keywords
Keyword research is based on the analysis of their most important parameters. They have a huge impact on the scale of the actions taken and their effectiveness. Here are some key parameters to consider when analyzing keywords:
- Monthly number of searches: Indicates how often a keyword is searched for in a certain period of time. Higher volume means that the keyword is more popular, but often there is also more competition.
- Competitiveness: Determines how difficult it is to rank high in search results for a given keyword. High competitiveness may mean that many sites are already optimizing their content for that word.
- Relevance: refers to the degree to which the keyword is related to the content of the site and the products or services offered. It is very important that the keywords chosen are closely related to the theme of the site.
- User intent: Refers to what the user has in mind when typing in a particular keyword. Intent can be informational (looking for information), transactional (wanting to make a purchase), navigational (looking for a specific page) or research (comparing products or services).
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of users who click on a link after it appears in search results. A high CTR can indicate the effectiveness and attractiveness of the title and meta description for a given keyword.
- Position in search results: The place where a site appears in search results for a given keyword. Higher positions usually translate into more traffic.
- Trends and Seasonality: Certain keywords may be more popular at certain times of the year or subject to trends. Analyzing trends allows you to tailor your SEO strategy to current user interests.
- Keyword length: Keywords can be short (one or two words) or long (called long tail). Long keyword phrases are usually less competitive and more precise.
Understanding these parameters allows you to use keywords more purposefully and effectively in your SEO strategy, resulting in better search engine results and more website traffic.
Competitor and market analysis
Market and competitive analysis is a key element of business strategy to understand the environment in which a company operates and to identify opportunities and threats. Here are the main aspects to pay attention to when conducting such an analysis:
- Understanding the market: Market analysis involves examining overall industry trends, market size, market growth rates, and consumer preferences and behavior. This allows for a better understanding of the environment in which the company operates and the identification of key factors influencing demand.
- Competitor analysis: This involves identifying the main competitors in the market and understanding their strategies, strengths and weaknesses, product offerings and methods of operation. This allows you to develop a unique value proposition that will differentiate your company from the competition.
- Monitoring trends and innovations: Keeping track of current market trends and technological and product innovations is essential to staying competitive. This allows us to react quickly to changes and take advantage of new opportunities.
- Consumer behavior analysis: Understanding how customers make purchasing decisions, what their needs and preferences are, allows for better customization of products and services and more effective targeting of marketing efforts. For websites, Google Analytics and a heat map will be helpful here.
Market and competitive analysis is an ongoing process that requires regular updating of knowledge and adjustment of strategies. This is necessary to keep the company competitive, respond effectively to market changes and maximize the chances of success.
Determining the target of activities after checking keywords
Determining the purpose and opportunities of a keyword campaign is a key step in planning effective online marketing efforts. Here’s how you can do it:
Defining the goal of the campaign:
The goals may differ in their impact on the company’s image and the revenue generated:
- Increase website traffic : By using the right keywords, you can attract more visitors interested in your offerings.
- Improving position in search results: Good keywords help with SEO optimization, resulting in a higher position in Google search results.
- Increase brand awareness: Keywords related to your industry and product can help build brand awareness among potential customers.
- Generate leads and sales: Precisely chosen keywords can attract users ready to make a purchase or interested in your offer.
Keyword use strategy:
Here you can identify short- and long-term actions to achieve the above-mentioned goals:
- Integration with site content: Keywords should be naturally woven into site content, blog articles, product descriptions, etc.
- SEO optimization: Include keywords in meta tags, headings, descriptions and other SEO elements.
- Ad campaigns: Using keywords in paid campaigns such as Google Ads to increase their effectiveness.
- Monitoring and optimization: Regularly track the effectiveness of selected keywords and adjust strategies based on the collected data.
- Remember that aligning your keywords with your business goals and the needs of your target audience is key. An effectively planned and executed keyword strategy can contribute significantly to the success of your online marketing efforts.
The most popular keyword analysis tools
The use of Google Keyword Planner is a fundamental tool in the keyword analysis process, especially in the context of SEO optimization and Google Ads campaigns. Here’s how you can use this tool effectively:
The situation is similar when analyzing phrases via Senuto’s keyword database. For here we have a column with a breakdown of keywords, which is useful information when selecting phrases for preparing blog posts:
Breakdown of keywords according to their type
Keyword segmentation is an essential part of SEO and content marketing strategies. It allows you to better understand the different types of queries that users enter into search engines, and to tailor content and advertising campaigns to the specific needs and intentions of users. Here are the main categories into which keywords can be divided:
- Informational keywords: Used to find information, advice, tips or data.
Examples: “how to make”, “recipe for”, “tips on”.
- Navigation keywords: Used when a user wants to reach a specific website or brand.
Examples: “Facebook login”, “YouTube”.
- Transaction keywords: Related to the intention to buy or take a particular action.
Examples: “buy shoes online”, “best smartphone deals”, “sign up for a course”.
- Commercial keywords: Include inquiries that indicate interest in buying, but require additional information before making a decision.
Examples: “best smartphone 2023”, “cordless vacuum cleaner reviews”.
- Long Tail Keywords: More specific and often less competitive, consisting of three or more words.
Examples: “where to buy organic vegetables in Warsaw”, “reviews of online programming courses”.
- Short Tail Keywords (Short Tail Keywords): General, often consisting of one or two words, usually very competitive.
Examples: “shoes”, “smartphones”.
- Local keywords: Targeted to users looking for products, services or information in a specific location.
Examples: “Italian restaurant Krakow”, “hair salon Gdansk”.
- Seasonal keywords: associated with specific events, holidays or seasons.
Examples: “Christmas gift ideas”, “carnival costumes”. Understanding and properly utilizing these different types of keywords allows you to optimize your content for SEO, target your ad campaigns more effectively, and better understand your users’ needs and behaviors. As a result, you can increase search engine visibility, attract traffic to your site and improve conversion rates.
Prepare content after keyword research
Preparing content based on keyword analysis is extremely important for the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Knowing the results of the keyword research conducted, you can choose the most relevant ones to include in the content published on your website. It is important that the content is valuable and adequately addresses the needs of users. This will not only increase your chances of better positioning in search results, but also build trust and authority in the eyes of your audience. When creating content, it’s a good idea to keep a variety of formats in mind – these can be blog articles, product descriptions, tutorials, infographics or even videos. A variety of formats allows you to reach a wider audience and better adapt to different preferences. Optimizing content for SEO doesn’t end with just weaving in keywords. It is also important that the content is well structured – using headings, lists, bold, which makes the text easier to read and scan for both users and search engines. In addition, it is worth taking care of technical aspects, such as optimizing meta tags, descriptions, URLs, and ensuring the quality of internal and external links. In the process of preparing content based on keyword analysis, it is extremely important to constantly monitor and analyze the results. This allows you to understand which content resonates best with your audience and which brings the greatest SEO benefit. On this basis, necessary modifications and improvements can be made, which is crucial in the rapidly changing world of online marketing.
