To select effective keywords, it is essential to consider user intent. Also called keyword intent or search intent, it refers to the purpose behind a query. What does a person hope to find when they enter french email address list a specific set of words into a search engine?
Satisfying user intent is key to ranking well in SERPs. Let’s say you have a website dedicated to the best restaurants in Milan.
You will want to include localized SEO keywords that are specific to this location. This way, you will attract users who are actively entering search queries to find restaurants in Milan, and not people who are in the rest of Italy and who probably aren't interested in getting such specific information.
So, how do you find the right keywords to target? Guesswork is not helpful. As with most things related to SEO, there are tools available that are based on data and provide definitive answers. Here are a few keyword research tools that can help you find the search terms you need, along with a brief introduction to how to use them:
Google Trends
Google Keyword Planner
Google Search Console
Keyword Sheeter
AnswerThePublic
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that visually represents the popularity of a keyword over time. All you have to do is visit the Google Trends portal and enter the keyword you want to analyze. You will get a graph that shows you the highs and lows of searches.
Take, for example, the word "fireworks." This graph reveals that searches for "fireworks" increase around mid-August and especially at the end of December. These are, of course, the holidays of August and New Year's Eve.
firework google trends
These are both holidays celebrated with fireworks, which tells us that this is a seasonal keyword. Scrolling down, you can get geographic search data, which is where the term is most frequently searched for.
In this case, the region has been set to "Italy" at the top of the page, but you can also change it to "Worldwide" or try other countries. You can also change the time period shown. In this case, the time window is set to 12 months.
geographic settings google trends
Scroll further and you will get related topics and associated queries (e.g. "Games of the XXXII Olympiad"), which can help you learn more about your keywords.
related queries on google trends
If you want to learn more about using Google Trends for keyword research, read our blog post on the topic.
