What are Seed Keywords?
Seed keywords are the foundation of a successful keyword research strategy. These are the highly competitive primary terms or phrases that broadly define the topics you want to rank for on search engines. Seed keywords are typically made up of short-tail keywords that are one or two words long.
Why are Seed Keywords Important for SEO?
Any SEO strategy starts with a Keyword research session. By identifying these primary keywords, you can begin to explore more specific variations and long-tail keywords that potential customers might be searching for.
For example: if your seed keyword is “fitness,” you can find related phrases like “what is the best home fitness routine?” “best protein supplements,” or “yoga for beginners.”
Not only do these related keywords help you establish your keyword strategy, but also help build subtopics and topic clusters for your website, which can enhance your site’s overall structure and relevance. This makes it easier for search engines (and users) to understand the relationships between your content, improving your chances of SERP visibility.
How Do You Find Seed Keywords?
When finding seed keywords, your first step is to think of what you are selling, offering or the problem you are looking to solve for your users.
For example, if you are a bakery, your seed keywords may be “cakes”, “breads” or “pastries.”
Other ways to find see keywords include:
- Analyse Your Competitors: Take a look at your competitors’ websites and see what keywords they are targeting. SEO Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can help you identify the keywords driving traffic to their sites, giving you insights into what works in your niche or industry.
- Find Them on Your Website: Your website might already be using seed keywords. Look for frequently used terms and phrases that represent your products or services. You can use Google Search Console to help identify them too. Simply click ““Performance” > “Search Results” in the left bar and sort the list of keywords by “Impressions”.
- People Also Ask: You can also utilise the “People Also Ask” section in Google search results. This feature provides related questions that users commonly search for, giving you additional context for potential seed keywords.
