Keyword research is one of the most critical tasks in SEO, with a lot of impacts. It’s not something you will only do once since it’s an ongoing process that will help you find new leads and potential customers.

The question now is how you can maximize your efficiency when it comes to SEO keyword research? Here are some of the best tips that will help you take your SEO game to another level:

Invest in Localized Keywords

This is one of the best keyword research tips for small businesses out there who want to rank higher on search engine results since your goal is to target local buyers. You can start doing this by researching a target keyword along with your exact location. For example, you have a garden landscape business, and you are based in Los Angeles. In that case, you can start with “Los Angeles garden landscape” or “Garden landscape in Los Angeles”.

Suppose your company also gets clients from nearby cities. In that case, you should also do keyword research on those locations. This way, you have a higher chance of reaching more of your target audience within your service area.

You might feel scared that these keywords might yield lesser overall traffic than more generalized ones. However, don’t let this stop you because localized keywords make your brand much more accessible to consumers with high buying intent.

Monthly Searches and Intent are Equally Important

Most people doing keyword research focus only on the monthly searches as their metric when deciding which keyword to target. However, these numbers are not really useful if you don’t have the chance to get your website on the first 2 pages of Google’s search result. This is why it is also important to pay attention to the search intent.

Use Google Suggest

Google is among the top search engines of today, and it has this feature called Google Suggest. It is an algorithm developed to help find the best matching phrases to the seed keyword. Using this feature is a good keyword research practice because it will provide you with keyword insight from Google. Aside from that, you can also use its result to assess the behavior of the searchers.

The same thing applies to the “People also ask” section on Google. Here, you can find a lot of effective keywords in the question form without much effort.

Search for Frequently Asked Questions by Customers

Remember that one of the best SEO practices that will help you get a higher ranking is to create valuable content. One way of doing that is by answering the questions and concerns of your target audience.

When doing keyword research, it’s a good idea to pay attention to these questions as well as use them as a keyword later on. This is because it will increase the chances of consumers reaching your page based on their questions.

There are several ways on how you can search for the top frequently asked questions of customers. Yes, this includes looking at Google’s “People also ask” section and checking online forums. However, one of the most direct ways of doing this might be simply asking your customers directly.

You can conduct a survey or interview about your customers’ main concerns. You could also ask them about what they want to know. You could also get input from your sales and customer service department since they are the ones who handle the questions and concerns of customers.

Take a Look at Your Competitor’s Keywords

Suppose your competitors are at a higher ranking than you. In that case, they are probably doing something right that you are not doing with your keywords. This is why it’s important to pay attention to what they are doing.

Knowing the target keywords of your competition can help give your business the edge that it needs. It can also help you target customers who are using these keywords.

Final Words

Those are some of the best practices in Keyword research that will help you level up your SEO game. They are not really difficult to integrate into your process, but they have a lot of potential to help you get the results that you want.