What is keyword research?

The key to any successful online marketing and SEO campaign is effective keyword research. Keyword research is the process of researching and selecting keywords to target with search engine database queries and optimizing content so that it ranks highly in search engine results. Essentially, keyword research is the practice of identifying words and phrases that people use when searching for products or services on the web.

When undertaken properly, keyword research can provide valuable insights into how people search, the types of words they use, and how they interpret those words. This information can then be used to create content that targets those keywords in order to increase website visibility and generate more website traffic.

When searching for keywords to optimize for, it's important to consider which terms are most relevant for a particular company—not just what terms are most frequently searched by a large number of people. For example, if a company sells luxury handbags, then "luxury handbag" should be one of its primary focus keywords, as opposed to "purse" or "bag," which tend to be more general terms with a wider range of potential contexts. Similarly, if a business sells all-weather outdoor gear for boating trips, then narrow terms like "boating wet suit" would be great targets for their SEO campaign.

Keyword research also involves assessing the competitiveness of these targets in order to select which ones will generate the highest returns on investment (ROI). A high competition keyword may attract more attention from search engines—but this could also mean there are many competitors vying for top positions with regard to those words or phrases. As such, targeting lower competition phrases can often help smaller businesses compete amongst larger companies in their niche without having to expend too much effort or resources towards SEO campaigns (as they don't have deep pockets and resources compared to their larger counterparts).

It's important not just to choose high-quality keywords but also investigate related terms as well. New trends often represent missed opportunities for companies who have yet capitalize on them—especially if competitors haven't had time yet to saturate these topics with their own optimized content. Additionally, related searches help expand a website's reach and maximize traffic potential from different sources; doing so gives customers additional ways of finding information about a product or service from an organically-optimized source instead of relying only on paid advertising (which may not even result in sales).