Boost Your SEO: Keyword Research Techniques That Really Work

Picture this: You've created an awesome website, loaded with helpful and interesting stuff. You hit the publish button, hoping for lots of visitors. But... nothing happens. It's like nobody even knows your site exists. Why? Well, maybe you forgot a really important step: looking into keywords.

Think of keywords as the words people type into search engines to find stuff online. When you use the right keywords on your site, it's like you're talking the same language as your audience. Search engines like Google notice this and start showing your site to people who are searching for what you've got. That's where keyword research comes in—it's the key to getting more people to visit your site, which is pretty much the main goal of search engine optimization (SEO).

So, how do you find these magical keywords that'll get your website noticed? Buckle up, because we're about to delve into 5 powerful keyword research techniques that really work. 

Before we dive into the article, we want to introduce ourselves: Devex Hub is the best SEO company in Chandigarh. We're here to assist businesses ranging from startup firms to large organizations.

Table of Content 

• Keyword Seed Selection
• How to Find the Right Keywords
• Identifying Related Keywords and User Intent
• Leverage the Power of Long-Tail Keywords
• Researching Keywords for Multilingual Websites
• Keyword Cannibalization
• Devex Hub - Leading SEO Companies in Chandigarh
• Conclusion

Keyword Seed Selection

Planting the Roots of Your Research

Every successful keyword research journey starts with a seed. These are broad keywords related to your niche or industry. For instance, if you run a bakery website, your seed keyword could be "cakes."

Brainstorming Your Seed Keywords:

• Think like your audience: What terms would they use to find your products or services?
• Play with Google Suggest: Start typing your seed keyword in Google's search bar and see what suggestions pop up. These are goldmines for related keywords!
• Analyze your competitors: Peek at what keywords successful competitors in your niche seem to be targeting (more on this later).

Tools to Help You Sprout Seed Ideas:

• Google Search Suggestions: We mentioned it above, but this free tool is a fantastic way to discover popular search queries related to your seed keyword.
• Answer the Public: This nifty platform offers a visual representation of common questions people ask online. Type in your seed keyword and see what pops up!

How to Find the Right Keywords

Finding the right keywords is key to getting noticed online. Once you have your basic keywords, you need to know how often people search for them and how tough it is to rank for them. Here, the role of the right keyword research tool will help:

• Google Keyword Planner: This is a tool from Google that tells you how many times people search for different keywords.
• SEMrush: This is a tool you have to pay for, but it gives you a lot of information about keywords. It tells you how often people search for them, how hard it is to rank for them, and even suggests similar keywords.

Now, let's talk about finding the perfect balance:

You want keywords that enough people search for, but not so many that you're competing with big websites. Long-tail keywords are a good bet. These are longer, more specific phrases that include your basic keyword. 

For example, instead of just "cookie recipe," you might use "chocolate chip cookies recipe with brown butter." These are less competitive and can bring in the right kind of visitors to your site.

Identifying Related Keywords and User Intent

Understanding What People Really Want

Keywords are just one piece of the puzzle. You also need to understand the user intent behind those searches. There are various types of keywords based on the user's intent:

• Transactional keyword
• Informative keyword
• Navigational keyword
• Investigative keyword

Are people looking for information (informational keywords - e.g., "benefits of organic flour"), trying to buy something (transactional keywords - e.g., "buy organic flour online"), or simply navigating a website (navigational keywords - e.g., "company contact us page")?

Without understanding the user's intent, your keyword research won't be effective. It's crucial to select keywords that reflect the intent behind your product or service.

It's a good idea to include a mix of different intent keywords in your research. For example, you might want to target transactional keywords for your main webpage, while also using informational keywords in your blogs to enhance brand awareness.

Keyword Research Tools to Help You See the Bigger Picture:

Most keyword research tools will display related keywords alongside your main search. Look for terms that align with your content strategy and user intent.

SEMrush is the perfect example if you want to know about the user intent of specific target keywords. Another one that comes into the picture is Ubersuggest.

When you customize your content to match what the user is looking for, you improve the likelihood of meeting their search needs. This keeps visitors happy and tells search engines your website is a valuable resource.

Leverage the Power of Long-Tail Keywords

Catching the Niche Fish

Remember long-tail keywords we mentioned earlier? They're your secret weapon for attracting targeted traffic. Here's why:

• Less Competition: Long-tail keywords usually face less competition compared to broader keywords, which makes it simpler to achieve higher rankings in search results.
• Higher Conversion Rates: People searching for long-tail keywords often have a clearer idea of what they want. This can lead to higher conversion rates (e.g., turning visitors into customers).
• Reduced Keyword Cannibalization: We'll discuss this SEO gremlin later, but long-tail keywords help you avoid it by targeting specific searches.

Finding and Using Long-Tail Keywords

Expand on Your Seed Keywords: Think of long-tail keywords as adding details to your seed keyword. For example, "chocolate chip cookies recipe with brown butter" is a long-tail variation of the seed keyword "chocolate chip cookies."

Use Answer the Public: This platform excels at revealing long-tail questions users ask online.

Researching Keywords for Multilingual Websites 

Going Global with the Right Keywords

Conquering the world wide web? If you're aiming to reach people who speak different languages on your website, you need to think about keywords differently. Here's what you should remember:

• Translate, Don't Just Change Letters: Don't just switch letters from one language to another. Do proper keyword research for each language to know how people search for what you offer in those places.
• Maintain Search Intent: Don't just translate keywords literally. Ensure they accurately reflect the user's intent in each language.
• Location Matters: Search trends can vary depending on location. Use location-specific keyword research tools to identify popular keywords in your target markets.

Multilingual Keyword Research Tools:

Ahrefs: Offers keyword research features across various languages.

SEMrush and Ahrefs are tools you can use to find out what words people are searching for on the internet. With SEMrush, you can focus on specific areas and languages when looking for these words.

Moz Keyword Explorer is another tool that helps you find words people are searching for. It gives you ideas for keywords and tells you how many times those words are searched for in different languages.

Knowing these little differences helps make sure your website talks in a way that makes sense to people all over the world. This can help your website get noticed more in other countries.

Although multilingual website optimization is a whole new topic, keyword research is an important part of it. In addition to keyword research, another crucial factor for keyword optimization is optimizing the technical SEO of multilingual websites.

Keyword Cannibalization

Imagine you have two blog posts on your website, both talking about the same thing. They're both trying to get noticed for the same keyword, like 'best running shoes.' When search engines see this, they might get confused and not know which page to show when someone searches for 'best running shoes.' This can make it harder for either of those pages to show up high in search results. That's what we mean by keyword cannibalization, and it's something you want to avoid.

How Keyword Cannibalization can affect

Here's how having multiple pages targeting the same keyword can cause problems:

• Confusing Search Engines: When you have more than one page focused on the same keyword, search engines like Google get confused about which one to rank higher. This can lower your overall visibility in search results.
• Diluted Ranking Power: Backlinks and other factors that help your pages rank well get spread out across these competing pages. As a result, none of them perform as well as they could if they were the only ones targeting that keyword.

How to spot Keyword Cannibalization

• Crawling Tools: Tools like Screaming Frog can go through your website and find pages that target similar keywords. This helps you see where the issue lies.
• Search Engine Console: Check your search engine rankings for similar keywords. If you notice multiple pages ranking for the same term, you might be dealing with cannibalization.

Ways to stop Keyword Cannibalization

• Content Optimization: Make sure each page on your site focuses on a different keyword or user intent. This helps clarify to search engines what each page is about.
• Internal Linking: Connect related pages together using internal links. This guides both search engines and users to the right content without creating competition between your own pages.
• Content Consolidation: Sometimes, it's better to combine similar pages into one comprehensive resource. This prevents them from competing with each other and strengthens your overall presence on that topic.

By being aware of keyword cannibalization and using these tactics, you can ensure that your website's pages work together effectively and each has the best chance of appearing high in search results for your target keywords. Finding the right way to identify and eliminate keyword cannibalization is crucial in order to boost SEO. Because if we ignore this, we are not only confusing the crawler but, at some level, the user as well. 

Devex Hub - Leading SEO Companies in Chandigarh

Devex Hub, which started back in 2018, is a top SEO company in Chandigarh, India. Our main goal is to help businesses get noticed more online by using smart SEO tricks. This article talks mainly about how we help businesses find the right keywords to attract more attention online. But besides that, we do lots of other stuff too, like fixing up your website to make it rank higher, building links to it from other sites, and checking all the technical stuff to make sure it's working right. Contact us at (+91) 9875-905-952 or via our official mail ID. info@devexhub.com, to learn more.

Conclusion

In conclusion, figuring out the right keywords is important for making your website visibility online. By using these tips, you can find the words that bring in the right visitors, boost your site's ranking, and reach your SEO goals. Just keep in mind that keyword research isn't a one-time thing. You have to keep updating it as your website grows and what people search for changes. Stay on top of it to stay ahead!