Keyword Research is a really important step in your SEO campaign. Before you start trying to rank your website for all sorts of search terms in the hopes that people are using them, there are tools out there that give you insight into what people are actually looking for when it comes to your industry. One thing that people and especially business owners tend to forget is that not everyone has the knowledge of the industry that they quite do. While you may think you know what the public is searching for they might actually be using different terms and phrases that you wouldn't use.
Tools for Keyword Research
There are loads of different tools that you can use for keyword research some of which cost and others are free. A few include:
- Moz Keyword Planner
- Wordstream Keyword Tool
- The Hoth
- SEMRush
- ahrefs
- Googe Keyword Planner
- SerpStat
I'm not going to show you all of these tools but I'll let you see the interface of some of both paid and free to hopefully help you make up your mind on which tool you would like to use.
Moz Keyword Explorer
This tool is very simple and easy to use, all you do is enter either the keyword, your domain or page that you want to analyse and it will show information on a few keywords. You can also analyse competitors here but don't worry too much about that just now as I'll cover this in more detail later on in the course.
Above is an example of how the tool works, as you can see I've entered the keyword 'dentist Glasgow'. Moz then shows you the monthly traffic that the keyword gets along with how competitive it is and even gives you some other suggested keywords for you to take a look at. Moz isn't a free tool but you get 10 free searches per month. If you aren't going to pay for any tools then I suggest making the most of this one as it'll give you a better insight vs the other free ones.
The Hoth
This is a free keyword research tool, it will ask you for the keyword first of all and then for your email address. Once you put this in you'll be able to see a good amount of results and stats for a free tool.
As you can see the amount of search volume the Hoth is suggesting is very different from what Moz but there's no real way to know so it's always best to make your own estimation based on a few tools. I've yet again used the keyword 'dentist glasgow' and what you'll notice is the search volume is a whole lot higher here than on Moz's keyword explorer. It also gives you stats such as the cost per click (CPC) for each keyword and how competitive it is.
SEMRush
This is the tool I personally use when it comes to Keyword Research. SEMRush is a paid tool but in my opinion, it gives the most accurate results.
Again this is very similar in the sense that you stick in the keyword, domain, page etc of your choice. Make sure that you select the right search engine location for the most accurate results. Although SEMRush is a paid tool, similar to Moz you do get a few free searches.
I carried out the same search again for 'dentist glasgow'. SEMRush's results are a lot closer to Moz's estimation vs free tool The Hoth. This gives you all the same stats that the other tool would do for you but what you can also do here is check the historical data. This lets you see what the search volume was like for this keyword going back months. This kind of data is good for working out when the busiest time of the year is for your keyword.
You can get a 14 day free trial here