Your Introductory Guide to Keyword Planning

Writing for humans is key, but there’s no getting around just how powerful SEO content writing

If you’re looking to unlock more traffic to your website, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most important digital marketing strategies. The first step to building a strong SEO-optimised website is keyword planning. 

In this article, we’ll introduce the concept of keywords, keyword research and keyword planning and how it forms part of your overall content marketing strategy to increase traffic and subsequently conversions.

What are keywords in SEO?

Before we dive into what keyword planning is and all of the noise associated with it, we must first understand what keywords actually are. 

Keywords are essentially words or phrases that people type into Google to initiate a desired outcome, such as to find a specific product, service, or piece of content. When someone types this keyword into the search bar, search engines like Google trawl the internet looking for content that’s relevant to that search term, and shows the user the most relevant content for that term. 

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding relevant keywords and phrases and analysing search terms that people are entering into Google to find the terms that most match your own. Essentially, it helps you to discover what topics and search terms your audience are most interested in, and how they can relate to your product or service. 

Here’s an example: Imagine that you have a business that makes footwear out of recycled materials. An SEO specialist will tell you that you’ll need to know which keywords your target audience are using to find a product or service like yours. When you know what these keywords are, you can insert them into the content of your website which will then be picked up by a search engine. The search engine then recognises your content as being hyper-relevant to that search term and will be more likely to show it to your target audience. 

Keyword research includes a primary keyword, the single word or phrase you’re most looking to rank for, and secondary keywords or related phrases that are connected with your primary keyword. For example, “sustainable footwear” may be your primary keyword, whereas associated keywords and phrases could include ““shoes made from sustainable materials” or “eco friendly footwear UK.”

Keyword research is a great way to unlock search queries, longtail keywords and their ranking difficulty so you can decide the ones that are best to include in your content strategy. 

What is keyword planning?

Keyword planning is the process of assigning or “mapping” keywords and phrases to specific pages on a website based on keyword research to ensure that your site ranks high for that search term. 

Creating and implementing a keyword map is essential and should be one of the first steps in your digital marketing strategy as it can help you fill any gaps in content that your audience may be looking for. 

Why is keyword planning & mapping important for SEO?

Setting up a keyword plan is vital because it creates a solid foundation for the type of content you create. As opposed to writing with a spray and pray strategy, if you understand what keywords are relevant to your business and the interests of your target audience, you can create content that aligns with these needs. 

Keyword planning helps you build your website around the keywords that are most relevant to your products or services, and helps you create the kind of content your audience are actually looking for. 

It also elevates the chance that your content will be seen by the right people. This is because having the right search terms on your website means Google is more likely to show your website to someone who is typing these terms into Google, therefore resulting in more traffic and visibility. While conversion isn’t guaranteed, a well-ranking website is more likely to be seen by the right people and therefore result in more sales.

So, how do you begin with keyword planning? 

How to conduct keyword planning

In the newly launched Blog Writing Services UK Academy, you can find a free keyword research template that you can use to build your keyword strategy. Use this in conjunction with the steps described below.

There are two essential steps involved in keyword planning: keyword research and of course, putting those keywords into action on your website: 

1) Keyword research 

Step one is to figure out what keywords your target audience are searching for to find a product or service like your own. Using a tool like Google Planner is a great way to find associated keywords that are similar to your primary keyword. 

Look at both short keywords and longtail keyword phrases and consider the volume of each keyword. For example, trying to rank for a term like “shoes” will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Often, more specific keywords such as “women’s shoes UK” tend to yield more granular results.

In the image below,  you can see what Google planner returns when discovering new keywords that you may want to rank for, this is simply done by using “Discover new keywords” and typing in some things you think your Ideal Client Persona (ICP). Your ideal client persona is a semi-fictional embodiment of who your target audience could be, a common representation of this is a buyer profile in which they could have a name of a person, gender etc., see the example below as its easier to show.

2) Keyword placement

Step two is to take your list of keywords and decide where you’re going to put them on your website so that they make the most logical and strategic sense. You can create content from scratch around these specific keywords or you can find ways to insert them into your existing content. Be sure to include them in a way that feels natural.  

Tips for performing keyword planning

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when performing your keyword planning: 

Consider longtail keywords

Ensure your Google search settings are set to the country in which your business is located. This helps bring up the appropriate search results for that specific region. Type your primary keyword into the search bar and refine your results as you go by competition or volume for example. The google guide How to Use Keyword Planner is a great help and worth checking out.

But anyway, when you’re in keyword planner you’ll find a list of similar queries people are frequently typing into Google that may relate to your keyword. These are worth including into your keyword planning strategy. 

Look at your competitors

You can also look at your main competitor’s websites to see the kind of keywords they’re using. Simply add their URL into Google Planner and wait for it to spit out the most common search terms used on their website. You can then incorporate these keywords into your own content marketing strategy too. 

Research common queries

Tools like Answer the Public and SEMRush are great ways to find related search queries to your keyword. Simply type in your keyword and scroll down to view the top related search terms for your chosen keyword. Be sure to include these related queries in your content plan to build the strongest SEO-optimised website.

If all of this sounds like too much hard work, get in touch with Blog Writing Services UK and we’ll take care of it all.

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