Blog | 28 April 2022

Keyword analysis: How to choose the right keywords to rank for

SEO stands for "search engine optimisation". In simple terms, it's about optimising a page's visibility in search engines like Google, Bing and others. The better the visibility of your pages in the search results, the more likely people will click through to your site and take advantage of what you have to offer.

A fundamental key to increasing your visibility in search results is to perform a so-called keyword analysis. The purpose of a keyword analysis is to understand what search terms people use in search engines to find your products, services and content. After that, you can analyse, compare and prioritise which keywords your website should try to rank for.

Let's look at some factors that can help you choose the right keywords.

1. Keyword volume

When choosing which keywords to rank for, it's important to look at the volume of those keywords. Ranking number one on a keyword without meaningful volume does no good. Therefore, you want to make sure that the number of searches is high enough.

Using tools such as SEMrush, you can easily estimate the average number of searches per month for the keywords you have identified. If the keyword volume meets your requirements, it's time to investigate the competition.

2. Competition

Competition is about how difficult it is to rank organically for your chosen keyword. The keyword's competition largely depends on the market, niche and how popular it is.

Assessing the competition can save you time and resources in the long run. Trying to rank for a keyword with high competition can take a lot of time and effort. On the other hand, a keyword with low competition is more likely to rank faster.

There are several tools, such as SEMrush, that offer estimates of the difficulty of ranking for keywords. Using the estimates, you can more easily assess which keywords you should prioritise.

3. Trend

Another factor that can be helpful to evaluate is how a keyword is trending in popularity. By considering the keyword's trend, you can assess if and when it might be appropriate to rank on a keyword.

Intresse för sökordet “julklapp”.

Usually, there are seasonal keywords whose volume varies depending on the season. For example, there may be keywords related to Christmas or New Year which will naturally have higher volumes around those times.

In other cases, there may be keywords that have more persistent trends and this can be an indication of both waning and rising interest. Make an assessment if you think the trend will last or if it is a temporary rise or fall.

4. Relevance

Of course you want to rank as high as possible on keywords, but it is also important to rank on the right keywords. When choosing which keywords you want to focus on, it is therefore important to consider their relevance to your business and the market you operate in.

Let's say you run a real estate agency. Naturally, you'll want to rank for keywords such as "home sales" and "sell home". On the other hand, it's probably not as relevant to rank for broader keywords like "house" or "apartment".

The content of your page must always match the keyword intent to rank highly. Google values relevance. That's why it's crucial that your content matches the intent behind the keyword. So your real estate agency should create content about "selling a house".

Summary of the keyword

As a rule of thumb, a well thought-out keyword should have a combination of high volume and relevance and low competition. The trend may be positive or stable, but the important thing is that it is not a temporary interest that drastically decreases or will continue to decrease.

If you manage to find keywords that follow the above guidelines, you have the basic prerequisites for creating targeted content that engages the reader and ultimately leads to more conversions.

Once you have compiled and selected the keywords that meet your criteria, it is smart to prioritize which ones you think the web has the greatest potential and opportunity to rank on. Then it's time for the next step – creating targeted content and on-page SEO. More on that in the next blog post!