Free SEO Keyword Research Template

Access our keyword research template. Free to use and share via Google sheets.

The following guide forms part of our SEO Standard Course. If you want to know more about how keyword research fits into your SEO strategy then check out our next available course dates.

Click here to access the template on Google Sheets

How to use the template

In order to use the template you'll need to first of all make a copy of the template that you will be able to edit  

Step 2: Create your seedlist

Considering the themes identified for your site, what are the most likely queries a user might enter into a search engine when looking for the products, services or information you offer?

Using the template, add the words that you feel a potential client might use to find your website online under each theme. Create a list of the 6-12 most likely keyphrases. You can also use actual search terms identified within Google Search Console or Google Ads for your own site.

Step 3: Build out keyword lists using Google Ads

i. Access the Keyword Planner tool

You will need access to your Google Ads account or create a new account using any Google account.

https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/

ii. Expand your seed list

The Google Keyword Planner will take your seed list/s and expand upon them by providing further related search terms that users might utilise to find a website or webpage like yours.

To begin, select the first option – ‘Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category’.

Copy the keywords from your first seed list and paste them into the ‘Your product or service field. Make sure that the targeting options match your intended geographical and language targets.

Once you hit ‘Get ideas’ Google will return average monthly search data for keywords within your seed list plus all of the terms Google considers to be related.

Use the download function within the Google Keyword Planner to export your full keyword list into an Excel document.

Step 4: Analyze & refine full keyword list

The .csv file downloaded will contain several columns of data that are unnecessary. Delete these until you have only the ‘Keyword’, ‘Avg. Monthly Searches’ and ‘Competition’ columns remaining.

Manually look through all of the keywords in your Full Keyword List. You will find that some may seem irrelevant, off subject or provide too little search volume to warrant inclusion in your final Keyword Selection. Remove these keywords so that you are left with a ‘clean list’.

Step 5: Intent analysis

It is essential in SEO to make sure that the pages you are targeting for any particular keyword match the intent of the query. To help you to understand whether keywords should be targeted via core commercial landing pages, supporting pages or informational pages it is helpful to classify your keywords by commercial intent.

It is essential in SEO to make sure that the pages you are targeting for any particular keyword match the intent of the query. To help you to understand whether keywords should be targeted via core commercial landing pages, supporting pages or informational pages it is helpful to classify your keywords by commercial intent.

Create a new column and mark the key phrases that you think directly match your core products/services with ‘high’ conversion intent. Where you think a user could be interested in your product/service, but perhaps isn't at the stage where they are likely to convert, mark these as a medium. If you think the query relates to your potential audience, but at this stage, they're not likely to be interested in your offering, mark these as low.

Step 6: Final keyword selection

Your ‘clean list’ of keywords will include all of the keywords that you should consider targeting as part of your SEO campaign. Naturally, some of these phases will be of greater value than others – some will be ‘vanity’ keywords while others will be ‘long tail keywords’. It is advisable to split your Final Keyword Selection into the following groups.

1. Primary Opportunities - Keywords listed in your final selection which provide the most desirable opportunities, in terms of conversion intent and search volume. Your website/webpage will typically most aggressively focus towards these primary opportunities.
2. Secondary Opportunities - Alternative (often long tail) keywords which provide variation to the primary opportunities. These keywords will typically generate less search volume but still provide good relevance, although possiby lower conversion intent, and are valid for inclusion within your SEO campaign.
3. Tertiary Opportunities - Further keyword alternatives providing the least lucrative opportunities in terms of search volume, and of med-low conversion intent. In many circumstances, these will be least aggressively targeted within an SEO campaign. These phrases are those you're likely to target with supporting content or blog posts.

Once you've completed all the steps above you'll need to repeat for each of the themes you identified. Once this is done you're ready to progress with your campaign.

If you want to know more you can also check out our blog post on Advanced Keyword Research.

Want to know more about SEO? Join us for our SEO Standard or SEO Advanced training courses.