Faizan Ali
Keyword research.
If you are a blogger or involved in the digital marketing industry in any way, then you surely know the importance of keyword research to attract organic traffic from search engines.
But at the same time, you are also aware of how daunting finding profitable keywords can be. This is because in order to find such keywords you need to have at least a little knowledge about keyword research and how to use keyword research tools available on the market.
Note: Many SEO experts suggest that only commercially intent keywords are profitable (eg: best shoes, best smartphones in 2018, cheap WP themes etc).
But for me, profitable keywords are those that can drive traffic to my blog, because If I’m receiving traffic that means I’m building my brand and later I can monetize my traffic in many ways.
In my early days of blogging, I put much effort and time to find thee keywords. When I was a toddler in keyword research, I tried almost every free trial offered by various keyword research tools.
But when the trial ended, I realized I have to find a sustainable way that allows me to discover profitable keywords which should be free also.
(Avoid: If you are a beginner and don’t have enough keyword researching knowledge then I highly suggest you don’t go for premium subscriptions of such tools, instead learn first from free tools and guides available on the internet.)
Since then, I have started my thorough research on keywords and Google ranking algorithms and have built my own keyword research pipeline.
This strategy allows me to find out a set of long tail keywords within 5-10 minutes and also with free tools. (no need to pay a single dime).
And in this post, I’m going to hand over to you the exact blueprint or I should say the secret strategy that I use to discover profitable keywords.
The extra benefits of my blueprint-
- It’s totally free and beginner friendly
- No need to leave the Google search page.
- You will have a bunch of LSI (Latent semantic index) keywords simultaneously.
Keyword Research Pipeline
To follow my process, you need to have two free SEO tools (extensions) installed on your browser.
UPDATE: In 2019, Keywords Everywhere became a paid tool.
- *Keyword Everywhere. The Keywords Everywhere app brings you all the relevant data of any keyword including search volume, CPC rates, and competition.
- SEOquake bar by SEMRush, shows you the Keyword Difficulty and the SEO details of already ranking domains. SEOquake is a Keyword Everywhere alternative.
Initially, I tried many tools as I was searching for free keyword research tools. On the way, I have stumbled upon a number of keyword research tools including Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, Hoth and Keyword Everywhere etc,
Among all these tools I personally like and I’m using Keyword Everywhere (Free tool for few queries) for its accurate data and on page keyword details.
On page keyword details means it can show you all the details of any keyword you put in Google search bar.
Unlike other keyword research tools where you have to jump over their dashboard to research keywords, Keyword Everywhere can show you all the required data of any keyword on the Google search page itself.
As I have already explained, you don’t need to leave Google Search page to know keyword details.
So if you want to have such data to be shown on your browser, you need to install the extensions of Keyword Everywhere and SEOquake tools.
You can install their extensions from the links below:
How I have modified the tool settings to extract more details about any given keywords:
To use Keyword Everywhere tool you need to have API key that you can obtain by signing up for the tool.
After signing up for the tool, you will instantly get your secret API key in your welcome email. That you can use to log in to the tool.
After login, you will see a dashboard where you can modify your settings like you can choose what kind of data you want to see. (I have turned volume, CPC, and competition on.)
Apart from this, you can also choose the supported websites. This means on which websites you want to see the data of any given keywords.
Now that you’ve set up the Keyword Everywhere tool, it’s time to setup SEO Quake.
Why use SEOquake:
Using this tool is the far best method to analyze the difficulty of any keyword and to analyze the competition.
The bar will give you tons of data including DS (Domain Score refers to Domain Authority), PS (Page Score refers to page Authority), LD (Linked Domains), Domain age and Keyword Difficulty.
Now, whenever I have to perform keyword research I head over to the Google search bar and there I put my keywords.
And
BAM.! within a second the screen represents something really invaluable information.
That’s because Keyword Everywhere shows the data about keywords and SEOquake shows the data about keyword ranking difficulty and competition.
Now I have placed both the SEO tools in their places and am heading towards keyword researching.
Let’s start my 2nd phase of my Keyword Research Pipeline,
My Secret Keyword Research Pipeline to Find Profitable Keywords*
Before I proceed, let me give you a quick heads up about what characteristics our target keyword should have:
- It should have a lower search volume from at least 20-500 per month
- It should be less competitive (competition value should be less than 0.20)
- The sites that are already ranking for the same keywords should have 20 or less domain score.
Because if you are able to discover a keyword for which the lower domain score (Domain Authority) sites are ranking, it means you have got the jackpot.
Well, with little efforts you can easily rank your site for those keywords.
Let’s assume, I have a plan to write a post about “Business ideas”. So my first step would be to place this keyword in the Google search bar.
See the image below for my seed keyword “Business ideas”
Here I have placed boxes to indicate the data provided by both of the tools SEOquake and Keyword Everywhere.
As I said, you don’t have to jump anywhere to find related data of any keywords and competitions, it’s all on the page.
Box Number 1 is showing the keyword difficulty and “Box 3.” Is showing all SEO data like DS, PS, Linked domains Alexa rank etc. All by SEOquake.
Box Number 2 is showing search volume, competition and CPC data of particular keywords by Keyword Everywhere.
You might be thinking, “We have got the jackpot in the first attempt.”
No. You may be wrong here.
As you can see, “business ideas” is not the hard keyword to rank for.
But before going for this keyword, I have to validate its ranking possibility.
So be with me to find out the validity,
How I Validate Keyword Ranking Possibilities When I Do Keyword Research
Actually, some articles from lower DA sites can outrank the articles from higher DA sites on search engines.
It usually happens, as there could be any reason behind it like the article may be longer than others, maybe having more comments, may have more visual graphics or may be providing a good link juice to search engines.
So, to validate it and to find relevant long tail keywords with less competition, I have to dig deeper into research and have to discover a set of Long Tail Keywords.
It gets better: I can use those keywords for my next business ideas related post.
“Business Ideas” is not a long tail keyword, so chances for ranking are quite hard, so I have tried “Best Business Ideas to Make Money”
In spite of being a long tail keyword it is not good to go for because it is not easy to compete with any site that has DS 60.
Actually, it is too hard.
So, I have looked over “Related Keywords” (on the right side) of the table by Keyword Everywhere.
There I have chosen “List of business ideas” because it is having a good amount of search volume (9,900/month) and a lower competition value (0.24).
So I have clicked over it.
Yes, this could be a great keyword to write a post upon, because the 1st article that is ranking is from a domain that has a quite lower DS (8) to compete with.
But my research is not ended here. I have to find some relevant LSI keywords to sprinkle inside the post for better on-page SEO optimization.
So I have clicked over “creative small business ideas” and have found that a domain (lower DS) is sitting on the 11th position on the first page.
So this one could be a great supportive keyword for my seed keyword.
Now I have tried some different queries to find out whether any domain with lower DS is ranking for such keywords on Google’s 1st page or not.
Check out the result for a keyword “Profitable business ideas”
Yes, this is another good keyword to place inside the post.
Okay, now I took a step forward and tried for “profitable small business ideas”
BAM!
There are two domains (under 20 DA) that are ranking on the 1st page of Google for “Profitable small business ideas”
Now, as I want to dig deeper, I have made a tweak and tried for “Small business ideas of 2018” because putting seasonable term inside the keyword makes content more relevant and searchable.
So, the chances of ranking increases.
Look:
I have ended up the whole keyword research process with a bunch of high-quality long tail keywords i.e.
- Business ideas (seed keyword)
- Best business ideas to make money
- List of business ideas
- Creative business ideas
- Profitable business ideas
- Profitable small business ideas
- Small business ideas 2018 (seasoned relevancy)
So I have a seed keyword with 6 other (LSI) keywords which will be supporting my article to rank higher on search engines.
The whole keyword research process does not consume much time and if once you get tuned with the process, you can easily discover profitable keywords.
And that’s all for free!
Conclusion: Keyword Research
I have given you my exact blueprint: How to perform keyword research and how to discover keyword opportunities.
Takeaways:
By reading this post, you learned about the Keyword Everywhere Chrome Extension.
In addition to telling you how to use Keywords Everywhere, you learned about an alternative to Keywords Everywherehow, SEOQuake, which you can use to find keywords.
This guide also introduced you to a Keywords Everywhere alternative, SEOquake.
- But using such keywords only is not a rest-assured factor to rank on search engine.
You have to look at other ranking factors too: Your article should be around 2k words with images and links.
It does not mean that you start writing and stuffing anything to achieve a 2k word milestone.
No,
In fact, your main aim should be to help your readers so on the way if you have explained the whole topic and have covered everything in 1200 words, then let it be.
I have revealed my exact keyword research strategy that I use to discover keywords for free.
So, it’s over to you, Let me know how you have found my keyword research pipeline helpful and if you have any doubt let me know in the comment section. I’ll be glad to help you.
Please share this article and help others.
Author Bio:
Faizan Ali is a passionate blogger and a writer. He authors in-depth guides that teach blogging, affiliate marketing and SEO. His favorite place to publish uncensored content is his own blog selfhostedlife.com.
*Host Blogger’s Comments: Keyword Research Update
SEOQuake:
As an alternative, you can go to https://www.seoquake.com/index.html. Do not go to https://www.seoquake.com as some people have tried to do.
Look at this strong testimonial a user wrote about SEOquake:
“Seoquake, a must-have tool.”
After publishing this post, I received instructions from Faizan about how to connect SEMRush and SEOquake. This integration is needed so you can receive the full benefit of Faizan’s methods.
Instructions:
Keyword Research Suggestions
Since the publication of this article, people have searched, “10 ways to use Seoquake.”
Do you know how to use Seo Quake?
Have you ever used the Keyword Everywhere Extension, the Seoquake Alternative?
Had you heard of the Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension before using this post?
I look forward to your views in the comments section.
People have also asked:
What is ld in Seoquake?
Perhaps they mean KD which stands for Keyword Difficulty.
