Keyword research, a fundamental pillar in any search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, has always been likened to laying the foundation for a house. So you’ve spent hours, if not days, meticulously performing keyword research for your website. You’ve identified high-volume, low-competition keywords and phrases relevant to your niche. Now What to Do After Keyword Research?

Or, what happens after laying this foundation is equally critical to ensure the house stands tall and looks inviting. So, after diligent research and gathering a list of keywords, what next?.

Knowing the right keywords is just half the battle; applying them effectively is what leads to success. In this article, we’ll go through some essential steps you should take after completing your keyword research.

Let’s dive into the comprehensive guide on what to do after keyword research?

What is keyword research and how to do keyword research step by step?

Keyword research is essential in search engine optimization (SEO) and online marketing. It involves identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines while looking for particular topics, products, or services. By understanding the right keywords for your content, you can optimize your website or ads to rank higher in search engine results and attract more qualified traffic.

Here’s a guide on how to do keyword research step by step:

1. Understand Your Niche:

• Before diving into keyword research, understand your industry, audience, and the problems you’re solving for them.
• Conduct interviews, surveys, or engage in forums to gather insights.

2. Start with a Seed List:

• Brainstorm a list of topics related to your business. For instance, if you sell coffee machines, topics might include “best coffee machines,” “how to brew coffee,” etc.
• Break each topic down into various keywords. E.g., “best coffee machines” could lead to “automatic coffee machines,” “best coffee machines 2023,” and so forth.

3. Use Keyword Research Tools:

• Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, and others can provide data on keyword search volume, competition, and related keywords.
• Enter your seed keywords to get more keyword ideas and data on their performance.

4. Analyze Keyword Data:

•  Look for keywords with a high search volume and low to medium competition. These are often referred to as “low-hanging fruit” as they can provide the best ROI.
•  Also, consider search intent. Are users looking to buy, learn, or compare? Depending on your business goals, certain intentions may be more relevant.

5. Check out Competitors: Image

•  See which keywords your competitors are targeting. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs can provide insights into competitor keyword rankings.
• Identify gaps in their content strategy where you can potentially outperform them.

6. Long-Tail Keywords:

• These are longer and more specific keyword phrases. They might have a lower search volume but can attract more qualified traffic due to their specificity.
• For example, “best affordable coffee machine for the office” is a long-tail keyword.

7. Group Keywords:

•  Once you have a list, group related keywords together. This will help when planning content, as you can create comprehensive content that covers multiple related keywords.

8. Consider Local SEO:

•  If you have a local business, consider localized keywords, such as “coffee machine store in New York.”

If you’re worried about how to do keyword research step by step or wondering how to do profitable keyword research in detail, you can read our Advanced Keyword Research article.

What to do after keyword research: Keyword List Utilization-

1. Keyword Analysis with Prioritize:

Once you have a list of potential keywords, you need to prioritize them. Which keywords are essential for your business? Which are ‘nice to have’? Make a priority list based on how to do keyword research step by step such as:

Search Volume:

This involves ranking your keywords based on the number of monthly searches they receive. Using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help you gather this data. Prioritizing high-volume keywords can help increase visibility.

Keyword Difficulty:

 Using SEO tools, evaluate how challenging it will be to rank for each keyword. This metric often considers factors like existing competition, domain authority, and backlink profiles.

Relevance: 

 Niche relevancy for keyword research also helps you avoid wasting time and resources on keywords that are too broad, too competitive, or too irrelevant for your niche

User Intent:

 Every keyword serves a purpose for the searcher. Classifying them helps tailor content:

• Informational: The user is looking for information, e.g., “How to bake a cake?”
• Navigational: The user wants a specific website or page, e.g., “OpenAI homepage.”
• Transactional: The user intends to purchase, e.g., “Buy running shoes.”
• Commercial Investigation: The user is comparing products or seeking reviews, e.g., “Best smartphones 2023.”

2. Content Planning and Creation: Most Important Part of After Keyword Research

Now that you’ve categorized keywords by intent. After keyword research and an organized priority list, it’s time to start planning content around them.

Action Steps:

• Map Keywords to Existing Content: Ensure that relevant existing content is optimized for pertinent keywords.
• Identify Content Gaps: Recognize areas where new content can be created.
• Content Calendar: Develop a calendar prioritizing higher value keywords.

Match Keywords to Existing Content:

After keyword research, Audit your current content and see where the keywords naturally fit. Insert them where relevant without forcing or overstuffing.

Content Gap Analysis:

Identify topics or areas you haven’t covered related to your keywords. This process can reveal new content opportunities that address audience needs.

Create a Content Calendar:

The next step after keyword research is to develop a content calendar. Knowing what content to produce and when can make your efforts more structured and efficient. A well-laid-out content calendar can help you:

• Keep track of what’s being produced
• Avoid content overlap or duplication
• Make sure you’re targeting keywords effectively over time

3. Optimize Existing Content:

Before you start producing new content, look at what you already have. Can you update or optimize any existing pages or posts? Maybe you wrote an article a couple of years ago that’s performing well but could benefit from some newly identified keywords.

4. After Keyword Research Develop High-Quality Content:

The cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy is high-quality content. Each piece you create should:

• Provide Value: It should solve a problem or answer a question.
• Be Unique: When you start to develop a content after keyword research, make sure that other content on the same topic doesn’t.
• Be Well-Written: Spelling and grammar matter. So does readability.

Remember to integrate your chosen keywords naturally into this content. Never stuff keywords; it makes for a poor user experience, can not buy keyword targeted traffic and can lead to penalties from search engines.

5. On-Page SEO Optimization:

After you’ve created your content, make sure to optimize it with your keywords by incorporating them into the following:

• Title tags: Title tags for on-page SEO should be descriptive, relevant, unique, and optimized for keywords, length, and readability.
• Meta descriptions: Meta descriptions for on-page SEO should be concise, compelling, unique, and optimized for keywords, length, and tone.
• Headings and Subheadings: Headings and subheadings for on-page SEO should be clear, descriptive, relevant, and optimized for keywords, length, and formatting.
• Content:  Content for on-page SEO should be original, relevant, useful, engaging, and optimized for keywords, length, quality, and freshness.
• Image Alt Text:  For images, ensure alt text is descriptive and uses the keyword where appropriate.
• URLs: URLs for on-page SEO should be simple, descriptive, consistent, and optimized for keywords, length, and structure.

6. Internal Linking:

Keywords aren’t just about on-page content. They’re also about how pages within your website relate to each other.

Action Steps:

• Link high-authority pages on your site to newer pages to distribute page authority.
• Use keyword-rich anchor text when linking internally.

7. Off-Page SEO Strategies:

While on-page SEO is crucial, off-page SEO techniques like backlink building can also significantly impact your rankings. Reach out to reputable websites in your industry for guest post opportunities or collaborations that can result in a backlink.

8. Crafting a Backlink Strategy:

While on-page optimizations are crucial, the power of backlinks in SEO cannot be understated.

Action Steps:

• Identify high-authority sites in your niche.
• Craft guest post pitches centered around your keywords.
• Consider infographics or case studies that can be shared to generate links.

9. Monitoring and Adjusting:

SEO isn’t a one-and-done game. It’s about consistent monitoring and adjustment.

Action Steps:

• Set up rank tracking for your keywords.
• Monitor regularly and adjust based on performance. For instance, if a piece isn’t ranking, consider revisiting the content or backlink strategy.

10. Engaging in Multimedia and Alternative Platforms:

Modern SEO isn’t just about text. Videos, podcasts, and other platforms can be optimized.

Action Steps:

• Transcribe videos and podcasts to harness the potential of written keywords.
• Optimize video titles, descriptions, and tags on platforms like YouTube.

11. Utilizing LSI Keywords:

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are semantically related to your primary keyword.

Action Steps:

• Use tools to identify LSI keywords.
• Incorporate them naturally into your content to enhance context.

12. Technical SEO: image

Ensuring your site’s optimized backend is just as essential as on-page elements. Technical SEO does not deal with the content or promotion of your website, but rather with the infrastructure and configuration of your website. Some of the elements that technical SEO covers are:

• Site speed: How fast your website loads on different devices and browsers
• Mobile-friendliness: How well your website adapts to different screen sizes and user behaviors
• Site structure: How your website is organized and how easy it is to navigate
• URL structure: How your URLs are formatted and how descriptive they are
• XML sitemaps: How you provide a map of your website to search engines
• Robots.txt: How you instruct search engines which pages to crawl or not crawl
• Canonical tags: How you avoid duplicate content issues by specifying the preferred version of a page
• Structured data: How you provide additional information about your content to search engines using schema markup
• HTTPS: How you secure your website with an SSL certificate and encrypt the data transfer between your server and browser
• Hreflang: How you indicate the language and region of your content to search engines.

13. Social Media Distribution:

Once your content is live, don’t just leave it to fate. Share it on all your social media channels to get maximum exposure. Encourage your team members and community to share it too.

14. Paid Advertising (if applicable):

Keyword Targeted Ad Campaigns:

• Use platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to create campaigns targeting your high-intent keywords, ensuring higher conversion chances.

A/B Testing Ad Copies:

• Create different versions of ads for the same keyword to identify which resonates most with your audience. Adjust based on performance.

15. Analyze Performance:

After you’ve executed your strategy, it’s time for analysis. Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable data, such as:

• Traffic: Are more people visiting your website?
• Engagement: Are people staying on your site longer?
• Conversions: Has the new content led to more sales or sign-ups?

16. Fine-Tune Strategy:

Based on your analysis, you’ll likely need to make some tweaks. Maybe one keyword isn’t performing as expected, or perhaps you’re not getting the backlinks you hoped for. Be prepared to be flexible and adjust your strategy as needed.

17. Consistency is Key:

Lastly, SEO is not a one-time activity. Consistently produce high-quality content and keep up-to-date with keyword trends, Google algorithm changes, and other relevant factors.

18. Feedback Loop:

Engage with your audience and get feedback.

Action Steps:

• Use comments, emails, or social media to get direct feedback on your content.
• Adjust your strategy based on what your audience values most.

19. Periodic Keyword List Update:

 Regularly Check for New Keyword Opportunities:

• Industries evolve, and so do search trends. Regularly update your list to capture new terms or phrases.

 Remove Outdated or Underperforming Keywords:

• If certain keywords are no longer relevant or perform poorly over time, it might be efficient to remove or replace them.

 Reassess Keyword Relevance in Relation to Industry Changes:

• Keep an eye on industry trends. Ensure your keyword strategy aligns with shifts in technology, regulations, and consumer behavior.

By meticulously understanding and acting on each step, you can understand what to do after keyword research. And also can effectively use your keyword list to boost your online presence, traffic, and conversions.

FAQ: What to Do After Keyword Research

1. What is the first step after keyword research?

Ans: After keyword research, the first step is to prioritize the keywords based on relevance, search volume, competition, and alignment with your business goals.

2. Should I immediately start writing content for these keywords?

Ans: Before diving into content creation, ensure that you have a content strategy in place. Identify content gaps on your website, determine the format of the content (blog post, infographic, video), and then plan your content around the keywords.

3. How can I incorporate keywords into my content without keyword stuffing?

Ans: Maintain a natural flow in your content. Use keywords in the title, meta descriptions, headings, and body. Remember, it’s about creating valuable content for the reader, not just for search engines.

4. Can I use multiple keywords in a single piece of content?

Ans: Yes, you can. These are often referred to as secondary or related keywords. Make sure they are relevant to the main topic and can be integrated naturally.

5. How often should I revisit my keyword research?

Ans: Digital landscapes and user behavior change. It’s a good idea to revisit keyword research every 6-12 months, or whenever you notice significant shifts in your industry or website performance.

6. I have my keywords; should I make changes to my website’s technical SEO?

Ans: Absolutely! Ensure that your website is optimized for these keywords. This might involve optimizing on-page elements, improving site speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, and making other technical improvements.

7. How do I track the performance of my targeted keywords?

Ans: Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and specialized SEO tools to monitor keyword rankings, organic traffic, and user engagement metrics.

8. What should I do if my targeted keywords aren’t driving traffic?

Ans: Firstly, ensure that your content is high-quality and properly optimized. If it still doesn’t improve, consider revising your keyword strategy, aiming for long-tail keywords or variants that might have less competition.

9. How do backlinks relate to my keyword strategy?

Ans: Quality backlinks help improve domain authority and page authority, which can boost the rankings of your keyword-targeted pages. As you create content around your keywords, also consider a link-building strategy.

10. Can I use my keyword research for paid advertising campaigns?

Ans: Keyword research can be invaluable for PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns. Knowing which keywords are relevant and have high search volume can guide your ad targeting and budgeting decisions.

11. Do I need to update old content with new keywords?

Ans: It’s a good practice to periodically update and refresh old content. If new, relevant keywords have emerged since you last updated a piece, incorporate them to enhance the content’s visibility.

12. Can I use keyword research insights for my social media strategy?

Ans: Definitely! Understanding what your audience is searching for can guide the type of content you produce and share on social media platforms.

13. How do I handle seasonal keywords or trends?

Ans: Plan your content calendar in advance. If you have identified seasonal keywords, prepare content ahead of time and promote it when the time is right.

Remember, keyword research is the foundation, but the real results come from a holistic approach to SEO, where quality content, technical optimization, and off-page strategies work in tandem.

Conclusion

Keyword research is undeniably essential, but what to do after keyword research dictates your success. By following the steps outlined above, you will improve your chances of ranking higher on search engines and be more likely to engage your audience, increase traffic, and, ultimately, drive conversions.

So take that list of keywords and start implementing these next steps. Your website will thank you for it.

While keyword research sets the stage, leveraging that research to create a holistic SEO strategy is the real challenge. From understanding user intent and content creation to backlinking and technical optimizations, the journey of after keyword research is multifaceted. Yet, when approached systematically and strategically, the fruits of diligent keyword research can be reaped.