Keyword Analysis: How to Analyze Your Keywords Effectively

What Is Keyword Analysis?

Keyword Analysis: How to Analyze Your Keywords Effectively

What Is Keyword Analysis?

Keyword analysis is the process of analyzing the keywords or search phrases that bring visitors to your website through organic and paid search. As such, keyword analysis is the starting point and cornerstone of search marketing campaigns.

By understanding what queries qualified visitors to your website type into search engines, search marketers can better customize their content and landing pages to drive more traffic and increase conversion rates. For this reason, keyword analysis is an important skill for both SEO and PPC experts.

Keyword analysis helps to increase conversions, find new markets, and optimize spend, but it requires time-consuming examination and decision making to beat your keyword competition. The WordStream Keyword Analysis Tool takes the analysis of your website keywords a step further by not only analyzing your keywords but also suggesting actions and automating your activity for the best efficiency and results.

Do you really want to look at spreadsheets and graphs for hours a day every day? And after that, what comes next? WordStream eliminates this time waste, streamlining the process of analyzing keywords, highlighting the vital marketing performance metrics, and prioritizing actions to greatly improve your efficiency while simultaneously improving your PPC performance.

The Importance of Keyword Analysis

Marketing is inherently analytic. Field-testing marketing outreach and marketing performance is key to optimizing the budget allocation and market reach. Search marketing is no different, and since keywords dictate your entire search campaign, keyword analysis should be your primary focus. Analyzing keywords allows you to:

Optimize Spend: Distribute more budget to successful keywords and eliminate wasteful spending on those that aren't producing results

Increase Conversions: Identifying and focusing on well-converting keywords is good for conversion rate optimization and return on investment (ROI)

Eye Trends: Knowledge of keyword search frequency provides insight into market behavior which you can apply to multiple aspects of your business

Prioritize Your Time: Keyword performance guides campaign importance--spend your time optimizing areas that have the biggest impact on your bottom line

Find New Markets: Use keyword analysis to expand your long tail efforts and discover more specific keyword queries and corresponding warm leads

Despite all the benefits, most search marketers don't spend nearly enough time on keyword analysis because it's time-consuming and repetitive. With keyword software from WordStream, analyzing keywords and capitalizing on data is automated and simplified, making you more productive.

Keyword Analysis With WordStream

Google AdWords includes a keyword analyzer and reporting section that details data like keyword clicks and campaign success. However, it's difficult to examine keywords and how they relate to each other from inside these tools.

Though Google's tools are helpful in obtaining an overview of your account, what you do as a result of that data and how you learn from it to improve your performance is totally up to you. In addition to the advanced keyword search capability, WordStream evaluates keyword popularity and visit totals to segment keyword groups for you. Highly relevant keyword groups are a crucial step towards improving your Quality Score, and WordStream's learning software ensures your keywords are segmented as relevantly as possible. The software determines the best segmentation based on its own keywords analysis as well as any additional filters and rules that you define.

The keyword source analysis feature allows you to analyze search engine keywords in aggregate or drill down to focus on just paid keywords, just organic keywords, paid and organic keywords together, or just keyword suggestions and associated traffic estimates. This feature enables you to perform SEO-driven and PPC-driven keyword analysis with the same tool.

WordStream software is fully dynamic, so keywords people enter to find your specific website are added to your account daily: your own private, automated keyword discovery tool! Existing keywords will be updated with the most recent visit data, and new keywords will flow through to groups based on the rules you set while segmenting keywords. In other words, your keyword segmentation suggestions, long tail metrics, and visit tallies are always automatically based on current data.

Keyword Analysis Steps

What's next, you ask? Follow the guidelines below to fully analyze and profit from your keyword data:

1. Sign into your WordStream account. If you don't yet have an account, register for a Free Trial here.
2. If your account is new, your first step is to use the keyword discovery tool to parse your web files for your complete keyword history to populate your WordStream account. Alternatively, import keywords using WordStream's keyword suggestion tool.
3. Segment keywords by relevancy with WordStream's automated grouping tools.
4. Use WordStream's negative keyword tool to create negative keyword suggestions and eliminate irrelevant keywords.
5. Keep an eye on your long-tail keywords as they flow in for landing page and SEO ideas.

And that's it! Perhaps your next step is to determine how you want to spend all your new-found free time!

Get a Free PPC Keyword Analysis with the AdWords Performance Grader

Wordstream’s AdWords Performance Grader is a comprehensive free tool that helps you evaluate how your AdWords campaigns are performing on several key criteria, such as:

• Long-tail keyword optimization
• Effective use of negative keywords
• Quality Score

The Performance Grader allows you to compare your score with competitors in similar spend brackets, giving you a sense as to where you fit into the competitive landscape.  

The AdWords Performance Grader shows you where your campaigns are struggling and how to make adjustments that will improve your performance and increase ROI. It’s an expert analysis, and it’s absolutely free!

Keyword Research Methodology in SEO

Any good SEO company or consultant is going to tell you that keyword research may be one of the most important things you do for your SEO. The keywords you target will directly affect what searches you rank for and what kind of traffic will be directed to your site. Failing to include the right keywords means missing out on potential traffic.

Step One: Read Your Content

Keyword research is done on a page-by-page basis. Search engines rank individual pages, not sites as a whole. Each page will have its own set of keywords that directly relate to the content of that page. Before you start your keyword research, read each page carefully and take notes about what that content is about.

Step Two: Check Your Analytics

Before you start changing keywords, you need some idea of what ones currently work and don’t work for each page. You should have signed up for Google Webmaster Tools (if you haven’t you really need to), which can help you determine what keywords are leading people to your site and which pages they are coming in through. This is important because you don’t want to accidentally remove keywords that were helping drive traffic to your site.

Step Three: Use a Keyword Research Tool to Create a Keyword List

Once you’ve determined what your content is about and what keywords are currently working for that page, you need to come up with several related variations of that keyword. Different people will search with different terms, and you want to make sure your site shows up for those searches as well.

3A: I’m a fan of the Google Keyword Research Tool .This (free) tool uses Google data to determine related searches. It also shows you the search volume for those variations. Keywords with a high search volume are more competitive.

3B: For this example, plug “wholesale restaurant supply store” into the Keyword Research tool. If you aren’t logged in to an AdWords account, Google will only display 100 variations. (If you are logged in, you’ll see that there are 800 variations!). Make sure you’ve selected the United States and English as your parameters.

3C: Above the keywords you have the option to download the list. You want to export them to Excel, so choose the CSV for Excel option.

3D: The list will have 4 columns (keyword, competition, global monthly searches and local monthly searches). You only need the keyword column and local (meaning United States) monthly searches.

Step Four: Scrub Your List

Scrubbing is the most important step of keyword research. Obviously there is no way you can target 800 different keywords, so you need to trim your list way down. Going keyword by keyword, you need to determine if that keyword is relevant to the content on the page! Here is a sample of a scrubbed and non-scrubbed list for “wholesale restaurant supply store.”

Non-scrubbed
wholesale restaurant supply store
restaurant supply
restaurant wholesale supply
wholesale restaurant equipment
restaurant supply store
restaurants supplies
wholesale restaurant supplies
restaurant supply stores
restaurant supply los angeles
restaurant supplies
restaurant supply dallas
wholesale restaurant supply
restaurant supply san diego
used restaurant supplies
restaurant supplies and equipment
restaurant supply portland oregon
restaurant equipment
used restaurant equipment
restaurant equipment supply
used restaurant equipment for sale
restaurant supplies store
restaurant supplies dishes
japanese restaurant supply
restaurant equipment leasing
restaurant equipment supplies
hotel & restaurant supply
restaurant supplies wholesale
restaurant food supply
restaurant supply company

Scrubbed
wholesale restaurant supply store
restaurant supply
restaurant wholesale supply
wholesale restaurant equipment
restaurant supply store
wholesale restaurant supplies
restaurant supply stores
wholesale restaurant supply
restaurant supplies and equipment
restaurant equipment supply
restaurant supplies store
restaurant supplies wholesale

Now the scrubbed list is still a little too long, so you need to trim it down even more. A good rule of thumb is to go after 2-5 keywords per page.

Do this process two or three times per page, changing up the keyword each time. For instance, the second list I create would use “restaurant equipment supply store” and the third list would use “restaurant supplies distributor” as the starting keyword. After scrubbing those lists down, you can create a final master list that has the best and most relevant keywords from all three variations. Now you need to scrub that master list down to your best 2-5 keywords.

Types Of Keywords in SEO

There are mainly three types of keywords:

When trying to create content that’s friendly to both organic search and paid search it’s important that your digital strategy utilizes keywords from these three main buckets below. Each type of keyword has their own pros and cons but wrapping these all together in one solid keyword strategy will yield the strongest results.

• Generic Keywords
• Broad Match Keywords
• Long Tail Keywords

Generic Keywords

Just as the title suggests these are very generic, unspecific terms that get searched for. Something like “Tennis Shoes” or “Digital Cameras” would be considered a generic term. When developing an organic search strategy we typically stray away from these terms as they are highly competitive and not specific enough to the sites actual content. However, if you are able to rank for a generic keyword your site should receive a decent amount of traffic from that term. Conversions for that term might be a little low as a user is hitting your site for a very generic overarching topic and nothing too specific.

When running an AdWords campaign its nice to integrate some of these generic keywords to make sure that every opportunity is covered. Due to the competitive nature of a generic keyword they will cost more per click. If the ad ranks well and receives a good Ad Score from Google, decent traffic might follow. Just as with organic search, once a user gets on the website from the search engine, conversions will most likely be low for this term.

Generic terms are a tough decision to pursue and I tend to avoid them unless I have the right site with the right content and the right promotion budget behind it.

Broad Match Keywords

Broad match terms are the core of SEO. Terms like “Red Tennis Shoes” or “Canon T2I Digital Camera” will present a stronger opportunity and engagement than a generic term. Optimizing for broad match terms will provide good traffic with not as much competition. A broad match searcher has a specific item/content that they are searching for and optimizing for these type of terms will provide an average amount of conversions.

Broad match terms are right in the middle of things and are highly recommended due to moderate competition/cost and click through rate. A site that bases the majority of its content around these type of terms should perform pretty well.

Long Tail Keywords

The last of these three types of keywords to consider is the long tail keyword. Think of these as the sentences that get typed into Google. Something like “how do I set the aperture on my Canon T3I digital camera” would be considered a long tail keyword. Long tail keywords might not be the biggest traffic drivers to your site but if you rank for a long tail term you will get traffic due to its specific nature and low competition. From an AdWords standpoint, these terms will be the most affordable but traffic might not be as abundant. However, conversion rates for these terms should be stronger than generic or broad keywords.

The meat of a strong keyword strategy will reside within the broad match keyword but long tail and generic terms should be integrated from both a SEO and SEM perspective to maintain a balanced approach to your search marketing ecosystem.

SEO Competitive Analysis & Research

A potential client once asked, “I’d like to rank for the word jewelry.”

“OK,” I said, “And what’s your budget?”

His answer was not surprising to me. “Weeelll, I can spend about $500/month on organic SEO.”

SEOs all around the world are used to having similar discussions on an almost daily basis, trying to explain to potential customers the balance between search volume, domain authority, brand authority, and budget.

In this article, we’ll explore how to perform competitive research in order to formulate a clear, realistic, and cohesive strategy.

How do keyword research and competitive analysis go hand in hand? What is the barrier to entry for my industry? What are terms that my company can realistically rank for, and how long will it take? Let’s explore.

Step 1: Keyword Research

The first step is to first identify the keywords that your site can REALISTICALLY target. For this article, we’ll use “jewelry” as an example. Unless you have the brand authority or budget to compete with companies such as Tiffany.com and Kay.com, the possibility of ranking for the keyword “jewelry” for any small or medium business is practically none.

Instead, your first goal is to find a viable niche within this competitive industry that is achievable. Mindmapping is a great tool to organize your keyword concepts and buckets. Here’s an example of how this process would work:



There are a myriad of ways to grow your keyword list:

• Identifying your competitors and typing them into SEMrush to see the list of keywords they’re ranking for
• Using Spyfu to get a list of keywords they are bidding for
• Using Keyword Planner to get a list of possible keywords related to a primary term

Step 2: Identify Your Top Competitors

Once you have your keyword list, type those terms into Google and write down the sites that show up in the top 10. Often you’ll see the same sites appearing again and again. You’ll want to identify the sites that rank for many keywords in that niche, and add them to your list of competitors.

Again, SEMrush can be a valuable tool as you can type the domain into the search box and determine their organic traffic and number of organic keywords ranking in Google.



The more keywords they have ranking in SEMrush, especially for terms with high search volume, the more authoritative the domain is. You can also use SEMrush to search for competitors, but that list is not always accurate and should only be used as a starting point.

In this part of the process, it’s important that you find sites that are “truly” competitive with yours. Comparing “Mary’s Silver Earrings” with “Tiffany.com” would not be a fair comparison. It’s important to identify the long tail terms that you’d be targeting, and finding sites that rank for relevant terms. Do not include the large retail brands in your list – Amazon, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. – as they will simply skew your metrics.

Step 3: Analyze Your Competitors

Now that you know who your competitors are, you need to dive deep into the profile. You can start by grabbing general metrics for them. LinkResearchTools has a great tool called “Juice Tool” that can be used to get the general metrics for each competitor, including Link Velocity, Domain Authority, Inbound Links, Social Shares, Domain Age, and much more. Here’s an example of some of the data:



These numbers are not enough to form a comprehensive understanding of your competitors; it’s just a start. Next, you need a deep dive into their backlink profile.

1. Download Their Backlink Profile:

Using Ahrefs, you can sort by Domain Rank to view their backlinks from most to least authoritative. This way you can gain an idea of how many high quality links you’ll have to target.



2. Analyze Their Topical Authority:

Using Majestic’s backlink tool, analyze their topical trust flow and understand their semantic link profile.



3. Establish Industry Averages:

The Competitive Landscape Analyzer from LinkResearchTools is a wonderful way to establish industry averages, which will give you guidelines to follow when starting your campaign. Some of the metrics you can look at are:



Step 4: Social Media and Content Audit

Now that you have an understanding of who your competitors are and their backlink profile, you’ll need to research their content marketing and social media strategy. How often do they share updates on social media? What is their engagement ratio? How many active followers do they have? Here’s a template for a social media audit questionnaire that can be used as part of this process.

Evaluate their blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts. This will help you determine how active you need to be in terms of creating and sharing content, and again, to determine your first targets in terms of follower acquisition and engagement ratio.

Step 5: Determine Your Barrier to Entry and Strategy

Once you have a thorough understanding of your competitors, you can create your strategy based on the averages from the data you uncovered.

First you’ll want to know how many links you’ll need to acquire, and the quality of those links, to start showing up in the search results. Of course this will be based on the averages of the sites ranking for the keywords you chose. It’s important to avoid keywords that have a strong presence of sites with massive domain authority, as mentioned above. These domains are tough to beat as they tend to be highly trusted and rewarded by Google.

Next you’ll want to determine how many links based on topical categories you’ll need. For example, if you need 100 links to start showing up, how many of those should be in your direct niche vs. a more generic niche or a related niche? Out of those 100 backlinks, how many should have a Domain Rank of 80 or more? Seventy or more? Between 60 and 40? Figure out a breakdown based on the industry averages so you can set targets for how to sculpt your backlink outreach and acquisition.

Finally, you’ll determine how many articles to share on your blog every week, how many should be keyword vs topically focused, how often to post on social media, how many followers to acquire, etc.

The data you acquire from this research will form the backbone of your SEO strategy, and will create the structure of your campaign. In such a difficult space, it’s important to arm yourself with data, otherwise you will easily waste resources without seeing a return on investment.

Introduction to keyword research for SEO

3 step guide providing you with some insights to ensure you are on the right track when researching the keywords of choice. So, you have identified the content, now what?

Step 1: Selecting the Keywords

• Brainstorm list of ideas of words/phrases. Speak to your co-workers, friends, suppliers to your business of keywords and phrases they would associate to the content you are looking to create.
• Imagine you are the customer. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. What types of keywords and phrases are you going to refer to? Phone or email your customers, be open with them and ask them for their thoughts and ideas too
• Competitors. This is a great resource tool. List out all your competitors who are selling the same product/service and begin to form research into the words and phrases they are targeting. Check out the source code of your competitors website products page - here you can search for Meta Keyword and Description tags where they may provide you with hints on keywords they are targeting.
• Analytics. Consult your analytics and make a note of all the relevant keywords users have used to arrive at your website relating to the specific product/service.
• Define your list. By now you should have a list of keywords and from this research you can now take it forward. Do not make the list too exhaustive, try to look to define and identify 10-15 keywords.

Step 2: Defining the List

• Relevant and Popular keywords. From the initial selection of keywords in Step 1, now you need to define the list of keywords you want to target that you see as relevant and popular for search tactics.
• Sign into the Google Keyword Tool which provides you with an insight into the search volume available for the range of keywords you have identified through Google e.g. how many searches are conducted on a monthly basis for that specific word or phrase.
• Copy and Paste the keyword list you created in Step 1 into the keyword tool and choose 'Exact match' and set the region you are looking to target.
• Record results. The Keyword tool will then generate a list of keyword search volume generated for a monthly average.

Step 3: Choosing the Keywords

Analyse local monthly searches. If you log in to your Google account this will then break down the keywords by a monthly average figure and by region (Local) rather than Global. From here you can check to see peaks in search volume throughout the year.

Monitor Keyword ideas underneath the keywords you included, Google will also provide a keyword ideas section - this is a list of alternative and associated keywords you might also want to consider that to drive potential search volume.

Do the keywords match your content?This is an important step, make sure the keywords you are looking to take forward match the content you have on your website. There is no point identifying keywords with lots of potential search volume if you don't have the content available on the website to support this.

Hopefully, this provides you with an actionable 3 step guide to creating and defining a list of keywords for your SEO campaign, I would be keen to hear your thoughts and ideas you may use.