How to Do Keyword Research for Veterinary Blog Posts
“If you build it, they will come” may be true of a certain field of dreams, but it’s not necessarily true in the blogging world.
The truth is that if someone isn’t looking for the information that you are putting on your website, they probably aren’t going to find it. That’s why every blog post should start with keyword research, even if you have a subject in mind that you know people NEED to hear about.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is using tools to find out what words and phrases people are actively searching for online.
By finding out what people are searching for, you can use these keywords and phrases in your titles, subtitles, and content. This allows people to find your blog and the information they’re looking for.
Let’s go through a quick example of how this process might work if you want to teach people about the importance of an annual checkup for their pet.
Most people are not going to search for the phrase “the importance of an annual vet check-up.” Instead, they’re looking up things like “How long does a rabies vaccine last?” or “Why is my cat sneezing?”
Once you know the questions that people are actually asking, then you can use those to create a blog post (or several!) that answers their questions while also stressing the importance of regularly visiting your veterinarian clinic.
How To Do Keyword Research
Now that you understand the “why,” let’s dig into the “how.”
To find a huge list of keywords that you can use for blog posts, there are two main steps.
1. Know Your Audience
If you don’t put yourself into the mind of your audience, you’re going to struggle to answer their questions because you won’t know what they are.
Start by thinking about the questions you get asked the most by your clients. Focus on the questions asked by your ideal clients, not the clients that you’d rather move elsewhere (we all know there are always a few of those!).
Here are some things to think about:
- What do they want?
- What do they need?
- What is their biggest problem?
- What are their biggest fears?
If you still want some help digging deeper into this, you may want to check out my guide Create Your Client Avatar. This will allow you to quickly and easily dig into exactly who your ideal client is so you can figure out what they want.
2. Use Keyword Research Tools
There are countless keyword research tools out there. Many of them are paid, but I’m just going to share four free ones to get you started.
Be sure to read through the whole post before you get started, as there is more information about how to collect and use the words you find as you go through this process.
But first, let’s go ahead and look at four free keyword research tools you have at your disposal.
1. Google Keyword Planner
Let’s talk about this one first because it’s a great way to know what people are searching for because you’re going straight to the source: Google.
The first thing you need to do is sign up for an account with Google Ads. It’s free and you can log right in with your Gmail account.
Then, you need to search as if you’re going to be paying for advertisements. The resulting list will show you about how often each of these keywords is searched for, and how much competition there is for it. They will also give you suggestions for other words and phrases people may be searching for.
Ideally, a keyword should have a high search volume and low competition. That means there are a lot of people looking for the phrase but not many web pages that have it. Targeting those keywords will help your blog get more organic traffic.
2. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is run by one of the leading experts on SEO (search engine optimization). It’s a great way to find literally hundreds of suggestions based on keywords related to your main keyword.
To find them, type your main keyword into Ubersuggest, then look on the left side and click on “keyword suggestions.” That’s where you’ll find a ton of things you can add to your list to write blog posts about or include in your posts.
You’re also welcome to upgrade at a cost for even more help with SEO, but you can get so many keywords for free you probably don’t need the paid version although the number of free daily searches is limited.
3. Answer the Public
This is one of my favorite places to get massive lists of potential article titles. Answer the Public uses Google’s suggested searches to come up with lists of phrases you can turn into blog posts.
The free version only allows up to three free searches a day, so you’ll want to use these wisely.
I always switch to the “list” view because it’s a lot easier to read. Then, start scrolling through the options to get tons of ideas. Depending on what you search for, you could literally get hundreds of ideas from this.
4. Reddit
You may be thinking, “But that’s a social media site!”
And you’re right. Reddit is a social media site, where hundreds of thousands of visitors are coming every day and asking questions about specific problems they’re having.
Do some digging in cat, dog, and general veterinary forums to find out the exact questions people are asking. This is a great way to find a lot of valuable long-tail keywords (we’ll get into what those are and why they’re important later!).
When you find a post that looks like it has a good keyword phrase, you can search for it on the Google Ads Planner or Ubersuggest to see how many other people are searching for it.
How to Organize Your Keywords
As you’re utilizing keyword research tools, it’s essential that you organize your keywords properly. If you don’t, then it may end up being a waste of time and resources.
So, let’s go through some “best practices” while doing keyword research so you don’t waste any of your free searches or your time.
Focus on Finding Long-Tail Keywords
As you’re doing research, you want to look for longer phrases, also known as long-tail keywords. These can be easier to rank for because they’re more specific.
For example, it’s going to be hard to rank for something as simple as “pet care.” However, “how to take care of a cat with fatty liver disease” is less likely to already have thousands of articles ranking for them. By targeting these, you can get more people who are looking for that specific information to your website.
Organize Your Keywords
My favorite way to organize keywords is in a spreadsheet. Then again, that’s my favorite way to organize just about ANY type of information.
Go ahead and open a spreadsheet using your favorite program. Mine is Google Sheets because I can access it from my phone or computer, and it’s free to use but has everything you could possibly need in a spreadsheet.
Make three main columns to start:
- Keyword phrase
- Search volume
- SEO difficulty (from Ubersuggest) or Competition (from Google Ads)
Whenever possible, fill out all three columns for each keyword you find. Knowing the search volume and SEO difficulty will help you make decisions on which keywords to focus on first.
SEO difficulty refers to how many other people are already getting a lot of visitors with that keyword. If something is harder to rank for, it means there are other websites that have used that keyword for long enough that Google sends most visitors there.
Analyze Your Keywords
Once you have your full list of keywords with the information on them, you can start to figure out which ones to focus on first. The best way to do that is to look at those two numbers: search volume and SEO difficulty or competition.
The ideal keyword has a high search volume and low difficulty/competition. That means there are a LOT of people looking for that keyword but not many people that have information about it, giving you the best chance of someone finding your website when searching using that keyword.
As you find the best keywords to start with, move those to another list. If you’re using my Veterinary Blog Post Planner, this will go in the focus keyword section for that post.
Then, you’ll scan the list to find some other relevant keywords that go along with that main keyword that are either lower search volume or higher difficulty. Add these to the additional keywords section on my Planner or wherever you’re planning your posts.
Final Thoughts on Keyword Research
The most important thing to remember when doing keyword research is that your primary goal is to find out what people are looking for so you can provide answers and support to the people in your ideal audience.
Think about how you’re going to serve each visitor by creating these posts. That will help you pick the right keywords to start with so you can have the biggest impact on your potential clients.
Both my Create Your Client Avatar and Veterinary Blog Post Planner products will help you do this process as quickly and easily as possible. You can get these individually, or find them both as part of my Ultimate Resource Bundle for Veterinary Bloggers!
