7 Reasons Why Keyword Research Is Important for SEO

It helps you understand the search intent

How search engines understand the search intent

With the increased progress rate of technology and AI, search engines are becoming more and more advanced by the day. AI and machine learning based on advanced algorithms have enabled search engines to accurately determine the user’s search intent.

When you compare today’s search engine capabilities with those in the past, you will see that keyword stuffing is slowly left behind. 

Instead, long-tail keywords, which may also be called topics, are increasingly used by search engines to determine a user’s search intent.

However, those long-tail keywords, or topics, are derived from billions of searches worth of data that Google and other search engines constantly analyze. 

Based on what keyword or topic users clicked and how much time they spent viewing the content are some criteria search engines use to evaluate search intent.

 

How you can use keyword research to understand the search intent

You can use the same process in reverse based on how search engines understand search intent using keywords and topics. 

Namely, using keyword research will provide you with vital information concerning the search intent of a particular group of people. This group’s search intent can be based on demographic, location, interest, or other factors which search engines compile.

You can understand what a specific group of people are interested in and why based on the data that keyword research tools will provide. That is how you pick your targeted audience and produce keyword-relevant content based on their needs.

As you can see, understanding the search intent is a two-way process. The search engines need to understand the search intent first, using keywords, topics, and other mechanisms. Only then can you use the keyword research process to understand search intent from a human perspective.

It improves content clustering and topical authority

Since we’ve already mentioned that topics are a kind of long-tail keywords that are becoming increasingly relevant for SEO and keyword research, you can also use them for proper content structuring.

How content clusters and topical authority work

Having a proper website structure is vital for SEO. If you want your content to be recognized as relevant by search engines, you must organize it so that they will understand it.

This is where terms like content clusters and pillar pages come into action.

A pillar page is a main page containing content structured around a relevant, high-volume keyword. 

Content or topic clusters are smaller pages centered around one pillar page, which include content structured around long tail keywords or topics. These smaller pages are connected with the pillar page using internal links.

The entire group of pillar pages, topic clusters, and internal links is also called a topical map. Establishing a topical map is complex, and many SEO agencies specialize in this service. 

CLICKVISION is such an agency that offers topical map service that grows organic traffic and gains topical authority for your website.

How can keyword research improve content clustering?

Keyword research is one of the bases for improving content clustering.

You can use it to find and identify a relevant long-tail keyword phrase or topic. You will discover which topics are relevant by determining how they are connected or derived from one relevant, high-volume keyword. 

For example, “Content Marketing” is a relevant, high-volume keyword that can be a basis for your pillar page. Long-tail keywords, connected and derived from this keyword, may be:

• Content Marketing implementation in practice.
• Content Marketing classes and courses.
• Free content marketing tips to increase your workflow.

As you can see, long-tail keywords are specific topics you can discover using keyword research.

It helps you develop a clear content strategy

Before you publish content online, you must establish even the most basic publishing strategy.

What does this mean?

It means that you must first identify what your content will be about. The more specific you are in this regard, the better. 

Narrowing down the content topics as much as possible shows expertise and relevance to search engines. It is also called picking a niche, and writing content for a specific group of people, instead of a broad audience. 

How can keyword research help you pick your niche?

To quickly pick your niche, you must first know what problems you’re good at solving. Then you can promote your solutions to those problems to people online. 

By choosing keywords closely related to your problem-solving skills, you discover how many people are searching for the same solution. 

Let’s say you’re good at fixing cars. You start your keyword research with a broad keyword like “how to fix a car.” This keyword has a high search volume. 

Nevertheless, narrowing this keyword down to more specific topics, like “how to fix a car that has an alternator problem,” will discover other relevant but low-competition keywords you can build upon.

Based on that research, you can evaluate whether or not your niche is relevant to the target audience and worth writing content about.

How will this help you develop a clear content strategy?

When you determine that your niche is highly relevant, you continue using keyword research to build a structure of relevant long-tail keywords or topics. 

You will start writing content based on the established keyword structure using topic clusters and pillar pages. This is how you develop a clear content strategy based on keyword research.

It enhances and optimizes your content

Enhancing your content using proper keyword placement is key to improving SEO rankings. 

But improving SEO rankings doesn’t always mean producing and optimizing new content. New content is vital in the beginning. 

Later on, as your website grows with relevance and authority, you must optimize and enhance your old content to rank as higher as possible in the search engines.

How will keyword research help improve your new content?

Using keyword research, you can optimize your newly created content in several ways.

First, you can strategically place the keyword you’re targeting in your content to grab the search engine’s attention. 

Second, you can use keyword research to discover new and related keywords that you can also place in your content. 

Third, you can use keyword research to discover secondary LSI keywords, which are also analyzed and seen as relevant by search engines. This will improve your content ranking even further.

How will keyword research help improve your old content?

By analyzing how your content ranks in the SERPs, keyword research can tell you how that specific content performs and what you need to optimize.

Many keyword research tools also help analyze how your content ranks according to a specific keyword. These tools will also tell you what LSI keywords your content is missing, whether you have any relevant keywords in the content headings, etc.

Keyword research will also help you recognize a keyword that ranks poorly in your old content. By making simple changes in the word order, you will target a keyword with the same meaning but with a higher relevancy and search volume.

It increases content profitability

Proper keyword research will result in higher SERPs rankings, ultimately increasing its profitability.

Let’s face it; no one wants to write highly valuable content for free. The ultimate goal of every blogger, freelancer, or company is to have a website that provides a decent amount of income over time. It’s a sort of payment for sharing your expertise and helping others solve their problems.

How can keyword research increase content profitability?

Even keywords have a particular value. That value is often expressed monetarily.

If you’re using a keyword research tool, you certainly know about the terms PPC (Pay-per-Click) and CPC (Cost-per-Click). These terms are practically identical and indicate the value of a given keyword based on data assessed by search engines. 

The higher the keyword value, the more people or companies are ready to pay for it to rank at the top of the SERPs. This is why many high-volume, broad keywords have little value because people search for them by default. But this doesn’t mean that all low-competition keywords have a high value. 

This is where keyword research will help you identify the keywords with enough monthly search volume and cost to maximize your content’s profitability. 

You can then implement a service like Google Ads to monetize your content and track how much profit it is making based on search volume and traffic.

It saves time and money

Using keyword research as one of your pillar content strategies will save you time and money. As a result, your content will rank faster and higher in the SERPs. 

Without it, you will have to keep “guessing” keywords and topics to rank. That is a mistake that thousands of new content creators and bloggers make.

How will keyword research save you time and money?

Keyword research will help you find the keywords and topics within your niche that have the best chances of ranking in the SERPs. 

Instead of you having to guess which topic or keyword to structure your content around, simple keyword research will point you in the right direction. Imagine the amount of time and effort you will save if you implement a keyword research strategy. 

Keyword research will also save you money in the long run. You may ask how when almost all high-end research tools are not free. 

The good news is you don’t even need to pay for a research tool if you’re a beginner. You can use tools such as 

• KeySearch
• Ubersuggest
• Google Keyword Planner.

These tools offer free daily searches, which you can utilize to find low-competition keywords for which you can rank. Even a high-end SEO tool like Semrush offers free daily searches to get you started.

It helps you analyze competitor progress

Most advanced keyword research tools like Semrush or Ahrefs also provide competitor analysis. This means that you can check how your competitors are ranking in the SERPs by analyzing what specific keywords they’re targeting and how.

How can keyword research help analyze your competitors?

The most basic keyword research analysis involves tracking organic keywords that your competition ranks for.

Once you find these organic keywords, you can use them in your content to easily outrank your competition. 

However, analysis of your competitor’s ranking keywords is one thing. Keyword research also analyzes backlinks and competitor gaps.

Competitor gap analysis, or keyword gap, is vital if you want to discover which keywords your competitors’ websites rank for but your website does not.

Tools like SEO Surfer or KeywordsEverywhere have free Google Chrome extensions that also show your competitor’s domain and page authority. Using these parameters, you can analyze how strong the competitors in your niche are and find what keywords they target.

Key Takeaways You Need to Remember

Lastly, here are some of the key takeaways about why keyword research is important for SEO:

• It helps you target the right audience by understanding their search intent and main problems.
• It helps you improve your website structure, basing it around several pillar pages and many sub-pages called content clusters.
• You will easily develop the right content strategy using keyword research and know how to approach content creation.
• Keyword research will help enhance and optimize your new and old content to make it rank higher in the SERPs.
• Implementing keyword research will save you a lot of time and money. You won’t have to “guess” the keyword or topic around which to create content.
• It will increase your content’s profitability by targeting high-value, low-competition keywords.
• You can use it to analyze your competitor’s content and find out which keywords they rank for in the SERPs.

Conclusion

Keyword research remains one of today’s central content creation and optimization strategies in digital marketing. 

It is considered a foundational practice in developing a solid and successful SEO campaign that increases traffic and drives sales.

What is your opinion on why keyword research is important for SEO, and in what ways does it help content creation besides the ones mentioned in this article? Feel free to leave a comment and tell us below.