Intro to Keyword Research and Content Strategy

Amy Prindle

The Center for Online Evangelism is a missionary project devoted to developing online mission stations.

​Edits and additions by Jamie Jean Domm

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Now that you’ve established a strong foundation for your SEO strategy and can track activity and engagement, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of search engine optimization.

Content—the right content--is what internet users are searching for. Many are ultimately looking for products, services, locations, restaurant recommendations, etc., but the reason they trust the internet to help them is because they can find content that educates them along the way. People want content that guides them toward making the best decisions; content that answers their questions.

A blog post could convince someone to join a gym, or a Yelp review might convince a couple to try a new restaurant. Some are googling symptoms before taking their child to the ER, or searching for tips on getting out of credit card debt. Or maybe they’re bored, sitting in a waiting room, watching cat videos on their phones.
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There are a thousand and one ways to consume content. Optimizing your content for search engines helps you focus your content to best match what your target audience is searching for. 

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But that’s the thing—how do you know what they’re searching for?

Keyword research is the core of SEO copywriting: writing persuasive content based on search engine optimization principles. It removes most of the guesswork when figuring out which topics (related to your organization) make the most sense to cover in your content marketing. Whether writing titles and headlines or naming resources or products, it bridges the gap between your hunches, the data, and what information people actually need.

Keyword research uses search query data from Google and other search engines to determine what kind of content interests people. Each phrase typed into the search box is like a voice proclaiming, “I want to see content about this!”

By using the right tools and tactics, you’ll find out what terms or phrases people are googling and how often. It will also list how competitive those keywords are. Finding keywords that have a high search volume, but a lower rate of competition, is the sweet spot for your SEO content strategy. Writing about those topics improves the chances of your content being found in search engines.

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1) Define your topic.

For example, say you want to start a blog to help Pathfinder leaders.

“Pathfinders,” of course, is the topic. But if you title your blog, “Pathfinders,” it’s not specific enough to get search traffic. You’d have to differentiate from Nissan Pathfinders, Pathfinder International, or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Familiarity with your audience allows you to feature relevant keywords in your titles, headlines and posts, such as:

• Pathfinder leadership
• Pathfinder club meetings
• Pathfinder honors
• Pathfinder investiture
• Pathfinder campouts

 
While definitely more specific than “Pathfinder” alone, these are also considered broad-match keywords, as they can still have a wide variety of subtopics. They’re certainly good ideas, and posts on these topics can be helpful and even enjoyed by your readers. However, they’re harder to rank in Google search results without further specificity.
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Let’s say it’s a burgeoning trend to create Pathfinder blogs. The broad topic of Pathfinder leadership is now a highly competitive arena. How do you get your blog to stand out?

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2) Refine your topic.

You have to get more specialized in your focus, so start brainstorming “niche topics”—subtopics within the broad subjects of Pathfinders and meetings and honors and campouts that people might be searching for information about.

Some of these might be:

• Pathfinder knot-tying honor
• Pathfinder winter campouts
• Pathfinder club meeting activities
• Pathfinder Bible Experience prep
• Pathfinder Oshkosh fundraising ideas
  
  

These are considered long-tail keywords, or keyphrases. Long‐tail keywords are low volume and highly‐focused search queries that tend to convert visitors to engaged readers/followers exceptionally well. 

You can also start brainstorming possible blog posts for these subtopics and long-tail keywords:

• How to teach knot-tying to Pathfinders
• Make your Pathfinder Investiture fun and memorable
• Top 10 activities for Pathfinder campouts
• Tips for teaching Pathfinders with disabilities
• Preparing your Pathfinders for Pathfinder Bible Experience
• Best Pathfinder fundraising ideas to cover Oshkosh expenses
  
  

Other examples of broad-match vs. long-tail keywords:

• Water bottles vs. BPA-free wide-mouth water bottles
• Vegan recipes vs. 5-minute vegan breakfasts
• Elastic hair ties vs. pink diamond-studded elastic hair ties
  
  

Location information can also make effective long-tail keywords, as Google can match the location of searchers’ IP addresses to the locations you’re mentioning in your content. If you’re putting together a website for a cupcake bakery in Austin, TX, you’ll certainly include the address and phone number on the contact page. You might also want to use local keywords, such as the part of town it’s in, or the recognizable businesses it’s near, or even local annual events.

These location keywords can be especially helpful in titles and meta descriptions, the summary of a web page:

To make your blog or organization’s website specific to your area, mention which cities are involved, and make sure to list the address of your church or location. You could even list well-known areas nearby that members visit or volunteer. For security reasons, we do recommend caution regarding how much location information is shared online about Pathfinder and other underage group activities. 
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You’ll also want to consider seasonality. Keyword activity will change depending on the time of year, especially in topics that deal with a school year, holidays, sports, or activities relating to spring, summer, fall, or winter. 

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3) Test your topic.

Start by googling your topics, including any related words or phrases.

Then ask yourself the following questions:

• What exists already?
• Can you improve on what’s already written?
• Are there certain aspects of the topic that aren’t already covered in depth (or at all)?
• How are other users responding to this competing content? Review their comments on posts.
  
  

This is your first peek at opportunity.

Maybe you find that the knot-tying honor already has several articles that are well-written and popular. There are lots of positive comments on those posts. Therefore, another topic would be more effective in making your blog stand out in search results.

However, maybe there’s one particular knot you don’t feel the other writers have explained very well, even though the rest of the post is good. Maybe you’ll find a couple comments on other blogs about how they’d like more information on the hunter’s bend. You might then decide to write a post on “how to teach the hunter’s bend knot.”
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This is an excellent example of how research and testing can help shape meaningful content creation and allow you to create a long-tail keyword opportunity for your blog post.

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4) Test some more.

Here’s where dedicated keyword research tools come in.

These tools access data that tells how many people are searching for a certain keyword or keyphrase (search volume), as well as how much content already exists about that keyword (competition). The sweet spot is when you find a word or phrase that has high search volume and low competition.
 
Here’s an example from Google Keyword Planner:

Many of these keyword research tools provide a ratio of search volume and competition, as well as what the average keyword costs “per click” if you were doing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising (but we won’t focus on that in this beginner’s guide).

There are completely free options for keyword research, where you’ll be able to find similar data. These free keyword tools also show related keywords or phrases, which can be helpful for coming up with good content ideas. Overall, you’ll get a general idea what people are searching for, enabling you to create content that will connect your organization with the needs and interests of your audience.

Here are some recommended free options for keyword research or keyword ideas:

Keywords Everywhere is a free browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that gathers data on every term you search for on Google. It’s especially easy to use since you don’t have to open a separate program; it already displays keyword results on the side of your browser window. It can also help you find related topics to cover in support of your main topic.

Ubersuggest was created by renowned digital marketing strategist and author Neil Patel, because he felt that aspiring digital marketers should have a free keyword research tool they could trust. It is touted by many marketers as a great way to get keyword ideas for blog posts, and to possibly provide even more ideas than Google’s Keyword Planner.

Keyword Planner has been the industry standard tool by which keyword research has been measured. It is still a technically free keyword research tool embedded in a Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords). You will need to set up a Google Ads account to use it. While it costs money to run Google Ad campaigns, you can do keyword research with this tool without an active campaign running.

Twin Word allows ten free searches a day. This tool provides similar data to those already described, but is known for helping you find patterns, and for its filters that allow you to customize how you want results displayed. One such filter shows User Intent in five categories to help you determine the intent your audience may have when searching for a particular keyword. If it doesn’t match up with what you’re offering, you’ll want to find other keyword options. (Find out more about how and why you should consider user intent.)
 
Google Search Console has functionality that shows what keywords are leading users to your website, as well as lite keyword research.
 
These tools differ from true keyword research but can be very helpful for “informed brainstorming.”

Answer the Public is a tool best used for brainstorming, rather than measuring search volume and competition ratios. It’s effective for finding out what kind of questions people are asking about a certain topic. It’s based on UK data, but the info is still relevant for content creators anywhere in the world.

Google Trends allows you to compare two or more different topics to see which one is searched more often.

Soovle is a customizable engine that unites the suggestion phrases from all the major providers (Google, Bing, Amazon, Answers.com, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Youtube) in one place. This tool can be a major help for search and content creation inspiration.

YouTube has its own keyword research tools: vidIQ and TubeBuddy. Ubersuggest also has an option to look on YouTube.

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5) Additional terms to know.

Here are some common terms we haven’t yet covered in this section. If you’re using a keyword research tool, you’ll often come across these words, though some are only relevant for those investing in pay-per-click advertising.

Location - Tools with this option can tell you the search volume and competition of various terms and phrases within a specified geographic location.

Language - Find search volume data for searches conducted in a certain language.

Search Volume - This metric displays how many people are searching online for the specified query.

Competition - This number represents a ratio of the how frequently a term is searched for, compared to how much content already exists on this topic. Ideally, you want to find keywords/topics with high search volume and low competition. Lower numbers are generally 0.1 - 0.3, moderate competition is 0.4 - 0.7, and high competition is 0.8 and over.

Pay-Per Click (PPC) Advertising - Most keyword research tools are made to support this type of advertising, in which advertisers pay to display ads on top of search results pages or on websites set up to show ads. Advertisers only pay for the amount of clicks they get, and certain keywords cost more per click than others. Keyword research is important for PPC because advertisers want their ads to show up when people type in the related keywords or phrases
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If you’re just using keyword research tools for content ideas or research, you won’t need to get in-depth into this subject.

Cost per click (CPC) - In regard to paid ads, this is how much it would cost the advertiser each time someone clicked on their ad that contained this keyword.

Click-through Rate (CTR) - In digital advertising, this represents the ratio of users who click on a link compared to the total users who view the ad, or the page on which the ad appears. 

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6) When to pay for a keyword research tool

When businesses rely on search engine ranking for the profitability or exposure of their brand, they want the most exact keyword information possible—especially if their brand must survive in a highly competitive market.

If your ministry relies on e-commerce or content marketing to thrive, AND it operates within a competitive industry, such as health, you would benefit from high-level keyword research tools that also provide insight on what competitors are doing, what they’re ranking for (or not ranking for), and a number of other add-ons that help you determine the best possible content opportunities.

Especially if you want to boost your traffic through PPC advertising, this kind of research tool can help you choose the best content strategies for your ads.

Here are a few of the top paid keyword research tools:

Google Ads’ Keyword Planner provides more specific keyword data (notably in Search Volume) when you’re regularly spending over a certain amount on active campaigns (currently it looks to be around $1,000.00/month). Keyword Planner can also help you get a closer look at the search behavior of certain demographics.

SEMrush is a comprehensive research tool. In addition to unlimited keyword research and keyword strategy suggestions, it also audits your website (and your competitors’ websites!) to find errors, SEO opportunities, and content “weak spots.” This tool has proved useful in many businesses’ Online Reputation Management (ORM) efforts, as it can even show how much competitors are spending on ads and for which topics.

Ahrefs dives deep into competitor research, provides keyword opportunity alerts, and gives access to a wealth of digital market data. It can also monitor how your site’s ranking changes over time.

Keyword Explorer by Moz has long been used by digital marketing professionals to gather data from its “vetted keyword database” to apply to their content marketing strategies.
 
While your ministry may not yet have the budget for keyword tools like these, many come with a free trial period, enabling you to test how useful a particular tool might be for your organization.  

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7) Creating content from keyword research

Once you’ve utilized these tactics and tools to determine which topics are popular and which content opportunities exist, it’s time to use this knowledge for your content planning.

Keyword research used to be much more technical, more of a science than an art.

It’s not like that anymore.

Due to shady content practices like “keyword stuffing”—when content writers would repeat keywords over and over on a page so it would rank higher in search results—Google has taken measures to ensure its users aren’t led astray by webpages that are trying to “beat the system.”

Google has since improved its algorithms to detect the thoroughness of topic coverage, rather than keyword density. It factors in synonyms, phrases, and related topics, so that when a page is written about a single topic and covers it well, that page is ranked higher in search results.

Keyword research does more than just tell you which words to use. It tells you which topics are popular, which topics are competitive, and what your best content opportunities may be.

This is good news! This means that the organizational methods you learned for writing essays and research papers in school will now pay off in a practical way. Begin by writing an introduction to a topic (one webpage), then cover the topic (another webpage), then cover related topics (more separate webpages) or background information (another separate webpage or two). It’s essentially writing an outline, and each section of the outline is a webpage. Blogs organized like this score highly in both search engine visibility and user-friendliness. For good example of this, visit sdadata.org/seo. From a visitor perspective this help with navigation within a specific topic. Be careful not to take this concept to the extreme, creating a confusing maze of short pages.

NOTE: This outlining method also comes in handy when a webmaster is designing an optimized sitemap, or navigational structure, for a website.

With topics and topic coverage having a stronger influence on search engine ranking than individual words or phrases, this better rewards quality writing and presentation. 

However, keywords do still matter!

Keyword research is done so we know what words and phrases people are using. We still want to use those words and phrases as often as we can on a page—naturally. If it sounds hokey to keep repeating a phrase, find another way to say it that means the same thing. Overall, you still want the content to read as naturally and conversationally as possible, as if you were telling this information to a friend. Click here for tips on how to write conversationally. 

Here are some tips for thorough topic coverage in natural language:

• If you were telling your friend about Pathfinder knots because you’d done the research and knew they were interested in teaching this honor, you’d certainly use the proper names of each knot, as well as some common nicknames or synonyms.
• You’d also provide context for how you learned to master each knot and highlight some parts of the learning process that were trickier than others.
• You’d give advice regarding the best time to use one knot over others.
• You’d highlight some common mistakes people make when trying to determine which knot to use.
• Then, if you had a rope, you’d do a demonstration.
• You’d sum up the main ideas and conclude that knot-tying is important, and that there’s a reason so many knots exist, because they all serve a unique purpose.
• After that, you might ask if your friend had any questions.

 
Most content pieces can be written in a similar fashion. You work your way through a topic, writing as much applicable information as possible over multiple blog posts. Remember to keep your posts between 600-1,500 words (in most cases) for digestibility. You might also throw in pictures and videos to supplement the text. You might even post a quick quiz at the end so readers could make sure they gathered the info they needed. Then, there might be a form or comment section to submit questions about the topic.

Content organization techniques that may help you include outlines, topic trees, bubble graphs, etc. Using this as your foundation for content creation helps you determine topical goals, objectives, and key takeaways. Plus, it makes the whole writing process easier.

We’ll discuss types of content presentation in the next section. 

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Learn more:

• “SEO Basics: What is Keyword Research?” (Yoast)
• “How to Find Long Tail Keywords” (Backlinko)
• “Ultimate Guide: Your Content Marketing Keyword Strategy” (Curata)
• “Keyword Research for SEO—The Ultimate Guide” (Yoast)
• “How to Understand Searcher Intent and Use it to Boost SEO Rankings” (SearchEngineLand)
• “How to do Keyword Research the Smart Way: Targeting Interest and Intent” (Neil Patel)
• “How to Dominate Keyword Research in Just 30 Minutes a Day” (Neil Patel)
• “How to Use the Keyword Planner Tool Effectively” (Google Ads)​​

Click here for the full SEO series and resource guide. ​​