Hello everyone, my name is Lucas Dantas and today I will show you how to properly conduct a keyword research. The very first step to rank on Google is to know what are the keywords people are searching for in your local area.
Whether if you have a new business or not, keyword researches help improve website rankings as it will give stats about search volume for specific keywords on specific regions. It will also helps understanding what keywords are trending which is extremely helpful for content creation. And at last, but not the least it is a guide to find if it is worthy to run to invest in Google Ads.
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The first thing you need to conduct a keyword research is a Google Ads account. A Google Ads account is free and you can create one by going to https://ads.google.com
If have any problems creating a Google Ads account, watch this video.
After you have created your Google Ads account, click on Tools and Settings on your upper right corner, and then click on Keyword Planner.
In the next screen, click on Discover new keywords.
Here you can choose the language and location you want to do the research for. In this article, I will simulate as if I am conducting a keyword research for a residential roofing company. Use this as reference when you conduct your own.
To choose a location, click on the location icon.
Click on the location icon.
And on the screen that pops up for you, choose the city, county, region or state you want to work with. It’s recommended that you work with an audience of at least 250,000 people because that will give you enough data about keyword search volume and trends.
If your local area does not have more than 250,000 expand the radius or keep adding nearby locations until you reach 250,000.
After clicking on Save you will have to type the keywords you want to include in your research. You can here any type of keyword because Google will show you all the related search terms later. Use your creativity and type in keywords related to the services or products you offer or a problem you solve.
If you are curious to know how many people type in your business name, feel free to do it here as well. But keep in mind that most people will search for a service or a product and not the name of a business when they are on Google.
You can also include the name of the city so you can get more keyword ideas related to the city where you are located.
This might be a little bit overwhelming at first, so let’s breakdown this next screen so you understand clearly the information you are looking at.
| Keywords | The keyword suggestions based on the keywords you have initially entered. |
| Avg. monthly searches | The amount of searches for each keyword in a monthly basis. |
| Three month change | How much the average amount of searches have been increasing or decreasing in the last three months. |
| Yoy change | The search volume comparison between this year and last year. |
| Competition | The level of competition for each keyword. |
| Ad impression share | You will only see data in this column if you already have campaigns running that targets those keywords. |
| Top of page bid (low range) | The lowest cost per click to rank on the first page of Google. |
| Top of page bid (high range) | The highest cost per click to rank on the first page of Google. |
Now let’s try to find the best keywords.
The first thing I do is to sort the keywords by average monthly searches. In the screenshot below, you can already see that there are three keywords with good volume.
If my intention with the keyword research was to get data for a search campaign or to create content, I would be paying attention to the keywords with low competition.
Keep scrolling down and analyze each keyword to see if they are a good fit for your business.
For example, one of the keywords in my list is “river city roofing Peoria il”. River City is a competitor which tells me they are dominating this area for residential roofing services.
I use the following criteria to get keywords:
- Avg. Monthly Searches – Get keywords with at least 10 monthly searches
- Three Month Change and YOY Change – Find keywords where the number of searches are increasing
- Low competitions – If possible prioritize keywords with low competition
- Low price – Then sort them by the cost per click
It will be impossible to find the perfect keywords, so you have to find a balance between them, the more research you do, the better you will be able at identifying good keywords. For new business owners, good keywords represent opportunities and that is how you should look at them.
Another tip I have is if you are doing keyword research for content creation, instead of focusing on generic keywords such as residential roofing or auto insurance, get more specific like flat roofing repair in peoria il or auto insurance for people older than 65 years old.
The more specific you get, the easier will be to rank for the keywords. But remember to always check the search volume so you don’t create content nobody is searching for.
I hope you have enjoyed this article and stay tuned in this blog to learn more about the basics of digital marketing. We have helped several clients ranking on Google in Monmouth, Galesburg, Davenport, Burlington, Macomb, Moline, Rock Island, Bettendorf, Peoria and other towns.
Feel free to send us a message if you would like to get a free consultation.
