Keyword research is a fundamental tactic that I have seen completely transform the overall marketing strategies of those who take it seriously.
In fact, just about any marketing area begins with keyword research, be it competitive analysis[1], traffic growth, content planning, or PPC strategy. It has always been the foundation of online marketing and it still is – even though it’s rapidly [2]evolving[3].
I have seen clients go from barely functioning marketing plans to full-scale content marketing projects that up their rankings and conversions. Keywords are serious weapons.
Why organize keywords?
Keyword lists are messy. They contain every little variation of each particular query because they include whatever enough people spontaneously type into the search box.
We search in a more disorganized way than we speak. For example, we could search ‘research keywords’, ‘how to research keywords’, ‘research keywords how to’, ‘keyword research tips’, or even ‘keyword research how to tips’ – and all of that will basically mean the same thing (i.e. we want to know how to research keywords).
Keyword research tools like SEMrush[4] and Ahrefs[5] will provide you with hundreds of thousands of those keyword strings (as well as marketing inspiration).
But, how do you make sense of all those lists that leave us with a huge pile of dumped keywords organized with no rhyme or reason? How do you turn them into plans and actions?
This is precisely why you should be taking the time to organize your keywords. It might not be a very fun process, but it is a very important one.
Here are some tips.
Usefulness and value
One popular way to organize your keywords is by usefulness of