The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Planning for a Niche Website

Keyword research has traditionally been one of the most important aspects of website building, and it’s even more important when building niche sites that aren’t going to be optimized for broad keyword phrases. Instead, these niche websites will rely on long-tail keywords, typically more extended versions of a single subject the user wants to find answers about.

Keyword planning can be an extremely daunting task when you start first.

Whether you’re writing content for your own site or helping to improve the keyword strategy of another business, this guide will give you all the information you need to succeed through keyword planning in no time!

Table of Contents

An Introduction To The Importance Of Keywords

In today’s digital age, ensuring that one’s website ranks highly in search engine results is more important than ever. This is because many people now turn to the internet when they are looking to gather information or find products and services.

Keywords are crucial in ensuring that one’s website reaches as many potential visitors as possible. They help improve a site’s visibility by increasing its ranking in search engines, thus bringing in more traffic and potential customers.

Additionally, using the right keywords allows websites to target specific search inquiries, enabling them to cater to their audience better. Incorporating keywords into your SEO strategy is an essential step for anyone wanting to succeed online.

Steps To Carry Keyword Planning For A Niche Website

1. Understand Your Target Customers

Discovering and targeting the right keywords is essential to any digital marketing strategy for SEO, PPC, social media, or content marketing campaigns. This is especially true when it comes to keyword planning. The keywords you choose to target should be based on the needs and interests of your target customers.

To get started, try to think like your target customer. What would they be searching for online? What types of products or services are they interested in?

Once you understand your target customer well, you can start to brainstorm potential keywords. Be sure also to consider how popular the keywords are and how much competition you will face when trying to rank for them.

By taking the time to understand your target customers, you can ensure that your keyword planning is adequate and that you can reach your ideal audience.

2. Identify Your Competitors

Before you can create a successful keyword plan, you need to understand your competition. What keywords are they targeting? How well are they ranking for those keywords? What is their search volume like?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to get a clear picture of the landscape and develop a keyword plan that gives you the best chance of success.

Start by doing a simple Google search for your primary keyword. Take a look at the top 10 results and note any particularly strong ones.

Then, head over to a tool like Moz’s Keyword Explorer and enter those keywords. This will give you valuable insights into their SERP features, organic keywords, sponsored keywords, and more.

With this information in hand, you’ll be able to develop a keyword plan that gives you a fighting chance against even the toughest competition.

3. Identify Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the foundation of your keyword research. They are the starting point for finding related keywords and building your keyword list.

When doing keyword research, you need to start with a seed keyword to find related keywords that you can target. Suppose your website is about jeans; some seed keywords include “blue jeans”, “Denim Jeans”, etc.

You can use various tools to find seed keywords, including Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Google Correlate. You can also use keyword research tools like SEMrush, KWfinder, and Moz Keyword Explorer.

Once you have found a seed keyword, you can use it to find related keywords that you can target in your SEO campaigns.

By starting with a seed keyword, you can build out a comprehensive list of keywords that you can then use to drive traffic to your website.

4. Prioritize Long Tail Keywords

If you’re planning to build a niche website, keyword research is one of the most critical steps. And when it comes to keyword research, it’s crucial to prioritize long-tail keywords.

Long tail keywords are more specific and targeted than broad ones and tend to have less competition. This makes them ideal for niche websites typically focused on a narrow topic. For example, rather than targeting the keyword “shoes”, you might target the long tail keyword “women’s running shoes”.

Not only will focusing on long tail keywords help you get more targeted traffic to your website, but it will also help you rank higher in search engines. This is because long-tail keywords are generally easier to rank than broad ones.

So if you’re looking to get your niche website off the ground, prioritize long-tail keywords.

5. Create A List Of LSI Keywords

If you’re planning to build a niche website, one of the most important things you can do is to prioritize LSI keywords.

LSI keywords are those that are closely related to your main keyword but which are not simply different variations of that keyword.

For example, if your main keyword is “weight loss,” some good LSI keywords might be “diet,” “exercise,” and “health.” By including these related keywords on your website, you can signal to search engines that your site is relevant for a wide range of searches. This, in turn, can help you to attract more organic traffic.

So if you’re serious about building a successful niche website, give LSI keywords the attention they deserve.

6. Monitor Rankings

If you’re trying to rank for specific keywords on Google, it’s essential to keep an eye on how well those keywords perform over time.

There are a few different ways to do this. One is to use the Google Search Console, which will show you how often your site appears in Google search results for various keywords.

Another option is to use a tool like Ahrefs, which will track your keyword rankings over time and give you an idea of how they’re trending.

By monitoring the rankings of your selected keywords, you can assess how well your site is performing in search engine results pages (SERPs). This data can help you to fine-tune your keyword selection and on-page optimization, helping you to attract more organic traffic and improve your chances of conversion.

In addition, tracking keyword rankings can also give you insights into the trends and changes in your industry, allowing you to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Regular keyword ranking reports should be essential to any niche website’s SEO plan.

7. Create Content Around Keywords

When planning the content for your niche website, incorporating keywords is essential for helping potential customers find your site. However, simply stuffing keywords into your content is not enough- you also need to ensure that the overall quality of your content is high and original.

Therefore, focus on creating well-written, informative articles with relevant keywords.

In addition, be sure to use a variety of keyword placements, such as in the title, in the body text, and the keywords section of your website.

By carefully planning your website’s content around relevant keywords, you can help ensure that your site appears prominently in search engine results pages, driving traffic and customers to your business.

8. Keep Yourself Updated

It’s essential to stay up-to-date on the latest changes in Google’s algorithms. After all, these changes can greatly impact your keyword planning.

For example, last year, Google announced a significant change to its search algorithm, which significantly impacted how keywords are ranked. As a result, many marketers had to adjust their keyword strategies.

This year, Google is rolling out a new core update, and it will place even more emphasis on quality content and user experience. As a result, marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve must focus on creating quality content that provides value to users.

Marketers can ensure that their keyword planning is always up-to-date by keeping track of these changes and adjusting their strategies accordingly.

9. Adjust As Necessary

As you monitor your rankings over time, you may find that some of your keywords are not performing as well as others.

If this happens, don’t be afraid to adjust your content accordingly so that you can focus on the keywords that are giving you the best results.

Additionally, if you find new opportunities for relevant keywords, don’t hesitate to add them to the mix!

10. Analyze Results Over Time

Monitoring your progress is crucial, but it’s also essential to analyze your results over time to see what’s and isn’t working regarding your keyword strategy.

Use tools such as Google Analytics and Moz Rank Tracker to track where you rank for each keyword and how much traffic each keyword brings to your website over time.

This data will help you fine-tune your strategy to get the most out of your keyword efforts.

Building Blocks of Keyword Research

You need to keep three elements in mind when going on your keyword research journey!

1. Volume

When conducting keyword research, it is essential to pay attention to volume. The volume is the number of searches conducted for a particular keyword. The higher the volume, the more popular the keyword.

The popularity of a keyword can be a good indicator of how competitive it will be to rank for that keyword. If you are just starting, choosing keywords with lower volumes may be better to have a better chance of ranking in the search engines.

However, if you are an established website, you may want to target keywords with higher volumes to get more traffic. Paying attention to volume is an integral part of keyword research.

2. Relevancy

Keyword research is necessary for any SEO strategy, but it’s important to remember that not all keywords are created equal.

In addition to looking for keywords with high traffic and low competition, you also need to pay attention to relevance. A relevant keyword is closely related to your product or service. For example, if you sell shoes, a relevant keyword might be “fashion.” But if you sell car parts, a relevant keyword would be “car.”

While both keywords have high traffic and low competition, only the latter is truly relevant to your business. Focusing on relevance will help you attract the right kind of visitors to your site and ultimately convert more leads into customers.

3. Authority

Any seasoned marketer knows that authority is an important factor to consider when conducting keyword research. After all, if you’re trying to rank for a particular keyword, it’s important to consider who else is trying to rank for that same keyword.

If there are already a lot of established websites with high authority rankings for the keyword, it will be much more difficult for you to rank for that keyword. However, if only a few websites compete for the keyword, or if the websites ranking for the keyword have low authority, you may have a better chance of ranking for the keyword.

As such, when conducting keyword research, it’s important to pay attention to both the difficulty of the keyword and the authority of the websites that are already ranking for that keyword. You can make an informed decision about which keywords are worth targeting by considering both factors.

Top Five Software to Help You with Keyword Research

Several software programs can help with keyword research. Here are five of the most popular:

Google AdWords Keyword Planner: This free tool from Google allows you to research keywords and get ideas for new campaigns.
Wordtracker: This paid tool provides detailed data on search engine trends and keyword popularity.
SEMRush: This all-in-one marketing platform provides a range of features for keyword research, including competitor analysis and SERP position tracking.
KWFinder: This paid tool helps you find long-tail keywords with low competition.
Moz Keyword Explorer: This free tool from Moz provides data on keyword difficulty and search volume.

Wrapping Up!

Keyword research will be one of the most important factors in making your site successful. Without the proper keyword research, you might end up writing pages that nobody will ever find or read! That’s why it’s so important to plan your keyword strategy and figure out what terms you want to target before you build content around those terms.