Top 5 Effective Keyword Research Techniques for 2020

Trying to figure out SEO strategies that actually work for your business can often feel like you’re aimlessly tossing random keywords at the wall until something eventually sticks. Google’s algorithm changes every day, and trending topics may vanish without a trace just days after becoming popular. Whether you own a small business or manage a large company, it can seem like an endless quest to keep your content optimized with the right keywords to attract your target audience.

People used to spend hours curating their sites and content to improve their SEO, but today, there are plenty of tools and proven strategies that can help take the guesswork out of keyword research. If you’re tired of being behind the latest trends and missing out on highly relevant keywords, this guide will give you actionable tips to stay updated without the hassle.

Terms to Know

Taral Patel, the SEO manager and content strategist at E2M, specializes in building organic traffic, discovering the most relevant keywords in various industries, and de-mystifying the process behind content rankings. In a recent article, Patel discusses several essential terms that content marketers should understand before diving into keyword research: 

• Focus Keyword: Also referred to as the “main keyword,” the focus keyword is the most important word you want to target on your web page. All of your content should somehow relate back to the focus keyword, covering all of the important points related to the topic. 
• Keyword Competition: The amount of content other people are creating that targets a specific keyword. 
• Keyword Density: Refers to the amount of times you utilize a single keyword within your content.
• Keyword Difficulty: An approximate rating given by different SEO tools to give you an idea of how difficult it will be to rank for a certain keyword. 
• Keyword Ranking: Refers to the position your web page ranks on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) for a certain keyword.
• Keyword Search Volume: The total number of times people search for a keyword in a certain amount of time. Typically, keyword search volume trends are measured monthly.
• Keyword Stuffing: This was fairly common practice when SEO was still in its early days, but doing this today can result in lower rankings and even penalization for publishing low-quality content. Keyword stuffing consists of overusing a keyword throughout your content in an attempt to boost your ranking. 
• Keyword Value: An estimated amount of traffic that a certain keyword could attract to your web page. This is typically measured in CPC (Cost Per Click), and it can vary dramatically depending on the current popularity of the subject, the tool you use, and other factors.
• Long-Tail Keywords: These are specific phrases that consist of 4 or more words in a search query. The search volume for long-tail keywords tends to be rather low, but targeting these specific phrases can attract the most relevant online users to your website. 
• LSI Keywords: Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are the words related to your focus keyword. For instance, the keyword “dress” may have LSI keywords such as “party,” “summer,” or “prom.” 
• Question Keywords: These are simply search queries in question form, such as, “What is the weather like today?” 
• User Intent: This refers to the reason why a person is searching for a specific keyword. Someone who simply types in the phrase “grizzly bear,” for example, maybe looking for biological facts about the animal, or they may be looking for tips on escaping a grizzly bear attack. Determining common intentions behind your target audience’s searches can make it easier for you to tailor your content to give them advice, suggest relevant products, or teach them how to do something.

Getting Started on your Keyword Research

Now that we’ve covered the basic glossary of keyword research terms, you can begin brainstorming potential keywords for your own business. Thinking broadly about your industry, start jotting down any general terms people would likely associate with your company. Ask yourself what topics people search for that could relate back to your business. For example, if you specialize in digital marketing, some broad keywords and phrases might include “email marketing,” “social media,” and “blogging.” 

After you’ve completed a list of general keywords, you can find other related terms your customers may be searching for with these simple tricks:

• Get ideas from autofill. When you’re typing something in the search bar on Google or YouTube, the auto-suggest function automatically loads the most common terms people have searched for. Just open an incognito tab (so your results won’t be skewed by your personal search history), and start typing in a keyword you wrote down earlier. Note what other topics and phrases appear, and think about how you can incorporate these other terms within your content.
• Check out the related searches. Scroll to the bottom of the Google results page to see suggestions of similar search queries and related terms. You might find valuable long-tail keywords that you can target in your next blog post!
• See what the competition is up to. Look up some of your competitors on social media to see which hashtags they’re focusing on, how they interact with their audience, and which kinds of posts seem to attract the most attention. If posts with a specific hashtag are receiving more likes or shares than those without it, it might be worth a try to use the same word within your own content. 
• Visit the “Trending” pages. Facebook and Twitter feature the most popular topics in their “Trending” sections to highlight the current, relevant subjects being talked about in real time. If something trending somehow relates to your industry or business, you can use your expertise to chime in on the conversation.

Top 5 SEO-Boosting Tools and Strategies 

Once you have a solid list of keywords, you’ll need to pick the right keywords and know where to utilize them in order for your website to get the attention and traffic it deserves. To make the most out of your content in 2020, here are 5 of the best techniques, tools, and tricks of the trade:

5. Check Out SEMrush

SEMrush is an extremely helpful tool that gives you a range of information about any keyword you enter into the search function. It can tell you how often a word appears in search results, how the search results have increased or decreased over time, and other similar searches related to your keyword. WordPress expert and eCommerce enthusiast Pulkit Bhardwaj says that SEMrush is “like the Swiss Army Knife of SEO” since it provides agencies with so many tools, including organic traffic insights, long-tail keyword suggestions, worldwide CPC distribution statistics, and more.

SEMrush offers a 7-day free trial, but then individuals are required to purchase a monthly plan if they want to continue using the service. Plans range from $83 per month for freelancers to over $400 for enterprises.

4. Try Barnacle SEO

Will Scott first coined the term barnacle SEO in 2011, explaining it as a way for small businesses to use the authority of other websites to boost their rankings. Scott defined it as “attaching oneself to a large fixed object and waiting for the customers to float by in the current.” 

For example, a company that makes a video on YouTube will gain more views than if they only posted the video on their business site. Similar strategies include:

• Writing guest blogs. Publishing a relevant blog post on a popular blog among your target audience can expand your online visibility and further prove your expertise.
• Creating press releases. If you write about a particularly intriguing topic, getting your company featured on a news site or other kind of publication can easily improve your rankings. 
• Making a Wikipedia page. After you have established a good foundation for your business online, create a Wikipedia page for your company. It’s free to do so, and it can make your business appear more trustworthy to potential customers.
• Writing roundup blog posts. Reach out to others within your industry to create a comprehensive guide about a specific subject for your readers. This is a win-win for all parties involved, since the backlinks to other company’s sites will increase their page views, and your blog will be ranked higher on the SERPs.

3. Write Long-Form Content

Long-form content, or posts that contain more than 1,500 words, typically rank higher than shorter articles. This is because longer posts naturally incorporate more LSI keywords, making it easier for search users to discover the answers they’re looking for. Posts that are only 400-800 words may provide some useful information to visitors, but it might not be a comprehensive overview that they expected to find. Lastly, long-form content can improve your brand’s overall image and help you gain more trust within your industry.

2. Use Google Search Console

The Google Search Console (GSC) provides specialized tools and can create reports to help you measure your site’s search traffic and overall performance. This is how you can access these features: 

• Log in to your GSC account and click on “Performance Report.” This report will display which keywords and terms that get the most clicks from Google search. 
• Sort the report by “Impressions.” Doing this will highlight the keywords that gain plenty of impressions, but not as many clicks.  
• Make a note of these keywords and create content that focuses on a few of those specific terms. 

This easy process is an incredibly powerful SEO tool because you’re researching keywords that people regularly search for, and Google already views your website as a reputable site to appear in the search results. All you need to do to boost your page views is to create a new post (or optimize an old blog) that focuses on these terms.

1. Update old content.

Google prefers fresh, recently-published content over older articles. If you composed an awesome blog a few years ago that no longer gets any attention, you can make a few adjustments to help it shine again on the results page. To start recycling your outdated content, select the posts that used to attract the most attention and see which aspects of it are no longer relevant to your audience today. Marketing guru Neil Patel recommends the following steps to create an optimized, modern site:

• Delete ancient pages that are no longer relevant.
• Create follow-up posts to content that was relevant several months ago, or add additional information to the blog as you discover more about the subject.
• Link to more reputable sites (or link to other posts that you’ve published!).
• Incorporate images and infographics into your posts.
• Make your content easily “scannable” with bullet points and clear headers.

Whether you need fresh content for your site or your old posts need to be revamped, professional writers from Content Cucumber can create high-quality articles that touch on the most relevant keywords in your industry. Contact us today to see how a dedicated writer can simplify your content marketing strategy, keyword research, and boost your SEO without requiring you to lift a finger!