Keyword Research Made Simple + 5 Easy Tools I Swear By
“Good SEO is paying attention to all the details that most bloggers ignore” - Ryan Biddulph
I’ve read and learned a lot about Keyword Research over the years and I have to admit, it can be somewhat overwhelming…
There’s so much information out there about how to do it, what tools to use and whether it’s really as important as people say it is!
Today we’re looking into keyword research made simple + 5 easy tools I swear by…
When I started my blog, keyword research went totally over my head and I was getting so confused over what I had to do, what was right and wrong and it was mayhem!
It’s taken a lot of learning, making mistakes and scouring a ton of information to find out all I now know about keyword research and I’ve finally worked out the best way to carry this out for myself and my blog and I want to share it all with you…
So let’s get right into it, lovely mama…
“This post does contain affiliate links throughout and if you make a purchase using one of my links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you”
What is Keyword Research?
Before we start, I want to let you know what keyword research actually is…
“Keyword Research is the process in which popular search terms and phrases are researched. These are terms which are being searched for on the internet by people, in search engines such as Google and Bing etc”…
Whenever someone is searching Google for something, such as a service, product or information – relevant blog posts and articles come up!
For example: If I wanted to find out about the best places to take my children on holiday, I would head on over to Google and start typing in the search bar some key words and phrases for what I’m looking for…
You can see in the screenshot below I typed in “best places to take my children on holiday”.
The first result to come up is an article about the “10 best holiday destinations for families in 2022”.
Google has looked at all the words I’ve entered into the search bar and then pulled up the best and most relevant results for me based on them.
This is the #1 search result for this query, so the company (oliverstravels) who has written this article has done well to rank in the #1 spot for these search terms.
If I scroll further down, even more results come up that Google has deemed the best results for what I’m searching for.
All of these results are from very well known travel agents and companies, so it would be near impossible for a small blog to try and rank for this search term.
This is why keyword research is so important. It is needed so you can research and find terms which are actually being searched for, but that aren’t as competitive.
Why do we need to do Keyword Research?
When it comes to your blog or website, it’s vital to do proper keyword research in order for your site to rank in the search engines.
If you aren’t writing about things which people are actively searching for and are wanting to know about, then you’re not going to get very far.
However, as I mentioned above, if you try and rank for very competitive keywords (think “best makeup brushes” and then try to write a blog post which is titled “Best Make-up Brushes” you’ll really struggle to rank above the top websites already ranking for this search term…
The screenshots above show you how very well known companies and brands such as Cosmopolitan, Elle and Vogue are taking the top spots for this keyword.
The search term “Best makeup brushes” has over 52,900,000 results, which is a whopping amount every month.
It would be so, so difficult to outrank these kinds of brands, so it would be best to find other, lower competitive keywords to rank for, that are still to do with the best makeup brushes etc…
The issue is, if you don’t rank in search pages (SERP – Search Engine Results Pages) then no one’s going to be seeing or reading your content.
The aim of doing keyword research is to try and get placed on page 1 of Google! That’s what we’re all trying to do when we write our blog posts.
This is why keyword research is so important to do.
It’s a fierce battle though, due to hundreds of thousands of blogs and websites competing for a number 1 spot everyday (as you saw above).
Carrying out keyword research is an essential part of what’s known as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)…
SEO includes many things and good keyword research is a key part of it.
Why is Keyword Research important in SEO & Blogging?
Without knowing the most appropriate keywords to rank for and focus on, you can’t be successful with your SEO and your blog.
Successful keyword research allows two things:
It improves the ranking of your posts within the search engines
It helps put the right people in front of your content
To rank well within the search results, you need to make sure you’re producing content on topics people are actually searching for, as this is what will drive traffic to your blog.
Your keywords need to be those words and phrases people in your target audience are actively searching for. This is super important!
We could all write about what we want to write about (and occasionally, this is absolutely fine) but blogging is all about providing information to solve problems and needs that your target audience have.
Finding the right topics and then doing keyword research on these topics will allow you to insert the relevant keywords into your content.
When Google crawls through your posts, they can then see that your post fits the needs of the user, therefore showing your content.
At least that’s the idea anyway…
By placing your keywords in prime places within your content, such as your title, meta description, URL and H2/H3 headings etc, it will start you off on the right basic SEO path.
I have a whole post about Search Engine Optimisation so I don’t want to go into depth here, however, SEO and keyword research are best buddies, so where one is, the other is usually not far away.
What is the purpose of Keyword Research?
The purpose of keyword research is to include the search terms you’ve found when carrying out your research and use this information within your content.
This then entwines with your SEO efforts, so you can produce the best content you can for the search engines, in the hope you can rank highly in the SERPS!
Your keywords should be put together for your target audience, as they’re the ones who are going to be searching for the information you’re hopefully providing them with.
If you’ve done your research properly, you should be including words within your content that relate to the topic you’re writing about, but that can also be achievable and attainable when it comes to ranking in search engines.
Using the “best makeup brushes” example again, I typed this into a tool I use and you can see in the screenshot above it has 18,100 searches a month and the SEO difficulty number is high (the higher the number in this tool, the more competitive).
When you then look at the keyword ideas in the screenshot below, you can also see that the SD (SEO Difficulty) also has high numbers. This tool uses a traffic light system of red, amber and green and from this example, the competition is just too high to write a post using these particular keywords.
You can also see that 3 of the keyword phrases are extremely high in the difficulty ranking:
The best makeup brushes set
Best way to clean makeup brushes
Best makeup brush cleaner
This shows that people are very interested in how to clean makeup brushes, so if you were in this niche, you could definitely look at writing a post about this, but you’d need to find keywords and phrases which aren’t so competitive.
How To Do Keyword Research
So now we’ve talked a bit about what keyword research is and how it affects your blogging strategy and SEO, we’ll get into how you actually do it and all the things that you can do to get the best out of your keyword research efforts!
What Makes a Good Keyword?
A good keyword is one which is highly relevant, is able to convert readers, has low competition and has a good search volume, because there’s no point writing blog posts about things which no one is looking for…
Keyword research starts with finding a primary or focus keyword, which will be used within your blog post/page title.
You’ll also need to place this focus keyword throughout your content organically too.
You’ll then need to find other related keywords that can be used to fill out your post, by using them in H2 headings and H3 subheadings!
How to find the Best Keywords
The next few sections are going to be all about finding the best keywords and all the ways and things you can do (and not do)!
To break it down super simply for you, finding the best keywords for your content includes:
Thinking like your target audience (what would they type in when searching for your topic)
What would you type into Google? Think about your topic, go to Google and start typing. What is it you’re typing in?
What are your competitors writing about?
Make sure you know your niche well
Find focus and seed keywords for your blog as a whole and for individual posts and pages
Use one or two Keyword Research tools to help you define words and phrases and find out search volume and SEO difficulty
Don’t keyword stuff your content
Do not Keyword Stuff!
Firstly, I want to say this… If you think you can keep stuffing your keywords here, there and everywhere, you’re wrong!
Keyword stuffing is an absolute no no…
Your keywords and phrases should be placed organically within your content, so that it reads naturally.
Trust me, if you’re only thinking about where and how you can add your keywords in, your content is going to sound stilted, fake and your readers will click away!
So let’s look at the process I use myself when carrying out my own keyword research for my content…
Find Seed/Focus Keywords
If you don’t know where to begin when it comes to your keyword research, finding your “seed” word is a great starting point.
Brainstorm a list of relevant words, phrases and topics you think people would be searching for, when they think about your topic.
Think about what you would type in if you were searching for your post and what you would want to know and find out about.
This can really help you put yourself in the mindset of your target reader/customer…
This brainstorming session can build the foundation for your post/page!
Let’s take the term “Gardening tools” for this example.
I would write down a list of all the word and variations I can think of relating to gardening tools:
Gardening tools
Gardeners tools
Tools for gardening
Hand tools for gardening
Power tools for gardening
You get the idea… Just write down ideas that relate to the topic of that seed word.
Then you can enter these words and variations into a Keyword Tool.
In the example below, I typed “Gardening Tools” into the keyword research tool I use.
You can see that so many ideas come up:
Gardening tools bag
Gardening tools set
Garden tools essentials
Gardening tools must have
Gardening tools types
The list goes on and on, but you can see that these are the things people interested in gardening are searching for online.
This keyword also has a high search volume of 27,100 searches a month, which shows it’s a topic people are very much wanting information on.
The tool I use also has a Related Keyword Ideas, Questions and Prepositions tab, so you can get even more ideas for your list.
Related
The related tab for the search term Gardening Tools comes up with things such as gardening tools sets and gardening tools organizer.
These are all fab things that keen gardeners would want to find out about.
Questions
The questions tab also comes up with some great ideas, such as what gardening tools do I need and where to buy gardening tools.
These would be great blog post topic ideas and could be researched further for even more related and specific keywords.
Prepositions
The final tab I mentioned was the prepositions one and this includes search terms such as storage for garden tools and gardening with arthritis tools.
Again, these are things that people are actively searching for every month!
Once you’ve carried out this brainstorming exercise, you can then pick out the main keyword (focus keyword) you want to use for your post, to rank for in Google!
Always look at who you are trying to reach and what it is they want to know. Base your content around this and make sure you’re always writing for your target audience and NOT solely for keyword purposes!
Find Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are next up on the list of things I want to talk about today!
Long-tail keywords are those that are more specific, less competitive and have a lower search volume.
People assume that they’re called long-tail because of the use of more words, and to a certain extent this is true, however, the reason they’re called long-tail is down to the level of search volume being lower.
When carrying out your keyword research, you need to be looking at the Keyword Difficulty…
There’s no point trying to rank for any keyword that has an extremely high number in the difficulty area.
In the screenshot below you can see that “Kayak” has an extremely high search volume of 2,740,000 searches a month, so it’s a very popular topic to write about.
However, when you then look at the SEO Difficulty number in the image, it is super high at 84.
The higher the number, the more difficult it is to rank, so 84 is exceptionally high and you’d need to find other phrases and words to try and rank for!
For this next example, I’m going to stick with the same topic and use “Kayaking” as our keyword, as this is becoming very popular right now.
A simple example of a long-tail keyword for “Kayaking” would be:
How much does Kayaking cost?
This is much better than just typing “Kayaking” into the search engine and you’d be able to write a post which has a better chance of showing in the SERPS using this key phrase!
You can see in the image below that this keyword has a good amount of searches a month, but not so many you wouldn’t have a chance at ranking and also, the SEO Difficulty is a lot, lot less at only 25, compared to the 84 of the key phrase “Kayak”.
You can also see in the screenshot below that there are many other low difficulty keywords you can try and rank for relating to the cost of kayaking for this example.
I hope from this simple explanation and guide, you can see how you can find relevant, rankable and relatable long-tail keywords to base your posts on!
Are FREE keyword research tools as good as paid ones?
Before we finally move onto the 5 simple tools I use myself for keyword research, I wanted to quickly answer this question, which I see coming up a lot.
I have to say that other than using a few free trials of certain keyword research tools, I haven’t needed to invest in a paid tool to carry out my keyword research as of yet.
That isn’t to say that I won’t and it certainly isn’t saying that paid keyword research tools are a waste of time or money…
I just haven’t felt the need to upgrade or try out any of the fancy pants ones (which also cost a ton of money) that the top gurus rave on about!
Below I’ve mentioned some of the big gun Keyword Tools which you may or may not have heard of, just so that you know who they are (these are absolutely not affiliate links as I do not use any of these tools personally and only affiliate myself with things I actually use):
I have found all the tools I’ve listed below AMAZING and they’re all FREE apart from one, and even that one is cheaper than two cups of coffee at your local coffee shop, so you can’t really go wrong!
So let’s get into the 5 super simple tools I swear by when it comes to carrying out keyword research for my own blog posts.
5 Super Simple Keyword Research Tools I Swear By
I love these 5 tools because they’re easy to use and you don’t need a degree to navigate and use them.
Two of them are completely free to use (although one of these you can upgrade to premium, but I don’t feel it’s necessary, especially as a new blogger).
I’m also sharing one other tool too which is crazy cheap (it’s just $10 for a whole year whoop) and it’s awesome…
I didn’t just want to write a post about all the different tools out there because a) there’s tons and b) I haven’t used a lot of them due to the fact they’re extremely overpriced (think almost $1000 a month for some of them) and I’ve been super duper happy with the ones I’m using…
Of course I’ve toyed with the idea of checking out the expensive ones that all the bloggers and Internet gurus rave on about, but to be totally honest – I can’t justify spending that amount of money a month.
So, let’s get into talking about the 5 tools I swear by…
People Also Ask…
The first tool I want to talk about is the very much underrated People Also Ask section within the Google searches.
This gorgeous little tool literally tells you exactly what people are asking for around a particular topic.
In the example below, I typed in “Best places to study abroad” and you can see it comes up with several People Also Ask questions.
These are great for finding more blog topic ideas and also for doing more in depth research. You can then see how popular and relevant these particular searches are before deciding whether they warrant their own post or not.
Another great way of utilising these questions is to include them as H2 and H3 subheadings within your blog posts.
You can continue clicking as many times as you want on one of the questions and it will keep opening up more and more questions that are getting searched for (as in the image below).
It’s easy to get lost and end up down a rabbit hole finding tons and tons of ideas for your content doing this, so be careful not to go too crazy with it!
Set yourself a timer for maybe half an hour to collect some ideas together.
Note down all the questions that come up… Just write them all down for now.
Look at what websites are coming up and see whether you can compete.
As mentioned earlier on in this post, if there are huge brands and companies standing in the top few spots, you’re unlikely going to be able to compete with these and will need to dig deeper for more rank able keywords.
You can also look at what the user’s intent is. From the questions arising – are they wanting information or wanting to buy etc… This will help you steer the direction of your post.
If you scroll to the bottom of the page on Google, you’ll also see other searches that people are making which can help a great deal.
You can click on these and see what comes up too!
I really love using Google itself and the People Also Ask section to do keyword research and it’s so simple and FREE!
You don’t need fancy pants software’s and tools all the time to get what you need.
Google’s Autosuggest
Another FREE tool from Google is the Autosuggest.
I don’t need to go into a massive amount of detail about this tool, as I’m sure you’ve used this yourself many times when searching, but it’s great for finding out what people’s search intent is.
You can see in the image below, using the same example of “best countries to study abroad” that many things come up relating to this search.
You can even see what universities people are searching for and a couple of countries, which could be great at helping you further for your post.
These are great for subheadings and getting more ideas on what future posts could be written about.
AnswerThePublic
Next up is AnswerThePublic and this is also a fantastic FREE tool you can use!
AnswerThePublic is a very popular tool for keyword research and one I highly recommend you check out and use yourself, so let’s check it out now…
I again simply typed in “best countries to study abroad” and see what came up.
The image above shows all the different types of questions which are being asked on the Internet.
I’ve highlighted just a couple for you to see:
Best countries to study abroad for English speakers
Best countries to study abroad 2022
However you can see there are hundreds more to check out. It can give you a slight neck ache though, trying to crane your neck to see them all in the wheel format lol.
You do have the option though of downloading them as an image, like I did, or as a CSV file.
The great thing about AnswerThePublic is you get five different areas of keywords given to you:
Questions (as in the image above)
Prepositions
Comparisons
Alphabeticals
Related
They are all in the same format of the wheel, except for the Alphabeticals.
This one is really great as it breaks down all the searches and keywords and phrases into alphabetical order, as seen below.
You can also click on the “Image” box and it will open it up for you in an easier to read format.
This tool really comes up with things people are searching for, I wouldn’t even think of and that’s fab for ideas.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is the tool where you can get the premium version, however, I’ve always sufficed with the free version, as it allows you 2-3 searches a day, and this is more than enough when you first start blogging!
This is also the tool I was using further on up in this post when carrying out keyword research examples.
This tool is fantastic as it gives you so much information to help you with your keyword research.
In the image below, it shows that within the Keywords section, you get the following to help you:
Keyword Overview
Keyword Ideas
Keywords by Traffic
Similar Websites
Content Ideas
Let’s take a brief look at each of these now…
Keyword Overview
This does exactly what it says on the tin! It gives you an overview of the keyword and shows you information such as Search Volume, SEO Difficulty, Paid Difficulty and Cost Per Click (if you’re going to be using ads).
Keyword Ideas
The Keywords Ideas tab allows you to see all the ideas and keyword variations that are being searched for, along with the information about them, such as SEO Difficulty, Volume and CPC etc…
Here is where you can also click on the other tabs mentioned previously for even more ideas (Suggestions, Related, Questions, Prepositions and Comparisons).
Keyword Traffic
This one is a fantastic keyword tool within Ubersuggest and gives you keyword information that drives traffic to other websites.
You can enter one or two competitors within your niche and see what keywords they’re ranking for.
In the image above, I typed in a site and then clicked search and below is what came up.
You can search by location and find out what keywords are being ranked in different countries to get an idea on what is popular and in demand within your niche.
Another great thing you can do is use the filters and set the SEO Difficulty to Easy.
This then allows you to see easier words you can try and rank for yourself within your post.
Similar Websites
Second to last in this list is the Similar Websites tab.
This is great to see what other websites come up that are similar to your own.
Here you’ll be able to see some well established blogs and websites and see what they’re writing about and ranking for.
In the example below, you can see that this site has 2,615 common keywords and if you click on View All, it brings these up for you to see.
This is amazing to help you discover new keywords.
Content Ideas
Last, but not least is the Content Ideas tab.
Going back to our “best countries to study abroad” keyword, when you click on the content ideas, it will show up all kinds of articles that are similar.
Also, it shows how many keywords that particular article is ranking for and even better, you can actually click on the Keywords little drop down arrow and it will show the keywords.
In the above image you can see a few of the keywords which come up and all the information relating to them.
I highly recommend you check Ubersuggest out, as it has a lot to offer!
Spend a bit of time familiarising yourself and getting to know the dashboard and how it all works, and utilise the tutorials as well to help you out.
Keywords Everywhere
The final keyword tool I want to let you in on is Keywords Everywhere.
This is a browser add-on and can be used on Google Chrome and Firefox and it helps you find the keywords your audience are searching for.
The great thing about this tool is, you can toggle it on and off, so you can use it only when you’re carrying out keyword research!
This saves your credits as it is a paid tool!
When I say paid though, it is THE cheapest keyword research tool I’ve come across, coming in at a whopping $10 per year for 100,000 keywords, which is plenty when you’re getting started.
You have the option to purchase additional credits at any time as well, so if you do happen to use them all up, you can purchase more…
It’s super simple to use too, as you simply make sure the toggle is on and type in the search engine what you’re looking for.
It will then show lots of statistics for the results that come up, such as Volume, CPC (Cost per Click and Competition) under the main keyword you entered.
When you scroll down the page and look at all the results, you’ll see information for each individual result.
If you hover over the information, it opens up a lightbox with more information on, including:
Organic Traffic per month for that particular URL
Organic Traffic for the month for the whole website
Total Keywords that particular URL ranks for
Total Keywords that the whole website ranks for
If you click on the figures presented, it opens up the information in a new tab, within the Keywords Everywhere tool.
For this example, I clicked on the Total Keywords for the entire site, as I wanted to see all the keywords they rank for.
This will give you an idea of all the things other blogs and articles within your niche are ranking for and will give you a ton of keyword ideas you can use and research further.
You get a whole host of information and can download them all or select certain keywords which you’d like to add (by clicking the star individually or adding all keywords) and downloading these!
On the right hand side of the search results, if you scroll down, you also get 4 other boxes of results:
Trend Data
Related Keywords
People Also Search For
Long-Tail Keywords
You can go through these and see what other keywords are coming up in relation to the original keyword you input to search.
You can also copy these and export them as well.
Underneath each search result, you’ll also see some other information, which is provided by Moz.
This shows you the Domain Authority (DA), Spam Score, Referring Domains and Total Backlinks, to name a few.
Again, this is a really nifty little tool to help you with your keyword research and because it shows you figures and statistics from other websites, you’ll be able to find relevant keywords and ideas you may not have even thought of to write about and include within your blog posts…
Let’s Wrap it Up!
So there you have it, my keyword research made simple + 5 easy tools I swear by…
I hope this post has really helped you understand keyword research in a simple, yet easy-to-do way!
Just to recap, here are the most important elements we covered:
You need to do keyword research when writing your blog posts, to have any kind of chance of showing up in the search results!
Without knowing the most appropriate keywords to rank for and focus on, you can’t be successful with your SEO and your blog.
Keyword research allows two things: It improves the ranking of your posts within the search engines and it helps put the right people in front of your content.
The purpose of keyword research is to include the search terms you’ve found and use these words and phrases within your content.
A good keyword is one which is highly relevant, is able to convert readers, has low competition and has a good search volume.
Finding the best keywords for your content includes thinking like your target audience, looking at what your competitors are writing about, making sure you know your niche well and not keyword stuffing.
Find your focus and seed words, along with relevant long-tail keywords for every single post you write.
Use one or two good Keyword Research tools (that are FREE) to help you.
