Using the right keywords can help you drive more traffic to your website. The more people who search for your keywords, the better your chances of getting a top SERP ranking.

The first step to keyword research is to brainstorm a list of possible keywords. The keywords you choose can be broad or specific. Depending on your industry, you may want to specialize in long-tail keywords.

Using keyword research, you can get a good idea of what topics your target audience is looking for. It’s also important to look at your competition. Having an idea of what other sites are targeting will help you develop your own content strategy.

Keyword research can be done with a free tool, such as Google’s Keyword Planner, or by using paid tools, such as Ahrefs or Semrush. The paid tools can offer more comprehensive keyword research.

During your research, you should also look at Google’s Trends filters to see which keywords are trending. The more popular your keyword, the more likely you will be to overpay for ad clicks. You should also check the search volume to see how many people are searching for your keyword every month. If the keyword has low search volume, it will likely keep your leads from visiting your site. This will make it difficult to convert leads into customers.

Another tool you can use is Moz Local, which will help you improve your local SEO. You can also use Whitespark to improve your citations.