Keyword research is a core part of an SEO strategy, and it is an action usually performed before starting to work on a specific project in order to understand which words are relevant to the project and what their search volume is. Once you discover this information, you can evaluate how difficult it will be to rank for these words based on the level of competition for the keyword. In the Ahrefs system, we use the Keywords Explorer option to find new keywords, get insights on keywords we compete for, and more. In this part of the Ahrefs system analysis, we will go over keyword research using the Keyword Explorer tool.
To get thoroughly acquainted with the Ahrefs system, I recommend reading Ahrefs – Introduction to the SEO Tool and Glossary and Ahrefs – Backlink Analysis Tool.
Keyword Overview
When you enter a specific keyword into Keyword Explorer, you will need to choose which search engine to check the keyword in and in which country. Afterward, you will arrive at the overview section, which provides you with a high-level overview of the chosen search engine with relevant information that you are already familiar with from other keyword tools you have tried in the past (similar to the popular Google Keyword tool).
The overview is useful for your initial keyword research and helps you decide which keywords will be more worthwhile for you to target. In addition, what makes Keyword Explorer very useful is the ability to see the number of clicks the keyword receives and the average clicks per search for the keyword (Clicks, Cost per click, and Clicks per search in the image above).
Why Is Data on Clicks and Costs Important to Us?
The question being asked is – in keyword analysis, shouldn’t one only look at the search volume of the word? And the answer is no. As you have already noticed, Google regularly adds additional results called SERP features to the regular search results. Things like video carousels, Q&As, “People Also Ask”, and more. Thanks to these additions from Google, the percentage of searches that do not result in a click has increased significantly. This means that it is not recommended to choose a keyword based solely on search volume; rather, it is recommended to check how many people actually click on the organic results because, in many cases, these two numbers are completely different. Let’s take the keyword Google Advertising as an example and examine it:
You can see that the search volume for the word is 1,400 and the monthly number of clicks this word receives is 826. An organic SEO specialist on Google needs to look at the number of clicks the word receives rather than its search volume, because the number of clicks can provide an indication of the potential number of visits you will receive if you rank for this word, whereas the search volume only indicates the number of people who use this word in the search network, even if they took no further action like visiting a website or watching a YouTube video.
Keyword Ideas
The list of words found in the keyword ideas table will be based on the word you entered in the search and analyzed in Ahrefs. This option will not be very useful for brainstorming completely new keywords for the page you want to promote on the site, but will simply expand on the keyword you entered in the search:
This is actually one of the reasons I prefer to do comprehensive keyword research in the Google Keyword Planner, which significantly expands the keyword. But, if you want to find long-tail keywords to integrate into the page you are promoting alongside the main keyword, Ahrefs’ Keyword Ideas is an excellent option. By clicking on View All, you can access the full list of additional keyword ideas, and there you might find a long-tail keyword you hadn’t thought of.
Google Search Result Page Overview - SERP Overview
The term SERP is an acronym for Search Engine Results Page, representing the page where the result for a specific search appears. At the bottom of the keyword analysis page in Ahrefs, you will see information about the pages ranking in the SERPs for the keyword you scanned, including SERP history:
This is a breakdown of how rankings have changed since Ahrefs began collecting data on this keyword (it usually starts in 2016 for all keywords scanned in the system). Thus, you get information about pages that were present and disappeared from the first page, and pages that entered the first page recently. You can see how much the results tend to change over time. However, core keywords (like the phrase “Google Advertising” that we scanned), tend to stay stable over time, while keywords that do not necessarily generate revenue for the business owner and are not defined as core change frequently. For example, we took the keyword dropshipping:
How Does Using the SERP Results Overview Help Us?
Scanning the SERP helps us estimate what our chances are of ranking on the first page for a specific keyword. If you see a keyword that, in the SERP analysis, hasn’t moved during the past year, the chance that you will enter with your page and change anything in the top ten results is relatively low (unless you invest high budgets in content and links). On the other hand, if you come across a keyword where the rankings are volatile in the SERP scan, it means that Google has not yet decided which pages are most relevant for the first page, which gives you the opportunity to rank there. In addition to the results page history overview, Ahrefs also analyzes the top 10 results based on DR, UR, external links metrics, and more.
Keyword Research for Other Search Engines
The Ahrefs keyword tool supports several different search engines. Like most keyword research tools, you can search for keyword data in various countries of your choice, and in Ahrefs, you can use Keyword Explorer for the following search engines as well:
In this section, you can perform keyword analysis for a search engine relevant to you other than Google. As Israelis, we will mostly use keyword research here for YouTube if we want to check various trends or expansions for keywords that are popular in YouTube videos.
Conclusion
In this part of getting acquainted with the Ahrefs system, we went over the feature in the system called Keyword Explorer (keyword analysis). Inside this tool, you can enter keywords and check all the relevant details about this keyword according to a specific search engine and country – search volume, number of clicks it gets from searches, ideas for additional keywords, a display of the top ten positions for this keyword, and more. Using this Ahrefs tool helps you better understand traditional keyword research done in Google’s tool and also understand the process you need to take in order to rank with a specific keyword on the first page of Google.
About the Author
Dvir Naaman, 27 years old, graduate of the Digital Marketing course at HackerU College. Experienced in building WordPress websites, paid advertising on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok platforms. Specializes in organic SEO at the Fialkov Digital agency. Has rich experience in eCommerce and dropshipping, and is the owner of Merchant Center – a website aggregating information on eCommerce and advanced marketing systems to increase business conversions with an emphasis on sales in an eCommerce store.
