Keyword Research for SEO

Search engine optimization is a subject that many people seem to struggle with, but a lot of the reason for that is their failure to do proper keyword research. While keyword research is not quite as critical as it once was because of synonym matching, it is still a very important part of optimization.

These days, keyword research is a three-part process:

1.     Find appropriate keywords

2.     Check competition

3.     Find appropriate synonyms

Because Google now relies quite heavily on synonyms for its search rankings, you need to make sure you find as many similar keyword phrases as possible so you can weave them into each article.

Let’s say you are trying to rank for the keyword “puppy housebreaking”. There are synonyms you would want to include that could help you rank better for that keyword, as well as others. For example, you might want to include words like “teach”, “train”, “house break”, and “dog”.

To find appropriate synonyms, there are two main methods. First, you can enter your main keyword phrase into the Google keyword tool. This will give you valid synonyms if any are available. You can also enter your main keyword into Google, make note of the first three URLs, and enter those into the URL box on the keyword tool. This will give you a list of keywords those people are using to rank for the main keyword.

One last thing you can do to find synonyms is to use Google’s wonder wheel. Go to Google and search for your main keyword. On the left, you will see “More search tools”. If you expand that, you will see “Wonder wheel” under the heading “Standard view”. Click “Wonder wheel” and you will see a wheel with 8 synonyms for your keyword. Generally, these are more like additional keywords, but they are very useful. For example, a search for “Ford” returns words like “Ford Flex”, “Ford Models”, and “Ford Mustang”. While most of the keywords returned contain the word “Ford”, the useful information comes with the words used alongside it. You would want to make sure you used the words “models”, “Flex”, and “Mustang” on a page you made about Ford vehicles.

This is the keyword research process in a nutshell. You can use various tools to make this job faster and easier, but the basic process will still be the same. You will always need to find keywords, check competition, and find synonyms. The tools just make it a smoother process.