How to Do Keyword Research For Your Blog as an Influencer
Influencer marketing has become a $21.1 billion industry as of 2024, an increase of 29% year over year. Additionally, as many as 86% of marketers today believe that influencer marketing is not only an effective strategy but a must to stand out from the competition in today’s digital marketing environment.
This guide to keyword research for influencer blogs aims to provide you with all the information you need to conduct effective research and planning. Using keyword research and some of the best keyword research tools, influencers can position themselves as a leader in their industries, helping to rank higher and build a more engaged following.
The influencer industry is more competitive than ever, and these keyword research tips can help your brand stand out. We’ll review what keyword research is, why it’s important, and a few things to consider when choosing the right keywords. We’ll also offer a few steps on how to complete keyword research for influencer blogs.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the process of researching the key phrases a brand’s target audience uses when searching for similar products or services. It is an essential part of search engine optimization (SEO). Using keyword research, brands can optimize their blogs, social media accounts, and websites to ensure they appear at the top of the Google search results.
Why is Keyword Research Important for Influencer Blogs?
Keyword research is essential for many reasons. The keyword research process can benefit influencer blogs in the following ways:
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Boost brand awareness: Brand awareness is important in the influencer industry. Boosting your search engine rankings to match the most relevant keywords in your industry can increase your brand’s awareness and reputation.
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Increase traffic to blogs: Creating a keyword strategy based on effective keyword research helps boost traffic to blog posts. An increase in traffic can position your influencer business for more profitable deals.
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Increase followers: Influencers value the number of social media followers or blog post readers, as they’re often paid based on available traffic.
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Establish industry trust: Trust is important as an influencer. People tend to purchase more from influencers they trust, and keyword data can help you learn more about your followers and their needs, helping to build trust.
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Understand followers: Keyword research can also help influencers learn more about their audience, which, in turn, helps them choose products that best resonate with them. This also allows influencers to create content based on the topics most important to their followers.
SEO keyword research services are a foundation for an effective marketing strategy. Search traffic plays an important role in establishing trust and a brand following in the influencer industry, and the top-ranking websites earn the majority of that trust.
Things to Consider Before Choosing Keywords
Keyword research uncovers a long list of potential keyword ideas that influencer blog owners can use to rank higher. However, targeting too many keywords can be overwhelming and minimize optimization success. Here are a few additional factors to consider when choosing keywords.
Search Volume
Search volume refers to the number of people searching for a certain keyword phrase over a period of time, usually based on average monthly search volume. Considering search volume can help you choose the right keywords that are likely to generate an increase in traffic without being too competitive. Search volumes also show potential interest in new content ideas, which can help determine whether allocating resources to a specific keyword or blog posts is worth it.
Search Intent
Search intent is a user’s reason for conducting a search. Google aims to display search results most relevant to the user’s intent, making it an important consideration in keyword research. A few examples of user search intent may include a user looking to answer a question, find reviews on a specific product, or learn more about a topic. Long-tail keywords tend to answer more user questions versus shorter keywords, which are broader and less descriptive overall.
Keyword Relevance
Keyword relevance refers to the relationship between the search queries and the website’s overall topic of theme. The highest-ranking search engine results pages have close relevance between the two, making it important to target keywords related to your industry. In addition to choosing keywords common in the influencing industry, influencers should also choose other keywords that are highly specific to their niche. Targeting more relevant keywords to your market helps your brand stand out.
Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is a measurement that predicts how easy or difficult it is to rank for specific keywords in your market. Most tools display difficulty using a score of 1 (low competition) to 100 (very high competition). Shorter, highly popular keywords tend to have higher difficulty scores, whereas long-tail keywords will usually have lower difficulty scores. Ideally, influencers will want a good mix of more competitive, short-tail keywords with less competitive, short-tail keyword phrases.
How to Do Keyword Research for Influencer Blogs
Keyword research for SEO is important for boosting brand awareness and ranking higher for targeted keywords. Appearing higher in searches related to your target audience can drive more traffic and followers to your digital brand, helping to position you as an industry leader and top influencer.
Complete keyword research with the following steps.
Identify What Your Audience Is Searching
Keyword research aims to match search user intent with relevancy. An in-depth understanding of what your audience is searching for can help you optimize your content for related keywords and rank higher.
Online tools can be effective in learning more about your audience, including what they’re searching for. Google Trends and Ask the Public are both excellent tools for discovering trending topics.
Your Google Search Console also provides valuable target keywords related to your industry that you’re not yet ranking for. You could also use GSC to consider existing blog traffic. What topics do your web page visitors interact with most? What topics lead to the highest abandonment rates?
Analytics from your AdWords account can also provide you with audience-specific phrases and content ideas. Finally, social media listening can be valuable for learning more about your audience and what they want most.
Use Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that displays relevant keywords. While it’s most commonly used with Google AdWords, it also offers value for discovering relevant search terms.
Use the ‘Planning’ tool within Keyword Planner to discover new keywords based on what people are already searching for. You can also start with a seed keyword, plug it into the planner, and discover more search terms.
Utilize Google Trends
Google Trends is an excellent way to identify current trending short—and long-tail keywords in your industry. Using this information, you can optimize your social media, website, or upcoming blog post.
Researching keywords with Google Trends is easy, even for new influencers. Simply select a topic, review the interest over time, and use the data to plan keyword use and content creation. Remember, though, that Google Trends is based on real-time data.
This means that if you want to take advantage of any trending topics, it’s important to do so quickly. Some brands can leverage predictable trends by planning content around peak searches for specific keywords.
Find What Your Competitors Are Writing On
Competitive research uncovers valuable information about your industry, including potential keywords. By identifying your competitors and analyzing their websites for keywords and content, you can create a competitive strategy.
Similar keyword phrases and content topics can help you beat out your competitors in the search results. Understanding keyword competition can also help you set your focus keyword. A competitive analysis also identifies content and keyword gaps, which are search terms or content that your competitors are currently using but that you are not.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Keyword research tools also provide valuable insight into the best keywords to target. You can find both free and paid keyword tools, including:
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Google Keyword Planner: This free Google tool is a good starting research tool that lets you learn more about industry keywords and volume.
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Moz Keyword Explorer: Moz Keyword Explorer is an excellent option for tracking ranking and collecting data.
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BuzzSumo: SEO tools like BuzzSumo are useful for analyzing content, either yours or your competitors.
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Ahrefs: Ahrefs is a paid keyword researching tool that allows you to explore keywords and search volumes.
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SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool: The SEMRush Keyword Magic tool offers valuable information on intent and keyword competitiveness.
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Serpstat: Serpstat makes it easy to analyze competitors.
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Google Search Console: GSC is a free, powerful keyword research tool that can help you boost your organic search traffic.
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Ubersuggest: Ubersuggest allows you to review historical keyword data and compare organic traffic versus paid.
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Long Tail Pro: With Long Tail Pro, you can organize keywords into strategies using a paid plan.
Have a Closer Look at Your Google Search Console
Google Search Console offers easy-to-rank keyword suggestions based on your business's market. GSC also shows how well your current pages are ranking and which ones need improvement. The most popular use of GSC, though, is to explore keywords. Influencers can search both short and long-tail keyword ideas to help rank better.
Keyword research is necessary to increase traffic and followers, both of which are important for an influencer. Identifying your industry's most-searched keywords also helps you better target your followers to lead to the highest conversions possible. Free and paid research tools make it easy to find the keywords that are likely to produce the best results.
Do I need to Find Keywords for All the Search Engines?
No, you don’t need to find keywords for all search engines. When you conduct keyword research, you can create a list of keywords to target on Google. Google continues to be the most used and most SEO-relevant search engine. However, implementing an SEO strategy that targets keywords on Google will also result in better rankings on other search engines.
Final Thoughts
Identifying the right search term can result in more followers and organic traffic. In a highly competitive industry, influencers need to find ways to stand out. Learning more about your audience, including the phrases they search for and the topics they care about, can help position your brand higher, thus leading to more traffic.
