Why keyword research should be every blogger’s secret weapon

For anyone looking to build web traffic, establish themselves as an industry thought leader, improve their site’s Google ranking or simply share their organization’s key messages, blogging is the way to go. The benefits are endless – but without the right strategy, the amount of work and effort involved can be endless, too.

Generating ideas for posts is often the biggest blogging roadblock. This is especially true for associations that operate within less “exciting” industries – how are you supposed to come up with engaging, read-worthy posts on a regular basis?

Instead of wasting time and energy struggling to come up with ideas that won’t put your readers to sleep, make keyword research your best friend. Keyword research tools aggregate popular search queries from sites like Google and Bing. Simply type industry-relevant words into your favourite tool and you’ll instantly be presented with content-creation goldmines.

It’s never been easier to gain insight into what really drives human curiosity and use that knowledge to deliver meaningful content to your audience. Below, we’re listing off a few of our favourite keyword research tools that you (and your blog readers) will definitely appreciate.

3 game-changing keyword research tools:

1. Answer The Public. With its beautiful, easy to understand interface, Answer The Public is one of the simplest keyword research tools to use – and it even has a free version. Simply type in your keyword, and this site will instantly generate hundreds of related questions, prepositions and comparisons. With this tool, it only takes a few minutes to come up with months’ worth of content for your blog.

 

2. SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. While Keyword Magic is a little more advanced than your average keyword research tool, it’s also one of the most comprehensive. It provides over 2 million keyword ideas, sorts keywords by topic and even analyzes each keyword’s click potential. If you want to do a real research deep dive, Keyword Magic is the way to go.

 

3. Buzzsumo. If you’re curious about how well keywords perform on each social media platform, Buzzsumo should be your go-to. The free version ranks popular posts by shares on each platform, while the paid version provides content notifications, extra search filters and even content analysis reports. Finally, you can get a better idea of what topics resonante on your favourite social media sites.

 

Helpful links:

• Once you’ve come up with enough blog post ideas, organize them into an editorial calendar so you can keep your blog on track for months at a time.

 

• You can’t come up with the right keywords unless you understand your target audience first. Build a target audience persona to get started.

 

• Check your tone – writing for the web is a unique (and rewarding) challenge.