KEYWORD

RESEARCH
A Proven System for
Generating 1000’s of Profitable
Keywords

ANIL AGARWAL
 About The Author

Hi, my name is Anil Agarwal. I’m a full-time blogger

and SEO expert who blogs at Bloggers Passion that
earns $10K+ each month.

Curious to know more? Read my blogging journey to

know more about how I went from $0 to $10K each
month.

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 Disclaimer

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The author assumes no responsibility for the use or
misuse of this ebook, or the financial loss sustained to
persons or property as a direct or indirect result of using
this ebook.

We cannot guarantee your future results and/or success,

as there are some unknown risks in business and on the
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information should be based on your own due diligence,
and you agree that the author is not liable for any success
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Please do not copy, reproduce or distribute without

written permission from the author.

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 Table of Contents

Introduction 06

Keyword Research Made Easy 09

Every Search Begins with Keywords 10

Don’t Do Keyword Research Without Knowing

Search Intent 12

What is Search Intent? 13

Types of Search Intent? 15

Understanding Keyword Metrics 19

How We Do Keyword Research At

Bloggers Passion 32

Step 1: Finding Seed Keywords 34

Step 2: Basic Keyword Research 37

 Step 3: Analysing Top 3 Search Results 40

Step 4: Finding Related Keywords 44

Step 5: Knowing The Searchers Intent 47

Bonus Tip: Finding Easier To Rank Keywords 50

4 Incredible Tools You Need for Better

Keyword Research 55

How to Use SEMrush for Keyword Research 60

How to Use Ahrefs for Keyword Research 76

How to Use Ubersuggest for Keyword Research 93

How to Use KeywordTool.io for Keyword

Research 105

Bonus: Keyword Research Checklist 112

Where to Go from Here? 119

 Introduction

Is Keyword Research Still

Important?

One of the first things I experimented on with SEO is

keyword research. That was back in 2005, and I’ve been
doing keyword research ever since.

Keyword research was a lot easier back then.

Simply pick a topic, include the primary keyword multiple

times and viola you get first page rankings!

It doesn’t work like that now.

With the introduction of Google algorithms like

Hummingbird and RankBrain, Google is better
understanding the “intent of searchers” to deliver better
search results.

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Keyword stuffing is NO longer working.

Google is getting smarter each day.

And

The competition is growing rapidly in almost every niche.

Just enter a highly competitive keyword like “SEO” in

Google search and you’ll quickly realise the competition.

So how are you going to get first page rankings when

there’s so much competition?

How are you going to increase your search traffic with a

new blog?

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Short answer: strategic keyword research.

Over the last 15 years, I learned a lot about keyword

research and that’s what I’m going to share in this
amazing eBook. I guarantee that the techniques and
methods described in this eBook will definitely improve
your overall search traffic from Google.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

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 Keyword Research
Made Easy
A Proven System for Generating 1000’s of
Profitable Keywords
 Every Search Begins
with Keywords

Keyword research is the FIRST step to any successful SEO

campaign. It helps you identify the keywords that people
search on Google to find your website or business.

So if anyone says “keyword research is dead”, don’t believe

them.

You just need to learn the RIGHT concepts to find better

keywords to increase your overall search traffic and sales.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes people make while

doing keyword research:

➔ Picking keywords that are too broad (it’s a lot easier to

rank for a long tail keyword like “best WordPress deals
for small businesses” when compared to a broad
keyword like “WordPress deals”)

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➔ Keywords with too much competition (if sites like
Amazon or other big brands are already ranking on
top, you should probably pick other keywords with
less competition)

➔ Keywords that don’t convert (what’s the point of

ranking for #1 for a keyword that just doesn’t convert?)

➔ Trying to rank for just one keyword at a time (it

obviously leads to keyword stuffing, you can rank for a
ton of keywords with each post by using LSI
keywords)

In this eBook, you’re going to avoid the above mistakes as

you’ll find how to do keyword research the RIGHT way.

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Don’t Do Keyword
Research Without
Knowing Search
Intent
 What is Search Intent?

“Search Intent” or “User Intent” is the main goal a user has

while searching for something on Google (or any other
search engine).

If I search for "movies about the boat in a storm" Google

will likely understand that I am asking about the movies
such as Adrift, Life of Pi, etc. but not about pages
optimized for those specific keywords.

You can clearly understand that Google is REALLY

smarter. It shows results based on the search intent.

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See, not all keywords are equal. Different keywords serve
different intent.

Even if you find low competitive keywords and rank #1 for

them, you won’t maintain your keyword rankings if your
searcher’s intent is different.

After all, there’s no point of ranking #1 for a keyword like

“free SEO tools” if you’re only talking about “paid SEO
tools”.

Clearly, the intent is different!

That’s why it’s ESSENTIAL to know your search intent

properly before you begin keyword research.

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 Types of Search Intent

There are usually 4 common types of “search intent”

1. Informational
2. Commercial
3. Navigational and
4. Transactional

Let me demonstrate all of these common types of search

intent with some examples so you can better understand.

1. Informational Keywords

These are the keywords used by people to gain

knowledge about a topic, product or brand.

Examples include;
➔ Best ways to increase traffic
➔ Tips to increase affiliate sales
➔ How to grow Facebook groups

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 2. Navigational keywords

The searchers with “navigational intent” already have an

end destination in mind.

Examples include;

➔ Amazon customer care

➔ Twitter
➔ Facebook sign up
➔ WordPress login

3. Commercial keywords

These keywords include information on a future purchase

(on products, services, and so on).

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Examples include;

➔ Best DSLR cameras

➔ Top smartphones for bloggers
➔ Affordable laptops for writers

4. Transactional keywords

These are also known as “buyer keywords” and people

who use these keywords show intent to buy something
(right away). These can help you generate more revenue!

Examples include;

➔ Buy SEMrush Pro account

➔ Ahrefs coupon code
➔ Bluehost offers

Once you have identified a keyword’s search intent, you

can easily line up those keywords according to the AIDA
model

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Here’s how it looks like;

So the whole idea of doing smart keyword research is this:

“we need to start with the searcher, think about what they
are searching for, know their search intent, and then find
relevant keywords to create useful content around it.”

Let’s now talk about how we usually find better keywords

at Bloggers Passion. Then, we’ll dig into deeper details of
keyword research using tools.

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 Understanding
Keyword Metrics
4 important metrics you should consider
when researching your keywords
Here are FOUR important metrics you should consider
when researching your keywords.

1. Search volume
2. Keyword trend
3. Keyword value (or Cost Per Click)
4. Keyword difficulty

Let’s briefly talk about each one of them so you can easily
filter your keywords.

1. Keyword Search Volume

This metric shows how many times per month people in a

given country search for your target keyword.

Obviously, if more people search for your target keyword

term, then you're more likely to get visitors to your website
by getting the top 3 rankings.

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At the same time, it’s also difficult to get top rankings if
your keyword search volume is too big.

Here’s how this metric looks like (using KeywordTool.io)

Pro Tip

Always pick keywords with low to moderate search

volume (below 1000 monthly searches if possible) as
they are easier to rank for.

2. Keyword Trend

You should always find the popularity of the keywords to

see how traffic from various search queries has fluctuated
over the years.

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There’s no point in targeting keywords with a decreasing
trend, right?

You can use Google Trends to easily find the trend and
popularity of any keyword.

As you can see above, we compared two keywords (SEO

and affiliate marketing) and the keyword trend for the
topic “SEO” is much more popular than the topic “affiliate
marketing” in the United States (from past 12 months).

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 Pro Tip

Always find keywords with a growing trend. If a

keyword trend is growing after every month (or year),
it simply means, there’s a HUGE demand for that
keyword term.

3. Keyword Value / CPC

This metric shows the average cost of a click on a paid

search result for a given keyword. The higher the CPC, the
higher the profits. It’s as simple as that.

CPC value also tells you how much you would need to pay
to advertise on Google search, but of course, with SEO you
would get this traffic without paying for Google Ads for
each click.

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Almost all the SEO tools ranging from SEMrush to
Ubersuggest show you the CPC value while doing
keyword research.

Here’s how the CPC value looks like (in Ubersuggest);

Pro Tip

Always keep an eye on the CPC metric while picking

your keywords. If you find two keywords with similar
search volume and trend, always go for the keyword
with higher CPC.

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 4. Keyword Difficulty (KD)

This metric tells you how hard it is to rank for a keyword

term and it is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100 (100 being
the hardest to rank for).

A higher keyword difficulty (KD) score simply means it will

be more difficult to compete with the already-ranking
search results and a lower KD score means it's likely to be
much easier.

There are a ton of tools that provide you KD data.

Ahrefs is one among them (which provides you more

accurate KD score when compared to other tools).

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As you can see above, it’s fairly easy to rank in top 10 for a
keyword with KD of 10.

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 Pro Tip

Always target keywords with low to medium keyword

difficulty (around 30 to 40 or even less).

Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, KWFinder etc to easily

determine the keyword difficulty score of any
keyword term.

In a nutshell, always prefer keywords with less to medium

monthly searches, higher keyword trend, high CPC value
and low keyword difficulty (KD).

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 Short Tail Keywords or
Long-tail Keywords?

Before jumping into the details, let me tell you one thing.
Short tail keywords are extremely difficult to rank for
(because of competition), whereas it’s much easier to rank
for long-tail keywords of low searches.

Let me briefly explain about both these keyword types so

you’ll know when to pick them.

Short Tail Keywords

A short tail keyword is a phrase that contains 3 words or

less.

Examples include: “fitness equipment”, “apple earbuds”,

“bluetooth speaker” and so on.

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These short tail keywords are also known as “head terms”.
Usually your keyword research should start with short tail
keywords as they can be used as “seed keywords”.

But make sure to add modifiers to your seed keywords

(using long tail keywords) for finding low competitive
keywords.

Long Tail Keywords

Long tail words are phrases containing more than 3

words.

Examples include: “best home exercise equipment for

beginners”, “apple wireless earbuds price in India”,
“bluetooth speaker with mic for phone” and so on.

Long tail keywords are definitely a lot more targeted and

not as broad (as short tail keywords). They often help you
generate targeted traffic from search engines to your site.

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Did you know that 70% of all search traffic comes from
long tail keywords?

So if you’re looking to get more “targeted visitors” from

Google, you should primarily focus on finding long tail
keywords.

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Let’s wrap it up with a brief breakdown.

Short Tail Long Tail

Parameters
keywords Keywords

best iphone
Example iPhone XR under 50,000 in
India

Search Volume High Low

Competition High Low

Buyer Intent Low High

As you can see above, if you’re looking for low competition

with high buyer intent, long tail keyword strategy is what
works best for you.

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How We Do Keyword
Research At
Bloggers Passion
A simple step by step framework on how
we usually do keyword research at
Bloggers Passion.
Here’s a simple step by step framework on how we usually
do keyword research at Bloggers Passion.

1. Seed keywords discovery

2. Basic keyword research

3. Analysing top 3 search results (to find traffic

generating keywords)

4. Finding related keywords (for your seed keywords)

5. Knowing the searchers intent (by analysing top 5

ranking pages)

Let’s now discuss in detail about each one of the above

steps.

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 Step 1: Finding Seed
Keywords

The first step is to find seed keywords.

Seed keywords are generally known as “foundation

keywords”. These keywords are not changed or modified
the meaning by modifier words.

Long tail keywords are often used to form modifying the

seed keywords.

Have a look at the following example.

“SEO tools” is a seed keyword that is modified by various

modifiers, such as free, list, online, WordPress, YouTube
and so on.

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You need a list of seed keywords to begin your keyword
research. You can use the long tail keywords along with
the seed keywords to discover better keyword terms.

So basically a seed keyword list is the baseline keywords

that are most relevant to your website (or business).

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Here are some of the PROVEN ways to come up with a list
of seed keywords for your website.

➔ Keyword terms that are directly associated with your

products or services (such an “SEO agency”)

➔ Terms used by your audience (such as “SEO agency

near me”)

➔ Related search keywords found in Google

➔ Keywords that are already generating you organic

traffic

➔ Your competitor keywords

So yea, as mentioned above, there are a ton of ways to

build a list of seed keyword ideas to expand keyword
research. We already have a ton of seed keyword ideas for
Bloggers Passion (and we usually mine sites like Quora,
competitor websites etc for seed keywords). So we usually
don’t spend much time on this step 1. But if you’re just
getting started with keyword research, you need to spend
quality time to build a list of at least 50 to 100 seed
keywords.

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 Step 2: Basic Keyword
Research

Once you have a list of seed keyword ideas, the basic

keyword research begins.

For basic keyword research, you can use any SEO tool (we
use SEMrush Keyword Magic tool, you can find more
details in the later sections).

Here’s how we start doing basic keyword research using

SEMrush.

Just pick any of your preferred keywords that you want to

rank for.

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As you can see above, we picked a keyword “best affiliate
programs”.

SEMrush instantly generated a ton of broad match

keywords with search volume.

You can see that the keyword “best affiliate programs for
bloggers” is worth targeting.

Not only is it a long tail keyword but it has 210 monthly

searches.

So it’s a lot easier to rank for when compared to the

keyword “best affiliate programs”.

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 Step 3: Analysing Top 3
Search Results

In step 2, we came up with a keyword term “best affiliate

programs for bloggers”.

Now, we continue the keyword research process further.

Here’s what to do next.

Just enter that keyword on Google search. Here’s on next

page how it looks like;

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As you can see above, the above keyword already has a
featured snippet.

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Just don’t worry about featured snippets and all as we are
still finding better keywords to rank for.

Make sure to find a list of top 3 search results (with their

URLs) for your target keywords. Once you’ve those URLs,
enter them one by one in SEMrush.

Here’s how the SEMrush data looks like (for the first result
for our example keyword).

As you can see above, the first page result is ranking for 83
keywords (which you can consider to get top rankings).

Let’s have a closer look.

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As you can see, it will give you a list of all the organic
keywords the URL is ranking for along with other keyword
data including;

➔ Keyword ranking position

➔ Position difference (change in keyword position) if any

➔ Keyword search volume

➔ Traffic % (how much percentage of traffic is coming

from the particular keywords)

So there you go. Just for one keyword term, we now have
a HUGE list of keyword ideas.

It’s NOT over yet.

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 Step 4: Finding Related
Keywords

This step involves finding highly relevant keywords.

That way, you can use them as LSI keywords to optimize

your blog posts without keyword stuffing.

You can also use tools like Google Autosuggest, LSI Graph
etc to find relevant keywords for your seed keywords.

But when you have access to SEMrush, you’re good to go

as you’ve everything at one place.

For example, if you search for “what is SEO” in Keyword

Magic tool, here’s what we get.

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As you can see, once you click on the “Related” tab, you
will instantly get all the related keywords for your seed
keyword (based on their related %).

Just for one seed keyword, we have a list of some great

keyword terms like;

➔ SEO meaning
➔ What is SEO optimization
➔ Define search engine optimization

That way, you can come up with related keyword terms

which can be used as LSI keywords to optimize your
articles for better organic rankings.

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 Step 5: Knowing The
Searchers Intent

Last but not least, we always try to know the “intent of

searchers” before we finalize our keywords list to target.

We’ve already talked about the importance of search

intent.

Here’s an example of it.

For instance, let’s say you want to rank for “free web
hosting” (people are actually looking for a list of free web
hosts or a web host that offers free hosting).

That’s why you get results like at the next page;

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48
There’s no way you can get first page rankings if you are
providing a list of “shared web hosting”, “dedicated web
host” etc.

You need to know the intent of searchers and optimize

your pages that satisfy their intent. Only then you’ll be
able to get top rankings.

So next time, if you’re wondering why your keywords are

NOT getting 1st page rankings, just analyse what the
intent is behind the searchers.

And then, ask yourself “am I satisfying the search intent

with my page”.

That’s how you win the SEO race.

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Bonus: Finding Easier to Rank
Keywords

Do you want to know how to find keywords or topics that

are extremely easier to rank for?

This bonus section is a treat for you then.

Quick Tip

Make sure to install MozBar (which is free) to discover

the authority scores of other websites in search
results such as Page Authority (PA) and Domain
Authority (DA)

Here’s a simple 3-step process to find easier to rank

keywords or topic ideas.

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 Step 1

Create a list of your competitor websites (at least 5 to 10

sites) that have less DA (domain authority) than your
website.

The key here is to focus on compiling a list of new sites in

your niche that are getting decent rankings in the search
engines.

Or you can simply enter some keywords in Google search

and see the DA metrics of sites and create a list based on
their DA.

Here’s how it looks like;

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As you can see above, for our example keyword “how to
download youtube videos without any software”, you can
see that low DA sites are getting 1st page search rankings.

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So if you have a better DA than those search results, you
can easily target that keyword!

Are you getting the idea? The key here is to find less DA
sites! So go make a list now.

Step 2

Once you have the list, enter any site’s URL in SEO tools
like SEMrush (or even Ubersuggest).

You’ll instantly get a list of all the potential topics or

keyword ideas that particular site is ranking for.

Now, try to find a list of top posts with zero backlinks so

you can easily find potential topics that are extremely
easier to rank for.

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 Step 3

Just analyse each of their blog posts using tools like

SEMrush to find a list of all the keywords each page is
ranking for.

Now, you’ll have plenty of keyword ideas that you can use
to create 10x better content and optimize your content for
those keywords

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 4 Incredible Tools
You Need for Better
Keyword Research
All time best SEO tools for doing keyword
research.
You need access to at least one or two SEO tools for doing
keyword research.

Although there are free tools like Google keyword planner

available, I don’t recommend them. They are NOT useful.
They don’t provide you enough data (such as keyword
volume, LSI keyword phrases, keyword difficulty etc).

Also, tools like Keyword Planner from Google wants you to

use keywords with huge search volume.

Why?

It helps Google to make more revenue (in billions of

dollars each year) but they usually don’t bring better
results or clicks to your content.

That’s why you need to look beyond tools like Keyword

Planner.

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When it comes to keyword research, you need as much
keyword data as possible such as;

➔ Keyword volume (it should be as accurate as possible)

➔ Keyword suggestions (related keywords, phrase

match keywords etc)

➔ Keyword difficulty (we should know how hard it is to

rank for a keyword)

➔ Keyword competition

➔ Keyword trend

➔ CPC value and the list goes on

I HIGHLY recommend you to use the following tools as

they provide most of the keyword information which is
listed above.

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1. SEMrush (this is the one we actually use for keyword
research at Bloggers Passion)

2. Ahrefs

3. Ubersuggest

4. KeywordTool.io

Don’t worry if you don’t have enough budget to spend

on the above tools as I’ll show you how to use them for
free (except Ahrefs).

➔ SEMrush (you can grab their 30 days Pro account

trial from here, use their tool for keyword research for
30 days, if you’re not interested to pay, just cancel
within 30 days so you won’t get charged!)

➔ Ahrefs (you can try their 7 days trial account for $7, if
you are not ready to spend money yet, no worries as
you can just skip this section as you can still find
better keywords using other tools which are listed
here)

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➔ Ubersuggest (it’s completely free to use)

➔ KeywordTool.io (it’s a freemium tool, free account will

do the job for basic keyword research purposes)

The above listed SEO tools are more than enough to start
your keyword research journey.

That said, you can use this eBook to learn keyword

research and apply the same strategies literally on ANY
tool to find better keywords.

Let’s now jump into the actual part where I’ll show you
how to do keyword research using the above-mentioned
SEO tools.

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 How to Use SEMrush for
Keyword Research

Quick Note

Use this link to grab SEMrush Pro account FREE for

30 days. Once it’s done, you’re ready to use this
section for keyword research

What if you still don’t have access to SEMrush? No

problem. You can still use the other two sections where
you’ll discover how to do keyword research using free
tools like Ubersuggest and KeywordTool.io. You can simply
go to those sections if you want.

That being said, let’s talk about SEMrush. One good thing
about using SEMrush is it gives you access to the
“Keyword Magic” tool which can be used as an all in one
tool for keyword research.

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Just one seed keyword is enough for you to come up with
a ton of keyword ideas when you have access to SEMrush
Keyword Magic tool.

Here’s how you can use SEMrush keyword magic tool for
finding better keywords.

Once you’re on SEMrush dashboard, go to Keyword Magic

Tool which you can find under “Keyword Research”
section.

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To begin with, enter a seed keyword of your choice.

As you can see above, you can also choose a database of

your choice.

Make sure to pick the database where your target

audiences are.

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You can see that, SEMrush keyword magic tool generated
over 126,000 keyword terms for our target keyword which
is “WordPress themes”.

To simplify our keyword research process (to find the best

keywords among them), we’ll use some filters.

Click on “Advanced Filters” (which you can find just beside

Broad Match, Phrase Match, Exact Match keyword tab.

Now, choose the volume filter and enter min 100 and max
1000. Apply the filter.

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This filter shows you only those keywords that have
monthly searches between 100 to 1000.

As you can see above, with just 1 filter applied (that’s

keyword monthly volume filter), we brought down the
keywords count from over 126,000 to just around 300
keyword ideas.

Now the keyword selection becomes easier, right?

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Let’s apply one more filter of KD (keyword difficulty) to
find low competitive keyword ideas.

After applying the KD filter (we chose 50 as keyword

difficulty which is good enough to find low competitive
keyword terms), we got even better and lesser keywords.

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As you can see,, we now have some good keyword terms
like;

➔ WordPress themes for photographer (with around

1000 searches)

➔ WordPress themes magazine (590 searches)

➔ WordPress themes for real estate (480 searches)

The above keywords are way better than our seed

keyword which is “WordPress themes”.

It’s almost impossible to get #1 rankings for most of the

seed keywords but you can certainly get top rankings
when you go for less competitive keywords which are
generated from Keyword Magic tool (after applying just 2
filters).

It just doesn't end there. Just click on any of the keyword

terms and SEMrush generates you, even more, keyword
data.

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Here’s how it looks like (when you click on “WordPress
themes for photographer” keyword).

As you can see above, it takes you to the Keyword

Overview section where you can find in-depth data of
each keyword.

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You can find volume, number of results, CPC value,
competition etc details along with even more keyword
ideas. You can click on View full report to generate even
more ideas around your target keyword.

Or you can simply stay on the Keyword Magic tool and

enter your preferred keyword to get ideas.

Here’s what the keyword data looks like (from Keyword

Magic tool).

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Using Keyword Magic tool, you can also find keyword
suggestions that include;

➔ Questions
➔ Phrase match keywords
➔ Related keywords

Let’s talk about each one of them briefly so you can

understand their importance.

Question Based Keywords

Question based keywords: Question-based keywords are

usually long tail keywords which are becoming more
popular and should be a part of your SEO strategy.

Question-based keywords are extremely helpful if you

want to rank for featured snippets.

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Keyword magic tool helps you with question-based
keywords for your target keywords.

Here’s how Question based keywords look like;

Question Based Keywords

As you can see, you’ll find a list of question-based

keywords that contain your seed keyword.

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 Phrase Match Keywords

These are the exact keyword terms that match with your
target keywords. If you are looking to find keywords that
must include your primary keyword, these keywords can
help.

Related Keywords

A list of keywords that are similar to your seed keyword.

These are extremely useful to optimize your blog posts
and pages.

Also, they help you rank for a ton of keywords (instead of

just one keyword per page).

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Finding Competitors
Best Performing
Keywords with
SEMrush
One good reason to use premium tools like SEMrush is for
competitor research.

You can easily find a list of all the keywords that your
competitors are ranking for.

Here’s how to use SEMrush for finding competitor

keywords.

Go to the Organic Research section under the

Competitive Research tool from SEMrush. Enter any of
your competitors' domain.

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As you can see, you’ll instantly get a list of all keywords
that site is ranking for. In the above example of
Backlinko.com, SEMrush is giving us over 50,000
keywords that are generating traffic from search engines.

Click on the keywords and you’ll find a huge list.

You’ll see a ton of useful data including;

➔ All the list of keywords that your competitors are

ranking for
➔ Their SERP features (such as featured snippets)

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➔ Position (position of your competitor domain that
gets in organic search results for a given keyword over
a specific period of time)

➔ Difference (shows changes in an organic domain’s

rankings for a given keyword)

➔ Traffic % (the percentage of traffic driven to the

particular site with the given keyword for the
specified period)

➔ Monthly search volume

➔ KD % (Keyword difficulty score)

➔ CPC value

➔ URL to each keyword

That’s a lot of useful data, right?

Now, you can again use the Keyword Magic tool to easily
find low competitive and high CPC keyword terms for
each keyword that you go from competitor analysis.

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 How to Use Ahrefs for
Keyword Research

Ahrefs is another popular SEO tool that can be used for

keyword research (a premium SEO tool just like SEMrush).

One of the major reasons to use premium tools like Ahrefs

is that they provide you with a ton of keyword ideas.

For example, Ahrefs is generating us over 29,000 keyword

ideas for “content marketing”

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When you search for the same keyword, Ubersuggest
(which is a free tool) is only giving us around 400 ideas.

See that? That means premium tools like Ahrefs provide

you literally 100x times more keyword ideas when
compared to free tools like Ubersuggest.

That being said, I HIGHLY recommend you try SEMrush (as

they offer you a 30 day free trial) over Ahrefs (if you’re
planning to try premium tools).

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Why? The simple reason is: you need to pay $7 to try
Ahrefs for 7 days whereas SEMrush offers you 30 days free
trial.

Enough said!

The reason to include Ahrefs in this keyword research

eBook is this: Ahrefs offers you exceptional keyword data.

So let’s now talk about how you can use Ahrefs to find
potential keywords for your website.

Ahrefs offers you an exclusive tool called “Keywords

Explorer” which can help you with keyword research.

To start, go to Ahrefs Keywords Explorer and enter your

keywords.

Let’s say you want to rank for a keyword term like “free
blogging platforms”.

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Here’s what Ahrefs keyword data looks like;

As you can see, there are multiple streams of data we got

from Ahrefs.

Keyword difficulty (Ahrefs provides you a KD score for

each keyword and estimates how many backlinks you’ll to
rank in top 10 for this keyword)

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➔ Search volume (gives you an idea about the average
monthly number of searches for the keyword in the
selected country)

➔ Clicks (refers to the average monthly number of clicks

on the search results that people make while
searching for the target keyword)

➔ CPC value (shows the average price that advertisers

pay for a click on their ad in paid search results for a
target keyword in a given country)

➔ Global volume (shows how many times per month, on

average, people search for the target keyword across
all countries in our database)

That’s a lot of useful keyword data, right?

But here’s the thing. For the above example keyword,

Ahrefs tells us that, it’s HARD to rank for that particular
keyword (as we need to build at least 91 backlinks to get
first page rankings).

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So obviously, we’re not going to pick that keyword.

So we’ll begin our keyword research with Ahrefs by

looking at a list of all the keyword ideas it generates for
our example keyword.

Just click on the “All Keyword Ideas” tab and you’ll see a
HUGE data.

Have a look;

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As you can see above, for our example keyword “free
blogging platforms”, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer generated
over 8,000 keyword suggestions.

Quick Tip

Set the search volume filter to a minimum value of

1,000 and the Keyword Difficulty (KD) filter to a
maximum of 10.

As using the above filters can help you easily find high
volume yet low competitive keywords.

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You can also use their other keyword tool features to
discover better keyword ideas which include;

➔ Phrase match keywords

➔ Having the same terms keywords
➔ Also rank for keywords
➔ Search suggestions
➔ Newly discovered keywords
➔ Questions

Let’s cover each one of them along with screenshots so

you will get an idea of how effective Ahrefs is for doing
keyword research.

Phrase Match Keywords

Phrase match keywords contain your target keyword or

phrase. Here’s how they look like for an example keyword
“blogging tips”;

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As you can see above, we also set the KD (keyword
difficulty) to just 30, so we now have a list of keyword ideas
that contain our example keyword.

Having Same Terms Keywords

This section will show keyword ideas that contain all the
words in your query.

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For example, the query “increase online sales” will
generate keyword ideas such as “how to increase online
sales,” “increase online sales,” etc.

Also Rank For Keywords

This section will show keywords that the top ranking

pages for your target keyword also rank for the top 100
search results.

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It will be useful for uncovering less ‘obvious’ keywords
since the list may not contain your target keyword.

Quick
Quick Tip
Tip

The best way to get relevant results from this section

is to use relatively specific queries as your seed
keyword. For example, use “how to lose weight fast”
instead of “weight loss.” Or “best fitness apps” instead
of “fitness.”

Here’s how the data looks like;

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 Search Suggestions

This section will reveal ‘autocomplete’ suggestions for

your target query and related terms.

Yes, Google autosuggest is useful but only shows a

handful of suggestions. Here’s where Ahrefs excels as they
show nearly all keyword ideas along with SEO metrics.

Here’s how the data looks like;

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 Newly Discovered Keywords

This list contains keyword ideas that were recently added

to Ahrefs database. You can also use tools like Google
Trends to know the popularity of newly discovered
keywords before you decide to target them.

Questions

If you’re looking for question based keywords, this section

is what you need.

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The “Questions” report also helps you with the FAQ
section and getting featured snippets for your blog if you
provide useful answers to the questions (around your
target keyword terms). Quick
Quick Tip
Tip

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Finding Competitors
Top Performing
Keywords with
Ahrefs
You can certainly find any of your competitors top
performing keywords when you have access to premium
SEO tools like Ahrefs.
Quick
Quick Tip
Tip
Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for discovering competitors
keywords.

You need to visit Site Explorer to discover your

competitors keywords.

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Just click on the Organic keywords list and Bingo!

Quick
Quick Tip
Tip

You can simply use keyword filters like KD, search volume,
CPC etc to easily filter out unwanted yet easy to rank
keywords!

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 How to Use Ubersuggest for
Keyword Research

If you’re looking for a FREE keyword research tool, I

HIGHLY recommend Ubersuggest.

It’s completely free to use and also provides a ton of useful

data while doing keyword research.

Let’s jump into the details of how you can use

Ubersuggest for finding better keywords for your website

To get started, visit Ubersuggest and enter any keyword

term of your choice.

Quick Tip

Pick a database of your choice where your target

audiences are. We’ll go with the US database for this
tutorial.

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Here’s how it looks like;

Quick
Quick Tip
Tip

Just hit the Search button and it will instantly give you the
keyword data which looks like this;

As you can see above, Ubersuggest although is a free tool

but offers excellent keyword data including;

➔ Search volume
➔ SEO difficulty

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➔ Paid difficulty
➔ CPC value of the keyword

Once you scroll down, you’ll find a ton of keyword ideas for
your target keyword.

You can see that, Ubersuggest is instantly giving us a ton

of keyword suggestions along with PD (paid difficulty)
and SD (SEO difficulty) scores so you can easily determine
the difficulty of keywords.

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When you click on the View All Keyword Ideas, you’ll see
that it generated over 120 keywords for our target
keyword term.

You can also click on the “Related” tab to find all the list of
related keywords. These keywords can also be used as LSI
keywords which can help you properly optimize your
posts (without stuffing keywords).

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Want to get rankings for featured snippets?

Then you can use FAQ schema to find a list of related

questions for your keyword terms. Just click on the
Questions tab to find a list of question based keyword
terms.

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If you want to rank for multiple keywords, preposition
keywords helps. These include words like at, for, in, off, on,
over, and under.

These preposition keyword terms can be used to describe

a location, time or place.

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Click on the Prepositions tab and viola, you’ll come up
with a new set of keyword ideas.

If you’re doing product reviews or comparisons, you need

to find related keywords that are widely used for
comparisons.

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Fortunately, Ubersuggest also offers “comparisons”
keywords which look like this;

As you can see above, there’s a comparison keyword

“email marketing tools list” with a huge CPC value of
around $10. It’s a great low competitive keyword to target.

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So there you go. Ubersuggest is extremely helpful for
discovering a lot of new keywords including;

➔ Related keywords
➔ Question based keywords
➔ Preposition keywords
➔ Comparisons

In fact, there’s NOT even a single free tool that offers you
these many variations in finding keywords.

So yes, Ubersuggest is definitely a great keyword research

tool if you’re looking for a free tool in 2020 to increase your
search traffic.

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Finding Competitors
Keywords with
Ubersuggest
Can you find your competitors keywords using
Ubersuggest?

Oh yes.

Just enter any of your competitors’ domain in the

Ubersuggest tool and it shows you a list of most of the
keywords that site is ranking for.

Have a look;

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As you can see above, you’ll see a list of all the keyword
terms that “Sprout Social” website is ranking for along
with their search volume, position for the keyword,
estimate visits and SEO difficulty.

Again, you can pick a single keyword from your

competitor sites to perform in-depth keyword research
using Ubersuggest (to discover more keyword ideas).

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 How to Use KeywordTool.io
for Keyword Research

If you’re looking for one more free tool for keyword

research, I recommend you try KeywordTool.io. It is
considered as one of the best free alternatives to Google’s
Keyword Planner.

Although it’s NOT completely a free tool (as it’s a

freemium tool) but it serves the basic keyword research
purposes.

Here’s how to use KeywordTool.io for finding low

competitive keywords.

To start, visit KeywordTool.io and enter any keyword. You

can also pick any database of your choice (in this example,
let’s go with the US database).

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Once you hit enter, you’ll get a ton of keyword ideas. The
good thing about using this tool is it generates keyword
ideas within seconds (you don’t have to wait any longer).

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As you can see above, with the free version, you’ll only get
access to the keyword suggestions but you won’t get
much data around (search volume, keyword trend, CPC
value etc which are only included in their premium
version).

You’ll also be able to find question based keywords using

this tool. Here’s how it looks like;

You can also use their filters such as “Negative keywords”

if you want to exclude unwanted keyword results.

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 What are negative keywords
basically?
A negative keyword is a keyword or keyword phrase that
allows you to filter out who your ads will be served in the
search results.

You can use these negative keywords to filter out

unwanted keyword ideas.

For example, if you’re looking for keyword terms related to

the fruit “apple”, the negative keywords such as “ipad”,
“iphone”, “macbook” etc will help you filter out unwanted
keyword ideas such as “apple iphone xr”, “macbook air”
which are not relevant to your keyword topic.

So how to use them using KeywordTool.io? You can use

filters and go to the Negative Keywords section to enter
them.

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Here’s how it looks like;

Just enter your negative keywords and click on the Save

and all the negative keywords will be automatically
thrown out from your keyword suggestion list.

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Another best benefit of using this tool is that it not only
generates keyword ideas for Google but it also pulls
suggestions from YouTube, Amazon, Bing, eBay etc.

So if you’re someone who is looking to find keywords only

for YouTube, you can get separate keyword ideas using
this tool.

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As you can see above, you’ll get different keyword
suggestions for YouTube. Similarly, you’ll get a lot more
different ideas when you use other platforms such as
Bing, Amazon, eBay and so on.

Can you find competitors

keywords using KeywordTool.io?
Unfortunately no. KeywordTool.io is an exclusive keyword
research tool used for Google, Bing, YouTube etc and with
their FREE version, you simply can’t generate a list of
keyword ideas from your competitor sites (unlike SEMrush
or Ahrefs).

Although you can use their PRO version for competitor

analysis it’s NOT accurate and not as useful as it only pulls
data from Google. So I simply won’t recommend it for
competitor analysis. All in all, KeywordTool.io is an
excellent tool to begin your keyword research for free. But
if you’re seriously looking to get more data such as CPC,
keyword volume, more keyword suggestions, you should
consider their premium version.

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 Bonus:
Keyword Research
Checklist
Simple yet highly useful checklist for doing
keyword research
I want to add as much value as I can with this eBook. So
let me walk you through a simple yet highly useful
checklist for doing keyword research.

Important

This checklist should be treated as an add-on (not a

glimpse of this eBook) as you’re going to discover
some of the tips mentioned in this checklist are not
discussed in the eBook.

Use a Template Before You Begin

Your Keyword Research

You can use Google Spreadsheets for it. In fact, we’ve

created one for you (you can use the template from here
for free).

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Here’s how it looks like;

As you can see above, the template can be useful for

doing keyword research where you can store all your
keywords at one place.

Along with other keyword metrics like search volume,

competition, keyword difficulty etc.

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Use Proper SEO Tools

I HIGHLY recommend you to grab SEMrush 30 day free

trial from here.

Just sign up. Grab the tool for 30 days. Find as many
keywords as you can. Cancel the account if you don’t have
enough budget! Simple as that.

Make sure to use our exclusive section on “How to use

SEMrush for keyword research” once you get access to the
tool.

Side Note

If you’re looking for a free tool, go for Ubersuggest.

Although it doesn’t provide you as extensive keyword
data as premium tools like SEMrush but good
enough to get started.

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Come Up with a Min of 50 Seed
Keywords

You need seed keywords like “fitness”, “SEO”, “affiliate

marketing” etc that are relevant to your blog topic. You
can also analyse your competitor websites to find your
seed keywords.

Expand Your Seed Keywords

Once you’ve a list of seed keywords, use tools like SEMrush

or Ubersuggest to expand your seed keywords.

Focus on finding 4 or 5+ word long tail keyword phrases

for every seed keyword.

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Use Keyword Filters

Focus on the following keyword filters to come up with

great keyword ideas to target.

➔ CPC (it should be high)

➔ Search volume (below 1000 searches, if you want low
competition)
➔ Keyword difficulty (around 40 to 50, great if it’s even
less)

Remove Unwanted Keywords

While doing keyword research, you’ll come across a ton of

unwanted keywords which include;

➔ Non-evergreen keywords (such as “best SEO tips in

2018”)

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➔ Branded keywords (such as “Macbook security
preferences”)

➔ Keywords with no monthly searches

So try to avoid these types of keywords to find better

keywords for your blog.

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 Where to Go from
Here?

Have any questions while reading the

eBook? Want to discuss more about
keyword research? You can join our
EXCLUSIVE Facebook Group where you
can ask any questions you have in mind.

You can also check our blog Bloggers

Passion where you can find a ton of useful
tutorials around blogging, SEO and
affiliate marketing.