Organic keywords are the words and phrases that people use to search for something on the internet, such as Google or Bing. They are called organic because they are not influenced by paid advertising or other factors. They reflect the natural and genuine interest of the users in a topic.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website or a web page in the organic search results. SEO helps to attract more traffic, leads, and customers to a website, and to increase its authority and reputation.
One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research, which is the process of finding and analyzing the organic keywords that are relevant to your website, your niche, your audience, and your goals. Keyword research helps you to understand what people are looking for, what their intent is, what their problems are, and how you can provide them with solutions.
There are many tools and methods that can help you with keyword research, such as Google Keyword Planner, KWFinder, Google Trends, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Moz Keyword Explorer, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc. These tools can help you to discover new keyword ideas, analyze their difficulty, competition, volume, trends, and other metrics, and to prioritize them according to your strategy.
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How to Research Organic Keywords for SEO: Some Best Practices
- Start with a broad topic or a seed keyword that represents your niche or your main product or service.
- Use keyword tools to generate a list of related keywords that are relevant to your topic and your audience.
- Analyze the metrics and data of each keyword, such as search volume, difficulty, competition, cost-per-click (CPC), etc.
- Filter out the keywords that are too generic, too specific, too competitive, or too irrelevant for your website.
- Group the keywords into categories or themes based on their similarity, intent, or user journey.
- Choose the keywords that have high relevance, high volume, low difficulty, and high potential for your website.
- Use the keywords in your content creation and optimization process.
Keyword Research Tools:
Keyword research tools are software applications or online platforms that help you to find and analyze the keywords that are relevant to your website, your niche, your audience, and your goals. Keyword research tools can help you to discover new keyword ideas, analyze their difficulty, competition, volume, trends, and other metrics, and to prioritize them according to your strategy.
There are many keyword research tools available in the market, each with its own features, advantages, and disadvantages. Some of the most popular and widely used keyword research tools are:
Google Keyword Planner:
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that is part of Google Ads, the advertising platform of Google. Google Keyword Planner allows you to find keywords based on your product or service, your website, or your category. It also allows you to see the historical and forecasted data of each keyword, such as search volume, competition, cost-per-click (CPC), etc. Google Keyword Planner is useful for finding keywords for Google Ads campaigns, as well as for SEO purposes.
KWFinder:
KWFinder is a paid tool that is part of Mangools, a suite of SEO tools. KWFinder allows you to find keywords based on your seed keyword, your location, or your domain. It also allows you to see the difficulty, search volume, CPC, trend, and SERP analysis of each keyword. KWFinder is useful for finding long-tail keywords and local keywords with low competition and high potential.
Google Trends:
Google Trends is a free tool that shows you the popularity and trend of any keyword or topic over time and across different regions and categories. Google Trends allows you to compare different keywords or topics, see related queries and topics, and explore seasonal or emerging trends. Google Trends is useful for finding keywords that are relevant to current events, user interests, and market demand.
Google Search Console:
Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you to monitor and optimize your website’s performance in Google’s organic search results. Google Search Console allows you to see the keywords that your website ranks for, the impressions, clicks, CTR, and position of each keyword, and the pages that receive the most traffic from each keyword. Google Search Console is useful for finding keywords that already drive traffic to your website, and for optimizing them further.
Bing Webmaster Tools:
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free tool that helps you to monitor and optimize your website’s performance in Bing’s organic search results. Bing Webmaster Tools allows you to see the keywords that your website ranks for, the impressions, clicks, CTR, and position of each keyword, and the pages that receive the most traffic from each keyword. Bing Webmaster Tools also provides other features such as site explorer, URL inspection, site scan, etc. Bing Webmaster Tools is useful for finding keywords that drive traffic from Bing’s search engine.
Moz Keyword Explorer:
Moz Keyword Explorer is a paid tool that is part of Moz Pro, a suite of SEO tools. Moz Keyword Explorer allows you to find keywords based on your seed keyword or your domain. It also allows you to see the difficulty, volume, opportunity (CTR potential), importance (priority), and SERP analysis of each keyword. Moz Keyword Explorer also provides other features such as keyword lists (groups), rank tracking (position), site crawl (audit), etc. Moz Keyword Explorer is useful for finding keywords with high opportunity and importance for your website.
SEMrush:
SEMrush is a paid tool that offers various features for SEO, PPC (pay-per-click), content marketing, social media marketing, etc. SEMrush allows you to find keywords based on your seed keyword or your domain. It also allows you to see the difficulty, volume, CPC, trend, SERP analysis, and other metrics of each keyword. SEMrush also provides other features such as keyword magic tool (keyword generator), keyword gap (competitor analysis), keyword manager (keyword organizer), position tracking (rank tracking), site audit (site analysis), etc. SEMrush is useful for finding keywords with comprehensive data and analysis for your website and your competitors.
Ahrefs:
Ahrefs is a paid tool that offers various features for SEO, content marketing, link building, etc. Ahrefs allows you to find keywords based on your seed keyword or your domain. It also allows you to see the difficulty, volume, CPC, clicks, return rate (relevance), and SERP analysis of each keyword. Ahrefs also provides other features such as keyword explorer (keyword research), keyword generator (keyword ideas), keyword rank tracker (rank tracking), site explorer (site analysis), site audit (site audit), etc. Ahrefs is useful for finding keywords with accurate and reliable data and analysis for your website and your competitors.
How to Use Organic Keywords in Your Content:
Once you have a list of organic keywords that you want to target for your website, you need to use them in your content creation and optimization process. Content is the main way that you can communicate with your audience, provide them with value, and persuade them to take action.
Some of the best practices for using organic keywords in your content are:
- Create high-quality content that is original, informative, engaging, and useful for your audience.
- Use your main keyword in your title tag, meta description tag, URL slug, and headline (H1 tag) of your web page.
- Use your secondary keywords and related keywords in your subheadings (H2-H6 tags), body text, image alt text, internal links, and external links of your web page.
- Use natural language and variations of your keywords to avoid keyword stuffing and to match the user intent and voice search queries.
- Use long-tail keywords and question keywords to target specific niches and answer common queries of your audience.
- Use semantic keywords and latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords to improve the relevance and context of your content for the search engines and the users.
- Use local keywords and geo-targeted keywords to target specific locations and audiences if applicable.
- Update your content regularly to keep it fresh and relevant for the search engines and the users.
How to Measure the Performance of Your Organic Keywords:
The final step of using organic keywords for SEO is to measure the performance of your organic keywords and your content. This will help you to evaluate the effectiveness of your keyword research and content optimization process, and to identify the areas of improvement and opportunities for growth.
Some of the key metrics that you should track and analyze for measuring the performance of your organic keywords are:
- Organic traffic: The number of visitors that come to your website from the organic search results.
- Organic impressions: The number of times that your website appears in the organic search results.
- Organic click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click on your website from the organic search results.
- Organic conversions: The number of users who complete a desired action on your website from the organic search results.
- Organic ranking: The position of your website in the organic search results for a specific keyword or query.
- Organic bounce rate: The percentage of users who leave your website after viewing only one page from the organic search results.
You can use various tools and platforms to measure these metrics, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Moz, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc. These tools can help you to monitor and analyze the performance of your organic keywords and your content over time, and to compare them with your competitors and your industry benchmarks. By measuring the performance of your organic keywords, you can gain valuable insights into your SEO strategy, your audience behavior, and your website performance. You can use these insights to optimize your organic keywords and your content further, and to achieve your SEO goals.
Conclusion:
Organic keywords are the foundation of SEO and content marketing. They help you to understand your audience, their needs, their problems, and their solutions. They help you to create and optimize content that is relevant, valuable, and engaging for your audience. They help you to improve the visibility and ranking of your website in the organic search results. They help you to attract more traffic, leads, and customers to your website, and to increase its authority and reputation.
To use organic keywords effectively for SEO, you need to follow a systematic process of keyword research, content creation, content optimization, and performance measurement. You need to use various tools and methods to find and analyze the best organic keywords for your website, your niche, your audience, and your goals. You need to use the organic keywords in your content in a natural and strategic way to match the user intent and the search engine algorithms. You need to measure the performance of your organic keywords and your content regularly to evaluate their effectiveness and to identify the areas of improvement and opportunities for growth.
Organic keywords are not a one-time thing. They are a continuous process that requires constant research, analysis, optimization, and evaluation. By using organic keywords wisely and consistently for SEO, you can achieve long-term success and growth for your website and your business.