by SEO Stuff
Execution Time: 2-8 hours
Goal: Find high-volume keywords that are easy to target (i.e., there aren’t many other websites that target them, or your page can easily outrank the competitors) and that suit your website’s niche. Group them according to search intent/demand and create a sitemap based on the keyword groups you’ve created.
Ideal Outcome: Create a comprehensive keyword strategy you can use in the coming months.
Why this is important: Keyword research is by far the most important SEO task.
A great keyword strategy can give you a competitive advantage against large players in the market and help you determine what to work on next and how much to invest. You can use your keyword strategy to inform the structure of your site and even define your content marketing calendar.
Before starting: understand the SEO keyword mechanism
- SEO keywords are the words and word phrases Internet users input into a search engine. They can be short (“running shoes”) or long (“best running shoes for trail running 2024”). No matter the length, we simply call them keywords.
- The better you optimize your website with these keywords, the more likely it is that you will land among the first options provided by a Search Engine’s Result Page.
- Remember that SEO is not just about the keywords - they are a crucial element in the optimization process, but not an exclusive one.
- Some keyword research tools examples include SEMRush (free with limited capabilities, excellent when paid and Google’s Keyword Planner (a popular free but limited option).
- In this workflow, we will use SEO Stuff’s keyword explorer.
Environment setup