Keyword Research: The Secret Key to a Successful Blog

Keyword research is one of the most powerful exercises a blogger can do to ensure their blog is successful. When done correctly, keyword research can help bloggers target the right audience and improve their website’s performance by making it more search engine friendly.

When I was still working full-time as a website editor, I was lucky enough to have a chance to learn the basics of keyword research and apply them to a variety of websites. The basic idea behind keyword research is simple: Identify words or phrases that people will likely use when searching for information on a given topic.

However, not all bloggers can dedicate their time and energy to keyword research. But you may change your mind if you know all the benefits of keyword research that I’ll write about in this article.

Benefits of Keyword Research

What is Keyword Research?

Simply put, keyword research is the process of finding keywords and phrases related to a specific topic that people are likely to enter into search engines. It helps you determine what words and phrases are popular, so you can target them in your SEO strategy.

For example, if you own a fashion blog, researching keywords will help you determine what terms people commonly use when looking for fashion advice or inspiration, such as “how to style an animal print top” or “summer fashion trends 2023”. This information will then help inform the topics and titles of your blog posts.

Ultimately, keyword research allows you to create content that is both informative and optimized for maximum visibility on search engines. By understanding which keywords and phrases people are using, you can create content that meets their needs and helps your blog rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

The Benefits of Keyword Research for your Blog

Don’t wait until your blog is established to start researching keywords. Keyword research should be an integral part of every blog’s strategy from the very beginning. Remember, when it comes to blogging for a profit, your audience equals your income potential, and the more traffic you can attract by targeting the right keywords, the more money you can make.

Here are some of the main benefits of keyword research:

Helps you to understand your audience

One thing I’ve always done as part of my keyword research is to look at the search terms that people are using. This helps me understand what they’re looking for and which topics they find interesting.

By taking the time to analyze search terms, you can identify patterns in user behavior, such as their location, their interests, the burning questions they’re looking for an answer to, etc., so you can tailor your content accordingly and create more relevant and engaging content.

Understanding your audience also means you’re more likely to produce content that can resonate with them, make them stay longer on your blog, and encourage them to share it with others. At the end of the day, this will help you to increase your blog traffic and boost your overall search engine rankings.

Improves your content strategy

By identifying the most relevant and popular keywords for your niche, you can create a content strategy that addresses your audience’s search intent and provides valuable information.

Let’s say your blog focuses on health and wellness. Through keyword research, you may discover that one of the most popular search terms is “self-care for introverts” and that people are interested in learning more about this topic.

Armed with this knowledge, you can create content that addresses their needs directly and provide them with valuable advice or resources. Once they read your blog and find the solution to their problems, chances are that they will stick around for more content in the long run.

Enhances your SEO

When it comes to SEO practices, keyword research is definitely a must. For example, by including relevant keywords in titles and headings, you can boost your chances of ranking higher on SERPs and attracting more organic traffic to your blog. Without keywords, how can you optimize your blog for search engine visibility?

Again, you don’t have to wait until your blog is established to start researching keywords. Start building up your keyword list as soon as you launch your blog and make sure to consistently update it with new terms and phrases related to topics that interest your target audience. This way, your blog will be geared up for success right from the start.

Saves you time and effort

The last thing you want to do with your blog is to spend hours and hours researching and writing an extraordinarily great article, just to end up having no one read it! Sounds like one of the most common mistakes we all have made at some point in our blogging journey?

This is where keyword research comes in handy. By researching popular search terms and topics beforehand, you can avoid investing time and effort into writing articles that won’t get any traction in the long run. Instead, you know exactly what keywords and topics people are looking for, which in turn helps you create content that’s more likely to be seen and shared by your audience.

In addition to this, you can use keyword research tools such as Ubersuggest or Ahrefs to find even more niche-related search terms and better understand the competition level of a particular keyword. This will help you improve your content strategy and make sure that each article you write is optimized for maximum visibility.

Provides insights into your competition

Well, although I personally don’t prefer the terms “competition” or “competitors”, I have to admit that it’s sometimes useful to keep an eye on what your fellow bloggers aka. competitors are doing.

By researching the keywords, domain authority, and backlinks of their content, you can get some insights into their blog strategy and determine how you can differentiate yourself from the competition. For example, if everyone is writing about gardening tools but no one is talking about gardening clothing, you can use this to your advantage and create content on topics that other bloggers haven’t covered yet.

This one is tricky since you don’t want to go too niche, either. So, when it comes to keyword research, it’s important to strike the perfect balance between providing useful content and staying ahead of the competition.

Revive your current or old content

I used to have a lifestyle blog armed with over 200 articles and it has been around since 2021. Still, it didn’t generate any traffic, no matter how hard I worked on it. And as you can imagine, no traffic, no money!

That’s when I realized that my content wasn’t exactly what people were looking for. Sure, I had some great articles with catchy titles but they weren’t optimized for SEO and weren’t targeting any particular keywords. It doesn’t matter if I had 200 articles or 2,000 articles. If they’re not relevant to what people are really looking for, I won’t get any traction.

That’s why I started to use keyword research as a way to improve my existing content. By researching different search terms and topics related to my niche, I was able to find new angles for my articles, add fresh insights, and make sure that each piece I wrote was highly targeted toward the right keywords.

This allowed me to start ranking for more competitive keywords and helped me drive more organic traffic to my blog, which in turn resulted in a significant boost in the domain authority (DA), which is one of the many critical factors when it comes to SEO and ranking.

Expand your audience

By targeting long-tail keywords and related search terms, you can attract a wider audience that may not be actively searching for your specific niche in the beginning. Let’s take a look at a hypothetical example.

Let’s say I’m running a fitness blog and I decide to do some keyword research on “weight loss”. After researching the topic, I find related queries such as “how to lose weight fast but safe”, “low-calorie diet plan for weight loss”, etc. Now, these are all highly searched terms and I can use these to create content that will appeal to people who are interested in weight loss, even if they weren’t actively searching for “weight loss” in the first place.

By expanding your keyword research and targeting more search terms related to your niche, you can attract a wider audience and make sure that your content is seen by as many people as possible.

Improves your click-through rates

Click-through rates is the term used to describe the percentage of people who click on an organic search result after typing in a query into the search engine. Google and its algorithm take this into account when deciding which sites to rank on the top of the SERPs. Therefore, if you want your blog to stand out from the competition and get more clicks, doing keyword research can be a great way to improve your click-through rates.

Example: You have a hair care blog focusing on natural hair care. You can use keyword research to explore the different queries and topics related to this niche, such as “how to make your own natural hair mask” or “best oils for curly hair.” By targeting these keywords, you can create content that will be highly relevant to people who are looking for information on natural hair care, thus improving your click-through rates.

But how can you know which keywords to target when you have too many keywords out there and everybody and their mother are writing about the same topic? That’s where a keyword research tool comes in!

A good keyword research tool will not only help you identify relevant keywords but also give you valuable insights into their difficulty level, search volume, and competition so that you can optimize your content accordingly.

By doing proper keyword research, you can make sure that your content is reaching the right audience and getting more clicks, which will help you improve your click-through rates, rank higher, and drive more organic traffic to your blog.

Provides data for future planning

You don’t want to miss out on opportunities to create content that will be highly beneficial for your blog. That’s where keyword research can come in handy and help you plan ahead. By researching which topics are trending and what kinds of queries people are searching for, you can uncover untapped opportunities and new niches for creating content that hasn’t been covered before.

This data can help you create more targeted and relevant content for your blog, which will not only draw in more organic traffic but also give you a better understanding of the topics that your readers are interested in.

Additionally, keyword research can provide valuable data about how people are searching for certain topics in different parts of the world or during different times. This can help you plan more effective international campaigns or optimize your content for certain times of the day.

Helps you to measure success

Then, finally, you don’t just do all the homework just for fun, right? You want to see results. You want to measure your success. As a blogger, you can use keyword research to track the performance of certain topics on search engine result pages and determine which ones are giving you the best results.

By tracking keywords, you can see how well your content is ranking for those words in SERPs and identify any areas where your content may be lacking. This will give you the insight you need to adjust your content and optimize it for higher rankings.

For example, one of the niche blogs I just created in less than three months is already ranking in the top 20 results for several of its target keywords. I was able to track this success through keyword research, which enabled me to optimize my content and make sure it was targeting the right audience.

Then, once I can see which keywords are doing well and what are not, I can ultimately adjust my content strategy to focus more on these keywords and create content that targets them for a better result and bigger success.

My Number One Keyword Research Tool

I know, we all have heard about Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, Semrush, and even the newer kids in town, Mangools, Keyword Chef, LowFruits, and so on and so on. All of these tools have their benefits and they are great tools to use if you want to perform keyword research for your blog or website.

But out of all the keyword research tools out there, I prefer using Keysearch. Keysearch is a powerful keyword research tool that allows me to quickly find relevant keywords to target with my content, analyze the competition of those keywords, and track their performance over time.

In addition, it also provides me with valuable insights into the content gap (between my site and my competitors’), which helps me identify opportunities to fill that gap and rank higher in SERPs. Its organic keyword competitive analysis is extremely helpful in understanding other bloggers are doing in terms of keyword research and ranking.

For a not-an-SEO-expert blogger like me, I like Keysearch more because of its easy-to-understand ways of presenting data. If you’re like me, you are kind of scared by all the serious data presented in other keyword research tools, but with Keysearch you don’t have to worry about that. Everything is presented and classified by colors, which options to filter based on ranking, URL, KD, etc. It’s really that simple to use and I absolutely love it!

Fancy trying Keysearch.co? Use this code – KSDISC – for a nice 20% off 🙂

But of course, if you prefer more advanced keyword research tools, there are plenty of other well-known options you can use. In the end, it all comes down to what works for your blog and what benefits you can get from keyword research.

And if you prefer something free, opt for the good ol’ Google friend and its Google Keyword Planner to help you with your keyword research. It’s a little bit more limited than the other paid tools, but still, it’s a really good place to start. Plus, it’s totally FREE!

In Conclusion

You don’t need to be an SEO expert to get the benefits of keyword research. In fact, keyword research has been made easier than before, thanks to all the tools and AI available out there.

It’s a great way to track the performance of your blog or website, identify any areas where you may need to adjust your content strategy and optimize it for higher rankings. Ultimately, keyword research can help you get more organic traffic to your site and increase the success of your blog.

How about you? Do you have any favorite tools or tips that you’d love to share with us? Let me know in the comments!