What is Keyword Research and Analysis in SEO? Unlocking the Secrets to Effective Strategies

I believe keyword research is the most important part of any SEO strategy. Keyword research can show you where the opportunities are, it can help you understand your customers, and it can help you compete with big companies that outpace to show their products. In just one sentence, keyword research can work wonders! You just need to know how to do it.

So here in this lesson, I’ll explain what keyword research and analysis in SEO are and how you can do keyword research for ecommerce websites. the process we go through for keyword research here can be used for creating a great structure for the products on your e-commerce website. If you’d like to do keyword research for your blog for free, check out our other tutorial here. Let’s cut to the chase and start answering your first question: What is keyword research.

 

What is keyword research?

Those who are not familiar with SEO, usually do the same thing after launching their website. They start writing content about anything and everything in whatever way that they enjoy. After 6 months they start to wonder why they are not ranking, even though they’ve been producing tons of content. In most cases what stops them from ranking higher is a lack of keyword research. What is keyword? Keywords are those terms that people type into Google’s search box. After a user types those terms (we also call them query), Google starts looking in its files and takes out the file containing those keywords and brings it up in the search results pages. So it’s really important to look for the exact terms that people use when searching. We call the whole process of finding these right keywords, keyword research.

Keyword research is super important. Even if you have an e-commerce website with no blog section, still you have got to do keyword research. Because new websites can’t rank for every keyword they’d like. Search engines like Google prioritize established websites with a strong reputation. New sites lack backlinks and a history of quality content, which means they don’t have the same authority or trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines. So it will be ten times harder for a new website to rank for a competitive keyword. That’s why you should be picky when it comes to keywords. In order to choose the right ones, you should know the basics of keyword research which we’ll talk about in just a minute.

 

Types of Keywords

The key types of keywords include:

Short-Tail Keywords:

Definition: These are broad and generic search terms, typically one to two words long.

Example: “SEO” or “digital marketing.”

Advantages: Short-tail keywords usually have very high search volume, which means they can potentially bring large amounts of traffic.

Disadvantages: They tend to be highly competitive and may not be very specific, making it harder to convert users into customers or subscribers.

Long-Tail Keywords:

Definition: Long-tail keywords are more specific, typically containing three or more words.

Example: “how to do keyword research for SEO” or “best digital marketing strategies for small businesses.”

Advantages: These keywords are less competitive and attract users who are looking for specific information, leading to better conversion rates.

Disadvantages: Although they are easier to rank for, they generally have lower search volumes compared to short-tail keywords.

 

Types of Search Intent

Search intent refers to the purpose behind a search query — what the user is trying to achieve by conducting a search. Understanding search intent is crucial for selecting the right keywords to target, as it ensures your content matches what the user is looking for. The three main types of search intent are:

 

Informational Intent:

Description: The user is looking for information or answers to questions. These searches tend to be in the form of “how to” or “what is” queries.

Example: “How to bake a cake” or “What is cloud computing?”

Goal: Provide helpful, informative content that educates the user.

Advantages: These keywords typically bring users who are early in the buyer journey and are looking to learn more.

Disadvantages: They can have lower conversion rates, as users are generally not yet looking to make a purchase.

 

Navigational Intent:

Description: The user is trying to reach a specific website or web page.

Example: “Facebook login” or “Amazon home page.”

Goal: Ensure your website’s pages are optimized for users searching for your brand or specific products. These keywords tend to result in very high click-through rates (CTR) if your brand is well known.

Disadvantages: They don’t contribute much to discovery or new traffic.

 

Transactional Intent:

Description: The user is ready to make a purchase or complete a transaction.

Example: “Buy running shoes” or “Best place to book flights.”

Goal: Optimize your product or service pages and provide clear calls to action (CTAs) to drive conversions.

Advantage: They often lead to high conversion rates because the user is closer to the decision-making stage.

Disadvantages: These keywords are usually highly competitive, especially in industries with large businesses.

 

Commercial Investigation Intent:

Description: The user is considering a purchase and is conducting research to compare options.

Example: “Best smartphones for photography” or “Top 10 laptops for gaming.”

Goal: Provide comparison guides, product reviews, and educational content that help guide the user to make a purchasing decision.

 

A quick reminder before we proceed to keyword research, remember that volume refers to the number of searches a particular keyword receives over a specific period (usually monthly). High search volume indicates a popular keyword that could drive significant traffic if targeted effectively.

 

How to Do Keyword Research

 

Find seed keywords

Seed keywords are words or phrases that you can use as the starting point in a keyword research process to unlock more keywords. Think of them as the building blocks of keyword research. Imagine you have a beauty online shop and youd like to do the keyword research for your website. the seed keywords related to you could be “Beauty” or “Cosmetics” or “Lipstick”, etc. You might be wondering how you can find seed keywords. here are a couple ideas that can be helpful.

a) Brainstorming

What it is: This is the most basic and traditional method for coming up with seed keywords. It involves thinking through the core topics or themes of your business or website and writing down any relevant terms.Consider synonyms, related products, and services. Ask questions like: “What terms would someone use to find my business or product?”

b) Extract Category of Competitors, Best Selling Products, etc.

This method involves analyzing the structure of your competitors’ sites, particularly the categories, top-selling products, and services, to identify relevant seed keywords. To do it, look at the categories on competitors’ websites. These categories, products, and services often provide seed keywords related to what people are looking to buy or explore in your industry.

c) Use Google Image categories

Below the search box, you can see the image tab, right below it you can find a set of categories made by Google. This section may show keywords and topics you might not have considered but are still relevant to your target audience.

d) Use Google Trends

Google Trends is a free tool that helps you identify seasonal or emerging trends in your industry. It’s also useful for seeing whether a keyword is becoming more or less popular, which helps you focus on high-potential terms. You can use the “Related Queries” section to find other related terms that are gaining traction.

e) Use Wikipedia for Some Keywords

Wikipedia often has comprehensive, well-structured articles on a wide variety of topics. These articles can serve as a goldmine for finding seed keywords that are both broad and highly relevant. Review the article’s sections, headings, and subheadings. It can be very helpful especially if you’re doing keyword research in an industry you barely know anything about.

f) Use ChatGPT

Ask ChatGPT or a similar AI tool to generate keyword ideas related to a specific topic, product, or service.

g) Use Kwfinder:

or any other tool. only this one is cheaper than most other tools and it presents great data. it shows you volume, difficulty, CPC (Cost Per Click), domain Authority (DA) and a couple more seo metrics. but we just care about these four.

 

2. Gather all the keywords possible from all tools in a sheet and delete duplicate keywords:

using the methods I suggested you can find more than 5000 keywords.

 

3. Find search volume from Kwfinder:

Now you should import your list to Kwfinder and find the volume of each keyword.

 

4. Clustering them

1- Use manually
2- Use ChatGpt