Keyword ResearchChecklist

Rapid Boost Marketing

Set up a spreadsheet template

Create a fresh copy of your keyword research template.

Remember to record the details of it using the form fields below.

Grab one I made for you in Google Sheets by clicking here, or download theExcel file below.

If you're making your own, make sure to freeze the first row!

Enter the page's topic in the spreadsheetThis one's an easy start because you know what you're writing about.

Just describe the topic you're writing about in a few words. Record it inboth the spreadsheet and the form field below.

Examples of related topics that are keywords include:

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Network security checklistLearn cryptographyInformation security process

Google your first keywords

B y Googling your keywords, you can see what Google suggests at thebottom of the page. Remember to record your initial keywords using theform field below.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Some suggestions are just obvious variations, but some are related topics andtotally different keywords.

Add all relevant suggestions to your sheet.

Substitute in synonymsWhile some words just mean exactly what they mean — especially specificjargon terms — some are more universal.

In my list, I find I have 'network security issues', so check for synonyms of'issues'.

Then, I add 'network security problems' and 'network security questions' to mylist.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Get keywords from the Wikipedia articleWikipedia is perfect for well-written content that explains concepts in termspeople understand and search for.

Go to Wikipedia and search the topic of your page.

Quality related keywords will be both in the text and as suggestedcategories. For example:

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Add these categories and keywords as new entries to your sheet, andsee if you can create new keywords by combining them with existing entries.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Use UberSuggest to generate variationsUberSuggest scrapes the suggested searches from Google for a seedkeyword.

Put in UberSuggest your shortest, broadest, most relevant keyword. Forme, it's network security.

Here's what I got, and what I did with it:

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Grab all the +'d keywords and paste them in your sheet. Don't check forduplicates, don't calculate anything else, just build the list.

Repeat this for other derivative keywords if you like.

Search in Quora

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Using the same seed as you chose for UberSuggest, search in Quora to findquestions real people have about your topic. Add new keywords andphrases to your sheet.

Repeat this for other derivative keywords if you like.

Search BoardReader

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

BoardReader scrapes a huge network of forums for conversations matchingyour keyword. Search your keyword in BoardReader and get ideas forquality keywords people will search for.

Add the keywords to your sheet.

Reverse lookup with Google Keyword PlannerSearch for one or more of your target keywords in Google, and note down ahigh-ranking page's URL.

Set it as 'your landing page' in Google Keyword Planner to see thekeywords it is ranking for as well as suggested terms.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Reverse lookup with Site ExplorerThe Ahrefs Site Explorer offers a powerful way to get competitor information.

Using the same competitors as in the task above, search a competitor's URLin Site Explorer to get a list of keywords like this:

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Add any relevant keywords to your sheet, repeat as many times as you feel isnecessary, then go to the next step.

Use Keyword Shitter to create long tail keywordsOpen the delightful Keyword Shitter.

Take your current list of keywords and paste them into the 'Positive filter' boxof this gracefully named tool.

Type your root keyword into the main box then click the 'Shit Keywords!'button.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

There will be a lot of duplicates, but these will be removed in bulk next.

Use the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to get relevantkeywordsThe keywords explorer is an awesome solution for getting related — not justexact or phrase match — keywords for any term you can imagine.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Use it to generate more keywords from your less specific topic areas, and,checking out the Keyword Difficulty, you'll be able to quickly see some easypickings, like how there's a KD 16 option here:

Either export and filter the full list, or just grab a few you like.

Remove duplicate keywordsSince we’re working inside Sheets, this is easily done with the RemoveDuplicates addon. Install that, then go to the Add-ons menu in Sheets andselect the 'Remove Duplicates' section.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Press 'Next' the whole way through, then 'Finish'.

Copy the remaining keywords into Google KeywordPlannerThe fastest way to narrow down your keywords further is to get rid of theones that don't have any search volume.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Get all your keywords out of Sheets, then paste them into Google KeywordPlanner, like this:

Once the keywords are in Google Keyword Planner, hit Download as shownabove.

Tidy up the downloaded sheet and merge it withyour originalOpen your downloaded Google Keyword Planner sheet.

Delete everything apart from the Keyword, Volume and Competitioncolumns, then paste it back. If there’s no volume data, then don’t bother.Those keywords aren’t popular enough and that really helps us narrow downour list.

Remove the keywords that don't make senseYou are certain to get a lot of keywords from the automatic generators thataren't grammatically correct English. Remove these keywords, recordingyour progress with the sub-checklist below.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Keywords that don't make sense

Branded keywords

Non-evergreen keywords

Remove keywords that don't make sense in a sentence. For example,'network security how to' and 'network security basics youtube'.

Remove keywords that are branded. For example, 'apple network security'or 'microsoft network security'.

Remove non-evergreen keywords. For example, 'network security bestpractices 2012'.

Filter by search volumeYour list undoubtedly contains several highly competitive search terms whichwe wouldn't have a shot at ranking for, so by filtering by search volume, wecan gloss over these and get to the slightly less competitive, but most effectivekeywords.

In Google Sheets, click the small arrow that appears when you hover overColumn B's header (the cell where it says 'Volume' and go 'Sort sheet Z-A'.

There you'll see the more reasonable options at a glance, which I highlighted inthe picture below:

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Remove irrelevant keywordsIf you're writing a post about network security tools, then having 'networksecurity best practices' isn't 100% relevant.

Get rid of anything which doesn't accurately describe the page you'reoptimizing.

Remove highly competitive keywordsA big part of deciding if a keyword is worth targeting is looking who is alreadyranking for that term.

If you find that hugely popular and authoritative sites are ranking for yourtarget term, you're in for a tough time.

A quick way to judge how difficult it would be to rank for a keyword is by usingthe Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process

Keyword Research Checklist

Take your top picks that you still have left after the filtering, and paste theminto the tool, like this:

Pages with a low PR or DR (less than 30), or a low backlink count, areprime for overtaking! By writing better content, optimizing it properly andbuilding quality links, you could knock an inferior page off of the top spots.

Remove low volume keywords (if there are betteroptions)At this point, it's likely you're down to just 1 or 2 options. The final decision, allelse being equal, goes to the keyword with the highest volume. Record thefinal keyword, along with a copy of the final keyword research document,using the form fields below.

Highlight that in a triumphant shade of green on your sheet. We have a winner!

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process