Curious about how to do keyword research with Ahrefs to quickly improve your site’s SEO? Keyword research is a vital step, and with Ahrefs, it can be done swiftly.
At Flying V Group, we’ve honed our skills using the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer tool, offering keyword ideas, search volumes, and difficulty scores that help elevate our clients’ content like Vasco Assets.
This method goes beyond simple keyword selection; it’s about engaging with your audience and shaping content that aligns with their searches, thereby boosting traffic and ROI.
In this guide, we skip the complexities and go straight into how to use Ahrefs for efficient and effective keyword research.
How to do Keyword Research with Ahrefs
We’ll use an example for this post to explain the whole concept. Imagine you own a bakery and want to sell most of your cakes online. We will use Ahrefs to conduct keyword research for the cake shop.
Step 1: Set up Ahrefs Account
To use the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer tool, you must create an account on Ahrefs.com. Visit the website and click on the “Sign up” button in the top right corner. Once you have created an account, you can access the Keywords Explorer tool and other features offered by Ahrefs.
After you have created your account and logged in, you will be taken to the Ahrefs dashboard.
On the dashboard, you’ll see an overview of your account and the data you access. Here’s what you might see on your Ahrefs dashboard:
Overview: A summary of your account activity and the number of sites and keywords you track.
Keywords Explorer: A quick link to the Keywords Explorer tool allows you to research keywords and analyze their performance.
Site Explorer: A quick link to the Site Explorer tool, which allows you to analyze your website’s backlinks, organic search traffic, and keyword rankings.
Reports: A list of saved reports and the ability to create new reports.
Alerts: A list of alerts you have set up to monitor changes in your website’s rankings, backlinks, and other data.
Tools: A list of additional tools, such as the Batch Analysis tool, the Link Intersect tool, and the Keyword Difficulty tool.
You can navigate to the “Keywords Explorer” tool by clicking on the “Keywords Explorer” tab in the main menu. The Keywords Explorer tool is where you will conduct your keyword research.
Step 2: Identify Your Seed Keywords
A seed keyword is a broad word or phrase that describes the main topic you want to target in your niche. In other words, they’re the words that’ll form the basics of your keyword research. These seed keywords help you generate a list of related keywords and ideas that you can analyze and use to optimize your website and content.
The first step in identifying your seed keywords is choosing a topic or product relevant to your website. This can be your main product or service, a specific page or blog post on your website, or a related industry term.
A clear understanding of what you want to target will help you choose the right seed keywords to begin your research.
Once you have chosen your topic or product, you will enter the related keywords into the search bar within the Keywords Explorer tool. The seed keywords should be descriptive and specific to your topic or product.
For our cake shop, the seed keywords could be cake and cakes.
After entering your seed keywords, Ahrefs will generate a list of related keywords and information such as estimated search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost per click (CPC).
This list of related keywords will provide a starting point for your keyword research, allowing you to see what people are searching for concerning your topic or product.
In this step, you will use the Keywords Explorer tool to identify your seed keywords and analyze the related keywords that Ahrefs generates. With these search terms, you can gain a deeper understanding of the words and phrases people are using to search for products and services like yours.
For our cake shop, here are the results from Ahrefs;
This image shows all kinds of keywords and their difficulty scores. You can use this information to refine your keyword list and find the best keywords to target.
From the list, we have over 3,800 keywords to choose from, most of which are not relevant. So you’ll need to brainstorm relevant keywords around your seed.
Step 3: Sort Keywords by Traffic and Relevance
After analyzing the related keywords generated by Ahrefs, you will want to sort the list and select the terms that are most relevant to your business and by estimated organic traffic. This will allow you to see which keywords have the highest potential to drive your website traffic.
In addition to sorting the keyword list by estimated organic traffic, you can also use filters to refine the list to include only relevant keywords.
For example, you can use filters to exclude keywords with great difficulty or include only keywords with a specific search volume. This will help you focus on the keywords most likely to drive traffic and generate leads for your business.
In this step, you will sort the keyword list by estimated organic traffic and use filters to refine the list to include only relevant keywords. You can use the include and exclude features to narrow the search to only keywords most relevant to your business.
By focusing on keywords that have high traffic potential and are relevant to your business, you can ensure that your keyword research is efficient and effective.
The refined keyword list will be the basis for the next steps in your keyword research process.
Step 4: Analyze Competition for Target Keywords
It’s time to examine and survey the keywords to see which ones you can rank for. The competition score measures how difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword based on the current strength of the top-ranking pages.
The score is calculated using a variety of factors, including the number and quality of backlinks, the content’s relevance, and the keyword’s relevance to the website. Higher keyword difficulty scores mean that ranking for a keyword will be more challenging, while lower scores will be more accessible.
To analyze the top-ranking pages, you should look at the content, backlinks, and other factors contributing to each page’s ranking. From this analysis, you can determine what content and optimization strategies are required to compete for the keyword.
Based on your research of the keyword difficulty and top-ranking pages, you can select keywords with high traffic potential (a lot of search volume) and low competition (fewer strong competitors).
These keywords are often easier to rank for and can help drive traffic to your website. By targeting these keywords, you can improve your chances of ranking well in search engines and attracting more visitors to your website.
Step 5: Finalize your keyword list and implement
After conducting your keyword research and analyzing the competition for your target keywords, you will have a list of keywords you can target. You should choose the most relevant and high-traffic keywords from this list to include in your website’s content and meta tags.
Always remember to focus on relevance when doing keyword research, where relevance means that the keywords are related to the topic or product/service you offer. You should also prioritize high-traffic keywords.
Focusing on these high-traffic and relevant keywords will increase the chances of attracting more visitors to your website.
Once you have selected your keywords, you must implement them in your website’s content and meta tags.
You should create all kinds of content around your keywords and practice all the on-page SEO best practices. This includes adding keywords to your website’s pages, such as in the headlines, subheadings, body content, and meta descriptions.
No matter what happens, never ‘stuff’ your content with keywords. Else Google would penalize you with low rankings. Instead, use the keywords naturally throughout your content. This will help search engines better understand your website and improve your website’s visibility in search results.
Finally, you need to monitor your keyword rankings over time to see how well your website performs on the SERPs.
Regular monitoring and adjusting your keyword strategy can help you achieve higher search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
You can use tools such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console to track your keyword rankings. If your website is not ranking well for specific keywords, you may need to adjust your content or meta tags to improve your rankings.
Crafting SEO-Optimized Content After Conducting Research with Ahrefs
Understanding how to do keyword research with Ahrefs is an essential skill for any digital marketer or content creator. But the real challenge—and opportunity—lies in crafting content that’s optimized for both search engines and human readers. Here’s how to transform the insights from your Ahrefs keyword research into compelling content:
Integrating Keywords into Strategic Locations:
After learning how to do keyword research with Ahrefs, you’ll have a list of keywords that are prime for targeting. These should be strategically placed:
- Titles and Headings: Incorporate your main target keyword, like “how to do keyword research with Ahrefs,” into the title of your piece to immediately signal its relevance to search engines and readers.
- Subheadings: Use variations of your keywords in H2 and H3 tags to break up text and guide readers through your content.
- Opening Paragraphs: Weave in the main keyword naturally in the first 100 words to establish topic relevance early on.
- Throughout the Body: Sprinkle the main keyword and its variants throughout the content where they fit naturally, ensuring a smooth reader experience.
Creating Content That Resonates:
The purpose of understanding how to do keyword research with Ahrefs is to create content that resonates with your audience. Here’s how to make sure your content hits the mark:
- Answering Questions: Directly address the queries that your keyword research has uncovered. If the main keyword is a frequent question, format your content to answer this explicitly.
- Solving Problems: Provide solutions that your target audience is searching for. If they’re looking to understand how to do keyword research with Ahrefs, ensure your content is the definitive guide.
- Engaging and Informing: Make your content engaging by including real-world examples, case studies, and step-by-step guides that keep the reader interested.
Maintaining Content Quality and Readability:
As you dive deeper into how to do keyword research with Ahrefs, remember that content quality should never be compromised for the sake of SEO:
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Resist the temptation to overuse the main keyword. Instead, focus on natural integration within the text.
- Use Synonyms and Related Phrases: Enhance readability and avoid repetition by using synonyms and related terms that provide context and support the main keyword.
- Quality Over Quantity: Prioritize well-researched, well-written content that provides value, rather than trying to hit a certain keyword density.
Revisiting and Updating Content:
Your journey on how to do keyword research with Ahrefs doesn’t end once your content is published. SEO is dynamic, so it’s crucial to:
- Monitor Performance: Use tools like Google Analytics to track how your keyword-optimized content performs.
- Update Regularly: Based on performance data, revisit and update your content to keep it relevant and ranked high for the main keyword.
By expanding on the process of how to do keyword research with Ahrefs and applying these principles to content creation, you position your content to perform well in search engine results, thereby reaching and engaging your target audience effectively.
Unlock the Full Potential of Keyword Research with Ahrefs Under the Guidance of the Flying V Group
You’ve just seen a glimpse of how, in just 5 minutes, Ahrefs can reveal the most valuable keywords to elevate your online presence. But mastering Ahrefs for SEO success goes beyond basic research—it’s about deep insights into search behavior, competitive analysis, and strategic content optimization.
Keyword research is the cornerstone of SEO, and with Flying V Group, you get a partner that specializes in leveraging Ahrefs to its fullest. Are you ready to harness Ahrefs’ power to not just improve but excel in your SEO efforts? Contact Flying V Group today to learn exactly how to do keyword research with Ahrefs. Our experts are here to provide you with personalized training, advanced strategies, and continual support to ensure your website achieves top rankings and delivers remarkable ROI.
Take the next step towards dominating the search engine results—reach out to us and let’s craft an SEO strategy that turns keywords into your market advantage. With Flying V Group, begin your journey to SEO mastery and let your digital presence outshine the competition.
FAQs
1. Is Ahrefs good for keyword research?
Absolutely! Ahrefs is renowned for its robust database and powerful tools, making it an excellent choice for keyword research. It provides detailed insights on keyword difficulty, search volume, and potential traffic, which are invaluable for SEO planning.
2. How do I search for keywords in Ahref?
To search for keywords in Ahrefs, simply access the Keywords Explorer tool, enter your seed keyword, and review the generated list of keyword suggestions along with their metrics such as volume, difficulty, and click metrics.
3. How to do keyword research with ahrefs step by step?
Begin with a seed keyword and use a tool like Ahrefs to generate keyword ideas. Assess the relevance, search volume, and difficulty of these keywords. Analyze the top-ranking pages for these terms, refine your list based on your goals, and then integrate them into your content strategy.
4. How do you perform keyword research for blog articles with Ahrefs?
Use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to input topics relevant to your blog. Study the keyword suggestions, analyze metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty, and look at the content gap analysis to identify opportunities for your blog articles.
5. How many keywords should I use for SEO?
The number of keywords varies per page, but it’s best to focus on one primary keyword and a handful of secondary keywords that naturally align with your content. Quality and relevance should always trump quantity to avoid keyword stuffing.
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