SEO keyword research vs. content optimization

The difference between SEO keyword research and content optimization has been widely discussed. All sources point to the fact that ranking in Google requires not only picking the right target search queries (SEO keyword research), but also understanding how to fulfill user intent with the best topics for your target audience (content optimization).

Each research workflow requires a different mindset and tools. Typically, you will be doing two types of research:

SEO keyword research: What search query should I target?

At this stage, you will use tools like Google Search Console to identify search terms that present opportunity, such as those with high impressions. Keyword tools like KwFinder and Keyword Planner can give you good data in terms of search volume, related searches, page authority and keyword difficulty.

Content optimization: What topics should I write about to rank 1st for a given search query?

Once you’ve figured out good target search queries, you have to worry about actual content creation. At this stage, you have to spend time understanding user intent so you can create authoritative content. This is where content optimization tools leverage topic modeling to analyze SERP (i.e. your query’s top search results) and reverse engineer the way search engines rank content relevance.

It is worth noting that in addition to topic optimization, you will always have to take care of other technical aspects of SEO, including title tags, meta description, appropriate HTML markup, responsive mobile design, etc.