Keyword Research [Chapter 5]
Keyword research is an important part of SEO, and it is the basis of a successful marketing campaign. Knowing how to choose your keywords is essential to getting your message across and promoting your content, product, or services. Whether you’re looking to increase traffic or conversions, this is where you start. The articles and guides below focus on keyword research and strategies.
58. Backlinko on Keyword Research – Backlinko generates some commendable and practical visual guides on various SEO topics. This article on keyword research, written by Brian Dean, starts off pretty basic and alerts you on the importance of keywords, but goes on to demonstrate the best methods of searching for the right keywords, providing you with strategies and resources. You can also save the guide as a PDF and keep it nearby as an asset in your first campaigns; it includes compelling notes on the uses and limitations of Google’s Keyword Planner, and offers a few interesting alternatives you should keep an eye on.
59. Copyblogger’s Keyword Guides – Behind this link you will find access to two separate keyword research guides produced by Copyblogger. All you need to do is register with an account and you’ll get the Keyword Research: A Real World Guide and Content Marketing Research: The Crucial First Step. Not only that, but you are also given the option to download 14 more books on content writing and marketing, SEO and other related subjects, and a 20-part course on online marketing – basically the same deal mentioned above.
60. Hubspot’s A Beginner Guide – This article by Hubspot (written by Rachel Sprung) is quite insightful and provides fundamental knowledge on researching keywords. It is very nicely completed by another Hubspot article, Keyword Research 101, written by Samantha Winchell. The latter article however, focuses on alternatives for research and presents you with resources and methods.
61. Moz Visual Guide on Keyword Targeting – Rand Fishkin conscientiously explains how to target keywords and perform on-page optimization for ideal SEO results. This article of his is wonderfully supported by data and graphics that aid the learning process and make all that information easy to absorb.
62. How to Find Profit-Driving Keywords – In this piece from Wordstream, you will learn about some of their best and free keyword research tools (such as the Keyword Niche Finder or the Keyword Grouper). I suggest reading the other articles they recommend too, they are considerably insightful and constructive.
63. Distilled’s 7 Places to Look for Keywords – When you get a good grip on how keyword research is performed, you might like to check out this very actionable article from Distilled, which provides creative ways of expanding your keyword list other than Google’s AdWords Planner.
64. Six Pillars of Keyword Research – This is a short, straightforward, but useful article taking you through the fundamental steps of finding the right keywords. It may be more theoretical than practical, but it gets you in the right mindset for the process and preaches the importance of relying on data. What’s more, it was written by Bruce Clay, one of the leading SEO minds in the industry.
65. Keyword Strategy in Depth – If you’re willing to pay for classes, this is just one of the courses Lynda.com offers. In the Video/Audio Classes category above, I have also listed video and audio classes that you might find useful. For some, it might be easier to learn visually, or directly from a teacher, but in the end, it’s up to you how much time and money you’re willing to invest in becoming an SEO professional. In all fairness, you may get a faster education by signing in and paying a fee for online courses like this one, but I recommend doing proper research before signing off on anything (SEO-oriented forums, such as SEOBook, might be a better source for real customer/student opinions, rather than the websites themselves).
66. How to Do Keyword Research for SEO – Here comes an in-depth article on keyword research that stresses the priority of selecting the right keywords for your goals. Nick Eubanks takes you through the most important steps of this first SEO stage; paired with his article on how to optimize pages for your target keywords, this becomes a full-on guide any beginner would be smart to follow. And if that’s not enough for you, Nick also holds a 7-day course on mastering keyword research. Register here and you also get a 20% discount for the course, using the AWR20 coupon code!
67. Nutshell Guide to Proper Keyword Research – As long as you do search engine optimization, keyword research will be one of the most important tasks you have to deal with. You’ll see that SEOs often have different approaches to this, and prefer different types of tools. That’s why it’s an excellent idea to see what they all have to say, try their methods, and determine what works best for you. Here you have a short guide on keyword research by the Content Marketing Institute, another site you’d benefit from following up close.
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