Keyword Research Tutorial: 3-Step Process for All Levels
Summary
TLDRIn this SEO tutorial, Nathan Gotch from Gotcha SEO Academy outlines a comprehensive keyword research process for SEO campaigns. He explains the importance of targeting long-tail keywords over head and body keywords for clearer intent and less competition. Gotch shares strategies for discovering keyword opportunities, including analyzing existing rankings, using SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool, and leveraging Google's 'People Also Ask' section. He also discusses the crucial steps of keyword qualification and prioritization, emphasizing the need for relevance, search volume, and low competition to ensure profitable SEO efforts.
Takeaways
- 😀 Nathan Gotch, founder of Gotcha SEO, shares his step-by-step keyword research process for SEO campaigns.
- 🔍 There are three types of keywords: head, body, and long-tail, with long-tail keywords being recommended due to clearer intent and lower competition.
- 🚫 Avoid head keywords as they are often too broad, difficult to rank for, and result in low-quality traffic and conversions.
- 🔑 Long-tail keywords, with four or more words, are preferred for their specificity, lower competition, and higher conversion rates.
- 🛠️ Use SEMrush to identify existing keywords your website is ranking for and categorize them into low hanging fruits, existing, and clustering opportunities.
- 🌟 Prioritize low hanging fruit keywords (ranking 2-15) for immediate action and consider clustering opportunities for pages not ranking in the top 50.
- 🎯 Utilize SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool to find keyword opportunities by leveraging filters and focusing on low keyword difficulty (KD).
- 📚 Explore Wikipedia for relevant subtopics related to your broad topic to find additional keyword ideas.
- 🤔 Use AlsoAsk.com to discover long-tail keyword phrases from Google's 'People Also Ask' section, which can help build topical relevance.
- ✅ Select a primary keyword for each page based on search volume and intent, ensuring one primary keyword per page for focused targeting.
- 📊 Use keyword qualification factors such as current position, search volume, keyword difficulty, transactional intent, relevance, trend, and CTR potential to filter and prioritize keywords.
- 📈 Estimate the cost of content creation and backlink acquisition to prioritize keywords that offer the most profitable ranking opportunities.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the video?
-The main purpose of the video is to demonstrate a step-by-step keyword research process for SEO, helping viewers find the perfect keywords for their SEO campaigns.
Who is the presenter of the video?
-The presenter is Nathan Gotch, the founder of Gotcha SEO, who has led numerous successful SEO campaigns and teaches SEO through his academy.
What are the three types of keywords discussed in the video?
-The three types of keywords discussed are head keywords, body keywords, and long-tail keywords, each with different characteristics and uses in SEO.
Why should head keywords generally be avoided in SEO?
-Head keywords should be avoided because they often have unclear intent, result in low traffic quality and conversion rates, face high competition, and experience extreme SERP volatility.
What makes body keywords more specific and clearer in intent compared to head keywords?
-Body keywords are more specific and clearer in intent because they usually consist of two to three words, which helps narrow down the search query and makes the user's intent more apparent.
Why are long-tail keywords often the best choice for targeting in SEO?
-Long-tail keywords are often the best choice because they have a clear intent, are less competitive, and can lead to higher conversion rates and more quality leads.
What is the first phase of keyword selection based on, according to the video?
-The first phase of keyword selection should be based 100% on intent, even though search volume is important, the focus should be on finding keywords that align with the user's intent.
How can one find keyword opportunities from their existing keyword profile?
-One can find keyword opportunities by analyzing the keywords they are already ranking for, categorizing them into low hanging fruits, existing keywords, and clustering opportunities, and then prioritizing them based on their current position and other factors.
What is SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool and how can it be used for keyword research?
-SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool is a feature within the SEMrush platform that helps users discover new keyword ideas by using filters to refine and find relevant keywords based on a seed keyword.
What is the significance of the 'People Also Ask' section in Google and how can it be utilized for keyword research?
-The 'People Also Ask' section in Google provides real-time keyword validation by showing phrases that are actually searched for on Google. It can be used to find long-tail keyword phrases that build topical relevance and target keywords that may be overlooked by competitors.
How does the video suggest prioritizing keywords for an SEO campaign?
-The video suggests prioritizing keywords based on factors such as current position, minimum search volume, keyword difficulty, transactional intent, relevance to core offerings, trend, and potential organic CTR.
What is the next phase of the SEO process discussed in the video?
-The next phase of the SEO process discussed in the video is conducting a complete step-by-step SEO audit, which will be the focus of the next video in the series.
Outlines
🔍 Understanding SEO Keyword Research
Nathan Gotch introduces his step-by-step keyword research process for SEO, emphasizing the importance of following it to find effective keywords. He explains the three types of keywords: head, body, and long-tail, with head keywords being the least effective due to unclear intent and high competition. Body keywords are more specific but still competitive. Long-tail keywords, with four or more words, are recommended for their clear intent and lower competition. Nathan discusses the importance of intent in keyword selection and how it impacts conversion rates and profitability.
📈 Strategies for Finding Keyword Opportunities
The script outlines methods to discover keyword opportunities, starting with analyzing existing keyword profiles to find low-hanging fruits and clustering opportunities. It suggests using SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool to find relevant keywords by leveraging filters and focusing on low keyword difficulty. The importance of targeting primary keywords per page is highlighted, and the use of AlsoAsked.com to tap into Google's 'People Also Ask' section for unique keyword insights is recommended. The summary also touches on keyword qualification factors, such as current position, search volume, and keyword difficulty.
🚀 Prioritizing and Executing SEO Keywords
The final paragraph discusses the process of keyword prioritization, which involves considering factors like content length, backlink analysis, and the potential organic click-through rate. It provides a method to estimate the cost of ranking for a keyword based on content and backlinks, advising to prioritize keywords that require the least investment. The video script concludes with a teaser for the next video in the series, which will cover conducting a comprehensive SEO audit.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡SEO
💡Head Keywords
💡Body Keywords
💡Long Tail Keywords
💡Keyword Difficulty (KD)
💡SERP Volatility
💡Intent
💡SEMrush
💡Content Length
💡Backlinks
💡CTR Potential
Highlights
Introduction to the complete step-by-step keyword research process for SEO.
Nathan Gotch's background as founder of Gotcha SEO and experience in leading SEO campaigns.
The importance of understanding three types of keywords: head, body, and long-tail keywords.
Head keywords are often too broad and lack clear intent, leading to poor traffic quality and conversion rates.
Body keywords are more specific but still competitive and may not be the best target due to high competition.
Long-tail keywords are recommended for their clear intent, lower competition, and higher conversion rates.
The first phase of keyword selection should be based on intent rather than just search volume.
Using SEMrush to find keyword opportunities from your existing keyword profile.
Categorizing existing keywords into low hanging fruits, existing, and clustering opportunities for better targeting.
SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool for discovering new keyword opportunities with filters.
Utilizing Google's 'People Also Ask' section and AlsoAsk.com to find long-tail keyword phrases.
The process of keyword qualification involving factors like current position, search volume, keyword difficulty, and intent.
Selecting a primary keyword for each page to ensure clear targeting and intent.
Prioritizing keywords based on content length, backlinks, and potential organic click-through rate.
Estimating the cost of ranking for a keyword by considering content length and the number of backlinks.
Upcoming SEO training series focusing on conducting a complete SEO audit.
Invitation to subscribe and hit the bell for first access to the next video in the series.
Transcripts
hey in this video i'm going to show you
my complete step-by-step keyword
research process for seo just follow
this process and you'll find perfect
keywords for your campaign and watch
until the end because i share my biggest
keyword research secret let's dive right
in i'm nathan gotch the founder of
gotcha seo and i've personally led
hundreds of successful seo campaigns
since 2013 and i've now taught my proven
seo process to over 1 000 seo
practitioners inside my training gotcha
seo academy so in case you're new here
this is lesson two in this seo training
series and there will be a link below to
watch video one after you finish this
video and to avoid missing the third
part in the series subscribe below and
hit the bell icon so you can get first
access let's dive right in so there are
three types of keywords that you'll
encounter first are head keywords these
are keywords with a single word or
acronym like cars and in most cases
these are the worst types of keywords to
target for a few different reasons
number one the intent isn't clear so
take a look at the search results for
cars what is someone actually searching
for in this case are they looking to buy
a car if so used or new what type of car
or are they simply looking for more
information about the movie cars the
intent is difficult to understand which
leads to the second reason why you
shouldn't target head keywords which is
number two because the intent isn't
clear traffic quality will be low and as
a result conversions will be poor so
sure ranking for head keywords will
juice your traffic numbers but you'll be
disappointed by the conversion rates
moving on to number three which is the
competition makes ranking for these
keywords a death trap because you'll
need a massive amount of resources to
rank and even if you do rank you'll
suffer from the next point which is
number four extreme serp volatility
because google has a difficult time
knowing what the searcher is actually
looking for therefore google is
constantly shuffling the results to find
what produces the highest organic ctr so
overall there's almost never a good
reason to target head keywords but now
let's move on to the next type of
keyword which are body keywords an
example of a body keyword is used cars
now things are getting more specific and
the intent is becoming clearer and it is
still going to be an insanely
competitive keyword to attack but at
least you have a better idea of what the
searcher actually wants now most body
keywords will be no more than two to
three words max and they're often very
competitive because they're the easiest
to find and therefore most competitors
will invest heavy resources into them
and that's why it's usually best for
most websites to focus on the third
category of keywords which are long tail
keywords long tail keyword phrases will
have four or more words like used cars
douglas georgia and as you can see
compared to the previous examples like
cars or used cars the intent for used
cars douglas georgia is much clearer
it's also a much less competitive
keyword for example according to scm
rush cars has a 100 keyword difficulty
used cars isn't much better with a 99
keyword difficulty but used cars douglas
georgia only has a kd percentage of 12
which will be much easier now i talked
about this in the previous video in the
series but the first phase of keyword
selection should be 100 based on intent
yes keywords should have search volume
but cars has tremendous search volume
with 823 000 searches every month while
used cars douglas georgia only has 320
searches per month but used cars douglas
georgia is a far superior option because
a it will produce a dramatically higher
conversion rate and will likely generate
more quality leads by volume and b it's
lower competition which means ranking
for it will be more profitable overall
so now that you know the different types
of keywords and how to think about
intent let me show you three awesome
ways to find keyword opportunities
number one your existing keyword profile
so the first place you should find
keyword inspiration is from what you're
already ranking for and these keywords
are the best because google is already
signaling that you're doing something
right to show up now go into semrush and
enter your domain into the search go to
organic research and click on positions
now you'll have access to all the
keywords your website is ranking for
within the top 100 and i like to
categorize existing keywords into three
different buckets first low hanging
fruits which are keywords ranking from
positions 2 to 15. and these are the
keywords you should attack right away
just click on the positions drop down
and go to the custom range enter 2 and
15 to see all of your low hanging fruits
and to take it a step further filter
this set of keywords based on kde
percentage start with 0 to 14
in the very easy range to find the
lowest competition opportunities now
keep in mind you'll need to prioritize
keywords based on intent and relevance
as well more on this in a second the
next type of keywords are from position
16 to 50 which i label as existing they
are also good targets but they should be
second on the priority list after low
hanging fruits and the final category of
keywords are from positions number 51 to
100 which i personally call clustering
opportunities if a page isn't ranking in
the top 50 then there's a good chance
that the page isn't targeted enough for
example look at this keyword that scm
rush is ranking number 52 for which
targeting option is best for achieving
brand awareness notice that the page is
about youtube targeting options this
page isn't targeted enough to rank for
this long tail keyword phrase this is a
perfect clustering opportunity because
you can create a dedicated page for this
particular keyword phrase and it will
rank much better just remember google's
number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible so with that
said these clustering opportunities are
an awesome way to capture more organic
search traffic and build more topical
relevance which will improve the
performance of all pages in that cluster
take advantage of it the next method for
finding keyword opportunities is to use
semrush's keyword magic tool so while in
sem rush go to the keyword research
section and click on keyword magic tool
now there's no right or wrong way to
begin your search but the key is to
leverage the filters so let's use seo
for example this head keyword is
extremely competitive and should be
avoided pretty much at all costs however
we can use it as a seed to find better
opportunities so let's use the filters
to get started i like to start with the
lowest kd and then work my way up so
what you'll notice right away in this
case is that there's a ton of irrelevant
keywords and you can combat this in two
ways first set the language filter to
only show the target language in this
example it's english and next use the
exclude filter to eliminate more
irrelevant keywords i've added five to
this filter and then at this point you
should be left with a nice pool of
perspective keywords add each relevant
keyword to your keyword list and then
repeat this process going further up the
kde ladder and once you've tapped out
all keywords specific to the broad topic
of seo or whatever your broad topic is
you should go to wikipedia and look for
relevant subtopics within the larger
vertical in the case of seo i found
website traffic site maps keywords
inbound links meta tags and the list
goes on and on use these as seed phrases
to find even more untapped ideas in sem
rush so the two methods i just showed
you are more than enough to build a
large keyword database however to take
it to the next level i recommend taking
advantage of google's people also asks
section bringing me to point number
three which is use
alsoast.com this tool is incredible for
finding all phrases from google's people
also ask section and these long tail
keyword phrases are a powerful way to
build topical relevance and attack
keywords that no one else is paying
attention to so how do i know that well
because most of these phrases won't have
search volume in the traditional keyword
research tools however you can conclude
that these are real searches occurring
on google because google wouldn't show
them as options in the first place in
short the people also ask section is
giving you real-time keyword validation
now the tool also asks streamlines this
entire process just enter your keyword
in this case i'll use seo again and the
first tier of ideas might be competitive
but you'll strike gold in the second
tier and so on because it gets more
granular as you go all right so now you
should have a nice database of keyword
opportunities but how do you decide what
keywords are best to target well that's
when keyword qualification comes into
play but before you can qualify keywords
i need to cover one very important point
you need to select a primary keyword so
let's say you have a page that's ranking
for st louis personal injury lawyer
personal injury lawyer st louis and even
st louis injury attorney these are all
variations of the same primary keyword
and therefore they should be targeted on
the same page now the key is to select
whichever variation has the most search
volume but let's say you also want to
rank for st louis car accident lawyer
well this keyword has a totally
different intent and therefore deserves
its own dedicated page so as you go
through the following process just
remember one primary keyword per page so
with that said there are several key
factors that should help you filter
through your list of keywords number one
your current position so if you have
existing keywords that are ranking well
these should be prioritized number two
minimum search volume i recommend a
minimum of 100 searches per month for
most industries however if it's local
you may want to adjust this downward
number three keyword difficulty so focus
on low competition keywords first and
then work your way up as your site
builds more topical authority and
acquires more backlinks number four
focus on keywords with transactional
intent first and then work your way up
the funnel to broader targets number
five relevance always prioritize
keywords that are hyper relevant to your
core offerings for example if i sell seo
training keywords like seo training
boston are super important however a
keyword like seo tools isn't as
important because it isn't directly
relevant to my core offer yes it's
broadly relevant but it should not be
high on the priority list number six is
trend if you're struggling to pick a
keyword then pick the one that's
trending the best you can find trending
data using semrush's keyword research
tool on the overview tab and number
seven is ctr potential and this is the
final consideration for qualifying
keywords which is the potential organic
click-through rate for example if there
are many cert features and ads then your
ctr will be lower so with semrush you
can easily see at a glance how many cert
features are present by looking under
the serp features column so use these
seven factors to find the best keyword
opportunities but once you've selected a
nice pool of 50 to 100 keywords then you
need to decide which ones are best to
target in priority order and that's when
keyword prioritization comes into play
now there are a few factors you can use
to prioritize your keyword set and it
largely has to do with resources and
that said you'll want to prioritize
keywords based on content and backlinks
for content you'll need to gather word
count targets for each individual
keyword so go into scm rush go to the on
page and tech seo section and click on
on page seo checker now you'll need to
run each primary keyword through this
tool and collect the target word count
and then go to the top ten benchmarking
tab and look under content length
semrush will show you the average for
the top ten and this should be your
target and the goal is by identifying
the ideal length it's going to help us
estimate what our budget will be the
second part of prioritization is based
on backlinks go to the keyword tool and
find the primary keyword in this case
i'll use used cars douglas georgia
scroll down to serp analysis and look
under ref domains which stands for
referring domains this is the total
number of unique domains linking to each
ranking page i recommend getting the
overall average of these top 10 ranking
pages repeat this process for every
primary keyword and let's just say it
costs 300 to acquire a backlink based on
time and resources you can now estimate
based on content length and the total
number of backlinks how much it will
cost to rank for this keyword and then
from there you can prioritize keywords
that have the lowest investment or in
other words which will be the most
profitable to rank for so that is how
you do keyword research like an seo pro
now the next phase of the seo process is
to conduct a complete step-by-step seo
audit and don't worry you don't need a
phd in computer science to conduct and
audit you just need to know what to look
for and how to prioritize what you find
and that's what will be the focus of the
next video in this free seo training
series so please subscribe and hit the
bell button because you'll get first
access when it goes live now will you do
me a huge favor if you got value out of
this video please like it right now and
thank you so much for watching and i'll
see you in the next video
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