Before proceeding with On-Page and Off-Page SEO, the first step of Search Engine Optimization is to find out the Keyword for which you want your page or post to rank in the search engine.
This very first step is called SEO Keyword Research. The Keyword for which you want your page to rank in search engines is called Target Keyword. This is also called the Focus Keyword.
[Note: A keyword is a single word or a phrase composed of a few words (maybe 2-3 or more)].
The process of finding the most suitable Target Keyword for your webpage is called Keyword Research.
Now the point is, how we can do this research? How to find out the best keyword to target for our page content?
How To Do SEO Keyword Research?
There are available many basic and advanced keyword research tools in 2024. A few of them are paid and the rest are free.
Google itself has provided a free tool for doing keyword research and analysis. That tool is named “Keyword Planner”, available on the Google Ads website. This is a highly recommended and highly used SEO keyword research tool.
By using this tool, you can get hundreds of Keyword Ideas for your content’s niche and also get the average monthly search volume for each of them. This helps in deciding which Keyword to target.
This tool also tells about the competition for any particular Keyword along with the average monthly search volume for the last 12 months.
We always recommend selecting a Long-tail Keyword with low competition and sufficient average monthly search volume (minimum 500).
You should also find at least 2-3 LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords to be used in your content.
[Note:- LSI Keywords are Keywords closely related to the main Target Keyword.]
How to Find Out LSI Keywords?
To find out LSI Keywords, you just have to put your Target Keyword in the Google search box and press enter. On scrolling down to the bottom of the search result page, you will find some related keywords suggested and recommended by Google itself.
You can also make use of an LSI keyword generator to accomplish this task.
The Target Keyword and LSI Keywords both are used in the content with an appropriate standard ratio.
Thus, your SEO Keyword Research will be complete after the successful selection of a suitable Target Keyword and some LSI Keywords.