Advanced Keyword Research Tutorial (5-Step Blueprint)

Summary

The video outlines a 5-step keyword research blueprint to help find the best keywords to target for higher website traffic and conversions. It emphasizes first identifying your target customer persona so you can uncover related search terms they use outside of searches explicitly for what you sell. Next, research where your audience hangs out online to discover important topics they discuss. Dig into these topics to generate keyword ideas through Google Suggest, Quora, Reddit, related Google searches, and Wikipedia. Evaluate the commercial intent and search volume of prospective keywords. An optional final step is to analyze keyword popularity growth trends in Google Trends over time.

Takeaways

• 😀 The proven 5 step keyword research blueprint can help grow a site to 150k monthly visitors
• 👥 Identifying your target customer persona ensures you find keywords your competition doesn't know about
• 🌐 Go to online communities your customers use to uncover topics they care about
• 🔎 Use Google Suggest, Quora, Reddit and Related Searches to find excellent long tail keywords
• 💰 Analyze each keyword's commercial intent using suggested bid and # of ads to select the best ones
• 📈 Look at search volume trends in Google Trends to determine which keywords are growing vs declining
• 📝 Creating optimized landing pages and content around your selected keywords is key after research
• 🤝 Request audience subscribe to Backlinko YouTube channel and newsletter for exclusive SEO techniques
• 💡 The keyword research approach most people use, just searching for their product name, misses opportunities
• 🧠 Knowing where your target customer hangs out online is crucial for effective keyword research

Q & A

What is the five step keyword research blueprint that Brian talks about?

The five steps are: 1) Identify your customer persona, 2) Find topics your customers care about, 3) Use various tactics like Google Suggest and Reddit to find potential keywords, 4) Analyze each keyword's commercial intent, 5) Look at each keyword's search volume.

Why is identifying your customer persona important?

Identifying your customer persona allows you to uncover keywords related to your products that your competition may not know about. It helps move your keyword research beyond just generic terms.

Where can you go to find topics your target customer discusses?

Places like Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, industry blogs, niche forums - wherever your target customer tends to hang out online.

What are some good tactics for finding potential keywords?

Google Suggest, Quora, Reddit, Google's Related Searches feature, and Wikipedia are great places to discover long tail keywords related to your topics.

How can you analyze a keyword's commercial intent?

Look at the suggested bid in Google's Keyword Planner to see how valuable it is to advertisers. Also see how many AdWords ads come up for that keyword - more ads generally signal higher commercial intent.

Why is it important to look at keyword search volume?

Checking search volume lets you gauge potential traffic for each keyword. You want to focus on keywords that are searched for an optimal number of times per month.

What two free tools can show exact monthly keyword search volumes?

Semrush and kwfinder.com are two free tools that will display a keyword's exact monthly search volume.

How can Google Trends help in choosing between two similar keywords?

Google Trends shows whether search volume for a keyword is increasing or decreasing over time. This can help you pick the keyword with the most future potential.

What should you do after identifying a list of good keywords?

The next steps are to create targeted landing pages and content optimized for those keywords in order to rank well and drive traffic.

What one optional but recommended step does Brian suggest?

Looking at keyword growth trends in Google Trends. This can give additional insight to help select the best keywords to target.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Introducing a Proven 5-Step Keyword Research Blueprint

The first paragraph introduces Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko, and explains that he will share a proven, 5-step keyword research blueprint he has used to help grow his site to over 150,000 monthly visitors. He promises that by following his approach, you can uncover keywords that your competition doesn't know about.

05:00

😯 Identifying Your Target Customer Persona

The second paragraph explains the importance of identifying your target customer persona before doing keyword research. It uses an example of an SEO training site targeting small/medium businesses to illustrate how knowing your customer persona allows you to find relevant long-tail keywords that competitors may be missing.

10:03

🤔 Finding Topics Your Customers Care About

The third paragraph provides tips on finding topics your target customers care about, by observing where they spend time online. It gives specific examples of online communities, blogs, forums etc. where you can explore conversations and identify important topics to base your keyword research on.

Keywords

💡Keyword Research

The process of identifying high-potential search terms and phrases that match consumer intent. In the video, keyword research is presented as a strategic first step to attract qualified website visitors who are likely to convert to customers. Effective keyword research uncovers relevant long-tail keywords with high commercial intent that competitors have not optimized for.

💡Customer Persona

A detailed representation of your ideal customer, including demographic and behavioral data. Identifying your customer persona is important for keyword research because it reveals what terms they actually search for outside of your core offerings. This allows you to get your business in front of them across more touchpoints.

💡Commercial Intent

How likely a user searching for a given keyword is to follow through with a conversion or purchase. Keywords with high commercial intent convert better, so assessing intent helps select the best terms to target.

💡Long Tail Keywords

Specific, descriptive search queries with lower competition and more qualified traffic potential. As opposed to short, high-volume terms, long tail keywords uncovered through research allow businesses to rank well and attract engaged visitors.

💡Search Volume

The estimated number of monthly searches for a keyword, indicating total demand and traffic potential. Though now shown in ranges rather than exact numbers, assessing search volume still helps gauge relevance when selecting keywords.

💡Monetization

Converting website traffic into revenue, a challenge cited in the video. Effective keyword research surfaces terms that visitors are likely to convert from, ensuring invested resources pay off through monetization.

💡Optimized Content

Creating pages and other content assets that deliberately target chosen keywords, including them throughout in a relevant, natural way. This content optimization for specific terms then attracts searchers to convert.

💡SEO Visibility

Using search engine optimization best practices to improve rankings for selected keywords, driving more qualified visitors from search to your site. Keyword research and content optimization combine to enhance visibility.

💡Growth Trends

How the popularity of a keyword changes over time, revealed through Google Trends data. Factoring upward or downward trajectories into decisions balances current and future volume potential in keyword selection.

💡Conversion Funnel

The customer journey stages from awareness to purchase, with keyword research aiming to attract visitors at early funnel stages. Optimized content then moves them through to conversion at lower funnel stages.

Highlights

This is the same blueprint I've used, to help grow my site to over a hundred fifty thousand, unique visitors per month.

Your customer spends 99.9 percent of their time online, not searching for what you sell.

Identify where your target customer hangs out online. Then look for topics that they tend to discuss.

Use Google Suggest by typing your topic into the search field without pressing Enter. The suggested keywords are usually good long tail options.

On Quora, search for your topic and see which keywords tend to show up in questions and answers.

Search your topic on Reddit. Keywords that come up repeatedly in discussion threads often make good targets.

Scroll to the bottom of Google search results for your topic. The related searches section provides excellent long tail keyword ideas.

Check the links and table of contents on Wikipedia articles related to your topic for closely related keywords.

Analyze commercial intent by looking at suggested AdWords bid prices and number of ads for each keyword.

Use SEMrush or kwfinder to find exact monthly search volumes when Google Keyword Planner only shows ranges.

Look at search trends on Google Trends. Prioritize growing keywords over those declining in popularity.

Create optimized landing pages and content for your selected high-potential keywords.

Subscribe to the Backlinko YouTube channel for more exclusive SEO tips and techniques.

Share your own favorite keyword research tactics in the comments.

Following this 5-step blueprint will uncover excellent, low-competition keywords to target.

Transcripts

- In this video, I'm gonna show you my proven

five step keyword research blueprint.

This is the same blueprint I've used

to help grow my site to over a hundred fifty thousand

unique visitors per month.

I'm Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko

the place where marketers turn for higher rankings

and more traffic.

And today you're gonna learn

exactly how to find the best keywords for your business.

Keep watching.

When I first got started with SEO

my approach to keyword research was a total mess.

Back then, I'll fire up the latest and greatest

keyword research tool

and start typing in a bunch of random keywords.

So, what's wrong with this approach?

My competitors were doing the exact same thing.

No wonder most of the keywords I found

were insanely competitive.

Now over the years I developed a keyword research blueprint

that works really well.

Specifically, this blueprint will help you

uncover keywords that your competition

doesn't know about.

So let's dive right in with step number one of this process

which is to identify your customer persona.

This is a step that most people skip

and it hurts them.

(zapp) Aww. What was that?

So what is identifying your customer persona actually mean?

Let me explain with an example.

My site sells SEO Training products

to small and medium size businesses.

Most people in my position

would open up a keyword research tool

and type in things like; SEO training and SEO courses

into the tool.

What's the problem with this approach?

First off like I mentioned before

your competition is doing the exact same thing.

Which means you're gonna run into

the exact same set of keywords as your competitors.

But more important than that

this approach ignores a very important fact

about your customer and that fact is this:

your customer spends 99.9 percent of their time online

not searching for what you sell.

In other words, if you only target your customer

when they search for the exact thing you sell

you're missing out on hundreds of other opportunities

to get in front of them.

For example in my case

I noticed that most of my customers were SEO agencies.

So I went to forums and online communities

where SEO agency owners tended to hang out.

That way I could see what my target customer search for

when he wasn't searching for SEO training.

And I discovered that there are dozens of keywords

that my target customer typed into Google

that were related to my products but had nothing to do

with SEO training.

Keywords like on-page SEO

list building

how to get more traffic

and SEO tools.

And because I target these keywords

I get my business in front of

thousands of my target customers every single day.

And when my target customers ready to buy

I'm the first person that comes to mind.

That's the power of doing keyword research

based on your customer persona.

And all you need to do for this step

is say my customer is X.

For example, if you run an online flower shop

you might say; my customer is a bride

getting ready for her upcoming wedding.

That was easy, right?

Now that you've identified your customer persona

it's time to find topics that your customer

is interested in.

Which leads us to the next step

in my keyword research blueprint

which is to find topics that your customers care about.

So how do you find these topics?

Its simple.

Go to where your target customer hangs out online.

Then look for topics that they tend to discuss.

Seriously, that's it.

For example in my case, my customers tend to hang out

at marketing-focused communities

like inbound.org and growthhackers.com

In your case

your target customer may hang out in places like

Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, industry blogs and niche forums.

Once you've identified where your target customer hangs out

it's time to keep an eye out for topics

that are important to them.

For example in my case, I noticed that link building

was one of the most popular topics in the online communities

that my audience spent time on.

So I wrote down link building as a topic.

And I kept digging until I found at least five topics

that my target customers talked about

in online communities.

Now that you have at least five topics

it's time to drill down into finding keywords.

Here, my four favorite tactics for finding on-tap keywords

that your competition doesn't know about.

First we have Google Suggest.

To use this strategy, just head over to Google

and type your topic into the search field.

But don't press Enter.

Instead, take a look at the keywords

that Google suggests for you.

These are usually awesome, long tail keywords

that you can go after.

As a quick pro tip, try putting a few spaces

before your keyword.

This will show you a completely different set

of keyword ideas.

Next up, we have quora.com.

Quora is a massive community of people that ask

and answer questions on every topic under the sun.

All you need to do is search for your topic in Quora

and see which keywords tend to show up.

Our next tactic for finding keywords is to use Reddit.

Like Quora, Reddit is a massive community of people

that discuss every topic under the sun

from pets to politics.

To use Reddit for keyword research

simply head over to Reddit and search for your topic.

When you find a thread on your topic

keep an eye out for words and phrases that tend to come up

again and again.

These make awesome keyword ideas.

Next up we have Google's Searches Related To feature.

To use this feature, simply type your topic into Google.

Then scroll to the bottom of the results.

Google then show you other searches

that are related to the keyword you just put in.

These are usually excellent long tail keywords

that you can target with your content.

Finally we have Wikipedia.

What other site had in-depth articles for topics like

mall walking

The Lingerie Football League

henlias, the five-second rule.

To use Wikipedia for keyword research

just head over to Wikipedia and type in your topic.

Then take a look at the other entries

that that article links to.

These are usually closely-related topics

and even potential keywords themselves.

Also, make sure to check out the table of contents

for the entry.

Again, these are usually keywords

that are closely tied to your topic.

Now that you have a list of potential keywords

it's time to choose the best from your list.

How? By analyzing each keyword's commercial intent.

One of the first websites I ever built

shot to the top of Google for my target keyword.

And because that keyword got a ton of search volume

that single ranking helped that site generate

over 60,000 unique visitors per month.

All good right? Wrong.

Even thought that keyword got a ton of searches

the people that searched for that keyword

were flat broke.

Which made monetizing that traffic impossible.

Sorry dude, I'm broke.

That's why today I pay very close attention to a keyword's

commercial intent.

Commercial intent simply means

how likely someone searching for a given keyword

is to buy from you.

Here's how to find out if your keyword

has a high commercial intent or not.

First, head over to the Google Keyword Planner

and type in one of your potential keywords.

Then take a look at the Suggested bid column.

This shows you how much advertisers are spending in AdWords

for a single click from this keyword.

Obviously, the higher the suggested bid

the more valuable that keyword is.

Another simple way to size up commercial intent

is to see how many AdWords ads

appear when you search for your keyword in Google.

If you search for your keyword and see lots of AdWords ads

it means that people are chobbing at the bit

to bring those searchers to their site.

Okay, now it's time for our last step

which is to look at each keywords search volume.

Back in the day, Google would show you

exact search volume numbers in the Google Keyword Planner.

Unfortunately, that ship has sailed.

Today, unless you're running active AdWords campaigns

they show you an extremely unhelpful search volume range.

So how can you see how many people searched

for your keyword?

There are two freemium tools that get the job done.

The first is semrush.com.

To find a keyword search volume

simply type the keyword into SEMrush

and they'll show you how many searches that keyword gets

every month. Simple.

You can also use kwfinder.com.

Again, just pop your keyword into the tool

and you'll see the exact amount of searches

that it gets every month.

Now before you decide in a keyword

I recommend one last bonus step.

Now this step is completely optional.

But in my experience it helps you find the absolute

best keywords for your business.

And that step is to look at your keyword's growth

in Google Trends.

For example, let's say that you found two keywords

that have similar search volume and commercial intent

and you don't know which one to pick.

But when you look at Google Trends

you notice that one keyword is growing in popularity

and the other is dropping like a stone.

Obviously you'd wanna go with the keyword that's growing.

A couple of years ago, this step saved my butt.

I was debating whether to target one of two keywords.

Google Keyword Tool

or Google Keyword Planner?

You see, Google has recently renamed the Google Keyword Tool

the Google Keyword Planner.

But the keyword Google Keyword Tool still got

20 times more searches than Google Keyword Planner.

So I almost pulled the trigger on Google Keyword Tool.

That is until I looked at Google Trends.

That's when I noticed

that searches for the Google Keyword Planner

were skyrocketing

while searched for the Google Keyword Tool

were steadily dropping.

So I decided to go with the Google Keyword Planner

and it was a good move.

I now rank in the top five for that keyword

and it's a keyword that's growing in popularity everyday.

Okay, so that's all there is to my five step

keyword research blueprint.

If you follow the blueprint you should have a handful

of excellent keywords that you can use.

And once you have those

it's a matter of creating landing pages and content

optimized around those terms.

If you liked this video, make sure to subscribe

to my YouTube channel right now.

It's easy. Just click on the Subscribe button right here.

Also, if you want exclusive SEO techniques

that I only share with subscribers

head over to backlinko.com

and sign up for the newsletter. It's free.

Now I want to turn it over to you.

Which step from this video was new to you?

Or maybe you tried them all already.

If so, you probably have a favorite technique

that works well for you.

Either way, let me know

by leaving a quick comment right now.

Okay, let's do it.

I just ssshshh do that if...

Oh man, I can't this is a tough one.

Good? Aight.

Ahh, gotta move around more.

Ah-haa-eh.

In depth, pfft, pfft... okay.

Donesky.