While search engine optimization keeps on changing tracks, keyword research is one process that has been valuable since its beginning. With time, finding keywords has become way easier due to advanced tools and techniques.

When you know the right technique, it makes keyword research simple and effective, which is why this article shows you the steps required to research search terms and phrases.

1. Look at your business to list some relevant topics

Most beginners don’t know where to start their research. For them, the best approach is analysing the business niche. Simply looking at the type of business, you can list around 5 to 10 relevant topics. These are not the keywords, but they will help you find your target phrases conveniently. For instance, a restaurant owner can select topics such as “reserve a table at restaurant”, “find continental cuisine”, “dine with your family”, “a local restaurant”, “Food delivery in X (your business location)”, and others.

2. Find multiple keywords for each topic

Now, you can choose one of many keyword tools available online to find keywords for every topic. It is important to know that paid tool versions are usually better to get more data and a number of keywords.

When selecting keywords, evaluate their search results manually on Google. This will help you figure out the chances of getting a rank on that SERP. Eventually, you will collect hundreds of keywords for every topic you selected earlier. Plus, many broad keywords will help you create new topic categories as well.

3. Find related terms to support your target keyword 

There are many search terms that contain the same searcher’s intention. This means that searchers type those phrases to find the same kind of information. You can support your target keyword when optimizing a web page by including similar related terms. These terms are available at the bottom of every search engine result page. Plus, you can find tools that will help you find related terms.

When finding related terms, you will have to focus on long-tail keywords and LSIs. Long-tail keywords are phrases that contain more than 3 terms. For example, “Cake recipe” is a broad keyword, while “Cake recipe for 10-year-old kid birthday” is a long-tail search term.

The LSI is also known as the Latent Semantic Indexing, which includes terms closely related to the concept of a target keyword. For example, “cute puppy pictures” and “cute puppy images” have similar concepts.

4. Steal keywords from your competitors

After conducting the initial research, you will get an idea of keywords related to your industry. Use this knowledge to steal keywords from competitors as well. Your competitors have spent hours of research on finding keywords. So, you can rely on the terms they have incorporated in their web pages. You conduct this process manually. However, there are many free platforms online to help you find the top-ranking keywords of a competitor site.

Now, you know all the best ways to find keywords in a simple and effective manner.