How to Do Keyword Research for Content Writing in 4 Easy Steps

Keyword research for content writing is more important than ever before. According to Ahrefs, “68% of online experiences begin with a search engine”. That is a huge proportion of online activity that can be tapped into with the right keyword strategy and the right content.

Keywords are a crucial component of SEO (search engine optimisation) – they are used as a signpost to help Google understand and rank your content. Keywords also aid user navigation, pointing them to the most appropriate web page for their query.

So, if you’re keen to learn more about how content writing and keyword research are intertwined, look no further. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll explain how to do keyword research for content marketing like a pro.

Understanding how to do keyword research for content marketing (that includes blog posts, landing pages, white papers, infographics, social media content, podcasts, videos, eBooks and more) will form the foundation of your content strategy and can be easily achieved in just four steps!

Your principal content topics are the broader topic areas that your content strategy will focus on. These broad topics are often related together to form a pillar content strategy. Pillar content allows you to expand into more and more related content, all of which support a key focus area that’s relevant to your company. This is a great place to start in keyword research for content writing.

If you’re struggling to identify the right topic areas, explore some more inspiring ways to generate content ideas. This can help narrow down your search, hone in on your niche and discover what is really important for your target audience. Your content should always keep your target audience at the centre of its focus. Content is created around what your audience needs or wants, not what we wish to tell them!

You can also utilise Google’s search engine results page (SERP) to help with content ideation. Look at the ‘What People Searched For’ panel, as well as Google’s suggested phrases and the results that actually appear for your broad topic search.

Top Tip: AnswerThePublic and Google Trends are great tools for getting real-time insights into what people are currently searching for.

Once you have established a few pillar topic areas for your content writing strategy, you can progress with keyword discovery. The Google Ads Keyword Planner is, probably, the most widely used keyword tool out there, but it's critical you don't just rely on one source. We use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer and Moz’s Keyword Explorer are all fantastic tools to help you expand, and refine, your initial search. What’s more, they provide you with heaps of data on keywords, such as average monthly searches, search intent, SEO difficulty, paid advertisement difficulty and cost per click, to ensure that you are on the right lines.

The key metrics to consider when doing keyword research for content writing are:

• Search Volume - This shows you how many times people search for this specific keyword. If your brand is well-known and your site already has solid SEO foundations and a high volume of traffic, you’re better positioned to rank for keywords with a higher search volume per month. If you’re in the stages of developing more traffic to your site, choosing ‘low hanging fruit’ keywords with a lower search volume, such as 10, 20, 30 or 40 average monthly searches, can make ranking for these keywords easier. This is because these terms are generally less competitive. When looking at search volume data, make sure you have selected the country you will be writing your content for in order to get the most country-relevant metrics for your keyword research.
• Keyword Difficulty - This measures how hard it will be to rank for this keyword on the first page of Google. It is measured on a scale of 0-100. The higher the number, the harder it will be to rank. Many keyword research tools measure keyword difficulty by looking at the top ten pages that rank for this keyword and calculating how many websites (domains) link to these pages. Other ways they are measured for keyword difficulty include calculating the number of internal links, content length and relevancy.

Utilise the keyword variations and suggestions in your keyword research for content writing and begin compiling a spreadsheet of all the terms that appear from your search.

It’s always a good idea to have a selection of:

• Short tail keywords – keywords/phrases consisting of one to two words.
• Long tail keywords – keywords/phrases consisting of three words or more.

It can be helpful to delve deeper into keywords that appear multiple times and have a high search volume. Researching keywords for your content writing that are more specific, and gathering the variations and suggestions of these terms, can help you find more specific longtail keywords that have a lower difficulty score and may, ultimately, be easier to rank for.

Top Tip: Take a look at what your competitors are doing. Which keywords is their content ranking for? What content are they providing, and in what format? Think about how you can make your content better. As a rule of thumb, content should seek to be 10x better than your direct competitors. Useful, quality, well-targeted content will help you outrank your competitors by providing your target audience with the best content on the market.

Analyse your full list of keywords and start narrowing them down to a list of no more than 100. You can begin by eliminating the obvious ones that are not relevant to your topic.

It’s important to make sure the keywords you are selecting are highly relevant to your topic area and can strengthen your website’s authority on a particular subject.

Top Tip: A great way to fine-tune your content writing keyword research is to individually research what SERP features they pull up on Google as well as who is already ranking for this term.

The SERP features will help you understand what content format people are searching for and the intention of the query. Keyword intent refers to what the user wanted to get out of their search. This can either be informational, transactional, commercial or navigational.

For example, when conducting blog keyword research, you want to focus on keywords with informational intent. These could be questions like “how do I structure a blog”, “what is content marketing” or phrases like “content keyword research” and “SEO for beginners”.

SERP features can be the key to understanding the intent of the query. Many video results or image packs may signify that, for this particular keyword, searchers are looking for visual aids instead of white papers or blogs. Likewise, if there is a featured snippet and a ‘people also asked’ panel, searchers may look for quick, bite-sized answers to their questions.

Make your final choices based on the research you gathered from your keyword shortlist. Find keywords that offer that sweet spot – relevant to your site, a good search volume, a low difficulty score, and minimal competition.

It can also be helpful to select primary and secondary keywords for your content.

• A primary keyword will best represent the content you will create and can be included in your blog title and first paragraph, plus distributed among your blog (without keyword stuffing, of course) – this will help Google recognise your content’s relevancy for this topic.
• A secondary keyword supports your primary terms – they still hold relevancy but may have a lower search volume and be slightly more niche.

Now that you have your target keywords for your content, go ahead and write the best content you can! Just remember to keep in mind that high-quality content for SEO always puts the user at the forefront. Content should be helpful and give the user what they’re searching for in the best way, with optimal keyword use supporting and enhancing that goal.

Keyword research for content marketing remains a key tool to help improve your search visibility, E.A.T. and your user’s experience. When done right, it will support the production of targeted content to answer your reader’s questions and help you to be seen and get found by your target audience.

Google ranks content based on its E.A.T. (expertise, authority, trustworthiness) in order to place it within Google’s organic search results. Utilising carefully selected keywords through content writing keyword research and developing quality content that answers your searcher’s queries will help Google rank your content’s E.A.T. more highly and get it within those top search positions.

In addition, Google’s SERP features are becoming more and more in tune with searcher’s queries and the answers they are looking for. Optimising your content with relevant keywords can help Google extract the most relevant information to answer a searcher’s query as a featured snippet or related question. This is a great way to promote your website organically!

What’s more, keyword research provides content inspiration, helping you to produce engaging and high-quality content that can lead to better leads or more conversions. According to HubSpot, marketers who prioritise blogs as a form of content marketing are 13x more likely to see a positive return on their investment!

Our team of digital marketers are well-versed in content writing keyword research. We know how to produce quality, targeted content and content strategies for all types of businesses, with a track record of increasing organic website traffic and achieving a high return on investment for our clients. Talk to our friendly team today about improving your targeted content strategy.

Alternatively, discover how we increased organic search traffic by over 900% with an E-A-T driven content strategy or head to our blog for more helpful tips and advice including our top benefits of digital marketing for your business.