Why a new guide?
Often in SEO, we get so preoccupied with technical SEO (pagination, site speed, the latest Python course, etc.) that we forget the basis of winning SEO begins and ends with keywords.
- Not choosing keywords before starting SEO means shooting in the dark — a likely losing gamble on whether your content will succeed or not.
- Choosing the wrong keywords means wasting time and budget on content that will never gain visibility in search results.
- Conversely, choosing smart, targeted keywords can help carve out and dominate a traffic niche, raising you above the competition.
No doubt, the difference between good SEOs and mediocre SEOs is often their keyword research strategy.
Here at Moz, a question we often hear after people finish reading the famous Beginner’s Guide to SEO is: What do I read next?
To give people a practical place to start, we wanted to provide you with concrete keyword research workflows. It’s as if you’re looking over our shoulder as we do strategic keyword research.
We also included a few intermediate-to-advanced concepts, such as keyword grouping, understanding keyword priority, and on-page keyword optimization.
And finally, we wanted to make sure it was free.
If you want, feel free to jump to the guide now, or read below about what the guide covers and how it differs from other guides on keyword research.
THE KEYWORD RESEARCH MASTER GUIDE
1. Understanding Seed Keywords
We call them “seed” keywords because all your other keywords grow out of them. Finding the right seed keywords will absolutely make or break your entire keyword research strategy.
Finding the right seed keywords involves asking and answering three key questions:
- What do you think you want to rank for?
- What do you already rank for?
- What do your competitors rank for?
After this, you validate your answers with data to find the absolute best seeds.
We also show you the exact process and tools we use to extract these seeds, such as Google Search Console.
The cool thing about seed keywords is this: they grow more seeds! Once you find the right seeds, you can repeat the process again and again to grow a complete keyword strategy for an entire site, even one that’s thousands of pages.
2. Building Perfect Keyword Lists
This is where the rubber hits the road. Here, you expand your seed keywords into complete lists. These lists support multiple pages and topics, and can even grow more seeds.
This is also the place to be as comprehensive as possible, uncovering opportunities your competition probably missed.
3. Prioritizing Keywords
Nearly any old keyword tool can give you lists of hundreds or thousands of keywords. The secret to success is knowing which keywords to prioritize and pursue.
Which keywords will actually prove profitable? Which keywords can you actually rank for?
To answer these questions, we dive into the keyword metrics that help us prioritize our keyword lists:
- Relevance
- Monthly volume
- Keyword difficulty
- Organic click-through rate (CTR)
- Priority
Understanding how to use these metrics goes a long way in choosing the exact right keywords to invest in.
4. Grouping Keywords
Keywords never exist in a vacuum. Instead, they almost always appear with other keywords.
Adding related keywords to a page is a smart strategy for increasing topical relevance. At the same time, trying to target too many keywords on the same page may dilute their relevance and make it more difficult to rank.
Here, we show you techniques to address both problems:
- When to create separate pages for each keyword
- How to group related keywords together
We’ll also share some grouping tips to set you up for the next task: on-page keyword optimization.
5. On-Page Keyword Optimization
Very few keyword research guides even mention on-page keyword optimization.
We wanted to do better.
Because keyword research uncovers intent, this is a great starting point for on-page optimization. If you understand not only what your users are searching for but also what they expect to find, you can better create content to satisfy their expectations.
We’ve also included a brief overview of where and how to incorporate keywords on the page. While this section is mostly beginner level, more experienced SEOs should find it a useful refresher.
6. Tracking Keyword Rankings
Whether you’re a consultant, agency, in-house SEO, or simply work for yourself, you want to know how your keywords perform in search engines.
Traditionally, keyword tracking was synonymous with “ranking” — but times have changed. Today, with personalization, localization, and shifting competitive environments, keyword tracking has grown much more sophisticated.
In this chapter, we’ll cover:
- Traditional keyword ranking
- Local rank tracking
- Rank indexes
- Share of Voice (SOV) and visibility
By the end of this chapter, you’ll understand which type of keyword tracking is right for you, and how to report these numbers to the people who matter.
7. Keyword Research Tools and Resources
Bonus time!
We couldn’t squeeze everything into the previous chapters, so we added all our extra resources here. The highlight is the Keyword Research Cheat Sheet, which you can download, print, and share with your team or pin to your wall.
We’ve also made a handy list of our favorite keyword research tools, along with other useful resources on keyword research.
We hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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