One cannot possibly understand SEO without encountering the words: Keyword Research. For newcomers in the world of search engine optimization, this seems like a complex term. But in actuality, it really isn’t and can be explained in a simple way that is relatable and sticks.
That is what I intend to do with this article. In the following paragraphs, I will show and tell you just what keyword research is all about and throw some light on how you can easily use keywords to optimize your website on search engines.
Keywords
Imagine this. A non-English speaker finds himself surrounded by people who only speak English. He is in the grocery store, about to get some groceries. He can recognize the groceries when he sees them but can’t tell the owner of the store what he wants, as pointing is going to seem awkward and make it obvious that he feels lost.
So, what does he do?
He goes online and, with the help of a translator, copies the name of each item he wants to buy on paper. A paper he titles: “I need this.”
He would present this paper to the storekeeper.
And guess what? The storekeeper is going to know exactly what he wants and will get it for him, which could have been very difficult if the customer hadn’t found a way to do translations and scribble them on paper.
Keywords work the same way.
A keyword is to a search engine what the list of groceries is to the storekeeper. People who use search engines search for a lot of things every day. Simple stuff. Complex stuff. Accept it; you have used a search engine today. In fact, a search engine possibly brought you here.
The search engine, like the storekeeper, sees a search by a user and then goes: “Oh, I get that. That is what you want?”
Keyword research is a technique used to have a clue, or to a large extent, predict the keywords that users search for. It is like walking to the storekeeper and asking: “Hey, what do non-English speakers who come to this shop include the most in their list of groceries?”
Now, note that you are the producer of the items in this example. This is to say that you produce all the items present in the store the Non-English speakers come to. You want to know the items sought after the most because it will help you predict what kind of goods to produce the most.
With keyword research, you are seeking to know the kinds of keywords the people who use search engines include in their searches because it is going to help you optimize your site for these search terms, making your web pages easily readable by search engines.
There are a number of ways to conduct keyword research, but they are not too complex. You will need software and some idea about the traffic that comes to your site. Here are some tools you can use for keyword research.