The Lazy Marketer’s Guide to Easy & Effective Keyword Research

Are you a marketer who hates spending hours on conducting keyword research? Do you want an easy way to find profitable keywords to target in your content and campaigns? Well, you’ve come to the right place!

In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through my lazy (but effective!) approach to keyword research. I’ve tested and honed this process over years of marketing experience, so I can confidently say it works.

The best part? You can get quality keyword ideas in as little as 15 minutes. No more wasting half your day on keyword research!

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why Keyword Research Still Matters
• Find Seed Keywords
• Expand Your Keyword List
• Analyze Keyword Competition & Value
• Organize & Prioritize Keywords
• Extract Key Phrases for Content
• My Favorite Keyword Research Tools
• Key Takeaways for Lazy Marketers

 

Why Keyword Research Still Matters? Keyword research may seem like a boring, outdated concept, but I’m here to tell you it’s as crucial as ever in this year and beyond.

With content marketing, SEO, and Google Ads, the right keywords can make or break your campaigns. Keyword research is how you uncover that powerful search data to inform your marketing strategies.

It does require some effort on your part. But you don’t have to overcomplicate it. My lazy keyword research method will give you what you need to drive real results.

Ok, enough convincing – let’s get to it!

1. Find Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the initial keywords you’ll use to kick off your research. This gives the algorithm something to work with as it generates related keywords.

Here are a few ways to uncover great seed keywords:

• Leverage Google Autocomplete: As you type a keyword into Google, look at the suggested terms that pop up. These are directly related to what people are searching.
• Check out answer sites like Quora and Reddit: Look for relevant questions and discussions related to your industry or topic. The keywords real people use when asking questions are great seeds.
• Review competitor content and ads: What keywords are other brands targeting successfully? Their wisdom can give you keyword ideas.
• Analyze your own site analytics: Look for your top-performing pages and the keywords driving traffic to them. Double down on what’s already working.
• Brainstorm keywords yourself: Even just 5-10 minutes of mind mapping related keywords will give you some terms to work with.

Once you have a few seed keywords, you’re ready for the next step.

2. Expand Your Keyword List

Now it’s time to grow that initial list into a bigger basket of keyword opportunities.

Here are two easy ways to expand on your seeds:

• Use Google’s Keyword Planner: This free tool generates keyword ideas based on the seeds you plug in. It’ll also show monthly searches so you can start gauging volume.
• Utilize keyword grouping tools: These will automatically find related long-tail variations of your seed keywords. Try out tools like SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool or Ahref’s Keyword Explorer.

At this stage, I just let the tools run wild and build up a huge, messy list of keywords. Don’t self-edit too much here – you want options to work with.

Shoot for at least 100+ keywords at this point. More is always better. You’ll pare it down later.

3. Analyze Keyword Competition & Value

Next, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and refine your keyword list to focus on the gems. In this step, you’ll analyze keywords for two factors:

• Competition: how hard it will be to rank for a given keyword
• Value: how much payoff you’ll get from that keyword in terms of traffic, conversions, etc.

I like to use a simple color coding system to quickly assess keywords:

• Red – High Competition, Low Value – Not worth pursuing
• Yellow – Medium Competition/Value – May be viable
• Green – Low Competition, High Value – Top priority keywords

I filter out the plain bad red keywords and focus only on greens and yellows.

You can manually assess competition and value for keywords, or use a tool like SEMrush to automate it.

4. Organize & Prioritize Keywords

Now you’ve whittled your list down to the best keywords. It’s time to organize them for easy reference as you create content.

I like to use a simple spreadsheet, with columns for:

• Keyword: the keyword itself
• Volume: monthly search volume
• Competition: my color coded rating
• Priority: 1, 2 or 3 based on value
• Used?: have I used this in content yet?

This gives me an organized resource I can reference anytime. I love checking keywords off as “used” after working them into my content.

Make sure to assign priority levels so you know which keywords to tackle first. Go after that low-hanging fruit!

5. Extract Key Phrases for Content

Armed with your prioritized keywords, you can now easily extract key phrases to work into your blog posts, articles, and other content.

When creating a new piece of content, just refer back to your spreadsheet and plug in relevant keywords. Aim to include a mix of head keywords and long-tail key phrases.

This saves you from struggling to come up with keywords as you write. They’re already researched and organized.

Pro Tip: Don’t force keywords unnaturally. Work them in strategically in a way that flows with your content. The reader comes first – not Google.

Don’t miss The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research in 2023: The Beginners Guide and How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

My Favorite Keyword Research Tools

Okay, let’s quickly cover my favorite software to make keyword research super easy:

• SEMrush – My #1 all-in-one suite for keyword research and SEO. Lots of robust data.
• Ahrefs – Alternative to SEMrush with excellent keyword exploration.
• Surfer SEO – Lower cost keyword research focused tool. Very user friendly.
• Google Keyword Planner – Free keyword volume data straight from Google.
• Answer the Public – See keyword suggestions based on common questions people ask.

You really only need one paid tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs to get the job done. But feel free to test out a few to see which you like most.

Key Takeaways for Lazy Marketers

Alright, let’s wrap this up with a quick recap of my key tips for lazy, simplified keyword research:

• Leverage keyword research tools to do the heavy lifting for you. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.
• Focus only on high-value, low competition keywords so you get the most bang for your buck.
• Organize keywords into a spreadsheet or tool you can easily reference later. Check them off as you use them.
• Don’t overthink it. Start with a few seed keywords and let the tools expand your list exponentially.
• Work keywords in naturally – don’t force it. Quality content first, SEO second.
• Revisit and update your keyword list every few months to stay on top of trends.

My Final Words: I hope this guide helped simplify the keyword research process for you lazy marketers out there. The key is using the right tools to minimize the grunt work. Then you can focus on what matters – creating content that resonates.

Now go crush it out there and remember to work smarter, not harder! Reach out if you have any other marketing questions. I’m always happy to help simplify complex topics.