Kate: Welcome to the Marketing Hive, a podcast for helping you to navigate the world of digital marketing. We are your host, Amy Cook and Kate Smoothy, and today we are talking all about keyword research. For seo. We’re covering everything you need to know to choose the correct keywords for your website and sharing our five favorite keyword research tools.
Amy,
Amy: Hello. Hello, Hello. Um, yeah, I guess we should kick it off with actually what the hell keywords are. Cause I’m sure many people are probably thinking great. What, what are keywords? What do we do with them?
Kate: Um, yeah, I think everybody has a really different understanding of this, don’t they? Like some people come to it having a bit of an understanding about keywords, like they kind of know what they’re for and other people are just like, what the freak is a keyword word.
Amy: Exactly. And I think it is that thing, isn’t it? For example, for anyone who probably doesn’t know what keywords are for SEO is basically that’s the thing that gets your website ranking and people to your website. Um, so that’s literally it. It’s just about choosing the right ones to then actually get those, I guess, the correct people to the site that are actually gonna want to purchase from you as such.
Um, but there are actually three different types of keywords to.
Kate: Yeah, so there is a short tail keyword, medium tail keyword, and a long tail keyword. And so to just give three, I use these examples all the time. So short tail, keyword for my industry would be web design or seo. Yeah. Um, then like a medium tail keyword would be maybe something like web design for business, and a long tail keyword would be something like web design for small business owners or web design for digital entrepreneurs or
Amy: what have you.
Um, so yeah, talking on those keywords a bit in a bit more detail, I guess the kind of way you can differentiate them is the length of the keyword. So kind of as it says on the tin, a short term keyword is a key word for, uh, less
Kate: than two words. Yeah, I think it’s one of those things, isn’t it? There’s no hard and fast rule, but it varies depending on.
Obviously SEO is just one word, but web design is two, and there could be instances like dog grooming services where I would probably, well, actually no, I’d probably say dog grooming is the short tail key there, but yeah, it, it some, it depends. Basically it’s like the, the shortest way that you can say what you’re offering is.
It’s normally like the thing that you might. First on Google, so these will actually come a little bit later. We’re gonna talk about search intent, but let’s say you are starting out a search and you are thinking, Oh my gosh, like I need a website, so I’m gonna Google web design. Then as you get into it, you realize that you are, you are gonna start narrowing down that search.
And so what happens is as people narrow down the search, they start searching for medium or long tail keyword.
Amy: Yeah, I think that’s it, isn’t it? It’s about kind of the, It’s the best way I probably would say to describe it is about where that person is within their customer journey. So when we think of customer journey, we think about someone who is very problem focused.
So that’s someone who, like you say, has an issue, probably doesn’t know yet what they need or how to actually fix it. So they would use a short term keyword, like web design for example, because that they’re just trying to figure out what they want. Once they then discover more on that path of what they’re looking for, they start to go in the second phase of a customer journey, which is solution.
Sure. So that’s the, they’ve started to narrow down, figure out what they want, so then they start searching more specifically. So that could be web designer for female based businesses, for example, cuz maybe they want someone that’s, you know, more relatable to them. They then obviously got their, their, you know, They’ve got their solution, they know what they want, they’re then searching the longer tower key works.
Um, so I guess that’s how you would differentiate the two. Um, you obviously, when it comes to your website, want a mixture, I guess, of both, because then you’re gonna capture people at different stages of their customer journey, build that brand awareness for your business. But equally there’s factors to that.
So for example, with short term keywords, They’re obviously a lot more competitive cuz everyone kind of wants those keywords, so it’s definitely harder to rank for. So yeah, that’s where, later on we talk about kind of that thing of understanding, I guess, your strategy and the purpose of putting that keyword on your website to then be able to get the right, you know, the right inquiries and so forth coming
Kate: through.
Absolutely. So I think the, it can be, I think it can feel really overwhelming to think about the short tail, medium tail, and um, long tail keywords. But what you will find is as you do your keyword research and as you are looking to hit all these other markers in terms of search volume and all things that we are gonna cover, You will realize that long tail keywords are probably your best bet.
Um, as an example, like office chair, well Amazon, Amazon are gonna be ranking number one. Wayfair. I’m just trying to think of like other companies that will be coming up there. You, you know, if you are like a Shopify site and you are selling that kind of thing, you are never gonna rank for that. Um, so it’s about.
Understanding your competition and the fact that the, the huge big players are going to be targeting the short tail keywords and just understanding that, although that might, you might think logically in your mind, Oh, well my keywords are going to be exactly what it is I sell. It’s about tailoring those.
To actually hit someone’s search results. Yeah. Because you are competing with huge companies. Um, but just, just to go back, because I was thinking when we were talking about this, I’m like, just to clarify on the keywords thing, so probably the simplest way to define what a keyword is, is it’s your way of telling search engine.
About the content on your page? Yeah, so you have to look at it from two angles. There’s, you put the keyword on your website, so search engines know that that’s what your content is about, but then also someone will be putting that keyword into Google and searching for it. And then be connected with your content.
So it’s part of a much bigger thing. Um, but that’s essentially what it is. And your short tell keywords you will probably already know off the top of your head. And the point of keyword research is one, to find out if there are other ways people might be searching for what you. Sell what you provide that maybe aren’t apparent to you.
Maybe they describe it slightly differently, but also to actually find the keywords that are gonna get you traffic. Yeah, because like for me, if I optimize my website for web design, I’m never going to get traffic. I’d love to, It would be amazing. I wouldn’t need to market anywhere else, but it’s not gonna happen.
So it’s. Finding those areas where you can dominate search results.
Amy: Yeah, a hundred percent. I guess that moves on to kind of like that’s where you’d start looking at your search intent as such, in terms of. I always like to start with kind of like mapping out, you know, your website in terms of figuring out what pages you’ve got and then deciding what’s the purpose of that page.
So for example, I guess two examples would be if you had a service page, obviously the intent of that is to get someone to that page to then want to purchase. Um, another example would be, for example, if you had maybe a blog that would be more as. You know, educational type things, that’s more like getting people there to, to learn or, you know, to start getting more value.
So it’s a different type of intent in terms of why that person’s coming to you. Someone who obviously is gonna be searching for a service is ready to purchase. Someone who’s looking to learn more is looking to understand and figure out possibly if that’s what they actually need or want. So it’s figuring out, I guess if you kind of like look at all your, all your landing pages or the pages you’ve got on your website and figuring out what’s the purpose of this page.
You know, why do I want people to click on this page? What do I want people to get out of that page? And then that’s when you can start thinking about the keywords that you could start using for it. So for example, If I had a service page about my, um, SEO services, obviously the intent there is to get people to land on that page to get SEO support.
So straight away I can start thinking, Okay, so the keyword could be SEO support or SEO services. So I can start to then do my research based on that to then expand it out to see what other things people are searching for around SEO to help me with
Kate: keywords. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there’s, so there is, the way, another way you can look at search intent is that there are searches that have got high buyer intent and there are searches that have got a low buyer intent.
So, or high search intent, low search intent. You’ll see people call them different things, but essentially it’s the same thing. So, , this is where, So Amy’s talking about, um, earlier on about like solution based searches and that kind of thing. So when someone initially starts their research, a lot of the time people are looking to diy.
So it might be, how do I build a website, How to build a website, for example. So, That is a key word that I would want to target, but I would target it with a blog post, and I would understand that someone is gonna come to me and read that blog post and they’re gonna wanna learn more information. My goal at that point, as a business owner looking to sell my services is to make it clear to that person that they probably can’t do it themselves, but it’s not to sell my web design services on that page because they have got a low buyer intent and they’re very, they’re, they’re at a point in their journey where they’re thinking they can do it themselves and they need to learn.
About how, Yeah, they can’t, Maybe they can, but they, they quite possibly can’t. Um, obviously the reason why I do what I do is cuz lots of people can’t or don’t want to or whatever. Um, The goal with that blog post is to give enough information and to place myself as an authority figure within web design.
From there, I can softly, softly link to my services. Yeah. But it’s more in like a, If you are unsure on any of this, you could reach out to a web designer to discuss it with them. It’s not a book, a web design project with me now kind of thing. Yeah. Because that’s, it’s, it’s just not gonna convert. There’s no point.
Um, whereas like a high search. Keyword or, um, high buyer intent, keyword, however you wanna describe it, would be something like web design services in Essex, web design for female entrepreneurs, web designer for coaches, that kind of thing. That’s what I would gear up a service page for because that person is looking for me.
They’ve already accepted that they want that service, hence why they’re looking for a web designer or web design services. And so they would get sent through to a main service page where they could. Um, similarly, you can do it with products. I shared something on Tea Talk the other day about this. Um, Apple do it really well.
So they have two pages on their website for each product, and they both have a similar goal of you buying the product, but one page is still selling you the product and the other page is just telling you how to buy it. Yeah, and the page that is telling you how to buy it, so I can’t remember what the product is I use in the video, but let’s say it’s an iPhone 13.
There’s a learn more about the iPhone 13 page and there’s a buy iPhone 13 page, and the idea is that someone might be searching for, say, iPhone 12 versus iPhone 13. They’re not ready to buy, but they kind of are. So for Apple, they know they’re ready to buy from Apple and they’re ready to buy an iPhone, but they dunno which one.
So the goal with that is to convince them which one to buy, not to just send them to a page where they can buy an iPhone 13. Whereas if someone’s Googling buy iPhone 30. 13, they’re sold. Make it as easy as possible for them to buy it. And so it’s about considering what they’re searching, where you are hoping to send them based on the search and then the user journey on your website.
So really consider what keywords you are targeting and don’t just pick a vague keyword that’s kind of related to the page because people are gonna come to the page, they’re gonna be pissed off, and they’re gonna leave, and they’re never gonna click your link again. That’s it,
Amy: isn’t it? And I think that’s the thing where when you start to, like we said, it’s easy to sometimes start with the short term keywords in terms of like, you know, marketing support, SEO services, web design.
But you need to then start narrowing that down to allow it to become more specific and you know, and get people who are, I guess, more at your level. Cause I guess that’s where it comes into like factors of when choosing your keyword. It’s not as simple as just going, Okay, brilliant. We’re gonna go with the keyword web design.
Like there’s lots of factors, like you said a minute ago. In terms of office chairs, Amazon are gonna be ranking for that cuz they’ve got millions of things on their website about office chairs. So you are never gonna compete against that. So, It’s pointless. You can put that keyword on that page and tell Google that’s what your page is about, but it doesn’t mean you’re then gonna get the results you want.
So that’s where you want to start narrowing it down to um, keywords that possibly have a lower search volume, but it’s still gonna give you opportunity to get your website ranking on Google cuz there’s not that competitiveness.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. And so actually that probably does lean in really nicely to discussing search volume in a bit more detail because, so everything we’ve talked about so far are all factors you need to consider, um, quite possibly during the keyword research phase.
But some before search volume is something that will become apparent. Once you’re in keyword research phase, so there’s not, not really another way you can,
Amy: No. So I guess like, I guess the, the thing what you wanna do is basically start thinking about, like we say, that user, the process of that bias journey, what that landing page is about.
So you know, the search intent of that page. , Is it a landing page that’s gonna get people to purchase or is it a page that is gonna persuade them to purchase by giving them more information, helping them, you know, answer that problem they’ve got even more that they’re gonna then want to purchase. Once you’ve then decided that you can then start to see and get ideas in terms of the key or thinking that page needs to be.
So like we’ve said, examples, it could be that you are a web designer, so you start thinking this page is. Purchase. So we want people to be looking for web design. That’s where you would then start tackling your keyword research, um, in terms of, you know, searching for that keyword. And then that’s where you start then looking at the search volumes to figure out.
From that which keyword has got the best search volumes and competition to then be able to support your website. So like we said before, shorter town keywords are obviously harder to rank for. Reason for that is because, There’s hundreds of search volumes for it. So I’m sure for the keyword, for example, like web design would be like plus 10 K, monthly search volumes.
Kate: God, probably even more. I’m gonna look now. Yeah. Have a just out interest while you,
Amy: Um, so yeah, so obviously
Kate: that’s huge and it sounds like, and 15,100 searches.
Amy: Wow, That’s crazy. But yeah, so that sounds amazing. Cause you can think, Oh wow. Like I can get 18,000 people to my site. That’s amazing. Like I’d never have to work.
Like, are we fully booked out next week? No, that is
Kate: not the case. As an example. And actually leading on a bit to competition before we get to search volume, um, as an example competition there top spot is Wikipedia. Well, how the hell am I gonna compete with Wikipedia? Then we’ve got Wix, who, anybody who follows me elsewhere knows how I feel about Wix.
Less we say about them, the better. Um, then we’ve got some magazines who are sharing about what is web design principles of good web design. And the problem there is that it’s just, it’s so vague. I think I’m almost at the bottom of the page. I found one company in in London, and I bet they’ve paid a, I bet they’ve paid so much on their SEO to get there.
But the point is it’s just, it’s not a secure spot anyway. I guarantee you there are companies that dip in and out of being that the highest spot of a company that shows up there. Um, it just wouldn’t make sense. Exactly. Um, to focus your efforts there. No,
Amy: exactly. So that’s where you would then start to do your keyword research and think, Okay, well I can’t compete against that.
Um, jumping back a bit, talking about, cause in terms of search volumes, it could be a, you could be asking the question of like, well, how do I know what keyword I want to go for in terms of search volume? Like, you know, how do I know when to go for a key web that’s got 10 searches or 18,000 searches? So, The, the best place I guess to do is look at your own website insights, um, and see how many searches you are getting on your website to then give you an average of the types of keywords, search volumes you want to be looking for.
So, for example, if you do get, I dunno, 10,000 people coming to your website a month, then you’ve probably got a very high chance of ranking for keywords that are within that search volume. Whereas if you are a site that only gets a hundred people coming to your site a month, you are probably better off ranking your site for keywords that are also within the hundred search
Kate: for you.
Yeah. So thi this is a technique that’s known as the SEO avalanche technique because you can use it on, you can use it throughout your whole kind of, um, keyword research journey as your site grows. So let’s say you start out and you’re getting a hundred website visitors a month. So you using that technique, you would aim for keywords that have a search volume of a hundred searches.
Then as you grow, which hopefully you should, as you are gaining traction with those keywords and rising in position on Google, let’s say you get to 500 searches a month, then you can start tackling the keywords that get 500 searches a month. So it is a very, very basic concept and it works well and it’s good because it grows with you, um, and you don’t really need to give it much thought.
There are a lot of other things that come into it. Um, Things like what’s your domain authority and stuff that basically, if we were to sit here and talk about it now, I worry that this episode would become much, much bigger than what we’ve planned it to be. Like this. We wanna keep this around keyword research, the idea behind breaking down.
So Amy and I have got plans to share. Quite a lot of different educational episodes around seo, but it’s about making it digestible for you. And if we sit here and we start talking about everything to do with SEO in one episode, you are going to be lost to us . Like you’ll just drop off and leave. So there are other things you need to consider.
I think actually we haven’t planned it yet. We’ve talked about what the next episode is going to be, but I wonder, Amy, if we should do one about like ranking. Yep. So things on like domain authority, page speed, and what have you, because there are lots of other things that come into it as well. But the, the avalanche technique that we are talking about is a really easy way of taking some of that confusion out, especially when you first start.
Um, cuz I get people all the time say to me like, Oh, I found a keyword and it’s like a thousand searches a month, but the cost per click said it’s low and no, no, no. And there, there is a lot, a lot to it. Um, but if you have a new. Your best bet is to go with, I get 50 visitors a month, so I’m gonna target keywords that get 50 searches a month, for example.
It sounds shit, but it gets better quickly as soon as you start ranking. That’s, you’ve gotta think. You get 50 searches a month. If you target a keyword that gets 50 and you reach number one for that keyword, you’ve doubled your search for, you’ve done the search. I’m just gonna say it’s not shit, is it?
Amy: Because like I say, if you are only getting 50 people and. by adding one key word in, you’re getting a hundred people a month. That is so much better. And if you’re, if you’ve got five pages that’s, you know, more, that’s doubled it, tripled it, whatever, because yeah, each of those words that each page is gonna be ranking.
So absolutely. I don’t think it’s crap. You’re better off doing that than disheartening myself and putting a key web that’s got 10,000 searches and then never actually ranking and having on, you know, an unachievable goal as such.
Kate: Absolutely. It’s true, but I just think people, the, I always say this like, SEO is not sexy, and especially when you first start, like there’s nothing attractive about it.
It’s like, Oh, great. Like, it’s like result. This keyword only gets 20 surges a month. I can probably get it. That’s not exciting. It’s not like I’ve had a viral TikTok video and like 50,000 people have seen like, you know, like the, it’s, it’s the total opposite of what we are taught in other marketing stuff, right?
Yeah. So I. Part of, but um, yeah, that, that is definitely, it’s the most logical approach you could have when you’re starting out. Yeah.
Amy: Yeah, exactly. And it is that thing of like seo, like anyone should know, SEO is a long term plan. It’s not an overnight fix. It’s not something that you’re gonna chuck a key word in and you’re gonna be for the rest of your life and you sit back with a cup of tea while inquiries come through.
Um, it, I, that would be amazing, but I think we’d be out of jobs if that
Kate: was the case. , That’s true. But you know, it’s that
Amy: thing of. Like Kate says, it is starting somewhere and then growing from that, you know, you’re better off starting small, starting with those keywords that have lower search volumes that you’re gonna be able to actually rank for, start getting inquiries for and then expanding from it from there, you know, and growing out as far as you can in terms of the more your search volume increases, the more you’ll be able
Kate: to grow.
Yeah, absolutely. Cool. So I
Amy: guess that moves on. I was gonna say move on to, um,
Kate: Oh FA tools. Yeah, that’s gonna say, So I wanna start out with, we wrote them down, but I wanna start out with the one that I wrote down last, if that’s alright. Just because. It is, It is. Well, the tool is Google . So the tool is, it’s actually the method.
Yeah. Um, so you can use Google. So this is known as the Google alphabet suit method. Lots of people all over YouTube, red it, wherever they all talk about this method. It is by no means the most effective or the quickest. Um, As an SEO specialist, it’s not a method I use because I have tools that I pay for that do this.
But if you’re looking for kind of, I guess like a cheap and easy way, Well, free and easy. Yeah. Way to do it from Google. It works. So you go onto Google. And you’ll start out with a short or a medium tail keyword. So as we’ve used it a lot in this example, no, actually I’ll use something different. So I’ll use fish ponds.
So you’ll start out with fish. So Amy’s laughing because my husband does . He’s like a, he’s an aquatic specialist, so she knows this is like one of my go do keywords and we worked on his website together. So, um, yeah, Sheena, you know, all about ponds, . Um, okay, so we’ll start with fish ponds. So, The method behind the Google outfit.
So method is that you type in fish ponds and then a, and then you will use Google’s auto complete feature to see what the suggestions are for your search. That auto complete feature works by going off the back of other people’s searches on Google, so you know that they are things being searched on Google.
Um, Write down any that are relevant to your business. And then the idea is that you’ll work through the whole alphabet like that. So fish ponds, B, fish, pon C, and you’ll write down any that are relevant to your business. And then you have a crap load of keywords that you can use. Make sure they’re relevant because you don’t have additional data with this like search volume.
You kind of need to use your common sense a little bit. So if it’s something that you search it, you can use things like competition for this though. So if you see one that you think looks like it could be a good fit for your business, you can search it. If, let’s say fish ponds, now I’ve gotta think about a competitor for fish ponds.
So, um, my husband’s business is local, so it would be local competitors a bit different. We’d be working more on locations, but like, let’s say B and Q or Wix or somewhere that sells some. Tools, or he’s probably gonna listen to this. He really annoyed at me for not saying the right people here, but whatever.
Um, if they are coming up, number one for that spot and the whole of the first page is, is more geared around tools or companies that are based all around the country or whatever, will I know that his company probably are gonna compete with that. And so I would not. So that’s one way that you can kind of narrow down the keywords.
Um, if you are seeing competitors who are a similar size to you, similar sorts of businesses as yours, I would say you could assume that is fair game as a keyword. Um, but yeah, so that, that is that method in a nutshell and how it works. Um, you can also obviously consider things we’ve discussed like search intent and what have you.
So that’s tool number one, which is,
Amy: Cool. And to keep on the Google thing. Um, tool number two is Google’s keyword planner. Now, the reason I. Like to check in or say this is like recommend. This is, again, it’s a free tool from Google. Um, and at the end of the day, I always think you’re trying to rank on Google, so why not check in with Google on what you know, how their key works are performing.
It’s really easy to use. Same again, you literally just have to type in a series of keywords. And again, if you’ve got. You can either type in one keyword or you can search up to 10 keywords so you know, you can kind of jot all your ideas and keywords in. Um, a good thing with the Google keyword planner as well is it does actually give you, Like keywords as well based on the ones you’ve searched.
So it can give, start generating you kind of ideas off of what you’ve searched. Um, and then further to that, it’s obviously gives you thousands of different keywords related to that. Um, you can go through that list in two ways. In terms of, it’s literally just a list of, um, keywords. So you can go through that list and then kind of, you know, pick out the ones that you think are correct based on the search volume and so forth off those keywords.
Or you can export it to a spreadsheet and then work through it that way. Again, picking out the keywords that you feel are relevant to your business based on the search intent, and obviously search volumes so that. Um, tool number two, which
Kate: is really.
Okay, so the next tool that I’ve got for you is kind of Google based tool, but it’s not, so it’s a Google Chrome extension called Keywords Everywhere. Also available for fire folks, but I don’t think any other browsers at the moment. So the browser extension works whereby once it’s installed on your browser and it’s activated, when you make a search on Google, you will get the search volume, cost per click, and competition of a keyword.
What you also get, which is a really, really nice feature, is suggested keywords on the right hand side of your search. So they will often be media, more long tail keywords. So if you start out with a short one, it’s a really nice way. I know we’ve been using like all kinds of different ones, but let’s go back to web design.
So if I search web design, I then get that next level of, um, in depth keyword and obviously like niche down keyword. So it’s really, really helpful for that. Um, it’s not free. I think it’s. So we’ve got two paid four tools in the ones we’re suggesting. And then all the rest of these are free. So keywords everywhere is something like $10 for like a hundred thousand credits.
And I think I’ve been using it for over two years, and I think I’ve had to buy credits twice. But that’s only because once I accidentally left it on for a long, long time when I was Googling, like, you know, random stuff you Google in a day, I, I wasn’t remembering to turn it. I wasn’t doing keyword research, and if you don’t turn it off, then obviously you’re gonna spend credits.
If, generally speaking, you won’t need to buy more than one set of credits. Um, so it’s really, really affordable and a really useful tool.
Amy: Yeah. Yeah. I actually do love that tool. And you do have other things with it, so. You can actually look at kind of like competitor’s websites and what kind of keywords Yeah, other people have got on their websites and so forth.
Um, you can also see like how much content people’s websites have got. So again, We’re going to that on another episode, but it’s something really helpful in terms of like getting your website to then rank. Um, so yeah, it’s a really good and easy point attention, especially for that thing. Like if we go back to the search intent, it’s really helpful for that because if you’re starting to figure out what types of things people are searching to, then see what keywords you want to rank for, that will help you further with those kind of search intents.
You know, relating them to keywords as such. Um, but tool number four, um, which is a tool that I use not just for keywords. I think it’s absolutely brilliant, but it’s answered the public. Um, again, another amazing tool. This one is free, but I think that is a paid version as well. Cause I think the free version only, you can only do so many searches a day.
So I think you can only do like, I wanna say three or five key word like words, and then after that it’s paid. Um, but basically answer to the public is a tool where you put in the keyword and it gives you all the different searches around that keyword. So for example, let’s go back to the one of web design.
If someone you typed in the key word on their web design, it would give you the kind of. Different things people are searching in terms of, it could be like, who is a web designer? How do I get into web design? Um, looking for how much
Kate: does web design cost? Yeah.
Amy: Um, yeah. So it gives you literally anything.
based on the keyword website it will give you. So then you can then start to figure out what types of things, again people are putting into Google, to then start thinking about how you can utilize that to rank those pages. But another great thing it’s amazing for again, is blog post ideas. So that is your list of blogs for life then, because yeah, for example, if you are ranking your website for web design for small business, That’s obviously the intent of getting someone to purchase, but also you wanna capture those people who possibly may not be ready to purchase.
So you’re gonna do that via writing blocks. So that’s gonna give you all your blog topic ideas on, you know, what is web design, Um, is web design valuable? Um, and all that
Kate: sort of. Yeah, absolutely. I love that tool. I use it all the time for blog post ideas. Actually, I, I use a lot of other tools as well when it comes to coming up with blog post ideas, but that is always the one that gives me the most and that I can, what I quite like to do with answer the public now, because obviously a lot of the things that we’ve discussed here in terms of competition, search intent, whatever, you can figure that all out.
But the search volume one, they don’t give you. No, that’s one thing
Amy: I say, it’s probably one that you wanna more in. It’s probably one that you want to, Like if I was to think about my keywords, if I was to use a page tool, um, I would probably start with answer the public to figure out what people are searching and get some kind of like ideas around like the user journeys of people search.
And then I would probably use a tool like Google keyword planners to then start thinking, okay. Answer the public are saying lots of people are looking for web design services in the uk. I would then use that, that phrase and pull it into Google Keyword Planner to then see the search volume of it. So I would probably say that you have to use that tool with something else, but it’s good for that starting point of figuring out the kind of questions people are searching to.
Then utilize that in another tool to get the search volumes to check. If it’s a word you like, a keyword you want to.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. And then moving on from that to the last tool, it is pricey. I’m just gonna put it out there now. Um, but if you are serious about seo, then it is a really worthwhile tool to invest in.
It is not only a keyword research tool. It is. So it’s H refs. Now, some people use SCM Rush, some people use hf. They kind of do a similar thing. I have used both. HFS is the one that I have really settled on for now. Um, but they both do a similar thing. Basically, if you’re interested in investing in a premium SEO tool, I recommend reading some of your own, um, doing some of your own research, looking up the two versus each other and seeing what has the most features.
But HFS has got some awesome keyword research tools, so they have two. The first one is keywords Explorer. Um, they do actually offer free, you can get the first 10 searches worth of data for free here, so you don’t even need an account. Um, okay, I forgot to say this at the beginning before we did this list, but we will link all of these below in the notes for this episode so you guys can click and check it out.
I will link to HFS and also specifically to the keywords that you can use and the free version. But I think when you see it and you see the data, you. If you’re doing like bulk keyword research, it’s worth investing. Um, it is. Just while we are on the subject of the pricing, $99 a month, you could, if you are doing keyword research is a bit more of a one off pay for it, do the research, cancel the subscription.
Um, but basically that will give you, it’s probably the most, um, amount of comprehensive data you are gonna get for your keywords. So they give you, Keyword difficulty scores. So you get an idea of how difficult it would be for you to rank for that keyword. Um, if you have the paid version, then you get a much more deep dive version on the keyword.
So you’ll get a listing of everybody who ranks for it. Um, you get an idea of what their stats are on the page. You get, um, it will give you the cure difficulty score, but it will also tell you. Roughly. So again, this is going a little bit out of keyword research and into other stuff, but it will give you an idea of how many back links you might need to be able to rank in page one and that kind of thing.
So it is very, very in depth. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to offer SEO professionally. You need a tool like this or Seom rush, in my opinion. I think, Amy, you use Seom Rush, don’t you? Yeah, I was gonna
Amy: say I’ve always been torned between the two, but I’ve just, for now, stuck with SME Rush, um, SME Rush.
I can’t say it
Kate: now, . It’s because sme, I get, I get why you call it that? Because it like small me. Yeah, yeah, I
Amy: know. But it’s, um, SM Rush, I always call it s m e Boys froze me off. But it’s the same in terms of, you know, it’s brilliant for. It’s your go to tool for seo. You know, it’s the thing that’s gonna tell you everything based on seo, but one of the big features it has is keyword research.
Um, and it also, yeah, again, you can pick competitors’ websites in so forth and see what they’re ranking for, and also see where keyword gaps are, which is really good because. You know, if you’re trying to rank for the keyword, like office chairs, there might be gaps around that that you can then slot into, get your website ranking in between those bigger competitors as such.
Kate: Yeah. Abso and, and yeah, they, and they basically offer. . It’s similar, but isn’t it really like they all offer that kind of thing. The other tool that is really helpful, um, on HS for keyword research is content explorer. So you need to know a little bit more about some of the settings to add For this, a podcast is probably not the best way to do it, but I actually have a video where I talk through how to use keywords explorer and content explorer, like side by side.
So I’ll link it below, but it helps you to find. Websites that are ranking for keywords when they haven’t really done a great deal of optimization. Yeah. So that way you can go in, do the optimization, and really easily take the top spot from them. So again, if you are getting into more like strategic keyword research and OnPage optimization.
That’s a really good tool to use as well, but I don’t wanna really overwhelm people, , especially people that came onto this episode being like, What’s keyword research? And we’ve ended it with like real deep strategy stuff. Um, but if you wanna know more on it, I’ll link that video. And obviously for any of you guys that.
Have been listening to this and you think, Oh, I really wish they talked more about that from like a more advanced level, let us know. Obviously the podcast is new. We’re very much feeling out what it is that you guys want to hear from us and how in depth you want us to go. This has been heavy in depth on keyword research, but it obviously, we are trying to meet people at a beginner level.
If you guys want more advanced stuff, we can absolutely dive into that. Yeah, we just need to know you. Yeah, .
Amy: Cool. I think that rounds up this
Kate: episode. Absolutely it does. Thank you so much for joining us guys. I think we thought this was gonna be like a 10 minute episode and I’m dreading to see how long it’s when we finish it.
But um, yeah, thank you so much for all the positive feedback we’ve had so far on the podcast. It’s really, really lovely to hear from you guys, um, on Instagram, email, whatever, letting us know that you’re enjoying it and we’ve had some awesome reviews. Um, please let us know how you’re finding it and we will speak to you.