Almost all SEO begins with keyword research. Understanding what people are searching for and how many people are searching helps form a solid content strategy.
Beyond the basics, keyword research encompasses many more advanced considerations, including SERP features, keyword search intent, competitive analysis, and even internationalization.
Read the latest Moz posts on keyword research. We’ve also included links to our most popular keyword research resources to help your SEO journey.
Keyword Research
: Everything you need to get started with keyword research.
Traditional keyword research focuses on discovery, leaving you with a pile of keywords and a lot of guesswork to prioritize them. What if there were a better way? I explore four metrics you can use to evolve your keyword research.
Rand outlines a straightforward and actionable 4-step process (including an array of tools to check out) for uncovering and prioritizing the best keywords for your SEO campaigns.
Voice search is poised to create a seismic shift in our industry. Purna Virji is here to answer three huge questions: who's using voice search, how is it different from text queries, and how can you prepare?
Moz's newest tool - Keyword Explorer - is available today. Read the post for all the details about the powerful new features, functionality, metrics, and data available from this comprehensive tool for keyword research.
Click-through rate is incredibly valuable, but often overlooked when it comes to optimization. Larry Kim is here to let you in on his secret formula to achieving optimum CTR on content that didn't do so well, with boosted conversions and rankings on the side.
Does organic CTR data impact page rankings? Sharing recent research findings, Larry Kim makes the case that RankBrain and higher organic click-through rates are deeply intertwined.
Keywords or concepts? Wondering about what works in the now, Sam Nemzer devised an experiment to discover what the SERPs have to reveal about how Google interprets different yet synonymous keyword phrases.
Back in February, we explored balancing keyword targeting with concept targeting. This time around we're looking at using your knowledge of related topics and semantic connections in your on-page SEO processes. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about applying those ideas in ways that will boost your ranking potential and inform your keyword research.
It's probably crossed your mind before. Should you optimize for your competitors' branded keywords? How would you even go about it effectively? Well, in today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains some carefully strategic and smart ways to optimize for the keywords of a competitor, from determining their worthiness to properly targeting your funnel to using third-party hosted content for maximum amplification.
Should you ditch keyword targeting entirely? There's been a lot of discussion around the idea of focusing on broad topics and concepts to satisfy searcher intent, but it's a big step to take and could potentially hurt your rankings. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses old-school keyword targeting and new-school concept targeting, outlining a plan of action you can follow to get the best of both worlds.
The goal I am hoping to achieve with this post is to provide some actionable research tips for finding content ideas that you can use for your campaigns. My agency IMA Interactive provides SEO services for the professional services industry, so it was my original intention to help those with the same type of clients. But, I am happy if I can help any...
Google Keyword Planner has some pretty scary skeletons in its closet! Learn about all the dirty secrets that should make you think twice about relying on Google's volume estimates.
It's no secret that Google keeps a lot of secrets. From keyword data to link data to traffic data (and surely more), there's a lot that we could benefit from — if they'd only share it! Since that's not likely to happen anytime soon, Rand takes us through various ways to access that all-important data in this week's Whiteboard Friday.
By being attentive to the user-insight gleaned from their website, Sprout Social turned a few simple tweaks into a bonafide blog-optimization strategy.