Mastering The Art Of Keyword Research [A Practical Guide To Teach You The Secret Sauce Behind a Profitable Blog]
A content hub, resource center, learning section, (a blog), or whatever you want to call it for an E-commerce store or SaaS business can be one of the most important sections of your website.
It has the potential to drive hundreds, thousands, and even millions of dollars in revenue.
You can trust me with this statement – I’ve helped brands turn their blog into revenue and lead generating machines, but this is only possible if you target the right keywords, and then create the right type of content for those keywords.
Today I’m going to give you the secret sauce. I’m going to show you how you can get started with [or improve] your keyword research process, so that you can generate blog ideas that will boost your company’s bottom line.
Before we go into looking at all the different keyword research methods, here’s a quick demo for how to do basic keyword research in SEMRush.
What Is The Purpose Of A Blog?
Whatever you want it to be.
- If you want your blog to raise awareness of your brand, then that’s what the purpose is.
- If you want your blog to generate leads, then that’s what the purpose is.
- If you want your blog to generate revenue, then that’s what the purpose is.
Whatever your goal, you should make sure that in some way, shape or form your content is helpful to the people viewing it.
Personally, in the past I’ve used the blog section of everyone from enterprise businesses to start-ups for all three of those items.
I helped create a recipe section for a major grocery retailer to boost brand visibility on search engines, I’ve also helped create travel related content to boost train ticket sales for a British rail company.
Blog Benefits: E-Commerce Use Case
Washing machines are big ticket items. You don’t buy them regularly. Before someone is ready to buy a washing machine they may search for a range of different keywords.
Not Ready To Buy
The following keywords might be searched for if a user’s washing machine is not working:
- How To Fix A Washing Machine
- What Does Error XYZ Mean on my Brand A Washing Machine
- Fix Washing Machine Leak
This user is not ready to buy yet – but you can get your brand or ecommerce store in-front of them by ranking for, and creating content for these specific keywords. This is a strategy that Home Depot employs to get thousands of users a month.
Here’s some of the keywords that they are ranking in the top positions for:
Considering A Purchase
- What Is The Best Washing Machine
- Best Large Capacity Top Load Washer
- Best Energy Efficient Washer and Dryer
Someone looking for these keywords is a lot closer to buying – create content that serves these users. Users like lists, Google’s algorithm likes lists, review products in detail and make sure your products are linked – this will send users right to the product page.
Here’s another example from Home Depot, look at all of the content they are ranking strongly for. These blog posts talk about the best paint for a specific use, and send the user directly to the product page.
Now you know the benefits a blog can bring, but before we get to the bit about where you can find keywords there’s one more thing you should know.
You can’t just create content for anything, the content you create needs to be relevant to your potential customers.
Become A Topical Expert
You won’t find a list of the best mattresses on Home Depot’s website. That’s because they don’t sell them.
You will find toilets for sale, and in their blog you’ll find many articles that talk about common problems with toilets, how to choose one and more. Now Google’s algorithm views Home Depot as an expert on toilets.
Becoming a topical expert starts with staying in your lane.
If you have a bunch of good quality content surrounding a particular topic, search engine algorithms will begin to see you as an expert around that topic. You’ll then be significantly more likely to rank in the top positions for your desired keyword.
Now to the fun part, finding keyword opportunities.
Finding Keyword Opportunities
#1 Use Google (or Bing)
On my keyword research template page, you’ll see that I say that you don’t need to use expensive SEO tools to find keywords.
Start with Google, what are the suggested searches for the products your company sells? You’ll also see a people also ask section. Does your website talk about these terms? If the answer is no then there you go – you have a place to start.
#2 YouTube
Type in your keyword on YouTube, what do you see?
Example above is running shoes vs training shoes. Think about your products, if you have products that compete with each other then “vs” keywords are nearly always super helpful for users.
#3 ChatGPT or Claude
Yes, you can use AI.
I need to put a disclaimer here that says do not use AI tools to check keyword volume, we’ll get onto that later. You can though use AI to help find keywords.
Here’s what ChatGPT is suggesting:
#4 A Paid SEO Tool (Ahrefs, SEMRush, Uber Suggest, Answer The Public)
I’m not affiliated with any SEO tool, but I have extensively used a lot of tools on the market. Two of the most common are Ahrefs and SEMRush. It’s super easy to find keywords using these tools.
Ahrefs
Head over the “Keywords Explorer” and type in your keyword.
Once you’ve done that, press the search button and you’ll be given a whole bunch of keywords and other metrics.
- Keyword Difficulty is how easy or difficult Ahrefs thinks it will be to show up on page 1 of Google.
- Volume is the average number of searches per month.
- Traffic Potential is how much organic traffic you could potentially generate.
- Global volume as the name suggests is worldwide search volume.
We’re more interested in the things below. Keyword ideas, questions, also rank for and also talk about.
Examine those, do you have content for those keywords? If not, then here we go. You’ve just found keyword opportunities!
SEMRush
SEMRush and Ahrefs are quite similar, in the SEO world it’s generally just a matter of what your company ends up paying for or what you prefer.
Headover to Keyword Overview, and then type in your keyword. You’ll see a similar dashboard to Ahrefs.
On the bottom right, you’ll see something called Keyword Clusters. This is a new feature that I like, and it actually helps you stay in your lane.
Similar to Ahrefs, you can use keywords you see here to create content that you don’t have, and that’s it… it’s that easy to find keywords.
You can find keywords for free, or you can use paid tools. The advantage paid tools have is that you can cross reference keywords with volume and difficulty.
If you don’t have much of a content strategy then to begin with you should play around with filters and target keywords that are low difficulty and low volume. You’re more likely to rank for those keywords.
Over time, as you build topical authority you can start to create content for more difficult keywords.
There’s one more thing…
#5 Use My Free Keyword Research Template
My keyword research template will help you organize your keywords, it lets you enter the keywords, search volume, keyword difficulty and you can even break down the source of your keywords to help you stay on track!
It’s free to download and no email sign up is required, here’s the link!
If you have any questions then feel free to reach out to me with the contact form, or connect with me on twitter (soon to be X) or LinkedIn.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/harpreetchatha_
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harpreetsingh8/
SEO focused digital marketer with over a decade of experience driving organic growth. Successfully implemented SEO strategies for some of the world’s most loved enterprise brands across automotive, ecommerce, FMCG, retail, finance, and B2B SAAS industries. Harpreet holds a BA in Geography from the University of Leicester and a MSc in International Management from King's College London.