What is Keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying relevant keywords that your target audience might use when searching for products or services. Keyword research is the foundation upon which Search Engine Optimization is laid. Without proper keyword research, all your work will go down the drain since you aren't utilizing the keywords that resonate with your target audience.

What tool is used for Keyword research?

When doing keyword research, you have various tools at your disposal. Tools like Ahrefs SERP checker and Ahrefs Keyword Generator. Let's start with the keyword generator. So head to the keyword generator and type the keyword you want to research. It could be anything. For instance, 'Content marketing in Kenya'. Select your location (this is important for local SEO), and press enter. A table with several stats will appear. Stats such as the difficulty rating, ranging from easy to hard. This tells you how hard it is to rate the given keyword. As a new business in the given space, you should generally pick keywords with a medium or easy rating. It will be very difficult to compete with already established businesses with more backlinks, and higher domain ratings. Secondly, you should pick keywords with considerable levels of traffic, ideally more than 100. This shows that people are interested in the specific topic.

How do I generate SEO keywords?

As a new website, you can try to exploit long-tailed keywords (longer keywords), as these will be particularly easy to rank for your business. After you have singled out the specific keyword(s) you want to use. Go to the SERP checker to compare your keywords to competitors. Enter the keyword you chose. Choose your location and press enter. Look for the top three results and analyze the angle of the keywords— are they how Tos, or Guides? Then look at the format; are the pages blogs, About pages, or service pages? As a rule of thumb, you should create keywords that are very close to the format and angle of the top-ranking results in the SERP checker. Additionally, look at the domain rating(DR) of the top three results. If they are considerably higher than your website's domain rating, then it would be best to abandon the keyword, as it would be extremely difficult to compete with these websites. You can check your domain authority using this tool.

There you have it. I have given you at least three different tools; ahrefs serp checker, website authority checker, and keyword generator. The beauty of these tools is they are absolutely free. I have used them religiously for SEO purposes. Search Engine Optimization is a science. It is a marathon, not a sprint. So continue keeping up with industry trends, and fine-tuning your SEO skills. Before you know it, your website will be receiving regular levels of organic traffic.