Keyword research is the first step of any successful SEO campaign. It helps identify keywords people search for online to find your business.

You can then incorporate these keywords into your website in places like page titles, Meta Descriptions, and body text. This helps improve your ranking in search results, ensuring your business appears in the most relevant searches. But how do you choose which keywords to target?

First, consider each level of the buying funnel. This will help you choose keywords and write content that reaches customers at each level. Then, create a list of buying funnel buckets into which keywords fall.

For example, you can categorise your keywords based on informational and transactional searches. This provides a roadmap for your keyword research and ensures your website has a balance of different content types. Informational or top-of-funnel queries are often common questions people have about your industry.

If people are looking for a new dentist, they might want to know "What to look for when choosing a dentist?" or "Which dentist accepts my insurance?". These phrases probably won't generate much direct revenue, but they can raise brand awareness among potential customers and help increase traffic to your website. Sites like KeywordsFX and Quora are excellent places to discover keywords for informational searches because topics and suggestions are entirely user-driven.

Transactional searches are performed by people who have already done their research and are ready to buy. This category generates money. So, if you're not targeting the keywords this group is looking for, start doing so.

Google's Keyword Planner is a great tool for choosing keywords for this group of searchers. Additionally, you can use Google's estimated cost per click to determine the purchase intent and long-term value of each click. If you don't have access to the keyword planner, other tools like SEMrush, Keyword Tool, and BuzzSumo are excellent options.

These tools can help you discover the keywords people search for when they are ready to buy from your business. Keywords Everywhere is another free tool that allows you to enter keywords and see key metrics like search volume, cost per click, and competition level. This is very valuable because it allows you to determine the value of each keyword or phrase you target.

With Keywords Everywhere, you can bulk upload keywords and then export the information to inform your content strategy.

When choosing keywords, also consider longtail ones. Today, there are so many major players and international brands in the SEO game that it can be difficult to remain competitive in search results. Longtail keywords help.

Longtail keywords are specific and detailed search queries. For example, if you are a dentist, you might want to target the phrase "best family dentist in your location" instead of just "dentist" or "family dentistry". Longtail keywords usually have much lower search volume than short, broad keywords. But they also have much less competition and higher Conversion Rates.

This is because longtail keywords demonstrate a much more specific search intent. You can use the same keyword tools we mentioned before to find longtail keywords. You can even use Google's autocomplete feature to learn more about the longtail phrases people actually search for online.

Start by entering a generic keyword into Google search. Following our dentist example, you can type the phrase "dental services". Then, instead of hitting enter, take a look at Google's autocomplete results. This will give you a good idea of some longer-tail keywords you can target to help people find your practice online.